A/n: Alright, I've gotta be completely honest.

I have no idea who's going to win this, Apple or Faybelle. Initially I had started this as a Rapple fic, but… I'm starting to like this other Raven/Faybelle pairing too… and looking back on the comments people seem pretty split between the two too (some of you want to see Raven end up with both or neither, which is a possibility).

I think that I should have it all decided after I finish with Wonderland, I'll just go with whatever makes a better story… not that I'm going to reveal anything to the readers until way later in the fic… it'll be a surprise.

By the way, cannon Snow White, from the series, she scares me. she really, really scares me. Like I had an image in my head of her being a ditzy and fair… well maiden. She isn't. in fact I'd go so far to say that she's kind of a psychopath.

I now ship Evil Queen/ Snow White, they are like a match made in… well I wouldn't say hell (they aren't that extreme), but neither of them came from a very nice place.

XXX

"I don't think that your mother was the one to have cursed you." Apple decided one afternoon where both princess and witch had agreed to some well deserved lazy time by hiding from the world in their dorm room.

"I take it you finished reading my mother's thesis thingy." Raven sighed as she flopped next to Apple on the princess's bed. The witch was wearing a grey and lavender hooded dress; one of the few casual outfits of the witch's that Apple didn't have a vendetta against.

"It's brilliant, it's innovative, and I just can't see the person who wrote this being the same person who cursed you out of malicious intent. Maybe she just wanted to protect you, make you out to look scary to anybody that might be watching and just hoped that you could learn to get around it?" The princess shrugged.

"Maybe." Raven hummed into the comforter, swinging her bare legs and feet lazily in the air, the witch had a feeling that there was more to it but didn't really have much evidence or desire to counteract Apple's nicer theory. "But unless I get a chance to ask her it just might stay a mystery."

"If we can convince the Grimm brothers that she should be exonerated to the point of where she could be allowed visitors, I'm sure that she'll tell you." Apple stated, continuing to look over the papers in her hands. "I know I certainly wouldn't mind asking her some questions involving this! Such inventions should be at least allowed to serve the common good, regardless of the inventor being imprisoned in a mirror for certain crimes."

"She might enjoy having someone there to talk shop with." Raven stretched and rolled onto her side, staring at the princess for a moment. "I'm going to miss this place."

"Do you really have to go?" Apple pouted sadly.

"Yes." Raven nodded. "It's going to be a change but Grandmother and all of my cousins are expecting me now. It will be nice to see them again."

"You really miss them. Your family." The princess deflated slightly.

"We've kept sort-of in touch but… yeah I do miss them, I miss them a lot, it was so lonely for so long just having Maddie be my one tangible friend that I could touch, and that didn't see my mother in the place of… me." The witch murmured, staring depressingly at a pillow.

Apple looked away guiltily. "If I had used common sense instead of just assuming-"

"Don't blame yourself for that." Raven soothed. "You barely knew me back then anyway so how could you tell?"

"I could tell enough that you were sad and tormented." Apple grimaced. "But I was told that was how Evil Queens were supposed to be so I just didn't think to see you as another living thing. For so long you had been this… physical manifestation of an ideal and it never occurred to me to see you as anything else, even when you were staring me in the eyes and telling me that you didn't want to, that you were allowed to be different."

"I'm surprised that you thought about me at all before Legacy Year." Raven looked up at the princess, shyly playing with her fingers. "You rarely went near me before then."

Apple huffed a slow breath out of her nose. "I was afraid to, not because I was afraid of you, but because I thought that I wasn't perfect enough to try. You were-… you were like a god almost in my eyes a creature that wielded magic and who was so mysterious I just… you were the one who was supposed to make everything better, the one who would bewitch me with your charms and give me the forbidden fruit, and magically make my happy ending just appear when I awoke. And then I hear all of these stories from my mother about being poisoned and the dreams she had while she was asleep! Future predictions, she called them, of what I had to look forward to."

Apple put down the papers and laid her head back into her pillows, hiding her blushing face behind her hands. "Even when you denied destiny I still couldn't see you as another person with feelings of your own. You were still this deity figure who just appeared to have decided to be vengeful towards me for some reason. You were larger than life and it made me so… disappointed to think of you any other way. And now that I've broken myself out of that idealism I only find myself liking you all the more, you're touchable now. I'm deeply embarrassed with myself though for once thinking of you in the same terms of a god and unhealthily obsessing over one tiny aspect of a story."

"I'm glad that you see me as a person too." Raven confessed. "I was getting really worried about you at one point. I mean you were practically on you hands and knees that one time you got me that spell book on forbidden magical poisons."

