Love seems to be in the air at Monster High, while Ever After has something looming over it. Everyone scrambled to clear the air before it gets out of hand.

The nurse's office of Monster High was a hotbed of activity today, which in any sane person's opinion, was never a good thing. The good news was that despite it being filled up, there wasn't any serious physical injuries.

However, Cupid herself couldn't say that the two lying on the beds weren't suffering through some magical maladies either.

"It seems like they've stabilized. Still showing no signs of waking up." Double D had already checked more than enough times for it to be worrying within itself. "I understand those arrows were magical, but they should've done something by now."

"Why do you have those types of arrows lying around?" Clawdeen had her arms crossed, nearly hovering over her friends as much as Double D was. Cupid could at least count on her to remain calm. "Love magic sounds pretty dangerous if you ask me."

"That's why it's usually done by licensed professionals, as well as only given out rarely." Cupid was offended they thought she was so careless. "I was able to get permission for these from several different love gods. Though, I do think Valentine did mess around with the magic on them a bit."

Cupid knew that much. She was busy dispelling at least his part of the spell first, much less the original one. That'd require more specific materials.

"I should be able to wake them up soon, but that's only one part of the spell I need to deal with." Cupid needed to know what specifically Valentine changed, and that meant making them conscious again. "Depending on their reaction, I can either dispel it by myself, or I'm going to need some very specific components."

Cupid hoped that wouldn't be the case, and the sentiment was obviously shared. She put the finishing touches on the potion and grabbed a turkey baster. "Alright. I'm going to give them a few drops. Be prepared for anything because this could get messy."

She took a small portion from the bottle, squeezing out a few drops into Cerise and Maddie's mouths. She screwed the lid back on tight and handled it gingerly.

"Why not use the whole bottle? Might wake them up quicker." Clawdeen moved closer to Cerise, reaching out and squeezing her hand. "We need to get all hands on deck now. Everyone at Ever After High hasn't been answering our calls."

"I want to keep some for anyone else Valentine shoots. I doubt he's only sticking with two people." Cupid got a nod in return for the answer. "Any update from everyone else going after him, though?"

"Ed texted back a couple of times, but they haven't seen him. At least Kieran knows he's in trouble after all of this." Double D heard some shuffling from Maddie's end, taking all of his attention. "She's waking- Maddie! Maddie, it's me. Are you alright?"

The girl stirred and Double D moved so she was sitting up slightly, an arm supporting her back. Maddie looked dazed, though she was able to move herself around a little bit.

"Cerise is coming back too." Clawdeen could hear some grumbling come from Cerise and was helping the girl get back up too. "Sorry to say this, but you might need to change out of the spring stuff right now. We've got a vampire to catch."

Cerise rubbed at her eyes, opening one of them to look Clawdeen up and down. With an almost drunken look on her face, she smiled. "Maybe I'd be willing to if you helped me out. Might have to get Cupid out of the room, though."

Clawdeen almost nodded before what the girl said finally registered. Ears standing at attention, she had to think twice before answering. "Did-did you just finally learn how to flirt?"

"AH!"

The sudden noise brought everyone's attention over to Double D, who was trying to lean back as Maddie tried to kiss his cheek. He had some lipstick marks already and he didn't look intent on getting more. "Maddie, please control yourself! We have company!"

"I don't think anyone here will mind that much." Maddie actually sounded drunk, causing Double D to make sure she didn't fall over with how she suddenly moved backward. "Now come on, I'm sure my breath doesn't smell bad. I had some fruity tea earlier just in case something like this happened."

"Oh no." Cupid watched the chaos unfold before rushing back over to the desk where her chemicals were. "Oh, this isn't good. This is way too much."

"Cupid, what exactly is this?" Clawdeen could feel Cerise moved into her arms too, causing the werewolf to grab her and hold her away instinctively. "Cerise has never been this forward before, and Maddie isn't that affectionate."

