Alina!

The rain peters out. Far off, there is cricket-song. This is the part where, back at Summerveil, Rita would bashfully slink out and curl up with you by way of apology.

You are alone. She’s not coming back. She would have stayed with you even if Oberon had threatened her, you know. But she was defenseless against you.

***

Rita!

Here we find you, out in the depths of the woods, curled up as a girl and sobbing your eyes out.

Alina is going to hate you now. You told her the truth! Now she’s going to realize you’re only getting in her way. That she should go off with a big, pretty, useful princess and get married and never think about you again. Why would she? You’re a useless princess from a useless kingdom that she doesn’t care about. You should dig a hole and collapse it on top of yourself.

You are so deep in your misery that you almost don’t notice the Riders in time. But your ears perk up, and you clamp your hands over your mouth, and you watch as dark pegasi descend from the sky. Within moments, with military precision, the Riders are setting up tents and securing the perimeter.

And a familiar figure in frilly black and white is being forced to help at spearpoint.

You sob silently, helplessly, until you’re all cried out. And you lie there for a while, in the bushes, watching them force Jessamine to serve them dinner.

And underneath everything— underneath the despair, and the fear that Alina has outgrown you, and the feelings that you should just lie down and never get back up— there’s a hot, angry little courage thinking as hard as ever.

And you’ve faked being a Rider once before, after all. How hard could it be?