"Ugh!" Apple curled up into a little mortified ball on her side. "Don't remind meeee! You hid yourself under your bed and refused to come out for hours! And Briar had happened upon me at a very awkward moment to boot! I was in soooo much trouble!"

"Did you ever fantasize about your married life with Daring?" Raven asked, having long been curious about the subject since the princess had spent most days chattering excitedly about Raven poisoning her.

"Vaguely…" Apple waved her hand limply. "In the back of my mind I knew that he was going to be my spouse but um… to be honest he was more Prince Charming than Daring Charming, and he was nothing more than this fuzzy image of a smiling boy. You had always been more important to me and… well to be honest I never gave Daring much thought."

"I kinda feel bad for him now." Raven frowned. "I stole away his princess without even trying. How sad."

"I'm pretty sure he'd be even more sad if he had to marry me." Apple flinched. "I mean right now while we're all in high school he's got some freedom, distractions if you will, the most that we have ever talked to each other is when I told him to play the field while he could until we had to get married, other than that our encounters were all show, he'd smile, pretending that I was the only girl in the world for him, and I'd pretend to swoon over the thought, pretty much what basic training had taught us to do. I'm afraid that I'd probably be the one ending up making Daring incredibly miserable in our marriage, what with my fixation with you and my neglecting getting to know him better."

"I would have missed you guys." Raven murmured. "Wherever I ended up, I would have missed the better times where I could have been allowed to say hello to you two casually and without a disguise."

"We're going to Wonderland tomorrow." Apple reached out and hugged Raven close. "And after that I'm going to visit you lots, no matter what Faybelle says."

"You do realize that she's not going to be at all pleased by that, she's taken to flirting and touching me in an intimate manner in the halls now, she's trying to prove to you that I'm her wife in a very fairy sort of way." Raven pointed out.

"Yeah well she should realize that she doesn't have complete control over you, and that token marriages don't mean squat when it comes to romance. I just don't want you getting hurt by her need to secure you as her ally and bragging trophy!" Apple huffed irritated.

"And you both should realize that I don' have the luxury of getting flustered or being indecisive over two girls fighting over me, so whatever bug is itching you two I am not going to be around enough to be able to have an active roll in it." Raven grumbled exasperatedly.

"Well yeah, you're going to be busy with witch training, your family, and kingdom stuff, we both know that." Apple assured. "You'll be too preoccupied to do much of anything with what me and Faybelle are fighting about… aside from the fact that we are both fighting over you in a way."

"Well that didn't sound foreboding at all." Raven hissed sarcastically.

XXX

"Something bad is about to happen." Milton twitched as he walked beside his brother around the setting up of the fairgrounds.

"Did you suddenly acquire the intuition of a witch while I was gone?" Giles joked, looking at their surroundings.

"My granddaughter caught me trying to get a better look at the tattoos on her hands earlier today, she didn't put up a fuss when I asked to see them, and she said something about it being a matter of time until I figured out what they represented and the deal she had made. Over these past months I've learned that she's only ever really helpful or pretends to listen to me talk about her destiny when something is going to happen! Something that I'm not going to like!" The elder man ranted paranoid.

"Well you would know, you've been shadowing her for weeks now." Giles reminded dryly. "When are you going to talk to Elenore? Or tell Raven that you're her grandfather? I'm starting to get bored with your sulking around and making excuses and Raven has been giving us weirded out looks for a while now."

"After I figure out why there is this sudden need for my granddaughter to be decorated up like a painted egg." Milton defended. "She said that she's doing it for her kingdom's sake and we know how many issues they're going through right now. Me finding out is the only way that I can get some insight into what's going on! Nobody in that family trusts me enough to tell me anything! I'll admit that it is my fault that it is the case, but that doesn't mean that I don't worry about my child and grandchild any less and… Whatever is happening, it was scary enough that Elenore didn't tell you that I was a father, or hit me over the head with the news at some very calculated and planned inconvenient time."

"Well you're running out of time." Giles crossed his arms. "According to Raven's written account of what tattoos we should be expecting, she's got her neck and face left before this ritual deal is complete, and that could happen at any time!"

"Relax, I think that I should have the answer we seek in the shipment of books that have just arrived to my office. I would have probably gotten an answer sooner but all of the books that relate to ritual tattoos and contract symbols keep getting checked out from the library!" Milton tried to assure his brother.

"And if you can't find an answer by Monday?" Giles challenged, giving a subtle hint that was the deadline before he went out and did something drastic on his own.

"I'll tell Miss Queen that she's my granddaughter and after whatever results from that meeting I'll contact Elenore and beg her, if need be, to tell me just what is going on." Milton relented looking nervous at the prospect.