"I only had enough to make sure they weren't under Valentine's control, but it appears that he also amped up the original properties too." Cupid mentally checked off what they had already, knowing that they didn't have enough to solve this problem. "I'm going to need some stuff from my office not only to cure them, but everyone else he shoots today too. You two hold them off, I'll be right back!"

"Wait, don't go! I don't think I can hold her down much longer!" Double D shouted, but the cherub was already flying out of the room. He let out a groan before looking between him and Clawdeen. "You wouldn't mind switching real quick? Maddie is a lot stronger than she looks."

The werewolf didn't resist as Double D used his octo-arms to hand Maddie over to her and take Cerise. There was a distinct whine coming from the two at first, but they seemed to get over it quickly.

"Please tell me you're going to be a little more manageable." Clawdeen did note that despite being moved, she was still acting cuddly, which admittedly wasn't too different from normal. "…what are you looking at?"

Maddie was looking at her nails with open fascination and then over to her fangs. She and Clawdeen realized the problem was only going to get worse. "Are those claws and fangs just for show?"

"Cerise, biting me is worse than trying to kiss me!"

Double D was realizing it failed to work on his own end too. Cerise wasn't going to hard at least since apparently he could hold her off. He used his octo-arms again to grab both and put them back on their beds. Then the two reached out to each other, casing both beds to be put on opposite sides of the room.

"I guess we really can't leave them alone." Double D forced himself to be patient with all of this. They were both essentially drugged, so their behavior wasn't really their fault. That also meant that anything that happened to them would be outside of the realm of consent. "God knows what they'd end up doing if we went out."

"Right. I'll update everybody else. I'll see if Cleo or anybody else at Ever After could lend a hand." Clawdeen grabbed her phone and started going into her contacts. When she tried to call, the line instantly went dead. "Huh. Actually, can you give it a shot? Mine ain't working for some reason."

Double D brought out a MirrorPhone, noting the amount of bars he had. "I'm getting nothing too. Looks like we're on our own until Cupid comes back with the cure."

He hoped the cherub would hurry. He didn't know how much they could take of this.

Cleo and Raven didn't really enjoy the thought of separating, but it made sense to try and capture every single person that was conceivablely cursed to be a part of all this. The two had moved on their own to track down Cedar, which would've normally been a piece of cake considering she wasn't all that strong or fast.

That had turned out to be half true when they tracked her down to the server room that kept up the cell signal for both schools. Only to find a good amount of it trashed and Cedar stating that she had no idea what happened.

"You really aren't good at this, you know. I feel like you need to know that." Cleo tapped the wooden girl on the head, rolling her eyes. "Next time, maybe throw away the club before trying to act so surprised."

"Don't give her any ideas while she's cursed. Apple's apparently giving her enough of that already." Raven was trying to fix some of the tech, if only in a rudimentary way. She could at least get the hardware repaired, but anything related to software would have to be left to someone else. "If we see Dexter, Humphrey, or Jackson, we'll have to send them over here. My magic can reverse the damage, but it might not be as strong."

"Meaning we can't call for help at Monster High. Fang-tastic." Cleo figured the living puppet wouldn't be going anywhere for a while, especially with the curse of her staff being put on her. "Maybe we'll get Daring to take Cedar away too. I don't want to drag her around if we go after Apple or to my school."

"Daring definitely wouldn't take me back to Apple if you do that." Cedar muttered, any struggling she made being futile. "He's certainly brave enough to go against her if needed."

Cleo raised an eyebrow, making note of that. "And that adds five to possibly cursed victims then. Eddy might enjoy knowing about that."

There was some cursing from the puppet at that. It would've been amusing if it wasn't disturbing due to the circumstances.

"Hey, is anybody down here !?"

The shout caused both girls to tense before the doors to the room burst open. They were seconds away from attacking before they saw it was Briar, who was breathing heavily in the doorway.

"Can somebody explain what's going on around here? Things have been going wrong ever since I heard about the Book of Legends." Briar started counting things off. "I'm pretty sure I saw all of Ashlynn's woodland friends trampling people. Hunter has started shooting trick arrows at people like he's Green Arrow. Daring even screamed at the sight of a squirrel!"

