Once upon a time, there was a princess named Adora. She was an excitable, sporty young girl who loved horses almost as much as she loved making new friends. And now that she was turning ten years old, her parents told her it was time for something big.
Queen Mara and King Charming had been preparing for this day ever since they'd learned they were having a daughter. The tenth birthday was a very special one in the Sleeping Beauty family. It was the day their story truly began.
Adora had heard a lot about her fairy godmothers, but now she finally got to meet them. Seven kindly old ladies, like the grandmas Adora had never had, each with a different colored dress and magic wand. They lined up, one by one, to present the princess with their gifts.
"I give you the gift of kindness." The first fairy said, pressing the tip of her wand to Adora's forehead. It wasn't a very exciting gift, Adora thought she was nice enough already, but she smiled and said thank you anyways. Her mother taught her you should always be polite to fairies.
"I give you the gift of strength." The second fairy followed soon after. Now that was a gift Adora liked the sound of, she wanted to be as strong as ten princesses combined! Then she wouldn't need a sword if she had to fight a dragon or a troll or some other scary monster.
Her third gift was grace, whatever that meant. Followed by beauty, then a melodious voice, and animal handling. This went on until the seventh and final fairy, who opened her mouth to speak, but said nothing, her eyes turning to the door.
As if it had been scheduled for this exact moment, which it sort of was, the door swung open, and everyone let out a fake sounding gasp. In the doorway stood a little girl, no older than the princess, with very messy hair and a tattered red outfit.
"Hey, Adora. Nice party." The girl sniffed, walking through the banquet hall. Her shadow seemed too big for her, like there was another person standing behind her, unseen. Only a few people in attendance knew this was likely true. "Looks like I wasn't invited."
"Catra, I can explain!" Adora immediately felt guilty. She knew this was all part of the story, Sleeping Beauty wasn't allowed to invite the eighth fairy to her birthday party, but she had wanted to. Her mother put a hand on her shoulder, preventing her from getting out of her seat.
"No, it's fine… I just wanted to give you a gift." Catra took a deep breath and pointed her hands out dramatically, as sinister green sparks began to fly off her fingertips. "When the princess turns 21 years old, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die!"
The sparks grew into a ball of sickly green flames, which leaped out of Catra's hands and collided with Adora, surrounding her without burning anything. A strange, indescribable feeling spread throughout her body, like pins and needles but on the inside.
Catra looked almost excited at having successfully cast such a heavy curse, but she immediately screwed up her face in an attempt not to cry, and ran out of the room. Her shadow lingered, taking on a new shape, that of a grown woman, and seemed to become more three dimensional.
"I'm so sorry for cutting this short, Mara. You know how children can be, no appreciation for their history." Shadow Weaver, for that's who Catra's fake shadow was, joked. She looked at the queen, then the seven good fairies, then Adora herself. "I look forward to the century your family will have to spend without you, little princess."
Adora had never seen Shadow Weaver in person before. She knew this was Catra's mother, the previous Evil Fairy, and that she had put a curse on Mara a hundred years ago, but she'd never actually met her. There was something unnatural about the way she looked and even moved, with her gravity defying hair and featureless mask, that Adora knew would be in every one of her nightmares for the foreseeable future.
Shadow Weaver left the banquet hall to chase after her daughter, and the seventh fairy swooped in to perform her part of the story. "The princess will not die, just sleep for a hundred years, only to be awoken by true love's kiss!"
Everyone clapped, as if that made up for the fact that Adora would still be sleeping for an entire century. She couldn't even count to one hundred! Adora wondered how her mother got through this when she was Sleeping Beauty.
It felt like forever until the party was over, but the moment it was, and people turned their attention away from her, Adora ran out of the room and into the halls. She had to see Catra again, before they'd be pulled apart for who knows how long.
"Catra?" Adora took a left and followed the sound of muffled crying. There was her friend, wrapped up in a royal purple curtain she'd yanked off the wall, sobbing her mismatched eyes out.
The little fairy hissed, not wanting to look her only friend in the eyes. Adora didn't budge, getting closer. "It's okay, it's only me." She sat down next to the other girl, as close as she could get. "I'm not mad at you. It doesn't matter what they do to us."
"I look out for you, and you look out for me. Nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other."
"You promise?" Catra sniffled.
"I promise." Adora took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, like her mother did whenever she was sad. "Come on, let's go eat some cake."