When Collar stepped into his mother’s Garden, he was greeted by stares, the tension of which pushed his coat to prickling. Rosewater sat next to Lace, apparently having been in the middle of a discussion of the flowering bush Rosewater had been prodding with a hoof. Dapper lounged behind them on a stone bench with ivy climbing up the legs, a book spread out under his hoof’s light touch.

Rosemary and Cloudy, most worryingly, had disappeared under a secondary silence bubble and continued discussing whatever it was they had been before he’d so rudely interrupted them by arriving. Cloudy, in between brief answers to Rosemary, watched Collar and bit her lip, her eyes soulful, worry plain in the set of her ears and the droop of her wings.

“What’s going on? Is this all about Wing?” Collar floated the pennant flag over to Rosewater.

“It’s… about Wing in a very circumspect means,” Rosewater said, her eyes uncertain as they darted from him to the door before she startled and glanced back to see Dapper winking, his tail just fluttering back to the ground.

Collar rolled his eyes and moved to meet Rosewater as she jerked to her hooves and took a hesitant step towards him, her eyes darting to Lace before she jerked her attention forward again. “I think,” he said as he met her, sitting and raising a hoof to brush her breast and the heart mark, delighting in the way her body shivered subtly, “we were interrupted.”

“We were. Lace?” Rosewater glanced back at Collar’s mother, her ears flattening. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Dear, I may as well get used to the sight,” Lace said in a low voice, her cheeks heating. “I will see you kiss at your wedding, after all.”

Collar didn’t let her decide to save his mother’s sensibilities and cupped her cheeks with a spell, then leaned in to kiss her, lips parting only minutely, and matched by hers without a trace of tongue.

“You’ve been talking about our wedding?” he asked when they parted and crossed horns with her, or tried to, as she shied away from the direct contact and settled for resting forehead to forehead.

“A-among other things,” Rosewater said, her voice uncharacteristically subdued as her eyes flashed to Rosemary and Cloudy, still under their silence bubble, which vanished a moment later, with Rosemary pushing Cloudy out towards them.

“And that is my cue to leave,” Lace said, her cheeks heating before she glanced at Dapper. “And you as well, dear husband. This is between future spouses, and for them alone to decide.”

“Thank you, Lace,” Cloudy said, her voice uncharacteristically subdued, her ears still almost flattened to her skull. She waited only until the door closed before she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and hunched her shoulders. “I want Rosewater to be the first mother.”

Collar stared at her for long moments before he glanced at Rosewater. “I…” He hadn’t thought that the moment would be so soon. Talking about it with Rosewater during their ‘vacation’ had given it a far off feeling. Something that wouldn't happen until after the Gala at least. “Does this mean you want me to declare for her?”

Cloudy cocked her head, lips pursed. “Now?”

“I mean,” Collar tipped his head to Rosewater. “We talked about it.”

“She told us everything,” Rosemary said, rising for a moment to settle again next to Cloudy, leaning against her lover’s shoulder. “We—” She nudged Cloudy’s hoof with hers. “—think you need to declare for her soon. If you intend to. It will take time for her to show, and—”

“And it’s very, very strange to hear her daughter talk about her mother getting pregnant,” Collar said, struggling not to wheeze out a nervous laugh.

“Then let me,” Rosewater said softly, rising and moving to sit next to the other two mares, all three sets of eyes fixing him with looks of varying intensity. “It will take time for me to show, Collar. I can only hope it’s long enough that we’ll be able to push the changes to the law through. I’m afraid that my own city may know before I start to show, but there are scents I can wear to disguise my pregnancy. For a time at least. A mother’s body goes through changes to scent that are hard to keep from the nose of a talented scent mage.”

Collar stared at her, his eyes flicking to her belly, still toned and flat, her coat starting to thicken with the coming winter chill, but he could still make out the pink, pert nipples of her teats under the growing white.

“Those will be one of the last changes,” Rosewater said with a perling laugh, raising a leg to look where his eyes were directed. “I promise you, I won’t be growing my teats until two or three months before I’m due.”