The girl stopped for a moment, finally noticing Cedar being tied up in a corner. "…And that. I'm assuming that she's acting weird too."

"I'm so not!"

"She's been cursed, as well as other people too." Raven sighed, figuring that Briar was at least acting normal. "That book that was brought back wasn't only a fake, but also packed with something heavy and it's making people act a lot differently. Apple was hit first."

"You wouldn't have happened to have seen her right? We're quite sure she's been showing people the book at every opportunity." Cleo looked pensive. "I don't exactly want to fight an entire student body. I don't think my public image can recover from that."

"I don't think that's the worst of our problems… at least, not yet." Briar shivered. An Evil Apple wasn't something she hoped to see today. It didn't sound like she had a choice. "I do know where Ashlynn and Hunter are. They haven't really hurt anybody, but they seem to be escalating. I don't know how long it'll be until she calls bigger animals, and he starts using real arrows."

"Just give me a few… more…seconds." Raven let the metal warp back together, quickly pulling out her phone. She sighed. "Okay, that was wishful thinking. Like I said, we should find someone to do some of the software before we can start calling people again."

The two made a move to leave, prompting Briar to grab Raven before she could go.

"Those two from Wonderland," Briar started, trying to find the right words that wouldn't implicate her in all of this. "What about them? They say anything else about the Book of Legends?"

"We only know that Kitty's mom probably took it. If we're lucky, she went in after them too." Raven didn't think they would be. "If you can, feel free to keep an eye out for her. Other than that, we'd really appreciate any help with anything else."

Briar nodded. It was hard to smile, but she was able to fake it. "Sure. Don't want my friends getting arrested, right?"

Raven was out the door quickly, and Cleo just clapped her shoulder and joined her. Briar swayed, wondering what her options were. She could go search for the Cheshire Cat, or she could help take down her brainwashed friends. More immediate threat to everyone, or the possibly devastating one that could result in her banishment.

She hated making serious decisions like this. Then again, a lot of this could be traced back to her.

Briar looked briefly over at Cedar, still tied up and unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon. The puppet girl looked her over for a brief moment and smiled creepily.

"You're looking as great as ever, Briar."

Briar shivered.

"Friends first." She muttered as she hurried out the door to join Raven and Cleo. "Definitely friends first."

It was after some time searching for Valentine that they all had come to one conclusion; love spells were more trouble than they were worth.

"I've found another one! A guy this time."

"Put them over with some of the others, Clawd." That was the fifth one they'd found in this hallway alone. Valentine was on a spree apparently, and it didn't look like any of them were waking up. Ghoulia was still looking them over just in case. "I'm not getting any activity from this one. They're at least as alive as they should be."

Ed kept trying to activate his hypnosis as he kept one of the victim's eyes open. When it didn't work, he sighed and let them be. "That was the fifth person I've tried that on and I'm getting nothing. Maybe we should wait until they wake up first."

"That might be best. Should I get some water and start splashing them with it?" Draculaura was pacing around, obviously panicking. "Or would that be a shock to their systems? Should we wait until Cupid's done then?"

"Babe, you're starting to ramble." Clawd didn't know what to do either, but it wasn't like he was normally the one to come up with a plan. "All we have to do is find Valentine, and I'm sure we can take him down pretty easily."

"If we can find him before he knocks out half the school." Ghoulia wondered how many arrows Valentine had left. He must've used a decent amount by now, so he probably couldn't even reach that number. "I'm not entirely sure what he's hoping to accomplish considering none of his victims are currently awake."

"It's called the long game, sweetheart. I'm sure you've heard of it."

There was a pause as the staticky voice of Valentine pierced the silence. Ed looked around and saw some iCoffins littering the area, prompting him to grab at least one. He could see the other teen's face as he fiddled with one of Cupid's arrows.

"Hey, Kieran! How's it going buddy?" Ed started out casually, trying to get a good look at where Valentine was sitting. "Was hoping we could meet up and talk about this. Maybe in person too?"

