"You're doing fine, miss Swan, we're almost at the cabin again." the brunette said with a laugh as Emma cringed. The white mare she was riding went too fast for what she would have wanted the animal to go. She glanced at the brunette, happy to see her so relaxed— so not the Evil Queen she had heard so much about. Regina still hated her, she knew that. But it seemed that as they rode she did not remember that. After an hour they reached the rose bushes and the brunette skillfully dismounted her horse, quickly tying it to a wooden post in the small barn of the cabin. "You're the best." the woman said, caressing his mane. Emma sighed, it was amazing how she did not look like the same woman she had met days before.
"You really love him, don't you?" Emma spoke as she tried to dismount the white animal, falling to the floor butt first. Regina rolled her eyes and took the reigns, tying the horse to the same post and glancing at the blonde who stood up.
"Rocinante has always been my horse. Horses and their riders always share a connection. And if you are a queen and are given a horse when you are seven, you become very close to the horse." Regina explained as she caressed the animal.
"When you are riding you don't look as evil as people say."
"Excuse me?"
"You know, while you were on that horse. You looked more… happy."
"You know nothing about me, miss Swan."
"I know you're Henry's mother. And that you seem to actually love him, and maybe you've made some mistakes while raising him and now he's angry at you, but well— you raised him. You're more mother than him than I am."
"You're right, I am." Regina stated as she took off the saddles from the animals' backs and left them on the ground. Emma saw her hands shaking, and she knew she had hit a soft spot. "And you have no right to say anything about how I've raised him."
"Regina, I did not mean tha—"
"I don't care what you mean, miss Swan. You are only here because Henry asked me to save you from a horrid weekend with some creep in this town, not because I like you. He wanted us to talk, and I guess we'll have to. But I don't care what you do, if you want to leave I'll be happy to show you the way back. So do not talk about Henry as if you knew how it is to raise a child, because you know nothing."
And with that and a last hateful glance directed at the blonde Regina turned and walked back to the cabin, leaving a speechless, hurt Emma with tears in her eyes and her hand on the white horse's side. Well done, Emma. Now she hates you even more.