“I’m having a hard time,” Collar admitted as he sat on a rock overlooking the sea. It wasn’t far from where he’d had his second date with Rosewater, and the wind was stronger than it had been then, coming in from the open sea, bringing the smell of clean saltwater and open air unburdened by land, forest, and grass. “Thinking of ‘us’ in terms of more than you and me, I mean.”

Cloudy nuzzled the back of his neck gently. “It takes time. And patience. And an understanding between all of us.”

He opened his mouth and closed it again. Ever since Cloudy had sent the honeymooning couple after Rosewater, she had been more cheerful, playful even, and understanding.

Their course had taken them from the cafe and down into the docks, shoulder to shoulder, their tails twined together as they surveyed the ships being unloaded and the cargo being loaded back on.

Commerce, life, and the blood of Damme flowing through her heart. Once, that had been his blood. Trade and the exotic ponies and other races that came to visit the prosperous city of Damme, one of the last of the great city-states of a bygone age, and her sister city, Merrie.

It was, for him, heartening to see nearly every slip occupied, and the songs of the worker ponies as they kept up a rhythm. Watching them move to the cadence of the song had been mesmerizing for the few minutes they’d watched while a nervous dockmaster hovered at their side.

During Roseline’s rule, when he could walk without fear of an ambush, when he knew the ruler of the other city by name and face and had been invited to…

“I met her once, you know. Rosewater, before Roseate took power. After she must have moved in with Carnation. I think she was six or seven, as was I.” He could only remember bits and pieces of the meeting now, even after the memory had been triggered by who knew what. “She was intense, focused. I remember that. I remember being impressed she’d already gotten her cutie mark. But that’s it. No words. Just her. I remembered it after our last date. In a dream.”

It was hard to admit that he was dreaming of her. Just how much farther that dreaming had been taking him of late, he wasn’t sure he was ready to admit it to himself, either.

“You were both the heirs apparent of your cities. I’m not surprised you met,” Cloudy murmured. “I imagine it was at a Gala?”

“Maybe. Even when, I can’t remember anymore. It could have been a private meeting, but if it was, I’m sure she’d remember. She seems to remember more of her childhood than I at any rate.” He sighed and pushed away the tatters of his childhood memories. “It doesn’t matter, I suppose. Not anymore. What might have been…”

“Is happening now, isn’t it?” Cloudy finished for him, her nose just under his ear, her hooves wrapped around his stomach. “You’re dating her. You’re on a date with me. Rose and Prim, coming together. Our way, and yours.”

My way. How quaint that seemed now, looking back over the past four months. “My way,” he said aloud, almost scoffing at the idea. “Cloudy, a little more than a month ago, I was ready to send Rosewater away and be done with it, and have only you.”

“And Rosemary?” Cloudy asked, raising a brow. “She would have been your bonded mate, your wife, as much as I, were we bonded in Merrie. You never begrudged me my culture, Collar. Would it be so very strange…” She shrugged and settled in closer over his back, rubbing her cheek against his neck. “We would have found a way around Frosty’s law. Somehow. We still will.”

Change came. He knew that. It could come slowly, like the waves smoothing the rocks on the shore, reshaping the shoreline over years, decades, centuries. The jutting spear they sat on now, not a few feet from the place he’d sat for so long with Rosewater, staring out at sea, staring up to the sky. He had to fight the want to have her there, too, to have two mares that he was in love, or falling in love, with there to share the sunset. It was a rare one, hues of purple, pink, and blazing fire on the horizon.

The undersides of the clouds flashed and sparked intermittently as bolts and spreading branches of lightning that were briefly visible as blue-white streaks. It was too far away for it to carry, even to pony ears, but would soon, possibly even tonight, bring rain and thunderstorms.

In the moment…

Cloudy’s shifting weight against his back was the perfect counter to the feeling of awe, grounding him back in reality and pulling his attention away from the horizon.

“We’ll find a way,” Collar said. “We have to. I… Cloudy, I’m not sure… stars. I’m on a date with you and my thoughts keep going back to her.”

“You’re falling in love,” Cloudy whispered. “It’s hard not to pay attention to the fall, either real or metaphorical.”

“That’s true. But, I feel like—”

“Collar, I’m falling in love with her, too. More lately than I was at the start, as she opens up and stops trying to hide from us. Stars, I’ve thought now and again, ‘it would be nice to have her here.’ And maybe one day, it can be all four of us on a date like this. Enjoying each other’s company with no restrictions.”

Rosewater, Rosemary, and Cloudy, all bound together in marriage, all of them resting against each other and him. He could see it, almost, see Rosewater laying on a blanket beside him while Cloudy and Rosemary walked the dunes, picking up seashells and driftwood along the shoreline, and came back when he and Rosewater started cooking.

“I can see it,” he said softly. “Stars, Cloudy, I want that. I want that future for all of us.”

“I can, too,” Cloudy whispered. “I can see it, too, Collar, and I want it. I want that. I want tonight, too, for us. The Principes isn’t only about togetherness, Collar. I want tonight for us. Just you and I. And so do Rosemary and Rosewater. Tonight is special for us.”

He didn’t say it automatically, but felt for it first, finding Cloudy’s pink eyes in a green coat staring back at him when he thought the words. “I love you,” he said after a long, meditational breath. “So much.”

He let go of the sound damping shield and leaned back against Cloudy, feeling her adjust just as simply. The return of sound from the world around him lulled the turmoil in him back to rest.

As he did, Cloudy pushed slid to sit beside him, her wings folding back to her sides, one resting lightly against his flank. “You’re relaxed again.”

“I am. I just…” He sighed. “There’s so much going on right now.”

