“How’d it go?” Cloudy whispered softly as Collar stepped into their room in the palace. His legs up to his cannons were caked with mud and black soot-marks marred his coat in three precise spots. It was nearly morning, and the drizzle that had permeated the night had only just quit a few hours ago. “You two were up there most of the night?”

“Let me get cleaned up first,” Collar muttered, his coat shivering as he checked his path behind for mud spots and headed for their bathing room. “Stars above, thank you for puddles in the cobbles.”

“The cisterns should be full,” Cloudy said helpfully as she followed him in, sniffing him lightly but finding not much more than rain and mud smells. Maybe a hint of Rosewater under it all, but not enough of it to tell for sure, and she didn’t have a Rosethorn’s ability to enhance her sense of smell at will. “But the water will be cold. It will take time to warm up a tub, and the servants are going to ask some questions”

“That’s fine. I need a cold bath.” Collar sounded… tired. More tired than if he’d been on patrol all night. The rumble of water in the pipes came as he twisted the knob, and a whoosh of air exploded from the faucet a second before cold, clear water thundered into the tub. His mane was caked to his face with water, and he shivered still.

Cloudy hesitated, then sat beside him. “At least warm up the water with a spell, Collar. That has to be near freezing. You’ll catch a cold.”

He startled, glanced at her, and reached a hoof into the tub. “Okay. Point taken.” He offered her a small smile as his horn flickered, and a tube of light appeared around the stream of water, brightened, and began to steam wherever water droplets passed through it.

Before too long, the bathtub itself began to steam, and he loosened his hold on the spell until the steam subsided to a gentle trickle over the edge. When he let it go, he swayed back and forth for a second.

“Stars, you’re tired.” Cloudy twisted the knob closed and nudged him into the tub with her nose. “Get in there, you mudball. And tell me what happened.”

Gingerly, he stepped in, winced, his coat twitching the entire time, and sank into the water until he was able to rest his chin on the side of the tub. For a moment, it looked like he’d fallen asleep, then a smile spread across his lips and he opened his eyes.

“It was perfect. Almost perfect.” The smile slipped briefly, came back, then faded altogether. “Frosty’s Law is going to be a problem. For you and me, and you and Rosemary.”

“But it just prevents a mare from sleeping—”

“It specifies a marriage as two ponies. Only. Any children born outside of the marriage are illegitimate. Any lovers outside of the marriage are… problematic.” Collar didn’t elaborate immediately, his eyes downcast as he continued to scrubb at his legs under the water. “They don’t get any inheritance rights. If I marry you, I can’t marry her, and her children won’t be legitimate in Damme if they’re mine.”

Cloudy raised a hoof, stopped, and sat back, forcing herself to think instead of speak or act right away. “Then we should register our marriage in Merrie.”

“Won’t work. There’s not even a provision to recognize a polyamorous marriage in Damme. Every one that’s come over has been a single couple with multiple ‘affairs’ and illegitimate children. They never stay long. It’s… an injustice.”

“Then overturn the rutting law,” Cloudy growled. “If it’s an injustice, then get rid of it!”

Collar glanced at her, then down again at the water that was quickly turning murky. “It’s not that simple. There’s political ramifications to consider, too. If we challenged it in the middle court out of the blue—”

“Then encourage any ponies still in the city from Merrie to challenge it! Stars, is this so hard?”

“I won’t use common ponies as pawns, Cloudy. It’s not fair to them.”

“And it’s not fair to them to see their marriage ignored in a city they chose to move to.” Cloudy rose and paced to the end of the tub, then to the linen closet, pulled out a folded towel and threw it on the floor next to the tub. The simple action delaying her enough to think, to calm down and not think about how her family might flee and suddenly find their family ‘invalid…’

She shifted the towel about, delaying herself further and pushing down the anger at his obtuseness. “Collar, I understand you don’t want to play pawns like Roseate does. But this isn’t a case of that. Not exactly. Find a family that’s migrated to Damme with a registered marriage in Merrie and quietly encourage them to challenge the law.”

