Snow stood on the balcony watching the horse trails below her, "When I was a girl I used to stand here and watch her riding you know. She was much better than I was, more confident, and I would imagine that I was her. I must have spent so much time in the stables that my tutors started to look for me there when I skipped lessons. For my fifteenth birthday my father bought me the finest horse in the realm. The pride of the Sultan of Agrabah." Snow looked over her shoulder and smiled at her confused friend. "I became the best rider in the kingdom. Well... not really. Regina really was much better. But people called me the best rider in the kingdom. I loved that horse... and one day he was down in the stables. No one knew what was wrong with him. He wasn't dead or sick... just ... sleeping."

She shook her head. "I think that's when I first really knew she hated me."

Red raised her eyebrows, "Your stepmother killed your horse? Because you were a better rider?"

Snow shook her head, "No... she cursed my horse because I was being praised for something I didn't earn. It was a lesson... a ... cruel and horrible lesson. But a lesson."

"Snow, you can't possibly be thinking of telling her."

"No." Snow responded quickly. "It would cost those men their lives. I was just thinking that perhaps I could somehow make it so ..."

Red came over and wrapped her arms around Snow.

"She saved my life once... why can't I save hers?"

Red smiled at her and brushed a bit of hair from her face. "That's a life debt. It's understandable that you want to pay it."

Snow looked up into her eyes, "You don't understand... it's not that she saved my life so I want to save hers. It's that I destroyed her life..."

Red shook her head having a hard time understanding any of this. Snow moved back to the balcony to watch as Regina's riding party came back into view. "Regina's not gone... she's lost. If you were lost I'd do everything I could to find you."

"If I'm ever lost like that Snow... I'd expect you to do everything you could do to stop me."

Snow raised her eyebrow. "You'd want me to put you down like a mad dog?"

Red looked at her in the eyes, "Yes. That is exactly what I want you to do."

"I couldn't do that to you Red."

Red sighed and smiled at her, "You are a sweet soul, Snow. I hope you never understand what it is to be a monster."

The Queen had decided not to eat dinner with them that evening, much to Red's relief, and Snow had found a corner of the library with a book that had once been a favorite of her mothers. Red had accepted that they couldn't try and escape during the peace, but that didn't mean she couldn't try and get a lay of the castle.

It seemed like a strange cold place to grow up in, dark endless corridors. The windows should have brought light in, but the spider iron work only managed to make those two seem more like cage bars. It reminded her of a dark corner of the forest people in the village said was haunted that Granny had forbidden her to go to.

But as it turned out it wasn't haunted, simply the place her mother ran.

She turned a corner and found herself in a large open room with a fireplace. Standing a few feet from it was the Evil Queen. She was flexing her hand and fire would form. She would watch it for a few seconds before throwing it into the fireplace and start again.

The look of anger an her face almost made Red back away until she realized that the anger seemed to be needed to make the fire. "... do you need the anger to make the magic or does the magic make you angry?" She asked tentatively. The Evil Queen snapped her head at the sound, having not noticed her standing there. There was still a fireball in her hand and Red wondered if she'd made a grave mistake.

But the fire went out in her hand, and her eyes only looked half as crazy as they had the night before at dinner. "Magic works on emotion, dear. The fire doesn't exist without the anger and the anger feeds on the fire."

Red tilted her head. "Why feed it then?"

The Queen raised an eyebrow and tilted her head, "Why run dear. You could chain yourself up and never hurt anyone, but you don't do that. Even with that cloak of yours your heart wants to run." She approached the younger woman, stalking her slowly like a predator. Or a rival ad clearly the Queen considered her a predator as well. "And not just run. You chase. Have you ever told Snow that? That you hunt?"

"How would you know..."

"I am the Queen. Do you really think I wouldn't know of each monster who stalks my lands. Snow's father used to send hunting parties out after werewolves."

"And you don't?"

The Evil Queen smiled, "You want to be hunted by my Black Knights as well as ignorant peasants?"

"Technically... I already am hunted by your knights."

Red wondered for a moment if the jab would cost her dearly, but the Queen chuckled and nodded. "True." She walked away from red and sat down.

"So why not send them out hunting."

The Evil Queen tilted her head, "What would be the crime other than that you are exercising your nature?"

Red wanted to point out that the Queen had murdered hundreds of people for no crime other than that she thought they were hiding Snow White.

"Battling the voices of the monster in your head is hard enough without a baying mob screaming for blood."

"And the voices in your head, Your Majesty?"

Regina looked thoughtful for a moment before smiling a big toothy grin, "Why my dear, I have no desire to battle my demons. That is the difference between you and I. Now run along to bed. Tomorrow the rebel princess and I will go riding and you are sure to want to be rested for that."