She kissed his cheek, then his lips when he turned to face her, startled. He let the kiss linger, parting his lips and brushing hers with his tongue, brow raising when she didn’t reciprocate.

“Cloudy?”

“I think we should go back,” she said, licking his chin and grinning. “It’s getting late anyway. And I have a surprise.” She pushed away and stretched her wings and shoulders, flicking her tail up to the trees, then pressing her chest forward and stretching her hind legs.

“A surprise, hum? He chuckled, rolling his shoulders as he rose and stretching one leg at a time instead of all at once. Not that he minded watching the chance to see her lithe form stretched out, every line of her beautiful in the fading light. “Will you tell me what it is if I ask? What have the three of you been planning?”

“You can ask,” Cloudy said with a laugh, starting back down the promontory. “But you know what my answer is already.”

Collar sighed and rolled his eyes, falling back into step beside her. “You know I could have you put in the dungeon.”

Cloudy’s sharp bark of laughter followed by giggles gave him his answer even as she loped away from his lunging leap. “You could. But you’ll have to find out.”

He caught her then, rearing up to wrap his forelegs around her neck and lean on her back to nip her ears. She laughed again, staggered briefly, and pushed her head up against his muzzle.

“If it’s from you, I’ll love it,” he assured her and nuzzled under her ear, pausing for just a moment to inhale the scent of her. His nose was nowhere near even Cloudy’s, but she smelled different than he recalled, or seemed to. “Are you wearing a perfume?”

“Just under my ears,” Cloudy said softly. “It’s a part of the surprise. Rosemary helped me apply it this morning.” She paused for a beat, glancing back at him. “Do you like it?”

Collar took the offer and kissed her ear, then pressed his nose against the velvet cup, taking in the fragrance more deeply. This close, he could almost see the rows upon rows of roses that must fill the greenhouses of Merrie’s year-round growers. “Rose blooms? It smells like a garden of roses.”

Cloudy smiled and bobbed her head, keeping unaccountably quiet as she resumed her slow walk back up the beach, her ears perked and her wings settled only lightly to her sides. Every line of her radiated contentment.

When he caught up to her, she smiled at him and bumped her head under his chin. “Thank you, Collar, for the lovely day. Even with the rocky start, it was beautiful. Just to spend time with you, unencumbered by worry, you know?”

“I do. Even if it’s only for part of an afternoon and evening.”

“That’s enough for now, isn’t it?” Cloudy asked. “We have a lifetime ahead of us, Collar. Together.” She seemed almost to say more, but stopped herself and bobbed her head.

Together with our other loves, too.

Collar settled into an easy rhythm, matching Cloudy’s pace on every third step, their tails twined and his thoughts drifting through the perfume that seemed to cling to his nose, and then away. It was an easy thought, just then, to contemplate a walk like this with Rosewater, or with Rosemary. The fall day, and the cool wind coming down from the hills helped settle the feeling of nostalgia for a future he wanted to have, free of worry, war, and politicking.

One day, his children would take over Damme, maybe even Merriedamme, and he wanted to be able to watch them thrive while he took his rest as an advisor.

That day, he had to remind himself, was a long way off.

It was the scent, he decided, that made him long for things he hadn’t had yet, and had little reason to long for just then. A tickle in the mind combined with the crispness of the air.

“Scents are a part of romance in Merrie,” he said with a sidelong look at her. “Simple and complex, magical and not. I… lost myself thinking about the future.”

“Longing for the future?”

“Nostalgic for a future I want to have,” he said after a moment. “Is that longing?”

“Dreaming, maybe.” Cloudy sidestepped closer and let her shoulder rub against his. “I’ve been dreaming all day of what might be, what might come.” The cadence of their hooves changed pitch as the sand gave way to loose earth, then to grass turning brown. “It’s been soothing to set aside everything else happening in the world, even just for an afternoon”

“It has been,” Collar whispered in her ear, dipping his nose to take in the fragrance again and cement it further in his mind. “And I love this fragrance, Cloudy. I… it’s soothing.”

“It was meant to be,” Cloudy said with a laugh, tossing her head and darting a look at him from under her forelock. “You were meant to sniff under my ear earlier. You do love to nuzzle my ears after all. I should have put it on my neck, it seems.”

“I’ll make a note to nuzzle your ears more often,” he said, teasing her ear tip with a nip. “Where did you get it? I didn’t think that any shop in Damme would sell something so… expressive.”

“Rosewater.” Cloudy glanced at him sharply, her shoulders tensing for a second before relaxing. “I… asked her for something suitable for our date. She… said she made it new. Just for us.”

Collar nodded slowly and took another sniff. “She does good work. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to appreciate just how good she is at…” He flicked his tail and an ear. “Stars, her job. Her business.”

“She’s very good.” Cloudy was silent for only a heartbeat before adding, “And thoughtful, Collar. I only asked for something for our date. If it hadn’t been… if… I mean, I’ve been very calm today. This evening.”

“I have, too,” Collar admitted.

Just before he set hoof on the trail, he hesitated and looked up to the ridge where he and Rosewater had shared their first night together, talking quietly into the night and keeping each other warm with laughter and thoughtful explorations of each others’ pasts.

She wasn’t there. She wouldn’t have been. Not if she had run into the honeymooners. Not if she was who he knew she was. She’d take care of her guests.

He swallowed and stared up at the cliff for another long moment before letting out a breath and following Cloudy back to the palace.

Did I want her to be there?

“She is,” Collar whispered as he caught up again.

Cloudy leaned into him as their hooves met the more stable ground leading back to the city’s streets, the pitch changing again, plodding and certain. He leaned back, resting his chin lightly between her ears, drinking in the calming fragrance.

I need to thank her.