His eyes snapped back to her face, darted across the varyingly amused looks of his future wives, and dragged a foreleg down his muzzle. “Stars help me. This is actually happening.”

“And it needn’t happen today,” Rosewater said, making Cloudy’s ears flatten to her skull. “It needn’t, Cloudy. Give him time to work through his feelings, however ready you are to leap.”

“Hate waiting,” Cloudy grunted. “I’d rather know that she’ll be able to guide me, Collar. Being a mother is… it scares me. The more I think about how much my mothers did for me, all the thousand and one things I took for granted. I… I need a guide.”

“You’ll be a wonderful mother,” Rosewater murmured, bending to lip her ear. “I promise. And of course I will be there for you, for every step of the way.”

“Stars…” Collar raised a hoof. He’d thought he’d have more than a day, but a glance at Rosewater told him she had expected that, too. “When?”

“Not today, love,” Rosewater said with a smile, and ignored Cloudy’s huff. “I don’t have a mare waiting for me to complete the requirement in Merrie, and it will take a little more time to bring the agreement together. Further, this should be witnessed by Firelight Spark. I want this sealed, Collar. I want no doubt who the father of my firstborn is.”

Rosemary was already nodding. “Roseate will fight it regardless.”

“Of course she rutting will,” Cloudy grunted.

“Of course she will,” Collar said with a sigh. “I need to know what I need to do. You need to be escorted by a mare at all times, and not alone with any stallion without a mare’s presence until you’re able to… uh…”

“Know that I’m pregnant, and be able to prove it to a magistrate. Or an official of higher authority. Such as Firelight Spark.” Rosewater’s ears flicked. “This all hinges on being official, Collar. We need to plan this, even as much as Cloudy would like to rush out and get him now, there are things we need to do to make sure it doesn’t look like what it is.”

“Like we’re planning what Roseate will consider a coup,” Collar said with a nod. “Or that it looks like, so soon after Wing raised his concerns, that we’re trying to go around him to Celestia and knock him and a significant portion of our nobility out of the decision to culminate the treaty.”

Cloudy snorted. “He’s an ass.”

“An ass with influence.”

“Doesn’t change the facts, Collar.”

Rosewater chuckled and leaned against her future wife. “We’ll get there, love. I promise.”

“We will,” Collar said, and rose to give each of them a kiss. “But… I need to visit with Seed and Petal soon. Do you want me to tell them anything?”

Rosewater considered for a moment, then shook her head. “No. They deserve to hear it from my lips, Collar. They’ve been in the dark for too long, but they still accept that some of the things that I do are necessary, and even accept that I think they’re necessarily secret.” She took a breath and went on. “And I need to tell them. Just as I promised to tell you, Collar, Cloudy, Rosemary. All of you. You need to know… you deserve to know…”

“We need to know,” Cloudy said softly. “To help you, ‘Water.”

“And I promised.”

“If you’re ready,” Rosemary said softly.

“Stars, I don’t think I’ll ever be ready,” Rosewater said, her ears still flat, her tail lashing. For long moments, she sat still, her eyes darting, slowly bringing herself under control. “Which is why I need to tell you, because I’ll never be ready to tell anyone.”

Collar leaned close and nuzzled her cheek. “Go to Lace. I promise this meeting won’t take long. Give yourself a little time to prepare, Rosewater.”

Rosemary paced back and forth in Lace’s office, her tail lashing between checking on Rosewater, until her mother asked her to plant her butt and sit.

“You don’t have to do this today.”

“I do. If I push this off, love, I won’t be able to face it as I should have. I know I need to share, Rosemary.”

“But today? We’ve just agreed you’re to be the first mother. That’s a happy day!” Rosemary lashed her tail and did not sit, her ears flattening. “We should be celebrating.”

Rosewater’s pained look made her want to take the words back. “I know. I know, Rosemary. I wish I could shout it to both cities and be open with Collar’s, our, choice. But we can’t. And this,” she said, gesturing at herself, “is something that I need to face. I can’t go into being a mother with… with my father’s death eating away at me.”