"I'd rather not." Valentine quickly made his denial, which only earned him some glares from his pursuers. "I'm honestly surprised you aren't with your friends right now. Shouldn't they be the first people you need to take care of?"

"Kieran, you really need to stop right now before someone gets hurt." Draculaura grabbed a phone for herself, trying to plead with him. "Elissabat may be the new Vampire Queen, but I don't think she'll let you slide for this."

"I'll deal with that when the time comes." Valentine did look disturbed for a brief moment as he remembered that fact. "Besides, you should be more worried about the present. I'm guessing you've found some of the people I've used my magic on."

"You mean the ones you shot." Clawd grumbled. He could've sworn one of the people twitched and it nearly caused him to freak out then and there. "What did you do to them? Cupid's arrows shouldn't work like this."

"It's all fairly simple. A gift from the gods they may be, the simple fact is that they're enchanted arrows with a limited supply." Valentine shrugged. "A few simple adjustments make sure that whatever focus the victim would have is shifted onto me. Albeit I couldn't just let them walk around. At least, not at first."

The sound of movement caused everyone to stiffen, and Ed instantly sent a few tentacles to capture whatever was moving around. One of the victims had started to get up and, after getting caught in Ed's clutches, claw at the tentacles futilely. Glowing pink eyes stared out as the victim's mouth remained open.

"So, you're mind controlling them." Ed almost wanted to say he made them into a "love zombie," but that would be an insult to zombies of all kinds. "That isn't all that special. I can kind of do that if you give me a few seconds."

"It's a little more complex than that. I mean, the cherub unfortunately didn't have too many arrows to work with." He smiled then. "That's why I needed to spread my own love in a different type of way."

The rest of the victims started to stand up as well, a pink mist coming out of their mouths as they breathed out. Everyone currently unaffected started to back off, Ed even letting go of the original victim so they could all move away from the mist.

"Nobody breathe that in. I don't know what it'll do, but we can't afford to be stuck under his spell for too long." Ghoulia had a few guesses as to what it could do, but this wasn't the time to test it. "Valentine, why are you doing this? This is starting to reek of desperation."

"…I wouldn't speak to me about desperation. I'm not the one in trouble here." The way he sounded made that statement sound patently false. He waved them off, the broadcast starting to turn fuzzy. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to settle a few more things in the meantime. Besides, I'm feeling particularly puckish right now."

The broadcast cut out, prompting Ed to grab everyone and lift themselves off the ground. The mind-controlled victims started to lumber after them, the pink mist starting to pool on the bottom of the floor, but he was already moving towards the one of the air ducts.

"Let's get inside here for now. I don't think we can fight any one of them directly." Ed didn't think it would be right to actually attack them since they weren't in control of themselves. "Ghoulia, do you have any other ideas?"

"Quarantine. We need to find any other people unaffected by this love fog and make sure they don't add to Valentines numbers." That was the best plan for now. At least, up until Ghoulia could figure out how to get rid of the fog entirely. "He's got us on the retreat. We'll regroup with the others once cell service comes back on."

She had a feeling something bigger was going on, but she had to focus on this right now. Hopefully, the others weren't having too hard of a time.

There was one thing that could be described about an evil version of Apple that was one-hundred percent true; she was effective and clearly knew how to execute a plan.

Eddy just wasn't sure what her plan even was.

"I have to admit it; Apple really knows what she's doing." Kitty watched the chaos, obviously impressed. "Not enough to warrant shutting everything down, but definitely big enough for people to notice."

The festival was starting to get upended, with various stalls closed down and some of the rides obviously glitching out. Animals that would've normally remained hidden in the forest were running around, eating, and destroying various pieces of equipment. There were attempts by plenty of different people to bring the situation under control, but it wasn't working.

"It's easy for her because she planned the festival in the first place. Of course she knows how to destroy it." It actually irked Eddy. It was obvious that Apple wasn't completely throwing everything out because this place would be rubble by now. "She definitely knows how to use Ashlynn and Hunter too."