Coat was at his post at Rosemary’s door, when Collar and Cloudy climbed the stairs and smiled at them, then glanced at the door.

“How was your date?”

“Perfect,” Collar said, bobbing his head briefly. “Thank you. Rosemary’s been happy today, I hope?” He glanced past Coat to the too-silent door. A sure sign that something more… energetic was going on.

Cloudy was obviously hiding a smile, and Coat glowered at her before returning his attention to him.

“More than happy,” Coat muttered. “They’ve been in there for at least two hours, and aside from pausing to talk, I think…” He flushed, his ears flattening. “It’s been too quiet… stars above, Collar. I never thought…”

Cloudy coughed and held out a hoof and rolled her eyes.

Coat huffed. “After my shift. You know I don’t carry my purse when I’m on duty.”

“Cloudy, who did you bet on?” Collar sighed and nuzzled under her ear again. It was still as strong as ever, though subtle and so very real smelling that he could almost see the garden the roses had come from.

“If they decide to tell us, that’s their business,” Cloudy said, nipping his cheek. “I know you Prims like to keep your privacies and I’m not going to break a friend’s.”

“Ah.” Collar flicked his ears back. “I see.” He coughed and glanced at Coat. “And you?”

“I, uh…” Coat coughed. “You know I have a bit of a gambling issue… Thistle complains to me about it quite often.” He glanced at the door again. “You two enjoy the rest of your night. I’m going to fantasize about Thistle calling me an idiot for the next few hours. At least she’s conscientious about keeping the ward powered.”

“We will,” Cloudy said with a smirking grin at Collar. “And you will not ask her how her night was.”

“I won’t.”

He let himself be tugged along, ears flat, past Rosemary’s door and down the hall to his own at the end of the long hall.

“We have plans still, Collar,” Cloudy whispered in his ear as she stopped in front of his door, her ears flat and nostrils flared. “I-I…” She took a breath through her nose and relaxed visibly. “I hope you enjoy what I, what we, planned next.”

“All of you have put a lot of work into surprising me,” Collar murmured, lipping her ear briefly and breathing in again the subtle rose fragrance. “Surprise me, love.”

“Gladly,” Cloudy said, her eyes shining as pushed open the door.

Understanding began to dawn as she opened the door, and a drifting cloud of fragrance washed over him. Smoky and warm, reminiscent of the first time he had lain with Cloudy in her apartment eight months ago, but with more there too. She’d always kept her home fastidiously clean, always cooked meals that made her neighbors complain about the fragrance, but were always well within the fragrance ordinances.

That wasn’t there tonight, but something in the air made him think of that first time, he nervous, she eager but trepidatious. What was there was almost like music to his nose and tugged at his memories. He could feel her first kiss again, feel the hesitance, then the eagerness as he reciprocated.

All of that was there, but subtly undercut by a faint smell of roses that were almost familiar and brought to mind Rosewater, with Rosemary a close second. And Cloudy, most of all.

When he followed her in, the source became apparent. Candles sat in small tin basins, their wicks just above pools of wax that flickered in the dancing candlelight. And on the bed, red rose petals arranged in a heart and two letters spelling out his and Cloudy’s first initials.

“All of this?” he asked after the door closed behind him, Cloudy leaning against it.

“All of this,” she said in a soft, hopeful voice. “The perfume was made by Rosewater, the petals gathered from the garden by Rosemary, and sanctioned by Lace. The candles—” She nodded towards the closest one. “—were made by Rosewater and Roselyn, with my consultation, and Rosewater’s first visit, or second, to my old apartment. And the petals…”

“Rosemary set all of this up?” His mind whirled as the revelation of so much coordination between Cloudy and her lovers. For him. For them.

“Rosemary,” Cloudy confirmed. “And… her current lover. She needed a reason and an escort to be out of her room.” Cloudy pushed away from the door, ears flat. “Is this okay, Collar? I wanted today, tonight to be perfect. To show you what it means to love a Rose.”

Is this okay? He looked around the room slowly, taking it all in, and drew a deep breath. The candles dominated, drawing his mind to a calm place, drawing away his tension without dulling his mind, leaving the facts bare and stark before him without worrying about what they meant right then. He knew what they meant, what they implied.

Before he dared to give voice to his thoughts, to say what he knew in his heart was true, he silenced the room. Doing so felt like a betrayal of what it meant to Cloudy and her lovers, to be open with their love, but here… here, he needed to be especially careful about saying what he wanted to say.

“They want us to be happy,” he whispered. “You and I.”

“Yes!” Cloudy ducked her head and stepped closer yet, waiting for him to say more. When he didn’t, she took another step. “Rosewater wants you to love me, Collar. Rosemary wants you to love me. They don’t want that to change. All they want is…” Cloudy swallowed and looked away. “All I want is for you to accept me, accept that I love them, too.”

“I do accept it.” He shook his head quickly. “I do. I—” The last words, love them, froze on his tongue. Them. Rosemary and Rosewater. Daughter and mother. “I love them for… for all they’ve done.”

Cloudy’s eyes shone with tears, her smile beaming as she captured him in an embrace around the neck. “This…” she murmured. “This is my way, Collar. Of courting you in my way, with the help of our… my loves. This is what it means to love a Rose. Her lovers, her friends, want you to love her. Love me. And they want to help make every moment special. All they ask… is that I do the same. Love, Collar, is for sharing.”

Sharing love. “I can do that. I can share my love of you with them.”

“And when they share their love of you?”

When… He met her eyes, swallowed, and nodded. “When. When that time comes…” What do I say? What can I say?

Cloudy pressed her nose to his. “When it comes, Collar, I’ll be there with you. I’m not going to let you face this change alone.”

