Something did jog the memory of our favorite prince that night...but it wasn't the windmill...
In the Shadow of the Toll Bridge
is a Once Upon a Time AU in which, rather than remembering his cursed memories of David Nolan's life in Mr Gold's shop during "The Shepherd", Prince James regains his memories of the Enchanted Forest and, when he meets Mary Margaret Blanchard at the toll bridge that night, his kiss brings back her memory of having once been Snow White. The plot evolves from there, as Snow, James and their allies work to bring down Regina's dominance over Storybrooke and restore the happily ever afters to their world.
In the Shadow of the Toll Bridge provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Snow reacts this way when she learns James wound up "married" to the "nag with the bad attitude" in Storybrooke. James is decidedly less amused.
- Anti-Magic: As the only creature to reverse one of Circe's spells, Adam is immune to all enchantments, meaning he's the only person in Storybrooke not under the spell. As a result, he was imprisoned and drugged in the asylum for 28 years.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Poor, poor Abigail.
- Broken Masquerade: James and Snow break their curses in Chapter 1, and help other cursed characters do this throughout the story by restoring their happy endings.
- Prince Thomas, formerly Sean, turns out to have broken his curse weeks prior, at the end of "The Price of Gold". Others, such as Jefferson, Adam, Pinocchio and the Lost Boys, were resistant to the curse from the beginning and have been isolated or locked away to prevent them from telling.
- Others, like Marco, Archie, and Rose, are Welcomed to the Masquerade and choose to believe in it, despite not yet gaining their former memories.
- Regina broadcasting herself crushing Graham's heart in the mirrors leads to The Unmasqued World, though many don't regain their former memories right away as they haven't found their happy endings.
- Composite Character: Rodmilla Tremaine, Ella's stepmother is a composite of Lady Tremaine and Rodmilla de Ghent.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: True to form, Snow White has this, shared by her grandson Henry.
- Death Faked for You: Michael Tillman.
- Fish out of Water:
- Adam is one of the few people in Storybrooke who was never under the spell, which means he has no memories and no understanding of how the "real world" works. The fact that he was drugged and imprisoned in an asylum really doesn't help.
- James also has moments of this, since his curse memories never took hold, so he relies on Snow and others to help him.
- Good All Along: Maleficent.
- Happy Marriage Charade: James with Kathryn. Later, James and Abigail work together to do this, pretending to be madly in love to throw Regina off the scent while carrying on with Snow and Fredrick respectively behind Regina's back. It also turns out that Phillip and Aurora had one of these, as Phillip married Aurora out of duty and Aurora was in love with Phillip's cousin Lucas. They do appear to have been friends despite this, however, and Phillip told Aurora the truth early on.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Phillip and his cousin Lucas.
- Meaningful Name: Following the pattern of the show, the cursed names of the fairytale characters have some connection to their true selves:
- Rose French, aka Belle from Beauty and the Beast, reflects the Enchanted Rose of the fairytale and the tale's French origins.
- Dawn Charles, aka Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, takes her first name from English translation of aurora and her last name from the author of her original fairytale, Charles Perrault.
- Marina Andersen aka Ariel from The Little Mermaid, has an aquatic first name, and takes her last name from her author, Hans Christian Andersen.
- Meaningful Rename: A flashback reveals that Prince Charming chose to keep his brother's name, James, instead of reverting to his birth name when he revealed his identity to Snow, since that's the name he was using when he met her. note
- Not His Sled: Aurora's true love is in fact Philip's cousin Lucas.
- Original Character: Several of them. Justified, as this fic was written before we were introduced to many of the major characters of Once Upon a Time, and so characters such as Adam, Phillip and Ariel are very different from their incarnations on the show. Lucas/Trent is a completely original character as well.
- Decomposite Character: Because of this, Prince Adam was split from the Beast's actual show incarnation, Rumplestiltskin.
- Point of Divergence: Prince James here regains his memories of the Enchanted Forest instead of succumbing to his curse memories as David Nolan, as he did in the canon timeline.
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Schedule Slip: After posting semi-regularly for six years, there was a 5+-year gap between chapters 46 (March 2017) and 47 (January 2023), due to positive developments in the author's life as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. - Touch Telepathy: Emma develops this ability as a seer.
- Warrior Prince: Adam, James, and Phillip, among others.
- Yandere: While Gaston's feelings for Belle are genuine, he's manipulative, controlling and willing to do some pretty underhanded things to keep her at his side.
