Author Note: Sort of a prologue kind of first chapter I guess?
Starts at Evie's 6th birthday party, will be a time-jump of about 10 years just like in the first book.

The young fae girl scowled as she peered down to the joyful celebration below, tugging on her purple pigtails as she twirled them around her pointer fingers, anger boiling at the unfairness. She really thought they were friends, and not just any friends, but best friends. Apparently, the other girl must not feel the same as she was sitting here all alone instead of at the party with all of the rest of the Isle kids who had all gotten invitations to the birthday celebration.

"Mal?" She dimly heard her mother's voice call from inside. "What are you doing out here?" Her mother's floor-length dress swished softly as she came to stand in the doorway. "Mal?" She repeated when she didn't answer, instead opting to grip the railing tightly while fighting back tears fueled by a mix of hurt and anger. She let out a heavy breath, realizing that Mal was upset about something. She approached slowly and gently ran her fingers down her child's cheek, wiping away a stray tear before tilting her chin up so she was facing her. "Maladia, what's wrong?" she asked.

She tried not to sniffle and instead of speaking, she pointed down over the edge of the balcony railing, to the wonderful decorations, fit for a (certain) princess's birthday. Maleficent's eyes scanned the party, "So it is Genevieve's birthday today then? Maladia, why didn't you tell me sooner. I would have helped you prepare a present and get ready for the party." She ran her fingers through the loose ends of one of her purple pigtails.

"But mother, I-" she slumped and her bottom lip trembled, "I didn't get invited." her voice is small and she looks down towards the ground by her feet, she doesn't want to see the look of disappointment on her mother's face. "Not invited?" Maleficent's nose twitched at the insult, memory flashing back to the last time she was uninvited to a celebratory event, "Well, I guess that makes us party crashers then." She announced, standing straight, Mal starts in surprise and looks up to her mother's face quizzically. "Party crashers?"

"Yes darling, that means we're going to go down there even though we didn't get an invitation." She smiles, "Not being invited is a high insult, and we're going to give them a piece of our minds." Her large wings fluff, and Mal knows she is going to take to the sky to fly down there even before she is given the instruction. "Come, let's fly." Her mother takes off, but waits for her daughter to join her, to practice the short flight it would take to get down to the ground from the castle balcony. It takes Mal another few moments to get herself up into the air to follow, but once she is steady her mother leads her. The whooshing of the air as it passes her is a newer thrill to the six-year-old, her mother only just beginning to take her higher to really practice flying in the open air recently. Before she stayed closer to the ground to build up strength and trust in her wings before going any real height.

Silence rings out when they land amongst the people. Her mother barely makes a sound when she descends and her feet meet the ground. Little Mal marvels at the smooth grace, wondering how long it will take her to learn how to do that too. Her hands fidgeted while she stood behind her mother, almost hiding in her cloaking skirts as she stayed close. Maleficent opened her mouth, but before she could speak, to call out the gross insult of not inviting them, the little birthday princess's voice rang out. "Mal! There you are!" She squealed, "I was wondering when you were going to get here, I didn't want the party to start without you." Her shoes tap lightly against the pavement as she hurries over and to Mal's side, spotting her purple hair even amongst the black of the dress. "But mama said that sometimes fae like to make late arrivals, so I thought maybe that's what you were waiting for so I thought maybe the sooner we started, the sooner you would get here!" Her hands are tight in little fists as she shakes them by her chest in an excited manner.

Now Mal is more confused than before. She wasn't invited, she didn't receive one of the pretty invitations delivered by pretty vultures. She thought maybe Evie didn't like her anymore, so why was she so excited now? Acting like Mal had been invited and not snubbed? Was this some kind of trick witches liked to play? "But I wasn't invited?" Mal's voice was still small, but in the silence of the square it seemed to ring and echo.

"Yes you were?" Evie looks confused too now, and Mal doesn't think she's faking, and the two six-year olds frown at each other, both wondering what was going on. "We sent one for you." She tells her, "Didn't you get it?"

"No." Mal shakes her head, "You really sent one for me?" She takes a breath and feels hope rise, her stomach no longer feels the sourness of all the hate, anger, and jealousy she'd been feeling moments before up on the balcony. Perhaps it was all a mistake and Evie really did still want to be her friend.

Grimhilde had approached, the only other person besides her daughter and the two fae who had moved since the duo landed and was now standing next to her daughter. She reached a hand out to Maleficent, putting her hand on the shoulder of her long-time friend. "I'm terribly sorry for the confusion, and for causing you to feel slighted." she apologizes, "We sent one, to invite you both to come. I don't know what happened to it if you didn't receive it." She frowns, she spoke in an almost murmur, "That really is strange, the vultures are usually so efficient and trustworthy messengers." Shaking her head she decided to attempt to investigate the lost invitation later. "I'm glad you decided to come down here to yell at me and crash the party. A party is not truly a party without one's best friend there you know."

Maleficent returned the smile, though hers was a little rueful. She had the same feelings as her daughter did earlier about if her closest friend no longer wanted her, and now she felt poorly about her wavering faith in her friendship, "And I should not have doubted the closeness of our bond. I should have known that you would never truly not invite us on purpose."

"What do you say? Is all forgiven? Shall we put this misunderstanding behind us?" Grimhilde questioned, and Maleficent readily agreed.