Collar kissed her then, softly at first, but with growing vigor as she rose into it, raising her forelegs to wrap around behind his neck. He rose with her press to his hind legs, drawing her with him until they were balanced together.

“Tonight,” Cloudy whispered into his lips. “Dance with me. Tonight is our gala dance. Just you and I. No Primfeathers. No Manes. No Coifs. No politics.”

“And then?” Collar breathed, finding his balance with her easily despite their height differences. Swaying to the side, she spun them around in a circle, her hind hooves swift and sure. It took him only a moment to follow her. “You’ve been practicing your waltz.”

“For tonight. Dapper is a wonderful teacher. I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“And then, Primline Collar, we make love, we sleep, and you and I both get to thank Rosemary for setting all of this up.”

“You really did plan all this out right under my nose,” Collar murmured, taking her through a slow spin, matching her suggestions and taking the lead for a short while. “Stars, Cloudy… I—yes. Stars, I love tonight so much. I love you.”

There was no music other than the hopeful beat of Cloudy’s heart in her ears and the shuffle of hooves across the pile of Collar’s carpet, and the almost too-subtle to hear hiss and gutter of the flames of the candles burning and stuttering as her wings stirred the air around her, mingling the rising scents from the petals still stuck to the bed with the candles.

Collar kept his cheek pressed to hers through the slow Dance of Hearts, a slow down from the Nettle Waltz they had started with, already a slow dance to begin with. The Dance of Hearts was more ‘hugging while upright and shuffling,’ as Dapper called it when he’d introduced it.

It was also, Cloudy was finding out, the best way to stay close to Collar.

Their conversation had faded out through the night as they shifted from dance to dance, as the candles worked their calming magic on both of them. Her nerves about his facing beneficent scent magic had long since faded, and his tension at facing the idea that her other lovers wanted him to enjoy Cloudy’s company.

They came to a stop as Collar raised his head.

“I love you, Cloudy,” he whispered against her forehead. “Tonight has been perfect. In ways I’m not sure I know how to express. I…”

“You don’t need to voice it,” Cloudy whispered back, raising her muzzle up to rest against his, meeting eye to eye before she closed hers. “That’s the beauty of our way, Collar. The heart holds meaning no words can express. It’s why doing things like this is so important to us. Action.”

His muzzle moved against hers in a slow nod. “Action.” He pulled away, only to press his lips to hers and tilt his head, tongue pressing in.

She met him, accepted him, and guided him towards the bed where the petals still lay despite the vigor of their second dance and her wings shifting about every other bit of paper or cloth not weighed down.

They came free finally as she fell onto the bed, her forelegs rising to hold Collar’s waist, and fluttered away from her, releasing their fragrance as they dissolved into dust.

Collar stopped and stared at them, his ears going flat. “What was that?”

“This is the last thing I had planned, Collar,” Cloudy said, raising her forehooves to the air and curling them against her breast. “Can you smell it? Can you feel what we both want?”

“Th-this,” he huffed, his nostrils flaring as he took another, deeper breath. Almost instantly, the smell of hot flesh and stallion musk reached her. “This is scent magic, too? Stars, Cloudy, it’s like I can feel what you want.”

“It’s a part. I asked Rosewater to capture a moment, to make it last. She whispered to me what tonight would be like, held me while she told me what to expect, teased me while she described this very moment. With you.” She took in the scent of Longest Lust. Her lust. Her want and need for sex and physical passion. She crunched her stomach and set her hind legs against his shoulders, letting him see what she wanted.

“Stars,” Collar whispered, his eyes wide, the intensity of the stallion-scent coming off him growing. He bent his neck, his lips brushing over her inner thighs down to her teats. “Stars, Cloudy, even your nipples are hard.”

“I’ve wanted to do this with you for…” Cloudy trailed off into a moan, heat rushing from where Collar’s teeth and tongue left a cooling trail between the soft, small mounds. “So long.”

“The scent?” He asked in a low, lusty voice. His hooves on the bed shifted, pulling back as he looked down along her vulva. “As a Merrier coming to her lover.”

“Yes,” Cloudy said, straining again as another wave of desire rose through her, as cool air kissed her nethers again, only to be replaced by the hot, firm touch of his tongue sliding from her canal to her clit and lingering as she strained open further, more, needing his touch. “Stars, Collar, I’ve wanted to use scents with you for so long, but I couldn’t.”

“Why?” Collar whispered.

“I was afraid, Collar,” Cloudy whispered, moaning again as Collar lapped along her slit again. “That you might not enjoy it.”

“No,” Collar replied, pushing her further onto the bed, shifting his hooves and pressing his breast against her rear. “Cloudy, I want to explore this with you. This is a part of who you are, and…” His neck arched as the sound of his cock slapping against his belly was accompanied by a rush of stallion scent. “By the stars, Cloudy, how did she capture you at your lustiest? I want you, stars, I don’t think I’ve wanted to feel you around me more than I do now.”

“Magic. And her talent.” Cloudy pushed herself back, wriggling until her hind legs splayed and she fell back fully onto the bed, letting her look over herself to see the turgid erection bobbing just above the horizon of her mound. “It enhances pleasure, too.”

“I can well believe it,” Collar grunted. He closed his eyes and focused, sheathing his cock in a silvery wrapping.

“There’s no need, Collar. I want you bare. I want your seed in me.”

“But—”

Cloudy shook her head. “I’m on a contraceptive, love. We decide when. Not chance.”

The silvery sheath vanished, leaving his ruddy cock bare, his head pulsing in time with his heartbeat. Stars, she wanted to tease him more, but tonight… tonight wasn’t about teasing. Tonight was about passion, eagerness inborn and remembered, and an artificial heightening of both of their senses.