Collar nodded slowly, sighed, and glanced at her, his ears lowered apologetically. “Sorry. I was… feeling sorry for myself.”

Cloudy kissed his cheek lightly. “But you are right that there will be political ramifications, and they won’t deserve that if, say, the Primfeathers find out that you encouraged them to challenge the law.”

“Mother’s lessons have really sunk in,” Collar replied with a half-smirk.

“They have. She’s brilliant, Collar, and I’m only just beginning to realize how much she cares. About me. Rosewater. Rosemary.” She tapped her hoof for each one. “She has to keep herself at such a distance because she loves deeply, and it hurts her when danger knocks at her loved-ones doors. It showed in the story Dapper told us about how they got married.”

Collar was quiet for a time, still in the water as mud and particulates drifted down towards the bottom of the basin and it began to clear again. “I know it hurt her to know that I would be her only child. She tries so hard to not stifle me and keep me safe from everything, let me make my own mistakes and learn from them.”

“When did you find out about Frosty’s law’s limitations?” Cloudy asked softly.

“A week or so ago. After my last date with Rosewater. I wanted to know what challenges we could face.” Collar came to his hooves and pulled the plug before stepping out of the tub. His coat was still not clean, but it would do. “I still have more research to do, but the law itself is straightforward and uncompromising. It was crafted, and modified, to prevent exactly this sort of marriage from happening.”

“Marriage.”

Collar startled and glanced at her. “I mean…” He trailed off, looking down at his hooves. “I need to think. I need to see her again before I’m sure, Cloudy. Even then, I might not be able to say the words I wanted to last night. I won’t break her heart by giving them, then taking them away.”

“What can I do to help?” One thing, she did right away, and pulled out a towel for him. “I want to help, Collar.”

“I know, and I don’t know yet.” He accepted the towel and was halfway through wrapping his tail when he stopped and nodded. “Can you talk to my mother about the law? She knows more about the law than I do, I’m sure. I need to dry off and get some sleep.”

“Just how late were the two of you up?” Cloudy asked while inspecting his tail and tugging the towel lightly to make it tighter.

“Neither of us slept. We talked. All night and into the morning.” A hint of a real smile came back to his lips. “Stars above, other than you, I don’t think I’ve ever been that comfortable talking to another Merrier.”

“Except your dad.”

Collar chuckled. “Except my dad.”

“Alright. Dry up. Get some sleep.” Cloudy kissed him lightly on the lips. “Love you, Collar. I’ll come back when you’ve had a rest.” With that, she slipped out of their room and barely managed to contain a jubilant laugh as she trotted down the corridor towards Lace’s office.

It’d been a long month for him, but it looks like his innate respect for the Principes had finally given way to acceptance.

Her step slowed as the implications of the rest sank in. He hadn’t told her.

Rosewater likely guessed, she’s too perceptive to miss it, but she’s too stubborn to push him.

“Stars help both of them,” Cloudy muttered under her breath.

Rosewater stumbled across the Rosewine tributary bridge sometime a little after the sun was starting to peek out in the east, her mane wet, her legs and belly spattered with mud, and a basket of Fall Lilies, their frost-white flowers rarely seen in the forests except for a week after the first freeze of the year.

It just so happened that the first freeze was the date that Collar had all but confessed that he could fall in love with her. She’d seen it in his eyes with that toast, and felt it in him whenever silence interrupted their conversation, and whenever they put another log on the fire.

The tent, she’d left behind. That would be incriminating enough by itself, but it was a common enough design, and Collar had taken the fondue pot and bread with him, as well as the full camping set.

All she had, then, was the pannier she’d set in one saddlebag to give it shape and keep it from crushing the delicate balsa boxes of chocolates.

“Wait! Stop!” Rosejoy’s voice rose from behind her as the mare, for the second time in two days, rushed to catch up with her and accost her with the sharp-as-an-egg wit she prided herself on. “I demand—”

“That you stop harassing me when I am going about my own business!” Rosewater yelled at her before she could get more than those two words out. “By the stars, mare. Must you chase me every second of every day?”

Rosejoy stared at her, mouth agape.