XXX

"Please see if you can sneak this onto the Headmaster's desk. He should at least know that my mother isn't all that evil and I suspect that he knows who my grandfather is and can judge whether or not we can trust him enough to warn him about the danger he's in." Raven handed Kitty and Blondie a folder and a mirror-drive.

"He won't even know that we were there." Kitty grinned.

"Thank you, see you at the well." Raven grinned back.

XXX

"You know this tradition of wrapping up the trees with ribbons reminds me of a springtime tradition we have back home which involves young children dancing around a pole while they wrap it with ribbons." Raven commented brightly to Apple as she finished tying off her assigned ribbon decorated tree.

"You're talking about dancing around the maypole right?" Edward Spider asked from his tree, which was to the other side of the witch's.

"Yes that's exactly what I'm talking about!" Raven smiled warmly at to boy. "How do you know of it?"

"My momma wanted me to be exposed to all sorts of different cultures and customs, so she keeps dragging me and my mama to all of these festivals and celebrating a bunch of different holidays at home." Edward smiled fondly at the memory.

"What a good idea your momma has." Apple praised. "That sound like it was a lot of fun for you growing up."

"It was." Edward puffed his chest out in pride.

"Um sorry to interrupt." Humphrey called as he rushed over. "I have to speak to Apple and Raven privately for a moment. It's very important, I need their help out on the fairgrounds."

Apple and Raven exchanged knowing looks.

Things were coming along just as planned.

XXX

"What?" The Headmaster's shout resounded through his chambers.

"Ah! Did you finally found something? Or did you come across another spider?" Giles perked up cheerfully.

"She's getting married!" The Headmaster yelped as he ran out of his study in alarm.

"Who's getting married? Elenore?" Giles blinked in confusion.

"No! Miss Queen! Those tattoos on her hands are strictly used for brides about to get married!" Milton shook his brother by the shoulders.

"Oh my, they grow up so fast." Giles sighed despairingly. "Well she is seventeen- brother? Brother where are you going?"

"To get to the bottom of this!" The Headmaster snapped over his shoulder as he ran out of his office, Giles soon following.

Kitty and Blondie peered over the Headmaster's desk with equal wide-eyed looks.

XXX

"He knows!" Kitty ran up to the group standing idly around the clearing. "He knows about Raven getting married!"

"Who knows?" Faybelle demanded.

"The Headmaster! He's looking for Raven as we speak! And boy was he in a state!" Kitty stated looking impressed, which did not bode well, when Kitty was impressed by something it rarely boded well. "Blondie's warning the others but we have to move quickly!"

"Our ride will be here any minute." Mira assured absently touching a finger to the amulet she wore around her neck that would help disguise her magical signature, just incase she needed to use her powers, it just wouldn't do for Clawstorm to be found out this soon, especially in Wonderland.

"It's going to be Wonderladiful to be back home again!" Maddie cheered and giggled.

XXX

"So…" Hunter began, running a finger over Nevermore's back, the dragon peeking curiously at the fairgrounds all around her with wide little dragon eyes. "Raven got married. To Faybelle. Never would have guessed that outcome."

"I don't approve of it either." Ashlynn sighed. "But it's not like she had much choice, it was either marry Faybelle or be forced to live in the woods as a nameless enchantress."

"Still, I'm worried about Faybelle's scheme in all of this." Hunter muttered. "When she's in a deal with someone she tends to go the extra mile to squeeze every last bit of what she can get out of it."

"Oh she said upfront that she plans on trying to seduce Raven into staying her wife for a longer period of time since Raven has proven herself so useful as a spouse." Ashlynn informed nonchalantly.

"Does Raven know about this?" Hunter asked in equal parts concern and protectiveness.

"From what Briar and I have seen she's handling Faybelle like a champ, it's Apple who's flipping out over this. Apparently the two of them are fighting over who gets her. Raven's trying to ignore it of course, but ah… it's not going to be that easy for long." Ashlynn shrugged helplessly.

"Yeah well I don't like either option. Faybelle is a lunatic! And as far as I can tell, from the downcast looks and the constant flinches whenever the subject of Snow White's tale comes up, Apple has not yet figured out what she wants outta life. Why can't Raven attract somebody whose both stable and knows who the hex they are? …No offence meant to your friend sweetness but Apple should be more concerned with figuring out her life before trying to lay claim onto Raven." Hunter complained as he gently pulled Nevermore away from a booth, just in time before the little dragon managed to swipe a cone of cotton candy into her tiny thieving claws.