“I’ve wanted to feel you bare again,” Collar whispered, edging forward, letting the heat from his head briefly brush against the back of one hind leg, then pressing against her. “Another gift?”

“From Rosewater. Rosie Night’s contraceptive candies.” She’d been able to smell the difference when she made water, the surety that it was working. Her body had stopped its cycle. “I have a good supply, this time.”

He slid into her, easily pressing her open as she sucked in a breath, her head rolling back as the thickness of his head pushed at her, dragging her along on a feeling of ecstatic pleasure.

“I missed this,” Collar groaned, edging forward, thrusting deeper, then bending down to kiss her ribs, then her forehooves when she reached for his face. “Stars, Cloudy, I love you so much.”

“Breathe in,” Cloudy hissed, wriggling and extending her wings, waving them briefly towards him, bringing the fragrance of her lust into a cloud around them. “Breathe in what I want, Collar.”

He did. She held his face gently as she watched the desire in his eyes turn into an smouldering fire. “Slow,” he whispered. “Slow and…” He breathed in again, and slowed his pace, stopping when he hilted inside her. His lips found hers, parted, and he nuzzled her cheek. “Loving. Stars, how did she do it, Cloudy? How did she capture that in a fragrance?”

She was about to answer when his hips pulled back, almost drawing out of her, then pressing in again, slow and achingly pleasurable, making her writhe with pleasure just as she had in her daydream. It was the dream, a prophecy of pleasure and love, coming true.

It didn’t matter right then. Not truly. What mattered was them, in this moment, joined in a slow lovemaking that set her heart fluttering, and cold tingles up her legs.

She shook her head slowly and pulled Collar closer, kissing him quickly and briefly as he came to rest again inside her before laying back to look up at him, studying his face, a mask of concentration and bewilderment. “What is it?”

“I usually come by now when it feels this intense,” he said, his voice quavering, his cock twitching inside her, his scrotum dancing against her dock. “Stars, I can feel so much more of you, Cloudy. Heat and wet, the ripple of—”

Cloudy flexed her stomach and spread her legs wider, cutting off his words and sending him into a quick retreat and thrust, his forehooves on the bed straining. A moan escaped his lips, and a grunt.

“That?” Cloudy asked breathlessly.

“That,” Collar agreed, panting and leaning down to nip at the base of her throat. “Stars, mare, how can you do that?”

“I know my body, Collar. I know how to make myself feel better during sex. I know how to make you feel everything I want you to feel.” She felt her cheeks heat as she glanced away. “Though… it’s taken me a while to learn how for stallions. For a stallion. I like it slow, Collar. I like to feel your entire cock in me. I like how close it lets me feel to you.”

“I like to feel me inside you, too,” Collar whispered, dancing closer on his hind legs and settling no deeper, but settling more firmly atop her, and began a slow, shallow thrusting. Not the deep, long thrusts that usually characterized their lovemaking, but slow, heavy, sensuous strokes that pulled against her on every jog backwards, the flaring head of him pulsing in time with the twitching as his erection stiffened and loosened, a preview of coming.

Her breathing grew more erratic as the pace quickened minutely, and the motion of them on the bed stirred Longest Lust to greater heights, but fading as quickly as it spent itself on its one purpose. Heat built in her loins as she fought to keep her hind legs open, until the moment she couldn’t resist any longer and arched her back as she closed them about his waist, hooves extending into the air as his thrusting stoked it.

“Collar,” Cloudy moaned, her forehooves reaching for his cheeks, flushed with exertion and pleasure, his ears flat to his skull as he grunted with each new thrust deeper. “Stars, Collar!”

He pulled back, his hind hooves on the carpet shuffling, and lengthened the stroking, halfway pulling out and sliding back in an increasingly furious tempo, his breath coming wilder, and a grunt coming every time he hilted himself in her and stayed for a few breaths, cock twitching, head flaring, but not coming. Not yet.

His eyes grew wilder as he tried harder, and his grunts turned into open-mouthed gasps as the first of his orgasms washed over him. All without final release.

Not yet.

Stars, it felt so good to have sex with him like that, to be rutted and feel every moment of it like a new orgasm without the ache and pain that such frequent coming would have given her. So intense.

Collar groaned with the last thrust, hilting himself, dragging himself more onto the bed, pushing her forward with his hips as the final wave of pleasure broke over him visibly, his ears suddenly erect, his eyes glazing over, mouth dropping open into a wordless, breathless exultation.

And he came. Thick spurts of semen jetting into her and around his cock as they filled her with more heat, then a thin streamer coming out to tickle her dock and spill over to the bedding.

Her own pleasurable end came with the same rush, the heat and fullness she’d been wanting again, with the clarity of Longest Lust making every pulse of his ejaculate felt, every streamer of it filling her with a want for more.

It was quieter, more akin to a tidal wave than an explosion, rising in her with the numbing pleasure that sank from her upraised hooves into her legs, leaving behind bliss incarnate, and a weakness that left her panting on the bed, her eyes closed as the wave swept through her, clearing away everything but the bonding of her and her lover.

And all too short. It was always too short with scents. But so intense.

“Stars,” Collar panted moments later, his length softening and withdrawing from her slowly. “I can see why you missed it so much.”

“And I wanted to share it with you, my love, my lovely stallion.” Cloudy pulled herself more onto the bed, more onto the towel that had been her original target before ardor and passion had taken over, and got her hindquarters situated before too much of their lovemaking made it onto their bedding. “It’s… a part of me. I want it to be a part of us, too.”

Collar glanced down between his forelegs at his cock, still dangling and dripping with their combined mess. “Can… can we talk after we clean up? It’s very cold feeling right now.”

