Dark Times

First death

It's hard for Auradon to have a bad day. Okay, this place was made for the happy endings of fairy tales, so yes, it should be perfect, but the fact that there was never any heavy cloud or overcast sky was a bit strange.

Since seven in the morning Mal had been involved with her wedding preparations. Now she's tasting various sweets alongside her mother-in-law, best friend and all the princesses who seemed to have nothing to do with their lives, if only Ben was there. The only thing she wanted at the wedding was Ben, her friends, someone to perform the ceremony and if possible a chocolate strawberry cake.

She is nervous, distressed, angry, a perfect erupting volcano. She looked like the girl from years ago and it was when she felt like she was going to explode that she decided to leave.

"Excuse me."

She asked politely, before losing her air for good.

"Didn't Lady enjoy any cake?"

Someone asked and if the person didn't have their back turned you would see her green eyes take on a stronger coloration.

"Are you people only thinking about do...Ben?"

Mal was startled to see her fiancé in his traditional blue suit with the crown on his head.

"If you don't want chocolate, just say so." He joked with her and she had no other action but to throw herself into his arms. "Is everything okay?"

"I wanted to see you so much."

Mal said, as he remained in the embrace that calmed his instincts.

"So this strangely strong but good hug is because you wanted to see me?"

"Did you have another reason?"

"I love you."

The two of them took advantage of what little time they had and just lay together. Mal needed him more than the other way around, for if there was anyone who brought her peace, it was her fiancé. But in the midst of kissing, the couple heard an "awww" and Mal knew where it came from.

"Oh, really."

Mal said in disbelief that the women were even there. After he arrived, facing the women of royalty was easier. Ben could handle them better than Lady.

What was sweet came to an end and Mal had to leave her fiancé and for the tenth time went to see more dresses. Evie was committed to making this dress the most perfect, not only because she was the queen but also her friend.

"Okay, Tommy slept and won't wake up for another two hours so we have that time to test the dress."

"Evie rest. That dress doesn't have to be ready tomorrow."

"But..."

Mal made her friend sit on the bed and rest.

"You must be more tired than me."

the lady said yawning.

"Half an hour, okay?"

Evie uttered before grabbing a pillow

"You're the boss."

"Grab my little notebook for me?"

Mal picked up the hardcover, purple notebook with a large dragon on it. She came across the following title "Mal's dresses"

"You swear?"

"Stop being annoying, here are all the drawings of all her dresses."

Evie showed each of the designs. There was Belle's birthday, Cinderella's wedding, Mulan's birthday until Mal saw the most beautiful dress of all.

"What about this one?"

She pointed to it.

"It's the first model I designed for the wedding."

"He's beautiful, why not this one?"

"According to the rules, your dress has to be white, long sleeves, etc and etc."

"Are you serious? I'm the one wearing it."

How she hated every single one of Auradon's rules.

"Yeah, but you're marrying the king then, things are different."

Unlike her friend she understood the restrictions laid out.

"That's so ridiculous."

(...)

In an unknown Auradon, under the oldest building were "they", the mysterious "caretakers" of the kingdom.

"I think we've already made it clear that it's dangerous to meet in broad daylight."

Fairy Godmother said entering the group meeting room.

"We have bigger problems than your rules, Helena."

"What happened?"

The also wizard fairy asked.

"Tulip is dead."

"What?"

Fairy Godmother asked completely dumbfounded by what she had heard.

"They found her body near the hut. We managed to get her out and left her in the harbor for the guards to find.

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

Cirse asked being the most affected by the information, despite not being close, she had Tulip like a sister.

"No feelings, everyone knows they didn't like each other. What worries us is something else, we found that note on top of the body."

"It's in Latin."

Helena said picking up the paper

"We think it's from her."

"I'll code it."

"Good."

"I think the worst is yet to come."

"No! Let's avoid that!"

"I went to Olympus to see Eros last night."

Cirse said as if it was something simple.

"You did what? Are you crazy? They might find us out."

"I did some weak hypnosis magic Tulip taught me and went to look in the royal couple's scroll."

"What did you find?"

"It's going to be harder than I expected to separate them."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Is true love magic the same?"

Fairy Godmother asked worriedly.

"Speak our language!"

"The same force that drew Belle and the Beast, Ariel and Erick and every fairy tale I knew brought you two together."

Cirse said startling everyone.

"Do you still think we shouldn't interfere, Helena?"