“Do you want to know where I was?” Rosewater pulled out one of the less impressive specimens of Frost Lily and threw it at her. “There. That’s where I was. Up early gathering frost lilies before the stampede for them made the forest bare of them. Now rut off and let me get some sleep.”

Without waiting for an answer, Rosewater turned and stamped the rest of the way across the bridge, huffing indignantly for Rosejoy’s benefit as the persistently annoying mare stared after her.

It wasn’t hard to feign the annoyance or the indignation, but it did dampen the high spirits she’d had during the trek through the forest to where the frost lilies grew thickest, avoiding by long practice the bogs and mud holes that made travel through them in the dark most difficult.

She’d had to restrain herself from humming or singing her joy lest she attract the attention of somepony else also engaging in the first frost ritual of gathering the fragrant blooms.

This early, there was still traffic across the Rosewine coming from the docks as ingots of iron or already made nails in barrels were delivered to the forges for iron bands for barrels and other things needed to maintain and expand the winery and supporting village.

It was remarkable, truly, that a village whole and separate from Merrie had sprung up over the past two hundred years here. Even the plots of land that she could see were being plowed under were a part of that. They couldn’t produce enough to support the village, but they could plant and harvest some of the more exotic and rare produce that the farmers to the east did not or could not.

Strawberries, blueberries, all manner of fruit that took careful and daily management to keep the insects away from them and ensure that they got the right amount of water in environs so far from what they were used to where they grew wild and plentiful to the south.

That was the bounty of the Garden, and the mist-shrouded hill, with streamers of fog slipping away under the assault of the sun’s warming rays as the top glowed as if becrowned by gold was a sign of welcoming.

I’m home.

Ponies only glanced at her briefly as she passed by, nodding their good mornings. In return, Rosewater amplified the fragrance of the frost lilies, a sweet and invigorating scent that was used in perfumes and candles. Sadly, the process of turning them into a scent left little else, but Frost Lily tea was also popular, but rare.

I’ll save half of my haul for tea.

It would mean less than usual for her, but… maybe she could work with Roselyn to dilute it into a batch of candles that would last longer than a perfume.

The possibilities of what she might do with her haul were only the surface. Below that, she was afraid of touching the certainty that Collar had wanted to tell her something more, that he had been about to admit that the Principes, and her, were open to him.

She could very well guess what had stopped him. Collar believed in the laws and institutions of Damme and society, and he was tasked, or would be, with upholding them. Frosty’s law, again, was causing problems with a potential unification of the cities. In the past, neither city had seen it as much of a problem, dismissing the one set of lovers that had tried it as idealistic.

They’d exiled themselves to live someplace else when it became clear that their love for each wouldn't be accepted by either side. For all she knew, their descendants were still out there, spreading word of the Principes and its message of love for all to wherever they’d settled.

That wouldn’t be their fate.

And yet…

Rosewater hesitated on the cusp of entering the villa grounds and glanced back at her flat sides. In order to win, she needed to have a child. It was not something she wanted to do for politics, but for love, and the reason she hadn’t already won. Silver Star had almost been the stallion, but the others she’d visited her hopes briefly on hadn’t ever been more than a quicksilver fancy for either side.

In part because of Roseate.

In part because, in her heart, she’d known that the only way to truly win would be to unite the cities in the body of one child.

A purely Merrier child might be enough for her to negotiate an end to the hostilities, but they would still be two separate cities, always vaguely distrustful of the other, no matter how long the peace lasted.

And she hated herself for thinking of her future child as a political piece on a board. A child should be born for love.

And if Collar loves you…

Rosewater allowed herself to savor the moment again, when she’d been all but certain that he was falling in love with her. Those soft, five words.

“Even for you and I.”

Her heart had skipped a beat, certain he was going to follow up with the words she’d been hoping he would say, that she’d been working towards, but words that, in the past weeks, she’d stopped actively scheming for.

He had to come to her naturally, without her pushing, for there to be a chance of true love blooming. The past weeks of opening herself up, of being afraid that she was opening up too much, had shown her the fallacy of her earlier plans, and last night had closed the lid on any justification she’d had for ‘finagling’ a courtship out of him.