Cloudy laughed and nodded. “Stars, yes. I made sure our linen pantry was stocked with towels before we left this morning. And there should be a warm basin in the bathroom if Rosemary and—” Cloudy caught herself.

“I do know who was on her door guard, you know,” Collar said softly, but turned away and pulled out three towels and checked the bathroom. “And yes, Platinum did leave a basin in here. It looks like there’s a ruby chip enchanted for heat in it.”

“Rosewater’s addition. She’s good with enchantments on gems.”

“She is. Surprisingly good, I’d say, considering she doesn’t seem to have a talent for it.” Collar brought three more hoof towels with him, dangling out of the basin and soaking slowly. “She… has surprising depths.”

Cloudy couldn’t resist flicking her tail and raising her eyebrow.

Collar rolled his eyes, but she didn’t miss the heating of his cheeks either, or the way his eyes flicked briefly to the south-facing window, curtained and tied. “Yes, yes. She’s a big, tall, strong pony.”

“She’s a big, tall pony just your size.”

Rather than return with a repartee as she’d expected, he offered her one of the half-sopping hoof towels and set about cleaning himself with another. “I… talked about her and Primrazzle Dazzle. The stallion in Merrie she’s been spending time with. I asked her not to hold herself back because of her hope for me. Her love for me.”

Almost, Cloudy thanked him for being so open. It was the Merrie way, and he’d responded to her tonight like a Merrie-born stallion, and seemed to be growing into, accepting more than just the surface Merrier customs like cushions on the floor instead of chairs.

“It was hard for you to do that, wasn’t it?”

Collar nodded, his expression a neutral mask for only a few breaths as he finished cleaning his shaft and set the cloth back in the basin. “I don’t like it, Cloudy. I don’t like thinking that she might think I was pushing her away towards him. That I was dismissing her feelings for me. I want to love her, Cloudy. Stars, I want to be open about it. But…”

Understanding dawned as she watched him, his eyes flicking from the basin and the faint glow coming from the jewel chip in the bottom to the bed where red petal dust, and the fading scent of Longest Lust, speckled everything.

“But you don’t want her to lose her heritage, either, or what makes her happy. Even if what makes her happy is sometimes having sex with another stallion.”

Collar winced. “Yes. Stars, it’s so frustrating being torn between what I was taught growing up, that I would need to have one mate, and only one mate, and my father and mother telling me it was okay for other ponies across the river to have more than one. When I was a teenager, that seemed so unfair, and in private, I told my dad.”

“And he told you it was.”

“Yes. But he also told me… that I might have to make a choice some day. Between following what I was being taught by our society, or following what he and my mother had taught me was also right and fair and equally valid.” Collar did look to the window openly this time, and strode to it, casting aside the drapes to look out at the scattered moon, fire, and fey light spreading across the landscape, with only a small break before it started again on the other side of the river.

Cloudy joined him, leaning against him and watching the city as it wound down the day’s business. “We can do it, Collar. We can change the way Damme looks at her sister city. We can get our ponies here to accept that my way—”

“Stars, Cloudy, you might as well just call it our way.” Collar chuckled and nuzzled her cheek. “Respect for your tradition turned into acceptance of it, and that turned into following it. I need to tell her, Cloudy. I want to tell her tomorrow when she comes to negotiate, but I don’t know if it would be the right time. Stars, I want it to be all night. I want to talk to her about what to do, too, and I… I need time. I need time to…”

His eyes in the reflection in the window darted from near to far, seeking to the west, to the dark lump that rose above the river.

“Accept it. I need time to accept the reality, Cloudy. With her.”

“Then plan your next date tomorrow. It’s your turn, so you can choose where to go. Where is special to her? Where can you take her, Collar, that she would know as soon as she got there, that you had accepted her courtship?”

Collar lay awake late into the night. He and Cloudy had spent an hour or more, he wasn’t sure how long exactly, where he could set their date, how he could set it up for them.

In the end, they hadn’t made a decision… Collar’s mind poked and prodded at the decision, trying to turn it this way and that. It was a place that she would know was special. But will she know it’s my choice? There were a dozen other places he could think of that were important to him, but none of them he could take her to. Places in the city, in public. Places that meant love to him, that were peaceful to him or held special meaning.

But there were places, too, that were important to her. He’d learned of some of them in talking with her, and some when talking with Rosemary.

There was an idea.

He glanced to the side, where Cloudy was laying, her ears limp, breathing slow.

Quietly, he whispered, “I’ll be back soon.”

“Talk to her,” Cloudy murmured, waking and stretching. Faking then, waiting for him to either sleep or decide. “Rosemary will know.”

“You knew?”

“I knew you wouldn’t stop trying to make a decision. You want someplace special to her.” Cloudy rolled over, reaching out with one hoof to brush his chest. “I love you.”

He brought her hoof up to his lips and kissed it lightly. “I love you, too. I’ll be back soon.”

With that, he slipped out of their room and closed the door behind him… and stopped. What am I doing? There were still guards roaming the halls, ponies that did their best to keep their tongues from wagging, but ale and mead had a way of moving the most immobile and modest of tongues.

Visiting Rosemary on the same night that he’d very publicly planned on making love to Cloudy… was not a good look.

“Rut it.” They’d know soon enough anyway, and… his heart told him that getting his confession to Rosewater was more important than rumors floating around. Cloudy wanted him to, even as his Dammer upbringing warred with his respect for her Merrier ways. He’d dealt with it for long enough, pushing down the Dammer voice was second-nature.

The halls were almost quiet, with only the muffled thumps of hooves on the floor below marking the passage of the night guard.

