Prologue

Long ago, in the kingdom of fairies, a princess was born. Her features were fair, her hair golden. She grew up with her mother and father, and they lived happily together. The princess was a kind child, helping those that needed it. Her mother died when she was young, about seven or so. Her father withdrew in grief, obsessing himself in the kingdom's affairs. He stopped spending time with the princess, but made sure she kept after her studies. She was his only heir, and while he had almost stopped caring about her, he cared very much for the kingdom he ruled. She was well educated in all things: mathematics, reading, writing, flying, hose back riding, the affairs of her people, and the like.

There was one subject that her father made sure her teachers neglected, however: the study of magic. Her mother had been a great celestial mage, and it was assumed that her daughter, Princess Lucy Heartfilia, had inherited the same abilities. However, when Princess Lucy was but a year old, too young to begin studying the ways of magic, there was an occurrence that made the king and queen wary of teaching their daughter magic.

A white cat, no, an Exceed arrived at the doorstep of the castle, raving of danger and demanding to see Their Majesties. The Exceed was taking to the infirmary and inspected by various nurses and doctors. A sleep spell was cast upon the Exceed to quite her ravings, the doctors thinking she might have been drunk and needing rest. For indeed, her ramblings were quite incredulous: she spoke of future events, of the princess and her magic, of danger to the kingdom. When the queen heard of these things, she rushed down to the infirmary, insisting she see the white Exceed.

Once she had woken up, the she-cat—who introduced herself as Shagotte – began to talk a little saner, and explained to the queen her abilities to sense the future. It was discovered that Shagotte was not just any Exceed, she was the leader of the Exceeds, effectively their queen. After hearing this, among other things, the queen of the fairies, Queen Layla, decided to trust Shagotte. The white she-cat then began to describe her vision:

"I sensed a danger to the future generations of our nations, something great and terrible. There was a whirlwind of images, death, pain, dark magic. Near the center of it all was your daughter, Lucy. She was older, about 16 or so, I'd guess. She had a ring of keys, I think she was attempting to use magic, but something happened… around her were bodies of others, bleeding and severely wounded. Blackness enveloped her. As that image faded, I heard screaming, screaming that became mad laughter. The next image showed an army of my people, heading to attack humans, lead by a black tom, a blue tom, and a white one – a female – that looked nearly identical to me… but she had both of her wings, her Aera magic fully functional… If not for that, I would say she was me…" Shagotte trailed off at this point, lost in thought. She snapped out of it, however, when the queen asked what she meant when she said the cat from her vision had both of her wings, unlike her. Shagotte explained that she had recently given birth to an egg, but that the egg was weak, so to save her child she sacrificed one of her wings. The white Exceed then activated her magic, showing Queen Layla that she did, in fact, have only one wing.

"In an effort to prevent this army from forming, from creating discord between our races, I have taken this generation's eggs, including my own, and have scattered them across the world. It has occurred to me that one of the leaders of this army, the white she-cat, could have been my own child, which seems more feasible than being me, but I can help but worry… The next scenes of the vision, were brief, but showed even more suffering… Your husband, dead, your daughter, enveloped in darkness, using her magic to open a gate of the stars, a gate I feel should never be opened… Then a dragon half-blood, a boy with pink hair, yelling at her, pleading… The royal army cutting down the Exceed army in a bloody sky battle, bodies falling to the earth… a city, burning, and then, the final image, a blue haired fairy weeping over the body of a black Exceed, blood staining her clothes." Shagotte bowed her head, her description complete. Queen Layla stared at her with shock, not knowing what image was more horrible, her husband, dead, her daughter a lunatic, or her people at war with the peace loving Exceeds.

"I apologize for being the bearer of bad news," Shagotte said, "But I felt you must be warned. The most logical course of action would be to kill your daughter, but I know, as a mother myself, you cannot do that. I have no solutions. I bear you no ill will, for nothing has really happened yet, and I cannot tell you what to do with this information, but I have done what I can to try and change the future, something that I'm not even sure is possible, yet I could not be the leader of my people and allow this to happen without attempting something." She looked at Layla with hopeless, pleading eyes, wishing the fairy queen had an answer, but knowing she didn't.

"I understand. Thank you for warning me. I too, am concerned, but like you, I have no answers. I shall discuss this with my husband. In the mean time, stay as long as you wish you return to Extalia." Queen Layla sighed, feeling as if she had aged years in a manner of minutes.

Later that night, Queen Layla met with her husband after they had finished putting their daughter, Lucy, to bed. Layla told King Jude of all she had learned that day, excluding his death. She could not bear tell him he was to die during this mess, as if that would make the whole thing more real. King Jude did not want to believe it at first, but he had to concede the information did come from a credible source.

"One possible solution, Layla, is to not allow Lucy to even learn magic," the king suggested, a worn look upon his face. The queen vigorously protested, listing all the benefits of celestial magic. Jude cut her off, asking if she had a better way of trying to prevent that future, short of killing their daughter. She did not. So Queen Layla hid her keys, and Princess Lucy grew up never knowing she could use magic.

It was one of the few things that stayed the same after Layla's death. Princess Lucy ignored by her father, or yelled at. It was hard for her to decide which was worse, not seeing her father, or being yelled at for "disturbing" his work.

For the first few years after her mother's death, Lucy tried to reconnect with her father, as well as her young self could. She drew him pictures, brought him snacks she made, only to be yelled at, watch her creations be destroyed before her eyes, and the eventually be sent away, if she did not run away crying first. Eventually, the young princess gave up, tired of being punished for wanting to spend time with the king. She was, after all, his daughter. She felt it was, well, her birthright to know her father, to hang out with him, to play games with him.

She shut herself in her room, only coming out when her rigorous studies demanded it. Part of her lessons was a weekly trip out into the capital city, to observe ways of her kingdom first hand (which, aside from being dragged around the city with her tutor, meant she helped her maids with their weekly errands. Princess Lucy suspected this was not actually part of her lessons, but she didn't really mind).

It was these trips into the city that lead the Princess to some of the greatest—and worst—adventures of her life.

A/N: Woo hoo! The first chapter of my first multi-chapter fic is complete! Please review! Tell me if you liked it, and if not, what I can do to improve. Thanks for reading! See you later for Chapter 2!

~ C.R. Watters