Certain that Darling Charming is her Prince Charming (well, Princess Charming) and One True Love, Apple White has taken it upon herself to properly court her. However, Apple doesn't know what to do. She begins studying The Art of Wooing by Darling's great-uncle Passion Charming. Darling is more than familiar with the book, but she'd rather just skip to going on a date with Apple.
By The Book
is a 3-chapter Ever After High fic set after Epic Winter.
Not to be confused by the webcomic By the Book.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Love Letter: Exaggerated. Apple becomes obsessed with courting Darling "correctly" (as written in a textbook). She sends Darling several thousand copies of a perfumed and enveloped love letter. There are so many that they spill out of Darling's balcony.
- Mythology Gag: The Art Of Wooing is a canonical book that Dexter mentions in one of his diaries from the toys.
- Obsessive Love Letter: Darling Charming gets over a thousand copies of the same love letter from Apple White. Darling does like Apple back and finds it more annoying than creepy.
- Precision F-Strike: Sparrow calls Duchess a "bitch" in the last chapter.
- Serenade Your Lover: Apple tries serenading Darling (with woodland creatures as backup), but Darling runs off with an excuse before she can.
- Shout-Out:
- There's a long-standing controversy known as the "Dorothy's Slippers Controversy" which revolves around which of two pairs of shoes was really Dorothy's, the silver ones or the red ones, and whether the shoes count as royal footwear or commoner footwear. Since Dorothy is a Legacy Character, it's also mentioned that the original "Silver Era" Dorothy married Ozma while all other "Red Era" Dorothy's went back home to Kansas and never returned.
- There's a reference to "Whistle While You Work" from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- Slash Fic: By The Book is a fanfic that ships together Darling and Apple. After discovering that Darling is her One True Love, Apple sets to court her "correctly" and by the book.
