A/N: Well hello again my Lovely Readers. Here is one of the fic ideas I mentioned in the Shades in Magic update. I've decided to upload it and see if you like it. I've already gotten this another chapter written so I'm gonna post them together. It's my first FTL/AU fic but of course it's still SwanQueen.
In the future it will most likely be bumped up to an M rating for Violence and Smut. Let's face it the only SQ Action we'll get is from FanFiction so why not.. lol
Basically there is no Daniel in this fic, so Regina has no real reasons to stay home. She is running from Cora and will stumble upon our Blonde Princess. Shenanigans and violence will ensue of course. Don't really have too much else planned other than that. I'm just going with the flow on this one... ;)
Anyways, hope you guys like it. I'll most likely upload a Non-FTL/Non-Magic/AU at some point in the near future also.
Disclaimer: Yeah you guys no none of us here own anything OUAT or OUAT related... Durh T_T
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Chapter 1
It had been nearly a month since her 17th birthday, the age one can legally marry, and ever since her mother had been in talks with King George. Regina was no fool. She knew her mother had plans to marry her off to that man's lout of a son. She didn't know exactly what Cora wanted from George but she knew she would be the lamb for that slaughter.
Regina knew if she was to ever have her dream of freedom from her mother's sadistic form of "love" , she had to do it now.
She watched Cora and spent many of her days in the library studying up on any kind of magic that could help her escape. She learned her mother's routine and would study into the night, trying to come up with the best plan. She had never tried to use her magic really. The only time she ever realized she had used it was with riding her horse, Rocinante. It took her a while to realize that was how she communicated with him so fluently. He always knew exactly what she wanted him to do.
In the end, she gave up on trying to practically learn magic overnight. She didn't have the time to develop anything truly helpful, outside of making a copy of the map in the study on a spare piece of parchment. But something was better than nothing, right?
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After a few weeks she finally felt she was prepared enough to go, or at least as prepared as she could ever be. She spent her last day with her father out riding.
Henry had always been kind and loving to her and she loved him dearly. But, he had never truly been able to protect her from Cora's cruelty and violence. He would mearly pick of the pieces in the aftermath. She loved him but she knew if anyone was going to save her, it was going to be herself.
"You know I love you more than anything don't you Daddy...?" she said using that little girl voice he always managed to pull out of her.
He lifted kind brown eyes to gaze at her face and gave her a sad almost knowing smile.
"Of course my daughter...And I you Regina. There is nothing more I want from this world than your happiness... Always remember that..." he said reaching out a hand to pull her chin forward and kiss her brow. And then they walked their horses back to the barn.
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That night, when she knew her mother was asleep, she ran.
She entered the woods and tried to keep to the path she intended to follow, to the White Kingdom...
The border to the White kingdom wasn't that far with how efficiently she and Rocinante worked together. She had faith that they could make it.
Plus, she knew her mother hated the Royals of the White Kingdom with a fiery passion. She could just hear her mother now ranting over "that idiot Snow White and her field-hand of a husband." She didn't know why Cora hated them so but the mere fact that she did, well that was a good enough recommendation for Regina that they must be good, decent people..
She had this gut feeling that if she could just make it there she might be alright. After all she was a Princess, even though a very minor one, maybe the King and Queen there would show her kindness.
She and Rocinante rode until they couldn't ride anymore, almost 100 miles. They found a cave hidden in the massive surrounding trees and hid there, Regina doing her best to sleep though her dreams were riddled with terrifying images of Cora's fury.
She was awoken by the feeling of being watched. As she opened her eyes she fought the fear that her mother had found her. She prepared herself for the cold hateful gaze from her mother's black eyes and was wonderfully surprised to see a girl, who looked no older than herself sitting crossed legged across from her.
She stared at her with the most curious sea colored eyes and a beautiful pale face framed in curling tendrils of honey blonde hair. She was beautiful.
The girl smiled at her and broke the silence. "So ... you found my cave..." she said in a light yet cheery yet somewhat mischievous voice.
Regina stared back at her but did not speak. The girl eyed Regina, studying her.
"Well... you are obviously wealthy, not many people can afford such decorative riding clothes... And your horse... now that's a fine animal..." she grinned. "Might even be as good as mine..." she smiled even larger than before.
Regina now looked at this girl's clothes. They were of a fine material. Her pants a tawny tan soft leather and her shirt was a very light blue, and though sturdily made, was obviously of a fine quality as well. And her knee-high leather boots, though splattered with mud, were obviously of the best quality leather and even had silver buckles.
She's no commoner either, Regina concluded. Perhaps a merchant's daughter...
"So the question is ... why are you here...?" the girl had a playful quizzical look to her eyes. " Are you running to a lover perhaps...?" Regina blushed at the prospect but shook her head no, still not daring to speak.
"Alright no lover... Are you lost...?" Regina shook her head no again and felt a very small smile creep onto her face.
"Are you running from someone..."" Regina's eyes grew wide and she suddenly grew fearful at the thought that she might not have run far enough.
That was a reality check.
She finally spoke, "I must go..."
The blonde looked shocked to hear her speak as Regina leapt to her feet and sprinted for Rocinante.
"Wait..." the girl called after her. "I can help you... I won't turn you over to whomever it is you're running from, I swear..."
They had both made it outside and to their horses. Regina had to assume that the pale sandy colored mare with a corn-silk mane was the other girl's.
"I can't... I've stayed here too long already..." she said hurriedly as she gracefully swung herself atop her horse.
Then a sound that chilled Regina to the bone came from behind her.
"Yes, dear, you have ..."
Mother! Regina screamed internally. She was caught. Freedom had been only a dream. Her whole body seized up from the sheer magnitude of her terror.
The blonde girl looked from Regina's fear ridden face and to the woman who had appeared suddenly behind them with a face full of fury. She concluded this must be who the girl was running from.
The woman made to advance on them and she saw tears form in the girls eyes and did the only thing she could think of.
"Hold on..." she told the girl on her horse as she reached out her hand and pressed it to her leg and the horse she was riding. And then stretched out her other hand to her own mount and closed her eyes in concentration.
The woman hesitated for a brief second as she had just now noticed the other girl with her daughter.
Regina felt the familiar feeling of magic engulf her as she saw plumes of gold smoke cover her and all that the mysterious girl touched.
She grit her teeth expecting to feel the burning cold bite that her mother's magic always brought, but it never came.
Instead she felt what she could only describe as a warm breeze on a chilly spring morning and what smelled like honeysuckle and wildflowers mixed with fresh rain. It was intoxicating.
Then she was weightless for the briefest of seconds. And then suddenly she was in a massive stone room with two white marble thrones.
She hears a shriek echo off the stone walls and the rapid pounding of footsteps heading their way. She looks down to Emma in confusion.
"Who are you...?" Regina asks her as she leans down from her saddle to look at the tiredly smiling blonde girl.
"I'm..." and then she collapses to the floor.