He is. He is coming to you. Give him time to accept his feelings.

And yet, she kept being torn between the political need to have a child and the natural desire to have a child with a pony she was falling in love with.

And what will Cloudy want? Rosemary? Questions she would need to ask them if Collar accepted her offered courtship.

“Rosewater?” The voice from behind nearly startled her into a teleportation.

The magical energy faded back into her horn and herself as she let it go. “Stars above, Petal,” she said, rather sheepishly. “You startled me.”

“I can see that. You’re jumpier than a june bug.” Petal nipped her cheek and swept past her, a matching panier of frost lilies dangling from her flank. “I see you went for the bog forest lilies.”

“They’re more numerous, and it was less likely that I’d run into another soul this early,” Rosewater said easily, stuffing her nerves into a box with the ease of long practice. “And the bog forest is closer to my house.”

“It’s not.” Petal gave her a sniff and flicked her tail. “Your house is here.”

“You know what I meant,” Rosewater said with a roll of her eyes. “Rosefire estate.”

“I know what you meant, and I’m telling you that’s not your home anymore. Ponies make a home, Rosewater. Plural. You can’t make a home by yourself.”

“I can,” Rosewater replied. “It’s just… lonely sometimes.” More than lonely. Memories haunted her in every corner of the estate when she was tired or her mood was low. Worse than lonely. “Fine. But I can’t stay away forever, Petal. Aunt Rosefire gave that estate to us, and I need to take care of it.”

Petal cocked her head to the side. “Okay, but you’re not going home alone. Invite someone over when you need to. Me, Seed, Roselyn, Bliss…” She looked past Rosewater and nodded to somepony. “Even Dazzle.”

Rosewater turned to find the stallion watching her curiously, his eyes bright, a smile on his lips, and she recalled what Collar had told her. Not to suppress her heritage. Not to distance herself from those that wanted to be close from her. Not for his or anypony’s sake.

The kiss she gave him surprised him into a laughing yelp. “Well, good morning to you, too, lovely.” He glanced at Petal, then focused, forming an imperfect silence around them. Better than his last attempt. “I take it last night went well?”

“Very.” Again, she took over the spell gently, letting him feel as she corrected the form of the spell before expanding the dome of silence to include Petal. “My… outing went very well indeed.”

“And you stinking like a bog so we can’t tell who it is?” Petal snorted but smiled and winked. “No need to tell us, I know secrets run for you like currents in the ocean.”

“The bog was more for my mother than for you, Petal. I needed a reason to come back to town on the break of dawn. Frost petals with last night’s storm and frost were it.”

“It was barely a frost,” Petal grumbled. “We didn’t get as many as I would have liked this year. Hopefully those that didn’t bloom last night will bloom the next time the mountains send a cold front our way.”

“It was colder farther from the ocean,” Rosewater replied. “Where I went wasn’t far from it, but the bog is a good three miles inland. Far enough to escape the ocean’s moderating influence.”

Rather than entering the villa, Rosewater skirted around the brick walls of her home away from home. The vines that climbed the walls were already starting to turn their leaves loose despite the warmth leaking out from the well-warmed interior. By winter, only the vines along the chimneys would remain green, although their leaves would have fallen.

“You must have had a good night,” Dazzle whispered to her. “I take it, um…” He glanced back at Petal.

“Pah.” Petal rolled her eyes and lifted the pannier off Rosewater’s back. “You two go have a talk. It’s clear you’re conspiring together.” She tossed her mane and nipped Rosewater’s flank. “But if you don’t tell us soon, I’m going to get Seed and we’re going to sit on you until you tell us.”

Leaving her alone with Dazzle and a shrunken silence spell.

“Collar… I think is falling in love with me,” Rosewater said softly, the words sending a thrill through her. Words she hadn’t dared speaking aloud before. As she led Dazzle to the bath, and throughout it, she told him about her date.

At the end of the bath, he stood to leave, his expression thoughtful.