"I know that you don't mean anything malicious by it sweetie, and you do hold a point with both of them, as terrible it is for me to say. Do you need me to help you adjust her harness?" Ashlynn asked, smirking slightly as Hunter struggled to keep Nevermore from crawling up his head to try her luck at the cotton candy again.

"You're too kind." Hunter spoke around the foot using his lip as a step.

"Mister Spider said that he saw Mister Dumpty walk in this direction with Miss Queen and Miss White…" The Headmaster and Giles passed by, scanning the crowd for the blond boy.

Ashlynn turned to Hunter. "Play along." She hissed under her breath.

"Raven (pet) is pregnant?" The princess's sudden, loud exclamation causing the two older men to startle and freeze in their tracks.

"Miss Queen is what?" The Headmaster's voice pitched a few octaves higher than normal as he rounded on the two teens.

"Raven's pet dragon looks like she's pregnant." Ashlynn blinked at the Headmaster blankly. "Some boy threw a bunch of flowers into the girl's dorms a few days ago and Apple and Raven are having a difficult time keeping Nevermore, Raven's pet dragon, from eating too many of the edible flowers, she's starting to get a gut on her that's making her look pregnant. That's why they're having a bunch of their friends take turns watching her during the day until they've fully cleared out their dorm."

"Wrrrrdle?" Nevermore Looked between Ashlynn and the two startled men as hunter arranged her so that her stomach (which really was visibly extended) was visible to see.

Ashlynn whipped out her phone and took a picture of the dragon. "I was going to send some pictures to a few of my friends." The princess smiled brightly, typing a quick hext to Humphrey, warning him that the Headmaster was looking for him and that he needed to hide. Now.

The Headmaster clutched his chest and turned away to collect himself. He idly wondered why life seemed keen to keep throwing scare tactics and long lost Grimm heirs at him, it was just getting more and more difficult to see Miss Queen as just another student and his daughter as the Evil Queen. Funny how a simple confirmation of genetics brought up all of these latent paternal instincts, quite frankly this whole business left him positively petrified.

Giles smiled fondly at the dragon, reaching a finger out for the creature to sniff. "Raven's grandmother had a dragon familiar while she attended the school as well, if I remember correctly I believe that Raven mentioned that Nevermore was one of Nightshade's hatchlings, very good news for this particular species. Along with being one of the choice dragon breeds of the Queen royal family it is also one of the most endangered. You can only find a handful of wild colonies scattered around Ever After due to poaching and habitat loss. The Queen family has an extensive conservation program for the smaller endangered dragons and other creatures native to their lands."

"So that makes Nevermore a royal princess!" Hunter perked up, snuggling the purring dragon to him. "What a special girl you are. Yes you are! Your so precious." Hunter cooed in baby talk.

"Nightshade's hatchling…" The Headmaster murmured remembering Elenore's most cherished childhood familiar, the male dragon used to curl regally around Elenore's shoulders whenever she took him out to the village or one of her and Milton's dates.

"Mister Huntsman, Miss Ella, have you seen Miss Queen anywhere recently?" The Headmaster cleared his throat.

"Not since the fair started sirs." Hunter shrugged. "The Ferris wheel is the highest point here, why don't you take a ride and see if you can spot her from there?"

"Good idea Mister Huntsman." The Headmaster praised before stalking away.

XXX

"Just as wild as the two previous times I went through that thing." Mira confirmed, staring at the pink sky with a dazed grin on her face, she felt a pang of guilt at the sight of a giant swirling poisonous green cloud off to the side of her vision. "That was fun!"

"Are you sure that you aren't related to Briar?" Apple groaned sitting up slowly. "Raven, are you all right?"

"I'm just contemplating how I seem to keep finding myself in these situations." Raven grumbled as she allowed the princess to help her sit up too, the witch leaning heavily on Apple's shoulder as she waited for her nerves to calm down.

"Are we on course?" Faybelle moaned in pain, she had landed on her arm weird and the ground was spinning, but at seeing Apple with her arm around an incapacitated Raven's shoulder the fairy pointedly dragged her body to the side and laid her head in the witch's lap.

"It's been a while since any of us has been back home, our sense of direction is all off kilter." Lizzie reminded softly, she and her fellow countrymen were the only ones standing. "Kitty is calling her mother and seeing if they can pinpoint us, for now we should stay put and await you four to regain your senses before we move along. My subjects and I will keep an eye out, even though things are calm now that could soon change."

"Well if you need any help I think that I'll soon be able to add a witch's touch to our defense." Mira promised, igniting her hand in fiery violet and crimson magical flames.

"My thanks to your offer Mira." Raven blinked blearily at the other witch. "But let's hope that it doesn't come to that, and if it does I urge you to please be careful, I don't want you getting hurt."

