Chapter Text
No matter what Raven did she never could live up to the expectations the whole world seemed to expect from her. Growing up had been a constant battle of being too “good” for a future evil queen or being too “evil” by simply existing.
Her nursery-rhyme school teachers had scolded her when she tried to get a bandage for a boy who fell on the playground.
“That kind of behavior isn’t acceptable for a villain,” they said. She wasn’t allowed to watch the younger kids on the swingsets, take attendance, or even pass out papers. They called her insistence on trying to help “unnatural”. She had even heard one of the school’s administrators tell her father he should be upset with her behavior.
But why?
It had never made any sense to her. You were supposed to be kind, weren’t you? She often wondered to herself in the time-out corner. People were always so happy when other people complimented them or offered assistance with what they were doing. But when she tried to tell Duchess her new dress was pretty, and she really meant it—it was made up of beautiful feathers and beadery that Raven could only guess took forever after to sew—the other girl told the class that Raven ate spiders. No one wanted to play with her after that.
Things only got worse from there. The older she got the more people expected her to be evil. They ran and screamed when she entered a room, but frowned when she failed to cast any sort of spells or try to poison any damsels. Teachers and principals stopped telling her father that her behavior was not right for someone of her destiny and instead punished her. When she yelled at Sparrow for making fun of Humphrey, she was given detention.
When none of the other kids would even look at her, except to point and jeer, Raven made friends with her shadow. Not even the kitchen staff would smile at her when she was forced to wash the lunch trays for trying to offer someone her spot in line. They were all too worried that one of the students would catch them being nice to a villain, and they’d lose their job.
At least, that was how Raven rationalized it. She told herself that they just didn’t want to get in trouble. It was no fun having extra work to do, and it wasn’t really their fault that they couldn’t be seen with her. So she decided to help out even more than she was required to. No matter how many hours she spent cleaning desks, sweeping floors, or writing apology notes she always made sure that some of the teacher’s desks would “magically” be organized or the dishes in the sink would already be soaking before the cook even started to clean them.
Raven did all of this by hand, of course. Her magic wasn’t anywhere close to manageable, and she didn’t want to accidentally burn down the playground by trying to help. Instead, she did the work on her own without any help from her powers. It was hard work at first, but she came to enjoy it. It gave her an excuse to hide away from her peers who would sneer and yell at her. It even ended up helping her make friends.
Not human ones of course, or even humanoid. They all still glared or ran from her. However, the animals near the school never minded who her mother was.
The rats were the first to come near her. Raven was scared of them when she saw the small creatures skittering around the edges of the classrooms. She had only ever seen them before in her mother’s dungeons or in her labs. But when she handed them a bit of bread from her lunch, they didn’t run or bite her. They liked to nuzzle up to her in hopes of treats, and she took to carrying around a jacket so that her new friends could hide if they needed to.
The birds were the next creatures brave enough to seek her out. Raven stayed clear of them; she was used to the more violent ones her mother was fond of. However, she was forced to run towards one when one of her rats was about to be eaten.
“Stop!” she cried out, and the shock was enough to give the rodent a chance to hide before the bird noticed. It turned to stare at her, and she apologized for stealing its lunch, “I’m sorry, but he’s my friend. You can’t eat him. I don’t have many of those.” The bird cocked its head to the side and cautiously hopped towards her. It flew to land on her shoulder and gave a small tweet.
It was unlikely that Raven was without an animal by her side after that. The bird had called its friends, and the kids at school were less likely to try and hurt her, or even come near her, if they thought she was poisoning a helpless forest creature. Indoors she had the rats. She had to keep them hidden unless she wanted the Pied Piper called, but they were still there for her. Her days at school were not wonderful, but they were much better than they had been.
That was until a teacher had spotted her with a dove on her finger.
Raven had been telling Mr. Dove all about the new recipe she got her family’s cook to agree to let her help with. “It’s a kind of pie…I think,” she laughed. All of a sudden, a scream sounded from behind her. When Raven turned to look, she saw one of the younger kids’ teachers, Miss Flower, with her finger stretched towards her.