She stopped him with a spell against his flank. “He wants me to be free. Free to be me, Dazzle. To be who I grew up as, to see love and sex as two separate things.”

“He loves you, then,” Dazzle said softly. “Even if he hasn’t said the words. Are you sure? He might have told you, but he’s still, at his heart, a follower of the Tussen Twee.”

Rosewater nodded slowly, and sat on the top step of the bath. “I… Dazzle, if he never comes to my side. If he decides that we can’t be together, and you’ve offered yourself to me so freely, without restraints or conditions. I will hate myself for keeping you from me. Because I do want to spend time with you, in every way that we can. While we can.” And I may come to love you if he turns aside my heart. “It’s the Rose way.”

He seemed to hear her unspoken words, and nodded. Newcomer he might be, but he understood the realities of the dynamics of polyamorous marriage in Merrie, that sometimes for the sake of the larger harmony, some loves needed to be accepted, and others put aside lest they disturb the peace.

Some ponies just did not get along, and that was never going to change, no matter if they were followers of the Principes or the Tussen Twee… or neither.

And some loves… for the sake of politics, needed to be let go.

“Nor do I want the spark we struck together to evaporate. I love both of you in different ways, but no less love for those differences.”

Dazzle’s eyes sparkled as he came back, smiling, and he met her with a kiss, pushed her back, deeper into the water, towards the far side, near the drainage spout, where sloping ramps had been purpose built for sex, for making love, and for the mare to be atop the stallion.

It was slow, and as he thrust up into her, filling her with pleasure, pressure, and a slow release as she rode him to his orgasm and, later, as he used his magic to stimulate her, hers, she felt a mending in her heart and mind. More heat suffused her as she panted atop him, his cock still in her, his come dripping down her thighs to the water and washing away in the slow current that ran from source to drain.

Their heavy breathing and the slow gurgle and trickle of water was the only sound in the warm bathhouse. Something inside her she hadn’t let out since her first time with Dazzle came back, warming her.

This was the Principes. Love available to all. Without limit.

It was release, and it was hope for a better future, and after she cleaned herself again, she allowed herself to dream of she and Collar laying together in the same way.

“You were right. You need love,” Dazzle murmured as they lay down to dry slowly, and she to nap. “You need a connection to other ponies, Rosewater. And you want it. You want sex, Rosewater, and pleasure, and you’ve denied yourself for so long. Stars, I felt that in you just now. You’re a being of desires, just like I am, and denying them is counter to everything we believe in.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she murmured.

“You won’t. I like you, Rosewater. You’re a good friend, and I will admit to loving having sex with you. But I know your heart is drifting across the river.” He kissed her cheek gently and rolled over beside her. “I know you’re falling in love with him, but I do hope that won’t keep us apart forever.”

“It won’t,” Rosewater replied softly, her eyes closed as she enspelled the stones and gems below the floor to emanate a low heat and put in enough magic to power the enchantment for an hour or so.

As it rose, she drifted farther from wakefulness.

At some point, Dazzle kissed her cheek and stood, leaving to go about his day while she napped herself back to some semblance of energy.

Firelight Spark’s tea steamed away merrily on the edge of his desk. The morning’s rays had seen a ship from Los Pegasus arrive, mostly full of passengers from Canterlot, or Merrier and Dammer traders returning home for the coming winter.

Two of those passengers sat across the broad surface of his desk with its silver, gold, and bronze inlay of Celestia’s cutie mark. Two mares wearing the bangles of a married couple. Judging by the way they fidgeted with them and flushed when they noticed they were doing it, they were newlywed.

Or, he reminded himself, it’s a cover.

He sipped his tea and let them sit for a while longer. It was too early to receive spies he’d thought would have been arriving a week later. Though, calling them spies was, perhaps, over-generous as he reviewed their order packets and the dossiers they’d given him on sitting down.

One was an economist, and the other was a political theorist. An oddly well-paired couple.