"You sure it was a good idea to send Alistair and Bunny off? They could've been somewhat useful." Kitty figured that they could do well with some bigger numbers. "Maybe not at fighting, but maybe as meat shields."

"I'm not in the mood to deal with their sexual tension right now. Besides, the less targets to hit, the more likely anything thrown at us will miss." Eddy already had one boulder thrown at him today anyway. "We just need to find and take out Apple, and she's a schemer, not a fighter."

Kitty shrugged, prompting Eddy to look around. He found at least one person that wasn't actively doing anything, and he raised his hand to wave at them.

"Sparrow, how have you been?" Eddy started, making sure the archer was paying full attention to him. "I'd ask if you've seen anything weird, but it's not like you have anything else to do BUT watch."

"Ha ha, very funny." Sparrow was currently preoccupied being tied up to a random pole. He didn't appear to like it all that much. "If you see Duchess anywhere, can you remind her to untie me? I haven't had anything to eat for hours, and I'd rather not eat ribbons."

"Can't break out of these all on your own? I'd think the heir of Robin Hood would know how to escape a few ribbons." Kitty made a few jabs at his predicament easily. She could cut him out with her claws, but… "We'll free you if you can tell us where Apple is. Or if you've seen anybody acting especially weird."

"I would, but I don't exactly have the best vantage point here." Sparrow struggled against the ribbons, somehow not making a tear. "And Duchess is much better at tying knots than you'd think."

"I didn't need to know that, but good for you I guess." Eddy ignored the baffled look that went across the other boy's face. "We're serious, Soul Patch. Being tied up will be the least of your problems if we don't get something done soon."

"Fine, fine. I was actually starting to wonder what was going on around here anyway." Sparrow leaned over conspiratorially to the two after he check out the area first. "Have you two seen Daring lately? I'm pretty sure I saw him earlier and he was acting kinda weird."

Eddy almost wasn't surprised to hear that. Almost. "Weird in what way?"

"Dude looked pretty scared or something. Saw him moving around the place all shifty with some kind of box." Sparrow did show a bit of concern about that. He jerked his head to where some of the food stalls kept their supplies. "Saw him go over there and then leave a heck of a lot quicker than he went in."

"Huh, weird. Never knew Charming could cook." Kitty leaned over to Eddy, still keeping the smile on her face despite her next words. "Please tell me Apple doesn't know how to make a bomb. I don't know how to diffuse one, and I really don't want to learn how."

Bombs... well, that didn't really match Apple's style. Would've been too obvious, especially since there would've been at least a few more eyewitnesses than just Sparrow. If someone other than them knew to look for her, than whatever she was planning would be that much harder. Apple may have turned evil due to a curse, but Eddy didn't think that meant she turned into an idiot. Of course, that made what she moved all the harder to determine.

Eddy didn't have to wait long to figure it out, though. It was only a moment later that he heard the sound of wings beating in the distance, causing him to turn.

"...Is that Daring's dragon heading over here?" Eddy recognized Legend, even if the dragon was still a way away. "I thought she was still resting or something."

"Oh, yeah. Still find it pretty hilarious that Daring's been riding a girl dragon this whole time." Sparrow snorted. He received a kick from Kitty for the comment, causing him to wince. "Hey! I'm just saying. Guess it also sucks though since he can't even ride Legend until her eggs hatch and everything. She's just been hanging around those incubators whenever she has the chance..."

Sparrow continued to ramble, and Eddy continued to watch Legend fly closer. The latter part of the statement stuck within his head for a few moments, prompting him to think something over.

A shot of terror went through him as something clicked.

A snap of his fingers and the ribbons on Sparrow were burnt off, nearly causing the boy to scream. Eddy grabbed him, pulled him face to face and pointed towards the still populated festival.

"Soul Patch, I need you to get everyone out of here immediately." Eddy shook him a little bit to make sure the guy paid attention. "Say there's a fire, mention a deal at the Maul, play some of your music, I don't care. Get them out of here before Legend decides to make a surprise visit."

