"Oh, come on, Dawn! What happened to me old princess?" Mr. Snuggles pleaded in frustration as he scowled down at the now-black-clad figure glaring right back up at him with similar annoyance and distaste.
"Ugh! I already told you! I'm not a princess anymore, I'm an adult!" came the huffy reply.
"You're a teenager!" Mr. Snuggles snorted back.
"Well, at the very least, I am not a little kid anymore!" Dawn growled, his remark cutting her deep. Although she was not yet an adult, she was beyond ready to be treated like one. Mr. Snuggles' remark had reminded her of the fact that she was still technically a kid and it made her bristle.
Dawn was tired of being a little kid, of being underestimated and ignored. She was tired of playing the role of the fool, the cute little princess. She didn't like all those little games, especially because she was usually no more than a pawn in all of them. She wanted to be a real player for once! Or even a gamemaster! But she was sick of being the pawn. She wanted to grow up and be treated with more respect.
Fights like these were becoming increasingly common within the Crumhorn home as Dawn continued to age, repeatedly attempting to assert her dominance over anyone who crossed her path. Already, she and her father had rubbed shoulders about Dawn's insistence that she grow up and stop wearing her old girly princess clothing, but since her father was usually never around anyway, Dawn had won that fight pretty easily. He had begged her to at least keep wearing her old princess tiara, but since he was never around to actually if she would follow through on that, she was easily able to ditch the tiara and he never even realized.
But Mr. Snuggles, a far more constant companion, was much more persistent. He and Dawn had been going back and forth for weeks now. Even though Dawn insisted that she deserved to be treated like a grownup and even though she insisted that she be called "Dark Dawn" now (or at least something other than "Princess Dawn" or "The Princess" or any other similarly associated names) Mr. Snuggles continued to call her the same names he used to call her.
"C'mon Dawn! You were me princess!" he continued to sigh angrily as he gestured to her. Although she had since gone full goth, covered in pale makeup that was highlighted with a bit of black stuff (namely, black lipstick, eyeliner and eyeshadow), Mr. Snuggles continued to insist that Dawn looked far better when she wore the glittery pink stuff of the olden days. In his opinion, the black dress was too try-hard and the corset made her look like someone's grandmother. The pink had looked far better and cuter and younger.
"There's a reason I always love being Bumpsydaisy every time we perform "Melted" and that's because you're my Zora!" he continued, trying to appeal to the girl she used to be. Then he began to sing. "I thaw you and my heart melted, I thaw-" But Dawn was just as insistent as he was.
"Eeew! No! Shut up! Stop singing! That stuff was sooo tacky and ugly and gross and embarrassing!" she flicked her new hairdo in disgust and embarrassment. As she did so, a jet of dark energy formed underneath her locks and once she completed the hair flick, that black energy blasted out from her head and accidentally blasted a large hole in her bedroom wall.
"Woah!" Mr. Snuggles shielded his face as the jet of black energy blew up the wall.
"Woah!" Dawn whispered, running her paw through her hair in amazement. Well... That was new!
In time, then, Mr. Snuggles finally left Dawn, one particularly heated argument offending him so much that he stole her tiara and left her remodeled Victorian-era Dracula castle without another look back. Dawn watched him go with a scowl as he, indignant, put on her tiara and claimed it for his own. She hoped he realized how stupid he looked with that ugly little crown! Real royalty did need to try that hard! Real royalty commanded power and respect not from shiny little tiaras and delicate, dainty princess things, but through raw charisma and commandeering. And that was just what Dawn intended upon doing!
Dawn was going garner true respect from the world one day. Not because she was pretty or dainty, but because she was real and raw and tough and gritty. She wasn't going to try to win over this pitiful planet through dresses and giggles anymore. She was going to win it over through raw brutality, brute strength, and sheer force and strength of nerve and will alone. She was getting stronger, smarter and harder with every passing day and one day, it would serve her very well.
"Hmph! I'll show him! I'll show them all!" she vowed as she retreated from the window and nestled back down on her favorite chair. It had since remodeled itself into something of a throne, made of gold and covered in dark purple cushions. It was a bit smaller than it used to be for her (or was she just getting bigger?) but that was partly because only she needed it now. With Snuggles gone, she did not need a larger chair. It was just her and her alone, ruler of her own little castle. She reclined languidly in her little "throne" as she surveyed her darkened kingdom. A dark smile spread slowly across her face as she began planning her revenge and her hostile takeover.
It was going to be a bit harder, and maybe even a bit lonelier, without a friend and companion at her side, but if he was going to do nothing but drag her down, then she was more than happy to cut him loose and let him sink while she flew up to the top, to the very top the world, right where she belonged. Mr. Snuggles was nothing but dead weight to her, and she was more than happy to discard it and work alone from now on. Maybe if he would ever be willing to apologize for being so rude and demeaning and maybe if he would start to see where she was coming from and actually respect her desires to grow up, she would forgive him. But until then? He was no friend or ally, but another enemy for her to crush! She had a list of names and his was in red, underlined.
"Maybe in the days of being a princess, I needed a prince at my side," she muttered as she picked up an old photo of her and him together, cuddling and smiling in matching outfits. They were laughing in that photo.
"But not anymore!" she tossed the picture easily over her shoulder where it landed with a harsh clang into a nearby rubbish bin. "For I am not a princess anymore, I am a queen! And I do not need a companion, or a king, in order to rule the world!" it was time for her reign of gothic terror to begin! Like a true queen, she would rule the world all by herself, because maybe a princess needed a prince, but a queen did not need a king, and that was exactly the path Dawn planned on taking! She wouldn't trust anyone and they wouldn't trust her!
Dawn reclined even further back into her little throne, crossing one leg over the other as she looked smugly out the window, already planning her revenge. The world may move on into another day and more drama, but not for Dawn. All she thought about was revenge, control, dominance and power. Maybe she was lonely and sad now, maybe she was still underestimated and underappreciated now, but there would come a day when everyone who had ever mistreated or misunderstood her would all get theirs! She would become the actress staring in their worst nightmares! This was going to be so much fun! The Princess was no more. Now, only the Queen remained, and she was on the warpath!
AN: Another "Dawn's Descent" fic just for fun. Inspired off Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do", and this old joke:
"What is a queen without her king?"
"Well, historically, more powerful!" (insert list of powerful kingless queens here).
And while I'm not saying princesses need princes anymore than queens need kings, realize that you're more likely to find a powerful and relatively-content single queen than single princess. Only after you marry a prince and become a queen can you dispose of him safely... (*Evil chuckle*)
Also, just saying, when Dawn originally casts Penfold as Bumpsydaisy, Snuggles seems saddened by this choice. You know why? Because HE'S DAWN'S RIGHT HAND, NOT ANYONE ELSE (ok I'm done, LOL).