“What—”

“I can’t say it more than once. I’m not strong enough to face what…” Rosewater closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m not strong enough, Rosemary. I can’t tell you until Collar is here. I promised him I would tell him. And you deserve to know why I’ve been so broken, Rosemary.”

“You’re not broken!” Rosemary snapped, her tail lashing harder, threatening her tumbler on the edge of the desk, half-full of a brandy she’d not even touched yet. “You’re my mother, and you have been the best mother you can be.”

“It makes my heart glow to hear that, Rosemary.”

“There isn’t a but,” Rosemary insisted, sitting down in front of her mother and nipping at her neck. “That’s not a but.”

“It doesn’t change my view of myself, Rosemary, or that I’m carrying too much on my shoulders.”

“Your mother is right and wrong at once,” Lace said softly, swirling her own glass slowly. “She is broken in her own view of herself, but she has also been the best mother she could be, even with all the doubts and fears she’s carried throughout her life. The product of her and Carnation and all of your community sits with us and argues that she takes too much on herself.”

Rosewater stiffened, but she didn’t try and refute what was patently obvious to anyone who knew her true self for more than a couple days. Rosemary still stared at her and tried to convey the idea that she didn’t need to do this now.

“I still need to do this now,” Rosewater said in that softly stubborn voice she had that meant she wasn’t budging at all. It was the quiet insistence that she’d used when arguing against Carnation. Not shouting, not argumentative, simply stating how things were going to be.

I wish I knew how mother made her see reason. Carnation had a knack for it. Rosewater would declare something, then they would talk quietly for a little while, and Rosewater would compromise.

“I’m serious, Rosemary,” Rosewater said, as if she could read her thoughts. “I need to do this. I need to keep my promise and… and I need help. I need all of you to help me see the right way to do things. And you need to know why this… this—” Rosewater swept a hoof through the air and held it to her breast, the touch of it against her breast a sign she was taking her mind off something. “—this scares me so much.”

“I rather agree with her,” Cloudy said, unexpectedly taking Rosewater’s side. “I want to see her get past the darkness in her, Rosemary. You might not be able to see it so clearly—”

“I can see it plenty fine!” Rosemary shot back. “I want her to be free of it, but after facing Wing, and the stars only know what Roseate said to her before she and Collar had their date, she doesn’t need the extra stress!”

Lace sighed. “Once again, you both make good arguments, but it is ultimately your mother’s choice, Rosemary. It is better today, now, than when preparations pick up next week for the gala. I’m afraid we will have to cut back on our visitations, as the final preparations come together and our attentions are pulled thinner and thinner, and interruptions grow more and more frequent.”

Rosewater bit her lip and nodded. “I still need to come.”

“Of course you do, and I will push Collar to be there for you every day. Dapper and I will take up more of the slack that would have been his as we move towards retirement.” Lace gave Rosewater a sly, sideways look. “Already, I’ve taken some of the things that would have gone to him off his plate so you and he could spend more time talking, and you as well Rosemary.”

Rosewater only nodded.

“But you do so much already,” Rosemary said, her ears dipping. “Is… there anything I can do? Choice of drinks, decorations? I promise I’ll be as Dammish as I can in my choices.”

Dapper laughed softly and nudged his wife before she rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Aw, come on, Lace. I could help her. Then—”

“Dapper, you’re already in charge of refreshments in the ballroom.”

“And you’ve given me such a short—” He cut off as the door opened and a tired-looking Collar strode in, magic massaging his temples before he closed the door, nodded to her, Rosewater, and Cloudy before plopping down on a pillow.

“Stars. They’re so earnest. I wanted to tell them so much more than I could.”

“Seed is a good pony,” Rosewater said softly. “He’s kept us secret even though he knows almost everything, or has guessed.”

“He didn’t even give me a hint that he knew.”

“He wouldn’t,” Rosemary said, hesitating, then rising and moving to sit next to him, leaning against his side. “He can keep secrets, and so can Petal, Collar. You can trust them.”

