The Fairy Sapphire
is a fanfic by AutumnLeaves, a Crossover between Once Upon a Time and Maurice Maeterlinck's The Betrothal, using the series' characters and the play's premise, as well as elements of the setting of each.
It's time for Lady Belle to choose her true love, and the Blue Fairy is there to help her by taking her and her prospective sweethearts across the realms of past and future. However, the Dark One, as it turns out, has to accompany them too.
The fanfic contains examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In The Betrothal, Tyltyl takes meeting his ancestors in stride (it helps that he has already met his deceased grandparents in The Blue Bird, and the rest of the ancestors died before he was born so he never knew them in life). Belle breaks down in tears after meeting her late mother and then being forced to leave her soon.
- And I Must Scream: Peter Pan's fate in the afterlife is eternally falling into the abyss, all alone.
- Asleep for Days: The Blue Fairy sleeps through almost a month after using extremely draining magic to give Rumplestiltskin a long and healthy life.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: At the ancestors' abode, the good ancestors are beautiful and youthful, and the very rare Black Sheep ones are old and ugly.
- Crossover Alternate Universe: The fanfic is set in a universe with elements from Once Upon a Time (such as the Dark One's dagger and the Ogre Wars) and The Betrothal (such as the ancestors' abode and the palace of unborn children).
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The fairy sapphire brings out everything that's true and good in the world. Peter Pan has so little of both that he can't survive with the sapphire activated.
- The water from the strait that separates the ancestors' abode from the unborn children's palace is sweet like nectar to Good Parents, simple nice-tasting water to people who don't have children, and strychnine-like poison to wicked parents. It's used to defeat Peter Pan.
- Composite Character:
- The Blue Fairy from the series is combined with Light from the play, becoming Belle's guide through the worlds of the ancestors and the descendants.
- Rumplestiltskin from the series combines the roles of Destiny (as the sour and gloomy magical being who accompanies the characters on their journey) and the White Phantom (the Love Interest whom the main character doesn't even consider to be a likely choice before a Love Epiphany) from the play.
- Decomposite Character: Lacey is just Belle's cursed persona in the series; here, Lacey is one of her ancestors.
- Deliverance from Damnation: Downplayed. It's not a full deliverance, but Lady Marguerite's wicked mother had just enough goodness in her to have a Heel Realization when she saw her saintly daughter ascend towards the ancestors' abode. It saved her from being damned to eternally fall into an abyss, and she was able to climb to the abode herself. She still looks ugly and sickly and is forced to drink the water from the strait which tastes like strychnine to evil parents, but at least she now lives in a lovely vale with beautiful houses with her daughter by her side.
- Dirty Old Woman: Lacey, old and ugly thanks to the Beauty Equals Goodness rule, tries unsuccessfully to seduce the Sheriff of Nottingham.
- Fake Defector: Rumplestiltskin pretends to switch to his father's side to trick him into drinking the poisoned wine. He acts the part so well that even Belle is afraid he has really had a Face–Heel Turn.
- Fantastic Flora: The flowers from Belle's field of dreams retain their freshness for two years and are preserved extremely well for decades after that.
- Fantasy Keepsake: After walking the bridge that led to her room, Belle wakes up in her own bed, wearing a nightgown. She fears that her entire adventure has been a dream, right until she discovers the bouquet from her field of dreams by her bedside.
- Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Inverted with two of Belle's ancestors, the Great Warrior and her daughter, an elegant townswoman.
- Gold Digger: One of Belle's very few wicked ancestors abandoned her own child to marry a rich lover who didn't want to raise another man's kid. At the ancestors' abode, she immediately advises Belle to marry Philip whom she judges to be the richest of her suitors.
- Grande Dame: Belle's grandmother Lady Adelaide is a stately, strict woman (with kind eyes).
- Happily Adopted: One of Belle's unborn daughters is adopted but immediately accepts Rumplestiltskin and Belle as her parents.
- Insecure Love Interest: Rumplestiltskin does his best to hide his feelings for Belle, since he thinks she would never return them. Even after their True Love's Kiss, he still isn't sure she won't dismiss the whole journey as a dream and reject him.
- Irony:
- Peter Pan spares Belle's life because she is to become the Truest Believer's grandmother. Little does he know that Henry is the son of Belle's stepson.
- After Rumple's curse is broken and the Dark Castle turned into a museum, Rumple sometimes appears in the role of the Dark One to its guests. Everyone has fun watching him but agrees he's not too convincing.