Down the balcony way, laying at her post with her head poked through the door, was Sunrise Primfeather, a shimmering field of magical silence surrounding her head and extending to her shoulders.

As he approached, he saw her obviously laugh, her head thrown back at something Rosemary said, and for a moment, he thought she would see him out of the corner of her eye, but she shook her head and leaned in again, her ears pricked and her tail swishing against the carpet in a clear sign of a happy pony.

She’s still in love with Rosemary, isn’t she?

Almost, he stopped himself and went back to Cloudy to let them have this private moment. But one thing stopped him. The station in front of Glory’s room, closer to his suite than Rosemary’s room, was manned by Poppy, and he eyed him, then glanced at the pony lounging with her head all the way in Rosemary’s room.

He cleared his throat. Loudy. Then rolled his eyes when it had no effect.

“They’ve been talking for two hours,” Poppy whispered as Collar padded up to him. “She only returned to her post when a maid bustled by with a sloshing basin of water.”

“Rosemary warned her.”

“Guessing so. That nose of hers is uncanny.”

“Rosewater’s is more impressive,” Collar said absently. The silence that came after his remark called the words back to his mind, and he winced. “She’s made a point of… of demonstrating it.”

“My lord,” Poppy said in a wry tone, and erected his own silence around them. “Do not forget that I am in love with her younger sister. She has not been idle in trying to get me to see the goodness in her, despite her reputation, and her acts. I know what it’s like to love a Rosethorn.”

Collar glanced at him, then back at Sunrise still leaned into the room. “I never said I was in love with her.”

“Of course, my lord,” Poppy said in a tone that said he believed it as far as he could throw a boulder. “I haven’t just heard the rumors, sir. I’ve seen the two of you together. She’s clearly in love with you.”

Collar nodded. “Can you keep secrets, Poppy?”

In answer, Poppy flattened his ears and glanced at the door behind him.

“Stupid question. But… this isn’t only my secret, Poppy.” He sat, glancing down the hallway again to make sure Sunrise was still distracted. “She’s in love with me. I know, because she’s told me.”

Poppy’s ears came back up. “You’ve been gone from the palace at odd times over the past several weeks, and nopony could account for it. Rumor says you’re scouting Merrie weaknesses.”

“In a way, they’re not wrong. I’ve been seeing her at nights. She called them dates. I didn’t.” Collar glanced down the hall again, an itch starting at the base of his spine like Cloudy was glaring at him to get on with it. “I… love her. She hides her heart because it’s been stomped on and gored so often, Poppy, but it’s still strong, still good, and Rosemary is at its core.”

For a long while, Poppy considered him, his left ear twitching spastically before it stilled, and he nodded, glancing down the hallway himself, then back towards Collar’s suite. “I thought it might be something like that. She’s let it out for you, then.”

“Some. She’s like a deerkin, Poppy. Skittish and wily about it. Easily spooked. But… she’s made an effort to be open. I want to see more of it, and I want to see her feel safe to bear it in the open.” Collar forced himself not to glance at the tapestry to his left, to the south. It was an effort. “You understand?”

“I do. Glory was a lot more brazen, but… she didn’t have the same familial turmoil. Her father still keeps in touch with her through letters, even though he left for Canterlot years ago. I understand he keeps in touch with both of his daughters.”

Collar’s brows rose. “Both?”

“Her and Silk. They’re of an age, almost, born three years apart. He loves them both dearly.” Poppy glanced at him, then back at the door behind him. “He couldn’t stay. Because of her, of course, and he begged them to follow him, but Roseate overrode him… and they stayed because they were more afraid of her than they loved him.”

“That’s… awful.” Every new thing he learned about how Roseate had dominated and controlled her family through fear and threats made his opinion of her drop even lower, and every time he thought his opinion had reached a new bottom, he found a new low.

“Glory regrets it now. Sometimes. She’d have been cut off from everything she knew, but she wouldn’t have had to live through all she has.” Poppy glanced back again, settled against the door, and sat. “And we wouldn’t have met. She doesn’t regret it long, just a ‘what might have been.’”

“There’s a lot of that happening lately,” Collar said with a sigh. “What might have been had I reached out to a grieving filly when I was not much more than a foal myself.”

“I suspect you’re finding out, sir.”

“I suspect so.” Collar patted Poppy lightly on the shoulder with a hoof. “If anypony asks—”

“You’re friends.”

“We are.”

Poppy dropped the silence and nodded to him quietly, not resuming his regulation pose as a guard, and a faint shiver of the door told him Glory had settled in against the other side. The most they could share while Poppy was on duty.

He wanted to tell him to go be with her, but the servants would notice the absence and whisper.

It was a good reminder that the ponies that looked to him for leadership had to make sacrifices for their lives and loves as well. He gave Poppy another pat on the shoulder, nodded, and started towards Rosemary’s room, expecting the mare to give Sunrise a warning.

She did not. Sunrise stayed leaned into Rosemary’s room, talking, smiling, and laughing until he stuck his head in to find Rosemary laying not a tail’s length away, well within kissing reach of Sunrise if they stretched.

Rosemary’s eyes tracked up to meet his, and she winked. “My lord.”

You little minx.

Sunrise squeaked and leapt to her hooves, almost crashing into Collar, but managing to avoid him by the barest margin, leaping back so her rear almost hit the railing. “M-m-my lord!”

“Calm, Sunrise,” Collar said steadily. “I didn’t mean to startle you at your post.” He glanced to Rosemary, looking at least a little chagrined by then. “But I thought of something and needed to confirm its validity before it left my mind.”

Rosemary’s eyebrows rose almost to her forelock as she glanced between him and Sunrise, still quiet, still behaving like her door was closed, he realized.