Rosewater nodded more slowly and glanced at Cloudy, then stood and moved to sit on his other side. “I… want to tell them next. I need to. I need to tell them what happened, and what’s happening, Collar. They need to know what we’re doing, and to declare for me, I need to tell them why, and they need to be witnesses.”

Before Rosemary could push the narrative further and get Rosewater away from her determination to tell everyone, to try and convince her that waiting even a week would be enough, Rosewater stepped away from her.

“The thing I have to tell you,” Rosewater said softly, glancing at Rosemary, as if she knew what she’d been trying to do, “is something you deserve to know. I have kept it from you because I have been afraid of what I did, and so fear became the only thing I ever used my talent for. But… the first thing I ever used my talent to accomplish was an act of love and fear combined.”

The bottom of Rosemary’s stomach fell away into a freefall. This wasn't the direction she’d expected her mother’s story to take and, as Rosewater told the story of her father’s final night haltingly and broken up by silence as she struggled to contain her emotions and continue with the tale, she realized many things.

This was a foundational moment for her mother. This one night, the gaining of her talent in a moment of love and horror and grief had defined her for most of her life. She had been able to sense her father’s love for her on a fundamental level that nopony else she knew of, or had ever known, could ever feel.

A talent that she had only ever used afterwards to defend her family.

“Why?” Rosemary’s mouth blurted before she could reign in the question or the impulse to ask it. But once the question was out, she couldn’t very well take it back. “Why not share your gift, mother?”

For long moments, the room was silent, and Rosemary was about to take back the question, or try to, when Rosewater nodded.

“I… have asked myself, and wrestled with it, Rosemary. But understand that what you smell in my perfumes is… bland. It’s not the same level of raw feeling, and I fear that my own intervention sped my father—”

“Rubbish,” Lace said, breaking in and recovering from some of her own shock. “That’s rubbish, Rosewater. Your intervention gave a dying stallion peace and comfort in the last moments of his life. That it was his own daughter is the only tragedy here.”

Dapper, his eyes wide and horrified throughout most of the retelling, closed them and nodded. “It would be my greatest wish to let my son know, every day, that I love him more than I can ever convey with words, Rosewater. You gave your father peace in his last, terrifying moments, and let him know he wasn’t alone. He rests easier, I’m sure, knowing that he gave you the greatest gift a parent can give: love.”

“When you needed it most,” Lace said, her voice softening to that of a grieving parent. “His love was there, Rosewater. I can see it in what you do. Your choices afterwards, choosing love over…”

“Over Roseate,” Rosemary said when Lace hesitated. “You chose us. Carnation, and me.”

“I can imagine Roseate’s reaction,” Cloudy said, her ears flat to her skull.

“You really can’t,” Rosewater said, her voice edging on bitter laughter. “Carnation found me first after he… he passed. I wasn’t coherent, I didn’t know what I’d done, and I didn’t even know I’d gotten my cutie mark. All I knew was that he was gone. She held me all night, made sure I never felt alone, and thought that my babbling was… I don’t know.”

Rosemary thought she did. Carnation had always been a compassionate mare, warm where Rosewater could sometimes be, not cold, but uncertain and hesitant, as if she’d needed help understanding what she was supposed to do for a daughter. When she was younger, at least. As she grew older and Rosewater and Carnation’s lives grew ever more intertwined, they had become more like each other in the best ways.

“The next day, Roseate ate breakfast, listened to the news of my father’s death, and had an aide schedule the funeral. To me, when I ran to her and sobbed out my pain… she said ‘Grow up. You have a cutie mark now, and you need to act like an adult.’”

Collar, quiet up to that point, burst out, “You were six!”

Rosemary felt the same, but the ache in her heart kept her from saying anything. When she was six…

“You made sure I knew you loved me,” Rosemary said quietly, stilling the rumblings from the others in the room. “When I was six, you were already as much my mother as Carnation, though neither of you knew it. You have always been there for me, mother. You’ve never told me I needed to grow up, even when I might have needed to hear it.” Her eyes stung as she met her mother’s pink and gold eyes. “You never made me feel unwelcome, even when I was a pest, even when I knew I was being a pest.”

