Tucked away in the cave used for storing equipment for maiden and hero practice Apple switched on the flashlight app on her phone and shined it onto the envelope in her hand.

I can explain everything, why I haven't attempted to make them stop (even though I hardly think that I could do a thing about it in the first place) and why this is happening at all!

Apple you have to read this before anybody else does!

Raven's old (obsolete now) royal seal was affixed firmly in place as Apple pried it open, and there were no hints of tampering so aside from maybe Bunny already knowing whatever this big secret was… it was still safe.

I just cannot allow for this wrong to go on without repercussions, it wouldn't be fair to my mother or to the worlds she cursed.

I also refuse to let history repeat itself, for whatever fondness I may feel for you I still must stand firm in stopping this pattern of hurt and suffering from continuing, not just for my sake, but for the sake of my father, my mother, my people, and my future children.

Please, please, please try to understand Apple, you can hate me all you want but please at least acknowledge that this is not about me or you anymore, this is about making the hard choice to do what is right and to right a wrong that should have never happened! Evil Queens are supposed to guide and protect Snow White onto her throne, to ceremonially transition her to the crown, they aren't supposed to be driven to madness and used to make anybody look better in comparison! When the fairytale ends so does the Evil Queen's obligation to be evil! We are people too Apple, we have dreams and feelings too! My mother had them, but she gave it all away because I believe she loved your mom too much for her own good!

Please know that I never wanted you to get hurt, and I believe that you deserve to know the truth. I am sorry that it has come to this Apple. I will miss you, and I hope that you can find a way to persevere through this.

P.S. Please take a closer look at the letters I have sent you previously, I believe that they will help you!

~Love you always, Raven Queen-King

The nude teenaged girl in the photograph was nude save for the hooded cloak that she held up to cover her chest from the camera, she sat, kneeling on the edge of a bed and accepting a kiss from another girl standing fully clothed in front of the bed, the nude girl allowing herself to be supported around the waist and for her paramour to brush her hood back revealing the side of her face.

At the sight of a teenaged Snow White and Evil Queen kissing Apple's fingers lost purchase on the paper and left it to fall to the floor. The princess already dreading what looked like photocopied images of love letters still left in the envelope. Waiting for her to read through them.

XXX

"Holy motherfucking gods of heaven." Faybelle's swearing woke Apple up from her resting place on one of the training mats, the fairy and Briar are staring at the photograph with wide eyes while both working to keep Bunny from snatching it away from their grasp. Blondie is kneeling beside Apple, wide-eyed while reading some of the letters that the princess had left strewn about, using the light from her own phone to read with surprising speed through them.

Apple is too tired and her mind is too frayed for niceties or verbal anger.

So after a moments deliberation she shoves Blondie roughly over onto her back with her slippered foot and jumps up to bite Faybelle's arm.

"The fuck?" Faybelle shrieks, Apple plucking the photograph from the fairy's grip in the process.

The princess is only momentarily stunned by the admittedly deserved backhanded slap to her face but that still doesn't stop her from avoiding Briar's concerned attempt to look over Apple's smarting cheek and charging out of everybody's reach out of the cave.

XXX

Because for the most part Raven has been kept out of her father's political assassination plans of Snow White, Raven has been focusing even more efforts into learning how to become a good monarch and using her growing public image to help promote new innovations and revolutionary ideas that'll help make the kingdom a better place for all.

It wasn't popular with everybody, all these new things happening at once, but that was only to be expected and Raven did her best not to worry about the small groups here and there that wanted things to go back to how they were before, after all between so many people being so tired of other kingdoms ostracizing them for being citizens of a villain kingdom plus the outrage over Snow White's actions to make herself look fairer than any of her ancestors as well as gaining herself more power than ever made Raven's efforts to change up lots of things highly supported by both the people and the government, the recent elections for government offices having politicians scramble to appear more anti-fairytale and pro-big change than the others and ultimately gain the monarchy's support which had sped up the process for integrating new things even faster than what had been expected.