Another sip, and he set the tea back down on its saucer. “So. I wasn’t expecting the two of you for another week, nor was I expecting a married couple.” He glanced over the dossiers again, set them down, and fixed his attention on Fervent Wish, noted as being the more sociable of the two. “I have your orders here, but what’s your execution plan? Have you had a chance to read over the current situation in both cities?”

“A little,” Fervent said, ducking her head. “Her highness gave us your last report, and we were able to read it on the carriage ride and voyage here. I do have some questions.”

Golden Glow, the quieter, almost mousey looking mare with a golden coat, pulled free a thick scroll case and tugged free familiar papers. In his own hoof, and started unrolling them one-by-one on his desk.

“We wanted to know,” Golden said, cleared her throat, and spoke more loudly. “We wanted to know what the situation is currently between Rosewater and Collar. I’m afraid the report we had is almost a month old, but you did say that she had opened negotiations with the Primlines for the return of her cousin?”

Firelight nodded shallowly and sipped his tea again, debating whether or not he could trust them to be discreet. He’d deliberately not included the relationship in his report. Princess Celestia knew, and that was all that truly mattered.

But her spies didn’t know.

“She has,” he said finally. “She and Lord Collar are negotiating faithfully, and I’ve been pleased with the progress that both parties are reporting in their negotiations. They’re consistent and, more importantly, substantive. Rosewater is trading half on her eventual rulership of Merrie, and half on her own not-inconsiderable wealth and means.”

Golden nodded and Fervent made a note in a fanciful, wire-rimmed notebook with a flexible cover. The kind of papercraft he’d never see this far from the growing industrial heart of Equestria.

“What’s the designated herdgild,” Golden asked next, checking over her partner’s notes. “How likely is Rosewater to succeed on her own?”

“One hundred thousand bits, or equivalent,” Firelight said flatly. “And not very.”

Fervent whistled. “They take their prisoners of war trade seriously here, don’t they?”

“It’s usually paid in the equivalent of trade tariffs and is usually covered within a few months.”

Golden was nodding enthusiastically before Fervent could comment. “Yes, yes. The trade across the bridges is picking up quite a lot in the past decades. It used to be years, love. Years before that kind of herdgild was paid off.”

“But her crime was so minor. Why not just treat her as a common criminal, get her to pay a fine, and ban her from the city?”

“She was acting under orders. That makes her an enemy combatant. And one of high birth. The law is very clear. Any hostile act, success or failure, must be treated as an act of war.” Firelight tapped a hoof on the table. “You’re not… usually involved in spy work, are you?”

“Spy work?” Fervent laughed and nudged the pony he was now certain was actually her wife. “Great mare, no. We are exactly what our dossiers say. Her highness didn’t send us to spy, sir knight. She sent us to evaluate and get a ‘pony on the ground’ idea of what things were like. And to go on our honeymoon.”

“That would… explain a few things.” Firelight scrubbed at his face, suddenly glad he hadn’t spilled about Rosewater and Rosemary’s actual relationship. “Very well. Can you at least tell me what your report-in schedule will be like?”

“Whenever we can,” Fervent said, leaning over to nudge her wife. “We’ve got an itinerary and everything! We even stopped by a cafe after we heard a rumor that Lord Collar was going to take his future wife there. I’m so excited! We’ll get to see him and her and everything!”

Golden flushed. “She’s… very excited about the political situation here. It’s been her focus of study for the past two years.”

Firelight rubbed at one cheek and fought not to sigh. Sometimes, the plots her highness started in his area of responsibility truly baffled him. “So you’re actually here to celebrate your honeymoon.”

“Of course.” Fervent gave him a look like he was a touch slow.

It’s too early, of course I’m slow. “And you’re also her agents?”

“Yes…”

Golden nudged her wife and spoke up. “She told us to enjoy ourselves, but asked us to look out for anything out of the ordinary going on. And to report the common pony’s opinion.”

“And that’s why you’re trying to get close to Collar.”

“Oh, I’ve just heard that he’s a kind stallion.” Fervent waved a hoof. “Given Damme’s history and tendency to produce tyrannical-minded rulers, it’s going to be fascinating to see the only son of its first truly benevolent ruler. Maybe even talk to him.”