The other staff and the kids came running towards her. Raven tried to ask what was wrong, but no one would answer her. The bigger kids blocked her way, and they pushed her back when she wiggled past them. The principal arrived to see a mob facing the young Queen and she was dragged towards his office.
The principal and vice principal called her father, and proceeded to rattle off her list of “crimes” and “offenses”.
No one would listen to her protests that she and the dove were friends. Not even the other birds could help, as when they tried to tweet and squawk their agreement, the vice principal closed the blinds. The rocks and twigs the animals threw at the window only helped proved their point that she had spelled them to create an “evil army”
The Good King came, but his soft-spoken words and solemn face couldn’t help his daughter. Not when they were already sure of her guilt.
“I am sorry, sir. However, this is a school for all fairytale characters. Think of what would happen if your daughter tried to poison one of the toddlers?” the principal demanded. “There would be outrage that we didn’t put a stop to this sooner!”
“I didn’t spell them!” Raven yelled. “The birds and rats are my friends I promise!”
The vice principal shook his head. “That just proves our point. From the day she started here, Raven Queen has been nothing but trouble! What kind of a villain tries to help? Our teachers have caught her trying to bring in sweets for the other kids. Sweets!” He roared. “They weren’t even poisoned.”
Raven frowned, “But you just said that I shouldn’t poison-”
“See!” The principal pointed. “She admits it! She isn’t even trying to follow her destiny!”
The vice principal nodded, “That’s her plan, isn’t it. She wants to make everyone go poof!”
The administrators' faces went pale, and they ignored Raven’s pleas for them to listen.
“My daughter isn’t even in high-school yet! How could she-” The Good King protested, but the staff wouldn’t listen, too busy throwing out theories for what the future evil queen’s plans were.
Finally, her dad sighed. He reached forward and signed the papers to pull Raven out of school, grabbed her hand and took her to the carriage.
Raven couldn’t stop her tears from forming when one of her tiny friends gave a small squeak of confusion. “I”m sorry, but I have to go.” She gave all of the rats the last of the crumbs in her pockets, stroked the heads of all the birds, and tried to not listen to the angry yells from the other parents.
Once they were in the carriage, the Good King turned to look at his daughter. “Raven,” he began with a heavy sigh, but she cut him off.
“Dad, what did I do wrong?” Raven cried. “None of the other kids wanted to be friends with me, so why couldn’t I be friends with the animals?”
The Good King blinked back the tears in his eyes at the sight of his daughter crying and started again, “Raven, your life is always going to be difficult because of your destiny. There’s going to be many people who won’t like you because of what your mother did and because of what you are going to do.”
Raven bit her lip. “What if I don’t want to do that?” she whispered, looking away from her father. “What if I don’t want to be evil?”
Apple White knew her story was one of the most important ones in the book. She grew up listening to her destiny every night. Her nursemaids rotated through different versions of Snow Whites, but they always finished with her mother’s story.
Apple loved her legacy. She daydreamed during lessons. imagining how her villain would poison her. Would Raven start with the comb? She wondered. Go for the corset like her grandmother’s evil queen? Or maybe she’d just stick with the apple. That’s what Raven’s mother had done. Start with the classic and then go big!
Sometimes, she didn’t think it was very fairest. Apple’s mom got to have one of the wickedest villains to exist ever after! Not only did she poison Snow White, but she also took over for the Evil Fairy! Cursed Wonderland! How could she hope to have a story even half as memorable as that?
Of course, Apple pitied the poor Wonderlandians who had to deal with the spell. They hadn’t yet managed to dispel the curse, after all. She regularly sat through court discussions of how to deal with the evil magic that still plagued the land. She knew the curse was an awful thing to have to deal with.
But still! You couldn’t not admit that it was an absolute page ripper! Apple was just dying to hear what Raven planned to do for their destiny. She couldn’t imagine that the daughter of one of the evilest evil queens to ever after wouldn’t be just as wicked! They were going to need something spelltacular to try and one up their parents. Oh! Like more spells! Apple smiled.
They also needed something that would help the citizens of Ever After to see that Apple was just as perfect a Snow White as the rest have been. She had blonde hair, sure. No other Snow White ever had that. But it wasn’t like she didn’t fit every other characteristic! She had lips red as the rose and skin pale as snow. She even checked every so often to make sure!