"Prince Hraban are you really Raven Queen in disguise?" The little human-looking boy with wolf ears who had escaped his guardian's watch asked with big doe eyes while everybody else was distracted with dancing and singing merrily back and forth through the first of many large portals activating that day that would constantly connect the formerly dead-end streets of the Good King's homeland with that of the former kingdom of the Evil Queen, enlarging cities and towns from two far away areas on the map The giant arching structures barely noticeable by the eye being so distracted by one side of the street having different weather and temperature than the other.

Raven grinned broadly. "Yes." The witch admitted readily.

"But people love you! My older brothers and sisters say that you don't have to keep hiding, you didn't have to change your name." The little boy declared reasonably as if there was no need to argue with him, Raven liked this one immediately.

"I got tired of having to always be the dreaded and horrible Raven at my old school." Raven said simply. "So when I moved back here I changed it to Hraban which means Raven in the old tongue of my mom's hometown."

The boy scrunched up his face, his wolf ears wiggling as he thought, from beside her Raven discretely signaled her appointed Wonderland guard to start searching for the boy's guardian.

"So if Raven and Hraban mean the same thing then you really didn't change your name at all!" The boy finally concluded. "But then why has the news in Ever After said that you aren't you and that you are somewhere else?"

"Because they haven't bothered to ask what Hraban stands for." Raven said simply.

"That's dumb." The boy pouted, a fang sticking cutely up from his lip.

"Tell me about it." Raven agreed full heartedly, how no one at Ever After was either making the connection or even believing it at all mystified her.

"So why did you dye your hair?" The boy asked, ears perked forward.

"When I was little I really wanted to dye my hair a different color but my dad said that I had to wait till I was older and out of school, so now that I'm older and out of school I get to change it into whatever color I want! Next week I was thinking about orange, or maybe pink."

"Dye it green!" The boy lit up in excitement.

"Is that your favorite color?" Raven asked.

"One of them!" The boy was bouncing on his toes. "I also like Yellow, and Blue!"

"Oh my!" Raven grinned. "Yellow is my most favorite color did you know?"

"No I didn't know!" The boy looked delightedly shocked. "I always thought that your favorite color was purple since you wore it so much!"

Raven giggled. "Purple is my third favorite color actually, I just liked wearing it because Yellow was so hard to wash out stains and stuff from playing in the forest."

"Yeah." The boy nodded in sympathy. "So is white, I don't like having to wear white because then I can't go out and play."

Raven was about to respond when the alarmed voices of a man and a woman drew close.

"Oh your highness we are so sorry! We were looking away for merely a second and then he just disappeared!" The man, a human explained apologetically while the woman that was with him transformed into a wolf and began licking and checking the boy over.

"Quite alright, I was the same way at his age, my father still complains about the time I snuck off to find buried treasure on Black Rock beach." Raven chuckled at the memory.

"The place in the old Queen Kingdom where the sea dragons come up to sun themselves?" The man looked alarmed.

"Yes, my father nearly had a heart attack when I was reported to have been adopted by a mother one as part of her clutch. It took ages to distract her long enough to get me back." Raven sighed, she had been way too little to fully grasp the danger.

A look passed the man's face and Raven could tell that the man was suddenly thinking that this actually explained a lot about the infamous Raven Queen.

"Yes well thank you for looking after our little brother, and also thank you for your support with human and werewolf couples, thanks to you our parents don't have to hide and our dad can come back here from Ever After to work the farm with our mother and the rest of her pack.

Ah, that explained a few things. "Well it just doesn't make sense to prevent consenting people from being in love just because it's not proper for a fairytale."

"And we aren't in a fairytale so it doesn't apply to us!" The human man agreed.

I could never feel guilty about this, helping people and doing good things is all I've ever wanted to do. Raven thought to herself a conversation, and a darling picture of Raven and the Hound-siblings for the local paper later.