“We tried our best to make sure you never felt like your mothers didn’t love you,” Rosewater replied, her voice tight. “She knew about Roseate dismissing my grief, Rosemary. She was there. They fought. Roseline broke them up. Two days later, I was in the Rosefire estate with Carnation as my legal guardian. It was to prevent another Rosewine schism between sisters. Taking me away from my mother was the one condition she wanted.”

“I never knew,” Rosemary said softly. How am I supposed to react to this? The story her mother had woven had gone from Rosewater struggling to get to the next word to this. Cool and collected. Calm.

Hiding what she was feeling.

“You weren’t meant to. It was portrayed as a family squabble, and I’m sure your own records of the attempt are similarly distorted. Roseline didn’t want to give you an opening to distort, Lace, but she didn’t want the schism to grow. I only found out the details after Carnation was taken and her journals became mine.”

“I would never have moved on Merrie,” Lace said, rubbing at her cheeks. “And, stars, that’s not what’s important, Rosewater. Not right now. Stars, mare…”

“Mother,” Rosemary said softly, leaving her side and wincing when the mask cracked a little until she turned around. “Don’t hide behind the diplomatics. Don’t cover this up again. Don’t push this back where you push everything that hurts you. Your father died, Rosewater. And you were there to feel his last moment. Stars, have you ever let anyone in?”

The cracks started to show again even as Cloudy and Collar gaped at her, even as tears ran down her own cheeks. It hurt to tell her. It hurt to pry open the hidden places her mother hid and bring her into the open.

“Let us in, mother. Please.” Rosemary edged forward, pressing a hoof to her mother’s breast, to the side of her heart mark so she couldn’t even escape into the sensation. “Don’t hide from us.”

“We love you,” Collar said softly, taking Rosemary’s place at Rosewater’s side and pressed his nose to her cheek. “Let it out, Rosewater. Please. It’s okay to let it out.”

Rosemary felt a touch of admiration swelling up in her. He’d seen through her facade, too, seen her trying to escape into formality and facts. “Listen to him. Listen to me. Please.”

“It’s hard…” Rosewater’s voice strained. “It’s so hard.”

Cloudy leaned against her other side. “Let go.”

The first sob tore free of Rosewater’s throat, straining still against her restraint, her teeth gritted, eyes tight closed. The second came more easily, raw and pained, and Rosemary leaned into her breast, forelegs around her neck. “Hold me, mother. I love you.”

She did, and she cried.

“You wanted to see me before I went home?” Rosewater asked, settling into place in front of Firelight’s desk. The pennant was already gone, stowed back in the cabinet that held them waiting for her next visit. “Have I made a mistake?”

“No. Far from it. Princess Celestia has been very pleased that you’ve made progress in reaching out to the other side of the river.” Firelight said, his smile growing as he produced a letter with the Sun seal on it. It was unaddressed, unadorned other than that. “I’m afraid the original got water-logged, and I had to re-transcribe it, but that is the price one pays for sending letters secretly.”

Rosewater saw the lie for what it was, and his expectance that she would accept the lie for exactly that. One truth, however, was that the letter was meant to be secret. “Who is it from?”

“That, you’ll need to find out. And, I’m afraid, the letter can never leave this office. You are welcome to come by at any time to read it at your leisure.” Firelight set a letter opener on the desk and stood. “I’ll be waiting outside, Rosewater.”

When he was gone, she broke the wax seal and pulled out two sheets of fine paper, far finer than most of that available in either Merrie or Damme, and started to read, her heart hammering as the familiar opening of every note Carnation had ever left for her caught her eye.

Rosie Water,

I don’t know how even to start this letter. I had no time to prepare my thoughts, to think of what to tell you that won’t be kept from you when the Princess reads my letter and asks me to make edits.

I am safe. Know that, my dearest love. I received your letter, and my heart… my heart broke to know what you have been through alone, but I thank you so much for keeping our daughter safe. You must already know this by now, but you can trust Lady Lace to be a good and kind mare, and her husband Dapper has been one of my greatest confidants when I needed to talk to someone about things I couldn’t share with anyone else. Not even you.