"My apologies your lady majesty but if it does come down to it I will protect you with the same loyalty that I would defend my home and your kingdom. I knew the dangers going in, you just focus on freeing Wonderland." Mira extinguished the flame and cast her daughter an apologetic smile.

"Why couldn't I sense your magic?" Faybelle scowled, leaning her head farther back to cast Mira a paranoid look.

"The Enchanted Mirror is sensitive to stray magic." Mira explained, tapping the amulet on her chest. "Rather difficult to teach a witchling to control her powers if the scent of untrained magic is too strong. I always wear this and a few other amulet jewelry that masks my scent so that I won't cause any upset."

"That's quite the achievement." Faybelle admitted. "Learning to use your powers despite them being dampened like that. You must be quite potent."

"So I have been told…" Mira waved her hand in a vague gesture; Clawstorm remembered how her mother used to fondly account the scare Clawstorm used to cause non-magically inclined diplomats and staff when she was just a tiny witchling and just learning to use her powers. One of her mother's favorite tales was the time Clawstorm had been barely two harvests old, she had stripped out of her party dress down to her diaper, lit her entire body up in magical fire, and streaked through the halls of one of the Charming Clan's palaces. Her mother never bothered to explain that it had been her daughter, not a ghost or a lower form of fire fae, which had caused the scene at the summer gala ball.

"I hope that we don't run into any trouble while we're here." Apple looked around nervously.

XXX

"Are you sure that the girl's showers is the best place to hide this thing?" Briar asked, hugging the burlap bag in her arms for dear life.

"Yep. Nobody goes in there. And nobody is going to look in the vents for it, Raven said that the Grimm brothers could only sense the Book if it was nearby and that they were working on ways of increasing their sensitivity to it, and while it is incredibly rare for one of them to be in the girl's dorms… if an emergency happens they will come, we got lucky that they had been so distracted a few days ago when Edward released all of those flowers into the girl's dorms, Giles seemed suspicious though so it probably was a matter of time before they came looking." Cerise confirmed crossing her arms.

"Everybody is at the fair, nobody will take notice of us sneaking through the woods on the long route to the girl's showers." Briar looked around the empty pathway with a sigh.

"Say, do you have any ideas as to why the Headmaster and Giles keep showing up at Raven's classes?" Cerise asked out of the blue. "She's really starting to get creeped out."

"The tattoos have got them spooked." Briar nodded to herself. "A contract that thorough spells something serious going down, and since they should know by now the upset with the Queen land's neighbors, it isn't that hard to guess that serious trouble will soon start coming around. Though why the Headmaster has just been watching Raven from the sidelines as much as he has been doing instead of attempting to ask her upfront what is going on is unclear…"

"He smells scared." Cerise admitted. "And rather mournful, maybe he-"

Cerise was cut off when leaping out of the bushes with a terrified squeak, came a squirrel that darted between their legs, soon followed by a peeved off mountain ram that brushed so closely by the two girls that it caused them both to trip and fall over each other, the bag with the Book of Legends inside flying out of Briar's arms off the path, down a small cliff face and into the awaiting mouth of the Well of Wonder wishing well.

"Aw 'cmon!" Briar growled as Cerise gaped wide-eyed over the cliff's edge. "What are the odds? Are we cursed or something?"

XXX

"Don't go saying stuff like that!" Faybelle hissed to Apple before making to stand up. "You'll jinx us all."

"Any news on our escort?" Raven asked Maddie while standing up herself, cutting off a potential fight between Apple and the fairy.

"We landed just a bit pretty far off course, but don't worry, our childhood friends Bunny and Alistair are nearby see!" Maddie pointed to two approaching figures waving at them from several yards away. "They'll lead us safely to the whatchamacallit sight!"

"Well that's great-" Raven began but flinched and fell back into Mira's arms when a wave of… something hit her senses.

"Something's coming." Mira nearly groaned in irritation when she sensed the Book of Legends coming towards them. Clawstorm unconsciously held her daughter tighter, of all the times that blasted thing had to show up it had to be in dangerous unfamiliar territory.

The approaching two figures began running forward the moment they saw both witch's react violently and nearly collapse.

"Is everything all rig- Woah!" A blonde boy ducked when an object surrounded in a yellow glow flew by his head.

"Alistair, are you okay?" The boy's companion, a blond girl with rabbit ears rushed to the boy's side.

"Oh for the love of-." Clawstorm growled menacingly at the Book of Legends now floating in front of the two of them, wisps of candlelight yellow magic curling around both herself and her daughter almost happily.