"Yay!" Evie squealed delightedly and threw herself at Mal, embracing the other girl in a tight hug. "We get to stay best friends!" Mal unfroze after Evie said that and tightly hugged her best friend back, grinning gleefully, her sharp teeth glinting. The sharpness of her teeth made it a dangerous looking smile, even on a child, and it was one that would have Auradonian's looking at her in questioning fear. Suddenly she gasped as she remembered something she had been saving until her best friend had arrived, "Now that you're here, it's time to cut the cake!" She held onto both of Mal's hands as she bounced in place. "I didn't want you to miss the cake! It has sour apples in it!" Excitedly Evie pulled her best friend along with her towards the two-story cake, both of their mothers following after them. A chorus of excited squeals followed as a gaggle of children surrounded the table with them as the cake was distributed to children and adults alike, everyone wanting a piece of the delicious and luscious looking treat. After the cake had been devoured, the children began to run wild with merriment that one would think unusual to see in such a gloomy looking place, enjoying the scary awesome playground and activities that had been erected for the birthday celebration.

Evie stopped by a box with dress-up items in it. Pulling out two scarves, she draped the purple and green one around Mal's neck before draping the other one that was blue and red around her own. "Look, we match!" She giggled, and Mal smiled as she fingered the pretty scarf, it was her favorite colors and she liked the look of the frayed edges. "Yeah!" she agreed. The blue haired princess gasped and exclaimed, "They're matching best friend scarves!" Mal's smile widened and her eyes lit up, "Yeah!" she crowed back, and they hugged each other close again. "You're my best friend ever Mal!" Evie admitted, "Can we stay best friends forever?"

"You're mine too Evie!" Mal responded happily, "Yeah! We should stay best friends forever and ever!" She agreed. A spooky drumming sound started and the two broke apart, and they looked around for the source. Their eyes traveled towards the puppet theater that was set up, and with glee they realized was going to be starting his show soon and the drumming was a signal for them all to gather round.

The two shared a look before racing over, plopping themselves down eagerly among the other children who had also rushed over. "Dad wouldn't tell me which ones he's doing." A girl next to them greets them with a pout, but her excitement overshadows it and she proudly exclaims to Evie, "But my dad said I could help with the shows as your birthday present! How cool is that!"

"You're going to help put on the shadow shows for my birthday?" Evie squeals excitedly, "That's scary cool, Freddie!" It wasn't always easy to come up with gifts on the Isle, there wasn't usually an abundance of things that came in from Auradon's leftovers that was suited for such a thing, and because of that many people gave gifts in the form of actions. "Your mom let me and Carlos help make the cake!" Jay told her as the two boys joined them. Who would have guessed that the young son of Jafar would not only turn out to be good at baking, but also enjoy it? "I'm going to sing for you!" her cousin Uma announces, "And I'm going to help Harry do a sword fight as his present for you too!" Looking at the scrawny girl, you would think she wouldn't be strong enough to even hold up a heavy metal sword, but size isn't everything and as she got older people were quickly growing to realize they shouldn't underestimate the tiny daughter of Ursula. The aforementioned Harry grinned devilishly from his spot next to Uma, in only the way a child pirate could do. "I told Uma she should sing for you." he announced, "She has the prettiest voice on the whole Isle!" Evie nodded in agreement, beaming at both Harry and her cousin. "I know! She does!"

The drumming began to get louder and louder, drawing their attention back to the dark screen, until it stopped suddenly, all of the candles in the area being doused, plunging the courtyard into gloomy evening darkness. Delighted gasps came from the children as lights were lit behind the screen, and Freddie jumped up excitedly as her father called for her. "I'm coming daddy!" She hurried, going as fast as her six-year-old legs would take her to join him behind the screen. Even with young Freddie's wavering shadows and untrained help, the shadow play enthralled everyone there, and was proud of his dear daughter's determination and first attempt at helping him tell a story with his shadow plays.

Tonight, the topic of the stories was specially by Grimhilde herself. Tonight, the stories were all about Evie's father who had been released from the Isle of the Lost shortly before her birthday due to the unrest his imprisonment was causing his domain and fellow Gods and Goddesses. Tonight, the stories were all about the Lord of the Underworld himself, Hades. Evie wasn't the only one enraptured with her father's stories and exploits, and and Freddie told story after story after story, until the children's eyes were drooping and the parents had to call it a night, carrying them home to their beds. Uma grumbled as she was lifted by her mother, "But I didn't get to sing for Evie or fight with Harry yet." she spoke in a yawning voice, and her mother chuckled, shaking her head. "You will just have to perform her presents for her tomorrow, my little tadpole." She eyed the boy in question, "Besides, I think your partner in crime has already fallen asleep." She informs her, only to look down when she didn't grumble an answer to find Uma herself had also fallen asleep.

The parents began to trickle out of the courtyard, each amused with their sleepy children, each agreeing and telling their children that tomorrow, they could all come back to take their turns to perform their gifts for the little princess. And with that, the party was over, and for the first time in years, the gloom that settled under the dome allowed the light from a single star to shine in the sky, unnoticed by all but a sleepy blue haired princess, who wished upon it. Wishing that someday the dome would come down so she could see more of them. She would never forget the brilliance of the lone star that shone in the sky on her sixth birthday.