Her mother tried to quiet down any whispers about Apple’s looks when they went out in public. A good princess had to help her people, and that meant meeting them! (Even though charity work could be utterly hexausting sometimes.) Though she was also quick to remind her daughter that they were worried, “A blonde Snow White makes them scared for the future of their stories. You have to show them that they have nothing to fear.”
Her mother was always good at advice. She knew the perfect way to sit, speak, eat, stand, and everything else! Apple tried to live up to her mother in every way possible. It was difficult sometimes, but it would all be worth it once she bit into the apple.
After that moment, everything would be just as perfect as it was for her mother. Apple would have a kingdom full of kind citizens, a wonderful prince who would wake her from her enchanted slumber, and a wonderful job keeping Ever After as wonderful as it had been for generations.
“Your highness,” Apple turned to see one of her ladies-in-waiting, Mimsie at her door, “Your mother has requested your presence in her chambers.”
She smiled. That was just like her mother, wanting to give her daughter some last-minute encouragement before she set off to school. She really was the sweetest. Apple gave her usual warm smile to Mimsie, “Thank you for telling me! I will be there at once!”
She didn’t have much left to do in her room, after all. The servants had already packed her wardrobe, and she had special furniture for her dorm room. Her parents gave her permission to order whatever she wanted to make her room spelltacular for her legacy year. It was so unbelievably kind of them, but Apple was saving it for a very special purpose. She was going to give her gift to her roommate.
Well, her roommate who didn't know she was her roommate yet, but Apple wasn’t worried. She hadn’t gotten to speak to Raven much the previous few years at Ever After High; they were in different classes, Raven with her villain schedule and Apple with her absolutely packed princess, royal, and damsel classes, and had never really had the chance to talk about anything much less their tastes in decorations. However, she just knew her roomie would love what Apple picked out for her!
A small cough sounded from the doorframe, and Apple spun around to see her mother there.
“I am so sorry, mom! I was just about to head to your chambers! I got distracted thinking about my new roommate and I forgot what it was.” She smiled sheepishly.
Apple’s Mother hummed, “Yes, well remember little dove that a princess is always on time. It wouldn’t look good for a Snow White to wake up too long after true love’s kiss. Now about your roommate.”
The queen moved around her daughter’s room before sitting gracefully on one of Apple’s chairs and Apple quickly copied her, too quickly if Snow White’s look was anything to go by. “You are certain that it won’t be too dangerous for you to have Raven Queen as a roommate? Why, when I was in school, I would never have dreamed of having my villain anywhere near me! Let alone in my dorm.”
Apple nodded, her smile growing tense, “Yes, I know, mom. But I have given this a lot of thought, and I think it would do the two of us good to figure out how we’re going to try and top your story.”
Snow White laughed, “I’m not sure you’ll be able to do that Apple-dumpling. Our story was legendary. However, you can certainly try your hardest. I do hope she’s inherited some of her mother’s talent for wickedness though no one could hope to come close to her powers even if that someone is her daughter!”
Apple nervously giggled at her mom’s reminiscing, “I won’t disappoint you, mom! You know how much I love our family tradition!”
“Of course I know, my dove. That’s why I’ll be keeping a close eye on all you do this year. It is Legacy Year, and all the fairytale world will be looking towards you. I wouldn’t be a good mother if I didn’t make sure you’re living up to all you can be, now would I?” Snow White booped her daughter on the nose, smiled, and left the room.
Apple smiled until she was sure her mother was down the hall. Her mom was the best, but sometimes talking with her could be hextremely tiring. She had the best story in ages, but she was always getting on Apple’s case about it.
She sighed before quickly fixing her face. Frowning leads to wrinkles, as her mother was always saying. Wait a spell! Did her ladies-in-waiting pack her enchanted mirror? Or her hair care products? There were a lot of them, and it could be easy to forget one of the steps. She wouldn’t be upset if they did! It could happen to anyone. Well not her, but not everyone could be as effortlessly perfect, she thought to herself.
A ping from her mirrorphone made Apple beam. Her decorations for Raven were already at the school! She was so thoughtful! Her roomie was going to love her! She was so ready for Legacy Day! After all, what could go wrong?