Regina's horse leapt over the hurdle. Regina's face shone with triumph. Cora was sickened. Regina should want more for herself. She should feel triumph after conquering a powerful kingdom, not after successfully prancing around some obstacle course on a horse. She wished that Regina would devote herself to something more consequential and that she would stop being such a tomboy, that she would realize the power that comes with femininity-agressive femininity, not kindness. Regina was far too kind for her own good.
Every time Cora saw her daughter nurse some pathetic creature back to health or give away her money to some disease-ridden beggar, she felt sick. Kindness was weakness, which meant that Regina was weak, she let people take advantage of her, but worst of all, she was kind. There was no room for kindness in this cruel world, Cora had learned that long ago. Harnessing cruelty was the only way to survive in a cruel world, which was something that her daughter obviously couldn't seem to grasp. All she cared about was riding around on her stinky horse like the daughter of some farmer, and her simple stable boy boyfriend. Something had to be done to remedy this. Regina needed to be taught some lesson that would show her the value of cruelty, but Cora had no idea how to teach her. Regina was so pure that it would take a miracle to corrupt her. To harden Regina's heart, Cora would have to do something absolutely terrible to her. Then, once Regina had thought that she had lost everything the phoenix of her wickedness would emerge from the ashes of her heart and Regina would finally be fit to continue Cora's legacy. Cora knew that she would get no help from her husband on this matter. He was weaker than Regina. Every effort to toughen Regina up had been undermined by Cora's useless sap of a husband. No, whatever method Cora chose to fix her daughter would have to be carried out by Cora alone.
She hatched a plot to scare little Snow's horse into running wild so that Regina could come to her rescue and catch the eye of her rich father, king Leopold. She would marry well and realize the joys of extreme wealth and power, and, hopefully, she would forget about her silly little romance and her need to save everyone and she would realize what was really important in life. Regina thought that Cora didn't know about her stable boy romance, but she did. Cora knew, she was just biding her time until she could end it in the most painful way possible for her daughter. She needed Regina's views of beauty in the world to become totally destroyed, for her heart to be destroyed. Cora needed to fill her with so much anger and bitterness that the only thing that could fill the empty, bottomless hole in her heart was an insatiable need for more and more power. Cora basically needed Regina to become her.
The next couple of weeks passed exactly as Cora had planned. King Leopold asked for Regina's hand in marriage, Regina couldn't refuse, Regina built a friendship with her soon-to-be step-daughter, little Snow unintentionally sold Regina out, Cora killed her daughter's boyfriend at the best possible time, and Regina had finally taken the first step towards filling her heart with darkness.
Unfortunately for Cora, it was a very small step. Regina still tried to escape at least once a day. It was starting to get tedious. Cora had to keep a constant watch on her daughter to make sure that she didn't escape. Then something changed. Regina stopped trying to escape, she seemed happier, more hopeful, even, more wicked. Cora wondered what had caused the change in her daughter, she could feel the power humming within Regina. The only possibility that she could think of was that she was getting magic lessons from Rumplestiltskin- but that was impossible. Rumplestiltskin had promised Cora that she would be his last pupil, that Cora was special. She'd had a relationship with him. He was the only man who'd ever made her feel special, the only man who had ever understood her and the wickedness inside of her. Sure, Henry was a wonderful husband- he was so easy to control, but he had never made her feel alive like Rumplestiltskin had. She had wanted to keep him all to herself. She had made him promise her that he would never teach anyone else. Not even Cora's future children. She had made him promise that he would leave that to her, if she chose to have her children learn magic at all. She was afraid that her future children might usurp her if they learned magic. Her seemingly paranoid concerns were confirmed when she felt the thrum of power within Regina after she was born. Yes, if Regina learned magic she would become a powerful enemy, which is why Cora would make sure that her daughter never learned magic. After all, she wanted Regina to be powerful, but not more powerful than her.
Cora walked up to Regina's room to see how her daughter was preparing for her impending marriage, but when she walked up to her daughter, she pushed her into a mirror! Regina had exiled her own mother into some weird, trippy Wonderland. Cora's fears were confirmed. That two-timing Rumplestiltskin had been teaching her daughter magic.
This Wonderland was wild and savage, there were no human-made structures as far as the eye could see. Cora vowed to herself that she would remedy this. She used her formidable magic to terrify the simple people of Wonderland into building her a palace and serving under her. She was their queen. Their Queen of Hearts. She destroyed any opposition by tearing out and crushing or keeping the hearts of anyone who tried to disobey even her most trivial command. She was still waiting for the day that she could escape from this prison of bright colors and easily conquered people. She was waiting for the day that she could finally destroy the monster that she had created- her daughter. It was such a shame, Regina had finally reached her full potential. She had finally become the monster Cora knew that she was destined to be. It would be such a pity to destroy her, but Regina had betrayed her, and Cora couldn't forgive that. Even worse, Regina had proved Cora right about what would happen if Regina learned magic, she had done something completely unforgivable, Regina had surpassed her. Cora knew that if she wanted to become the most powerful woman in all of the lands again, she would have to do what she did best, she would have to bide her time. Yes, Cora would have her revenge, and when she did, Regina wouldn't know what hit her.