A/N: Trigger warning for animal death.

…

"Regina! What did you do to her?" Emma screamed and launched herself off the horse, charging Cora. She used magic to move away lightning fast, as Emma stumbled to the ground with a strangled cry of pain.

"She can't hear you," Cora's voice was low and dangerous. Her eyes gleamed as she pulled a red glowing heart from beneath her cloak and held it up to her lips. Emma blinked in fear, the light inside her stirred faster in her gut. It pulled her to her feet as her head jerked back on her neck and a magical wind surged around her.

Cora faltered for a moment, stunned by the power of magic that had been activated in Emma. But she knew the girl was untrained, and she had no control over the powerful light within her. Cora still had the upper hand.

"Stand back, Emma. You don't know what you're doing. Leave it to my daughter to get overly attached to her toys. I brought you in to satisfy her depraved needs and here she went and foolishly tried to spare your life at the cost of her own."

Emma ran to Regina's side as the magic keeping the woman suspended burst and she lay in a mess of leaves and twigs scattered on the forest floor. Emma knelt beside her and lifted her up, brushing the debris from her hair and stroking her cheeks with love. "She's not dead, she can't be. She's your daughter. Please, kill me…don't hurt her anymore."

"Aww, so you're just as attached. What did my daughter do for you, anyway? She doesn't exactly have the personality that invites love in," Cora whispered something to the heart that Emma couldn't make out. She watched in horror as Regina's body sat up in a magic trance.

"Regina? Can you hear me?" Emma tapped her cheek and shook her body lightly, trying to get the woman's attention even as her face remained blank. Regina rose up from the ground, her limbs uncoordinated as she stumbled forward and out of Emma's grasp.

"My daughter was willing to give up the things she loved to save you. It's a shame it was all for nothing. She should have been a good girl. You should have been a good slave and stayed in your cage," Cora spoke the words with an ominous certainty.

Emma crumbled in on herself, hugging the ground as she watched helplessly while Regina drew closer to her beloved horse. Cora nodded and spoke to the heart again, "Take it."

Rocinante regarded his master with a familiar nudge of trust and affection. Regina cocked her head and moved slowly around the animal seeking out his massive, and strong chest. Without hesitation of knowing her arm extended into the animal and when she retracted it she held its large beating heart in her palm.

"No! No, Emma jumped up and ran with gritted teeth to Regina, pulling uselessly on her arms trying to make her drop the creature's heart.

Cora spoke again into Regina's heart. She was completely under the control of her mother, "Crush it."

With resolute obedience, Regina squeezed Rocinante's heart as the beast cried in anguish. The sound was excruciating to Emma's ears. She pressed her face into Regina's back as the wind whipped at their hair and tore at their clothes. The ashes scattered all around them and the horse fell with a sickly thud to its knees and then keeled over onto its side.

Cora smiled ruefully, and Emma tried again to keep Regina away from her mother, but the woman wouldn't move and Cora came closer. Close enough that she could push Regina's heart back inside her chest. With a loud gasp, Regina came to, and blinked in confusion. Her head was pounding, her chest felt as if it had been ripped open and the only thing she registered was the solid weight of Emma holding onto her.

"Mother? What happened?" Regina's mouth fell open in shock as she saw exactly what had been done. The memory of her father falling down outside the stables, and now the awful realization that she had crushed her loyal horse's heart into dust slammed into her mind. "Why did you make me do this?" She screamed in bitter disgust, her body shaking as she turned around to find herself staring into the green eyes of Emma.

They both stood in shock until Regina sobbed openly and threw herself into Emma's arms. They held each other against all odds, as if their bodies could protect one another from the horrors that had been inflicted.

"I told you to focus on your future, Regina. I gave you this girl as a loving gift, but you—you-did this to yourself," Cora chastised her as if she had brought all of it on herself and the events that transpired were the simple consequences of not following the rules. "You were so bad, my child. I'm thankful that I no longer need you to carry out my destiny."

Emma leapt in front of Regina when Cora stepped closer. Her eyes gleamed in the darkness: a pure white halo usurping the green of her irises. She could feel the magic building within her. "You will not her hurt her!" A blast of magic came forth from Emma's palms and hit Cora's chest sending her sprawling onto her back.

Regina looked in wonder. "You have magic?" She breathed into Emma's ear, afraid to let go of the woman who was protecting her so ferociously from her own mother.

"I don't know where it came from…." Emma admitted shyly, staring from Regina's eyes and then down at her heated and glowing palms.

Cora was up in an instant, more infuriated than ever. "It's true I can't hurt you, child, and I won't. I do, however, still own you as my slave. We are going to the castle of the White Queen at once. She needs to meet her daughter: the long lost Princess Emma."