You must know, now, why I was exiled. It wasn’t for petty revenge, as I’m sure she let you believe, hoping to get you to act out in ways I can only imagine you did not. I was Lace’s spy, Rosewater. Her inside source of information, and I knew when I was caught the moment it happened. I tried, in those last days waiting for my sister to let the sword drop, to give both of you as much love as I could.

I am so sorry that I could not be there these past six years to see you grow up into the fine mare I know you could become. Her Highness does not tell me much, but your letter, stars, your letter helped me so much. Simply to know that you are safe, that Rosemary is safe, even if she is in Lace’s custody. In truth, she is safer there than in Merrie.

Rosewater blinked rapidly, clearing the tears from her eyes. Even if it wasn’t in Carnation’s hoof, it was clear enough that she had written it. It lacked the little ticks and meanderings that Carnation usually left in her notes, indicating it had been either spoken or, as Firelight had said, re-transcribed from a damaged original.

She turned the page over, finding the back blank, and moved to the next page.

I heard about your duel with Roseate. I am… appalled. Both that she would try to take the guardianship from you, and that you fought so ferociously. You were always a gentle mare, Rosewater, even if you had trouble expressing yourself. But you were our protector, too, weren’t you? And here, I thought I was protecting you.

I am saddened that you had to use your talent in such a way, but I understand the fear that drove you to it. I cannot blame you, and I am grateful that you were able to keep our daughter safe despite Roseate’s best attempt to stop you. To us, you will never be the Rose Terror. To us, you will always be the heart of our home, the strength of our bond and our love.

Sometimes, I wish we were not related, my beloved Rosewater. I wish I could make you the offer that should have come with raising a child together. I should have asked you to marry me, but even now I am at a loss of how to describe, how to even think, of our relationship. Wives? Partners? Co-parents? Only one of the three feels right, but carries with it the stigma that kept us apart.

I hope that you can find love, Rosewater. I hope that my sister does not try to sabotage it, as she did my hopes that you would find the colt across the river intriguing enough to get to know better. I do not know if you have gotten to know him, but he is as fine a pony as his mother, and has the same dedication to seeing peace. If you get the chance, please… try to get to know him.

And do not worry for my heart, dearest love. I have friends aplenty here, and live with a couple that has accepted me as a third in their marriage, albeit informally. We have two children together, a colt and a filly. The colt is mine, and I hope, some day, to introduce you to your nephew, Shining Rose, and his sister, Star Shine.

I will always love you, my beloved Rosie Water, and I hope your heart’s room is full.

You will always have a place in mine.

Your not-quite-wife,

Carnation Rosethorn

Rosewater closed her eyes, set the papers on the desk, and wept.

Far away, Princess Celestia glanced at the amber jewel in her private study, the one that linked her office to Firelight’s. It pulsed in time with sounds from that distant place, nearly five hundred miles to the north. It was tempting, as always, to listen in to the comings and goings of that place, and Firelight’s grumblings and meetings, but doing so now would not be a good idea.

“Your highness?” Carnation Rosethorn sat across from her at the desk, a pile of folios labeled with prior years of tax collection from the pseudo-provinces of Merrie and Damme. “Should we wrap this up another time?”

“No, Carnation. This is the time I have allotted to reviewing the years’ income. Please, continue with this year’s yields.”

“Of course, Highness,” she said, her eyes flicking to the amber jewel, still flashing and winking with the unknown sounds. Other jewels in the room had the same purpose, but it was that one that Princess Celestia was expecting an update from shortly. “Perfume, perfumed articles, and wine exports from Merrie has increased this year, all on the same scale and all in the last few months.”

“Tourist season is over, yes?”

“It is,” Carnation said with a brief dip of her head. “But this is over even last year’s post-season rise. I believe it indicates an easier time accessing the docks in Damme for perfumers. Tariffs at the border checkpoints are also up.”