“Go keep Poppy company for a bit, Sunrise,” he said more loudly, glancing down the hall at the stallion staring at him and barely holding in laughter. “I need to talk to Rosemary.”

Sunrise swallowed and glanced at Rosemary, then at Collar, the panic in her eyes fading somewhat.

To assuage her further, Collar dampened the sound around the three of them. “I encouraged you to reconnect with her when I assigned you to this rotation, Sunrise. I’m glad to see that you’re doing so. It’s healthy for both of you.”

Sunrise didn’t look so certain, but she nodded. “Yes, my lord.”

When she’d left to join Poppy, Collar shrunk the sound dampening aura and followed Rosemary into her room, surprised to see that she’d rearranged things. The bed was now farther from the windows, almost blocking the bathing room door, but leaving a large open space piled high with pillows in front of the fireplace. A small fire was going, the spark grill in place, and a few books scattered around the nest.

It was, he realized after a moment, more akin to a Merrier’s preferred mode of sleeping.

“Is the bed not big enough to recreate what you have at home?”

“The footboard and headboard aren’t tall enough,” Rosemary said with a sniff. “The pillows fall off if I try to push it flush against the wall. This was the best compromise I could get.” She separated two pillows and settled them down in the shrunken ‘sitting room’ area. “You came here for a reason, my lord. So late, and on your date night with Cloudy.”

“Thank you,” he said. “For tonight. I know… by law, I should report it. But I won’t. Please don’t worry about that. You let me see what it was like making love with Cloudy the way she wanted, and let her relive a part of her past I’m sure she thought she’d never get to experience again.”

Some of the stiffness bled out of her, and she sagged minutely before nodding. “I… was worried. I knew it was a risk. But she’s my lover, too, and Rosewater’s. Both of us want her to be happy in all of her relationships.” When she adjusted her position on her pillow, she seemed much more relaxed. “But I doubt you came here to tell me that.”

“No… but your directness…” Collar waved a hoof. “It spoke to your fears. I came… because I’m in love with your mother, Rosemary. Or falling in love. Or could fall in love. I’m not sure where I am, to be honest, but I’ve stepped past ‘friends’ and I don’t know where this will take me, or how it will play out.” A steadying breath to calm his nerves, and he went on. “I want to make… confession? Is that the right word? Right with her.”

“I mean, you could just—”

“No.” Collar shook his head. “I want her to know before I say the words, Rosemary. I want the place I tell her be her first hint. I want when I tell her to be as easy, as gentle, as I can. For me, too. I don’t want her to think I’m leading her on.”

The last thing he’d expected was for Rosemary to sniffle and glance away, tears shining in her eyes. Though she recovered herself, her voice was raw. “I’ve wanted to hear you say that for a long time, Collar. She deserves a love that’s gentle and sure. Thank you for wanting it for her, too.”

“And…” Collar nodded, settling back. “Yes. Do you know anyplace that would tell her that I want to tell her?”

Rosemary rocked back, raising her gaze to the ceiling and exposing her throat and all of her mark to him. It was so comparatively fainter on her than it was on Rosewater, but it was still almost the same crimson of fresh blood. She had some of her mother’s look in her, but that was likely from Carnation being Roseate’s sister than anything else.

She lacked the Canterlotian look, and a glance at her hooves told him she lacked the mountain unicorn heritage. Still rather feminine in size and shape, but smooth all around.

“I think I know a place,” she said at last. “It’s someplace she, Carnation, and I would go for retreat from the vagaries of city life for a while when I was younger. A camping trip, Carnation called it, and we took tents and all the supplies we would need for a few days to a place east of the city. It’s hard to find, but there’s a trail used by not much more than deerkin, rabbits, and foxes. It goes south between two hills following the upstream flow of a creek to a clearing. We’d spend days there, Rosewater and Carnation teaching me about all the plants that grew nearby, letting me frolick in the stream while they worked on… whatever it was they worked on when I was playing.”

“That sounds…” Collar almost said ‘complicated,’ but he’d have no issues with infiltrating the countryside, even if he dragged a cart with him to the edge of the woods and spent a few days making it nice by himself. “Is it going to be okay this close to winter?”

“It should be. Sunny was just telling me that the next few days look like a warm front is pushing up from the south. With rains, of course, but the camping spot doesn’t flood easily.” Rosemary cocked her head to the side and studied him. “It was one of the places where she could be herself in the open, and love me like a daughter with Carnation. It felt like we were a family there.”

“It sounds perfect,” Collar said. “And I have time before our next date to set up.”

“Be certain, Collar,” Rosemary said earnestly, reaching out to touch his foreleg. “If you take her there, you’re telling her you want her to be a part of your family. Not just that you love her. I can think of another place, if you want. It might take a little while, though. There’s a lot of places… but not many of them are easy for you to get to.”

“Because they’re in Merrie,” he surmised, not even needing her small nod to know it was the truth. Am I that certain? “You’re sure it’ll be the next best thing to a marriage proposal to her?”

Rosemary blinked, then nodded. “Well, a ‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you’ proposal at least. There are more than marriages in Merrie, Collar. Carnation and Rosewater never married, nor could they, but they were as close to partners as two ponies could get without.”

“Can you draw me a map?”

“I will.” Rosemary hesitated, then nodded and pulled out her journal and a quill. “I’m going to lend this to you, Collar. Please bring it back undamaged.”

“On my love for your mother.”

Author's Note

What it's like to make love to a Merrier with full access to scents and magics that are a part of her heritage.

What it's like to realize, in the middle of the night, that you love the mare who helped coordinate one of the best dates you've ever had.

Realizing that some places are sacred to ponies, and have deeper meanings than an emotional place would normally have.

One more chapter before the Commoner's Gala begins.