“He is that,” Firelight said. “Rosewater as well, for her part. She’s been caught up in a poor situation, but she’s working her way out of it. Don’t judge her too harshly for what she’s done.”

Fervent nodded slowly, Golden more quickly.

“Do… you have any suggestions?” Golden asked, setting a hoof over her wife’s raised foreleg. “You’re the expert on the local situation, Sir Firelight. Any advice you can give us would be appreciated.”

“If you get a chance, visit the Garden of Love. It’s a premier destination for honeymooning couples during the tourist season anyway, and the Lady Rosewater has been staying there more often.”

Fervent winced, lowering her hoof. “We’ve already made accommodations in Damme for a week. It’d look awful suspicious if we cancelled them to go to Merrie.”

“We’ll keep it in mind,” Golden said, nudging her wife gently away from the desk. “We’ve taken up enough of your morning. Thank you for seeing us on such short notice.”

“Emissaries from her majesty are always welcome. Just be aware that both cities run on… a little later schedule. Morning doesn’t start for another two hours after it does in Canterlot.”

He sipped his tea quietly as the two mares filed out of his office and closed the door behind him.

Almost the instant it did, an unobtrusive golden gem flashed in the corner of his vision. He’d suspected it would go off as soon as the two left. He could almost feel the pressure of the Princess’s projection waiting behind the complicated enchantments woven finer than hairs over the surface and throughout it.

He touched it, locking the door and sliding back the panel that hid the astral room.

“Your highness,” he said, bowing his head. Taking a risk, he took a deep breath, “it’s barely past the dawning hour here.”

Princess Celestia’s laugh echoed in the small chamber. “My dear captain, reminding me that work doesn’t start for another half an hour. Thank you. But this is somewhat urgent. The Baroness Highwater will be arriving within Canterlot inside two weeks, and I understand she had some dealing with Roseate. Is there anything you can give to me that I can use to delay her return to Highwater Ridge?”

“Two weeks.” Firelight sighed and turned to pull out the slim file he had on the baroness. “I’ve sent you everything I know for certain, your highness. I can possibly drum up some more details from Rosewater herself. But she may ask a boon in return.”

“Permit her one more letter, if she asks. Her adopted mother broke down in tears from the last, and she’s nearly feverish for any detail I can give, though she is controlled enough to keep it to herself.” The princess paused, hoof to her chin, and nodded. “Every time the subject of Merrie or Damme and their situation comes up in council, she quivers for details. She has done remarkably well the last month, and I see no reason to torment her.”

Firelight opened his mouth, but she cut him off with a shake of her head.

“Even if it does bend the law rather substantially.”

“I was going to say that not letting her mother reply has driven Rosewater nearly to madness as well. If you’re going to bend the law, I mean.” Firelight waved a hoof lightly. “She’s doing better since she accepted her place back at the Garden of Love, but it was a close thing.”

“Your informant?”

“My informant has been unable to sequester themselves into any of the meetings. More, it’s putting things together. Lace, when referring to Rosewater in her reports of Rosewater’s negotiation progress is talking about her like a daughter or granddaughter. You’ll see them yourself in the next batch of reports.”

Celestia’s eyes seemed to glitter with interest. “Now that is an interesting development.” She waved a hoof and rose from her laying position, and the image shrunk her to fit still within the transmission field. “I think it’s getting close to the end, captain. I will take your advisement and allow Carnation to write a letter. It won’t be coming by your normal route, so please keep an eye on the transmission jewel. I will need you to transcribe it while I read it to you.”

“How should I tell her it arrived?”

Celestia winked. “You’ll come up with something. Now, I must be off to my daily duties, captain. Fare well, and good luck.”

Firelight saluted and held his wince until the golden-hued image of Celestia winked out.

“I do wish, sometimes, that your instructions were more precise, your highness.”

Her laughter, distant, came back to him and sent a shiver up his spine.

Author's Note

Well, I ran into a burst of inspiration, so here's the next chapter. Next chapter will come out Friday-ish. And a look at the fears that drive Collar's choices.

Just what is Celestia up to?