- Love Epiphany: Rumplestiltskin tells Belle he won't be visiting her after she gets married (he says it's because his son likes it in Avonlea and nowhere else), prompting her to realize she can't bear to lose his company.
- Merlin Sickness: The unborn children in the land of the future get progressively younger and age progressively faster as they get nearer to birth, so Belle's great-grandson is around sixteen and her firstborn daughter is about a year old.
- Must Make Amends: The Blue Fairy is deeply remorseful about misjudging Rumplestiltskin, and decides to bestow a couple of magical gifts on him to atone for that.
- Mythology Gag:
- Gaston happily plans to have six or seven sons with Belle. He is devastated to learn Belle will only have daughters.
- The Night and her Wars, Terrors and Mysteries from The Blue Bird are mentioned as a regular nuisance to the Blue Fairy. Except it's all a Frame-Up by Pan.
- Henry unsettles Belle by calling her "Grandma".
- During his Fake Defector spiel, Rumple says he is terrified of the thought of "no more him".
- Never Grew Up: Rumple has stopped Baelfire from aging, much to the latter's anger. It allows Peter Pan to try breaking Rumple's spirit with a "Not So Different" Remark, claiming that it's no better that Peter trading Rumple away for a chance of eternal youth. It also causes the water from the strait to poison Rumple, albeit not nearly as badly as Pan.
- Oblivious to Love: Belle has no idea Mr. Gold is in love with her. To be fair, he does a lot to hide it and/or scare her away.
- Power Crystal: The magical sapphire makes one see the truth of the world, including many things and places usually kept hidden (such as the realms of the past and future).
- Rags to Royalty: One of Belle's most respected ancestors, Lady Marguerite, rose to nobility by marriage.
- Romantic Plot Tumor: In-Universe, Belle feels that picking her true love is the least interesting part of her journey that distracts her from much more exciting things such as learning more about the Dark One. That is, until it dawns on her that the Dark One is the one she loves...
- Self-Poisoning Gambit: Rumple persuades Peter Pan to partake of the offered wine by drinking it himself and then giving it to Belle. The wine is mixed with the water from the strait, meaning that it has no effect on Belle, who currently has no children, and poisons both Rumple and Pan.
- Shipping Torpedo: After learning that Belle loves Rumplestiltskin, the Blue Fairy initially tries with all her might to make her change her mind.
- Significant Name Shift: The Blue Fairy only ever calls Rumplestiltskin "the Dark One". After he nearly dies in a Heroic Sacrifice, she begins calling him by name.
- Silver Fox: The Blue Fairy makes sure that Rumple ages gracefully and remains of sound mind until the end of his life, and he lives to be over a hundred (not counting the years spent as the Dark One).
- Strong Family Resemblance: Belle notices most of her ancestors and several of her nearest descendants have brown hair much like her own, and her great-grandson is implied to have inherited Rumplestiltskin's smirk.
- Take Care of the Kids:
- Belle's ancestor, the Great Warrior, made arrangements for her baby to be raised by a good family and supported financially in case of her own death (which occurred just a month after the baby's birth).
- Belle's adopted daughter will be the child of her good friends from a distant land who will entrust Belle with the care for her when they die.
- Taken from a Dream: Belle journeys through the land of her dreams, the afterlife, and the land of the future in what she thinks as a simple vivid dream after waking up in her bed. Then, however, she sees that the beautiful flowers picked in the land of her dreams are lying at her bedside. She keeps the bouquet for the rest of her life (they stay fresh for a far longer time than normal flowers, and even after they fade, they are preserved much better).
- Team Mom: The Blue Fairy acts as a kindly mentor and guide to Belle and her suitors, but not for Rumplestiltskin whom she can barely stand. Then it gets Played for Laughs after she does change her opinion about him and immediately starts fussing over him like a textbook case of My Beloved Smother, and Rumple quickly begins to miss the times when she believed him to be irredeemably evil.
- Took a Level in Kindness:
- Rumple is extremely gloomy and abrasive at first but softens considerably after opening up to Belle.
- The Blue Fairy starts off as well-meaning but extremely judgmental, claiming that Rumplestiltskin is purely evil and unable to love, despite any evidence to the contrary that she encounters. After he almost dies saving her and the others from Pan, she changes that attitude.
- Underworld River: A strait separates the afterlife, the realm of unborn children, and the present world. Father Time crosses it on his boat (together with the souls he brings to be born or takes to the afterlife), while the main characters use magically-constructed bridges.
