Cinder Fall, a beautiful woman with black hair and burning amber eyes, who sought power so much that she swore her loyalty to the Queen of Grimm, Salem.

She had returned to the castle to inform Salem that her mission to obtain the power of the Spring Maiden was a partial success, and she even got the Vale branch of the White Fang under her thumb.

She would've gave her report through a Seer, but Salem wasn't answering.

Cinder had taken a ride back to Salem with Emerald Sustrai, a thief, and Mercury Black, the son of an assassin. She took them in and gave them structure, it was something they both wanted.

Emerald was a lonely girl, living off the streets, Mercury only knew violence, and couldn't imagine a life without it.

So, Cinder gave them both what they needed, a leader, without her they'd be roaming the alleyways and dirt roads.

Yes, everything was going perfect, aside from a small hiccup, soon all the power she wanted would be in her hands.

Yes, everything was going according to plan, just as she expected.

But you know what she didn't expect?

The Queen of Grimm, Salem, to be giggling and covered in batter with a scraggly blond boy next to her as he put frosting on a cupcake.

"S-stop." The blond boy playfully complained in between laughs as the Queen of Grimm, the Mistress of Mayhem, the True Goddess, the Dame of Destruction, giggled and poked at the side of his stomach, tickling him. "I-I'm g-going to m-mess up the frosting." He said struggling to keep his hands holding a frosting filled tube steady.

"It's your fault for being ticklish~" Salem teased, and continued to poke him.

"Y-you're ch-cheating." He switched his complaints.

"It's your fault for being too good at decorating cupcakes."

"What's happening?" The question escaped Cinder's mouth.

"Oh! Cinder!" Salem exclaimed, and skipped -skipped!- over to Cinder. "Welcome back, and great timing." Salem pulled Cinder over to two platters of cupcakes. "Can you tell me which one looks better?"

Cinder, clearly not in her right mind, as evidenced by this crazy dream, just followed her orders. She looked at the cupcakes, they were both vanilla flavored, on the left platter each cupcake had a swirl of white frosting with red buds of frosting around it. While on the right platter, each cupcake had black frosting as a base, but then they had different amounts of white frosting, and different amounts of red buds, but they all looked like Grimm, well crafted Grimm.

Grimm Cupcakes.

Has Cinder died?

Was this hell?

"Cinder." Salem called. When Cinder looked over to the Queen of Grimm, she didn't expect to be met with puppy-dog eyes from her. "Be honest, which one looks better."

"Grimm." Cinder answered emotions absent from her voice, her mind was trying to pinpoint the moment she died.

When Salem pouted -pouted!- Cinder fainted.