Eddy let him go, pushing him off so he could get on with it. He didn't pay any mind to whatever the other guy said before turning to Kitty.

"So, what was that about?" Kitty pointed at the stumbling Sparrow as he did as ordered, while still getting the feeling back into his legs. "I'm all for confusing people, but I think you just scared him."

"It's the eggs."

Kitty had to blink at that one. "Scuse me?"

"It's the dragon eggs." Eddy couldn't believe it himself. The curse was really making Apple go this far? "Apple and Daring hid dragon eggs in the supplies and Legend if looking for them, and I highly doubt a dragon cares about property damage if she can't find her babies."

Kitty eyes widened, smile disappearing as she got the message finally. "Oh. I should probably find those before she gets here."

"Yeah, you should." Eddy's hands lit up, preparing to teleport away. "And I'm going to go fight a dragon apparently."

Eddy mentally cursed. Why did Apple have to be good at being evil?

He teleported once, twice, three times, both to get closer to the dragon, as well as get higher up in the air. Legend was far enough away from the festival still, and he intended to keep it that way. Eddy teleported a fourth time to close the distance, charging up a generic magic shot and firing it when he was at a good range. It hit Legend in the wing, causing the dragon to fly off course and into a few trees below her.

"Sorry about that, girl, but can't have you party crashing." Eddy knew he was going to get an earful about that later from Ed, but he'd get over it fast. "If I can get there fast enough, maybe I can trap her before she starts going on a rampage in the forest."

Eddy started to teleport again, moving closer to his target, and spotting her in a small field. He prepared to launch towards the ground, a transmutation spell at the ready to trap the dragon in dirt. She'd be fine as long as Kitty found the eggs fast enough-

SMACK.

Eddy felt some kind of blast hit him in the side, and his magic went haywire for a second. The next teleport not only went half the distance, but also left him several feet above the ground. He hit the dirt hard, rolling over a few times before being able to slide to a stop eventually.

"-or some idiot can get a lucky shot at me." Eddy was starting to believe the world had it out for him today. "I'm going to take a wild guess and assume you're here too, Princess?"

"Right again, Eddy." Apple's voice wafted through the trees, not giving away her location. "I'm surprised you thought I'd let you stop this. It took so much time to convince Daring to even touch the eggs, much less move them. He's surprisingly useless when he's cursed like this. Cowardly enough to listen to me, but not enough guts to move do much else."

"I'm guessing that's why he's not riding into battle on Legend himself." That was almost a relief. It'd be a lot simpler to fight a dragon without a rider. "What did you just hit me with? I don't think I gave you anything new lately."

"You didn't. I wasn't able to spend too much time in your workshop, but I made sure to help myself to whatever upgrade you were cooking up for me." Apple's statement caused Eddy to thank the fact they kept most of the stuff locked up. He did not want her having full access to the experimental stuff. "Were you planning on giving this to me? Or were you going to withhold it because of or our little spat? Because this upgrade does have a lot of tools that seems to work on magic users…"

Eddy tried to locate Apple, but he barely could see through the trees, much less determine where the echo was coming from. "That's not important. The heck is this all about, Princess? This feels more personal than just some curse going through you."

"How observant. I'm so surprised that you were actually able to consider something else outside of yourself for once." Apple's voice turned venomous at that. "Don't be too surprised, Eddy. It's like you said before when it came to my destiny…"

Legend must've finally recovered from her fall, as she let out a loud roar. The dragon caught sight of Eddy, and for a second, he almost couldn't help but think Apple was speaking through Legend right then.

"…maybe I'm better suited to be the Evil Queen than Raven ever would be."

Apple's laughter and the resulting roar of the dragon caused Eddy to realize this; he was not getting out of this without many, many different bruises.

Hope everyone is doing alright. Glad to get this chapter going forward and hope it's a welcome change. As always, feel free to check out any of my other stuff if you feel like seeing something new.