“Truly? That’s unexpected.”

“The ledgers sent via courier indicate they are in sales of perfumed or scented shampoos and soaps, and an increase in candies and other confectionery.” Carnation tapped one of the summary lines. “The very latest, delivered only yesterday, indicate a spike that I’m not sure will be maintained. But it was also the date for the Commoner’s Gala. Or so I’m told.”

“So you’re told?” Celestia asked. “I don’t recall mandating that the common pony engage in the same peacemaking that I did for the nobility.”

“Hints from travelers and merchants, and the odd spike four times a year. If it was started, I believe I know who would be behind it. Should Budding Rose ever make it this far inland on her trade delegations, you should ask her.”

Firelight, are you hiding things from me? She would have to look into it. True, he sent her every Treaty-sanctioned event that he signed off on, but sometimes their wording was not the clearest.

She trusted him, but as many surprises as she’d sprung on him, she wouldn’t put it past him to try and pull one over on her.

“There wasn’t a Commoner’s Gala when you were there?”

“Nay. There was an informal gathering of the commoners in Merrie at the Garden of Love, but it wasn’t ever something that was cross-city.”

“Are you satisfied the numbers are accurate, despite the increase?”

If she was discomfited by the sudden change in direction of the conversation, Carnation didn’t show it. “I am.” She started to gather her things, this being their traditional ending. “Thank you for your trust, your highness.”

“You do good work, my dear. I trust the numbers are accurate, and I have more that I must take care of today.”

“And… my letter?”

“I have been assured that it will arrive. You understand, however, that you cannot speak of any of this to anypony outside these chambers?”

“Y-yes, your highness. I… I wish I could see her. Know she’s doing well. Hold her.”

“If your…” Celestia rolled a hoof, looking for the right term. She knew, from reading the letter aloud, what Carnation wished for. But to let her know would give away just how badly Celestia had twisted the Treaty. “Partner? If she’s not doing well, Firelight would tell me.”

“I wish she were my wife, your highness. I wish I could call her that and not be seen as tainted. I wish we were not related, so that I could.”

“If you were not,” Celestia said softly, “would you have known her as you do?”

“No.” The single word came out in a ragged gasp. “No. And that is the cruelest part of my wish.”

“It is not cruel to wish to love somepony.” Briefly, Celestia cast her mind back to when she had been young, when she and her sister had ruled together, night and day. She had never partaken of the practice, but she had seen many tribes ruled by sister-wives and brother-husbands, their children coming about by outside pairings. Rare was the sister-brother pairing, and always the lines failed before three generations if such a thing happened. “In ancient times, it was not so odd to have sister-wives. Unable to have children, but bound by blood and love. Often dying together, bringing down dynasties in blood and ruin.”

“Times change, your highness. And the end of dynasties is the reason why Merrie bans relationships between relatives closer than three steps. And why Merrie requires the succession be secured before heirship is confirmed.”

“I understand, and I am saying that I understand the impulse, Carnation. If you wish to be known as her wife in my hearing only, then I will try to think of her as such.”

“No.” Carnation shook her head, though her eyes shone with desire. “No, your highness. It would be cruel to my heart, and unfair to hers. In many ways, she is as much my daughter as Rosemary, but in so many others, she is not, and she is also Rosemary’s mother. That, I hold beyond doubt.”

Celestia glanced at the clock on the wall, a glowing marker telling the time before her next meeting, magically grafted from her seneschal's logbook. With a spell, she shifted the mark ahead by a quarter of an hour. Ledgermane could wait to tell her that the treasury was essentially unchanged.

“Tell me more about her. If it would not be too difficult for you.”

“Your highness?” Carnation glanced at the clock, her brow furrowed. “I would be happy to, but…”

“I have time before my next meeting, and I would hear of her from one who loves her dearly.”

Outside the chamber, Ravenwing sighed as one of the times on her ledger shifted, followed shortly after by the rest as the times updated themselves in the enspelled book.

Author's Note

Things are going to move a little faster after this as the Gala actually ramps up and the players move into place.