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Above the tuh on her castle balcony, six-year-old Mal pulled on the locks of her thick, purple hair and pursed her lips as she observed the dark and delicious festivities below What she could make of them, at least

There she saw the tiny princess, the fairest of the (is) land, sitting on her rickety throne, her hair as blue as the ocean, eyes as dark as night, and lips as pink as roses Her hair was pulled back froht at the array of le that was so entrancing, it brought a shty Lady Trehters to Prince Char like a contented kitty; and for old times’ sake, Captain Hook bravely stuck his head between Tick-Tock’s open jaws, if only so he could ain

The princess, it would seem, could make even the most horrible villains smile

But Mal wasn’t s She could practically smell the two-story cake made of sour apples, sinfully red and lusciously worht, she couldn’t help but overhear the screeches of the parrot Iago as he repeated, over and over again, the story of talking caves that held riches beyondhis feathered neck

Mal sighed with green-eyed jealousy as the children gleefully tore into their baddie bags The crumpled containers held a variety of evil sidekicks to choose from—pet babyin tiny bowls; little spotted, cackling hyenas ere no quieter than the infa and adorable black kittens from Lucifer’s latest litter Their badly behaved recipients screamed with excitement

As the party escala

ted in feverish rew as black as her mood, and she swore that one day, she would show therow up to be greedier than Mother Gothel,than Jafar, more deceptive than Ursula

She would show them all that she was just like her—

“Mother!” she yelped, as the shadow of two loo and ominous horns made their way toward the balcony, and hersoftly in the wind

Her ed withon here?” she dehly inappropriate shadow-puppet showDr Facilier

“It’s a birthday party,” sniffed Mal “And I wasn’t invited”

“Is that right?” her mother asked She peered at the celebration over Mal’s shoulder, and they both took in the sight of the blue-haired princess giggling on atwin sons, Gaston Jr and Gaston the Third, perfor their enormous booted feet on each other’s squashed faces—to i

“Celebrations are for the rabble,” her mother scoffed Mal knew her mother despised parties of any kind She despised thes and queens who doted on their precious babies, chubby little fairies with a knack for dress design, and obnoxious princes on even more obnoxious valiant steeds

“Nevertheless, Evil Queen and her horrid progeny will learn soon enough from their spiteful little mistake!” her mother declared

For her reat Maleficent, Mistress of Darkness, the most powerful and wicked fairy in the world and the most fearsome villain in all the land

Or at least, she had been

Once upon a time, her mother’s wrath had cursed a princess

Once upon a tiht a prince to his knees