#i'm thinking about possible storylines that include her beyond the wedding arc

[bixels]

is cadance more powerful than the average witch? or not a witch at all? im curious about her since her alicorn status in the show would assumedly put her closer to celestia and luna than the others

Yes. The alicorn equivalent in the AU is receiving a Canterlot name and joining Luna and Celestia's court.

Cadance is. Extremely powerful.

[siena-sevenwits]

Okay, just for fun, let me tell you all what Once Upon a Time is. I have never watched this show beyond very brief and scattered clips years ago, so this is mainly drawn from cultural osmosis and friend mentions. Let's see how badly I butcher this.

Snow White and Prince Charming get their wedding interrupted by an Evil Queen, and she's walking up the aisle with all the castle/church shutters slamming shut as she progresses, like Snape walking into class. And she's all, "Ha, I'm very evil, and you offended me somehow, and I'm going to steal your future daughter!" ...or maybe it's the daughter's christening, which would make the threat a lot more palpable. Or maybe it's not about the daughter. Maybe she's like, "Mwahaha, I am going to send you both to the REAL WORLD!"

One of the above.

Anyhow, their daughter is named Emma Swan, and she ends up living in Fort Langley - ahem, Storybrooke. (Sorry. At one point I lived not too far from where they film the real world scenes, and had friends who would sometimes spot the cast, though I never did.) Emma is cynical and jaded, and remembers nothing of her fairytale origins. But she has a son, Henry (adopted?) who is a cinnamon roll, and loves fairytales, and is a true believer and optimist.

I think the Evil Queen (Regina) raised Emma, and she's evil for a season or two or three but then gets a redemption arc, and we get motherhood stories both around Snow and Regina.

Meanwhile Snow and the Prince are questing for a way to find their daughter and defeat the evil queen, and eventually they get to Storybrooke, and possibly there's a memory wipe involved? At any rate, they obviously don't recognize the grown up Emma as their daughter at first, but they get to be close with her as a friend. Meanwhile, Henry is catching on to what's going on a lot faster than some.

Now there's also Belle, who is involved in a love/hate (but more so love) relationship with Rumpelstiltskin, who is a manipulative magic user in the fantasy world, but is also present in Storybrooke under the name of Mr. Gold, the pawnbroker/curiosity shop owner? Also still a manipulative magic user? This guy is constantly starting on/completing redemption arcs only to make evil choices again and it frustrates the fans because sometimes it seems like the writer's can't commit rather than they're pulling off a really complicated arc? But people enjoy him/find him fascinating.

Now there's a weird dynamic where more and more of the characters make their way into Storybrooke, but their stories are also featured in the fairytale world. This show is either super into flashbacks, or we're dealing with alternate timelines and time branches. Other people who get into Storybrooke? Red, who is Little Red Riding Hood in an incredible cloak that all the closplayers wanted at one point, and who now works as a waitress as a diner and has some encouraging words for Belle when she's having trouble with Rumple. BUT RED DIES TRAGICALLY! (Don't ask me how, or in which world.) There's also Captain Hook, who is all guyliner and longing looks and trying to be witty - but he also trades the Jolly Roger for Emma, and it's a huge sacrifice, and they have true, true love. He has the unlikely name of Killian in Storybrooke. (Come on - his name is James Hook!)

With the introduction of the Neverland Storyline (which is a cool storyline?) we move away from fairytales proper and just start including whatever Disney properties we want. Frozen gets shoehorned in there, as do Mulan and Brave. In Arendelle, Anna's preparing to marry Kristoff and tries on her mom's wedding gown which Elsa found, but then the trolls have some kind of bad news. Elsa gets sucked into a vase and transported to Storybrooke, where she accidentally freezes the town. Also Elsa's aunt Ingrid is there, secretly using her ice powers to run an ice cream parlour.

Meanwhile Anna's trying to get her back, and goes into the countryside where she meets Snow's Prince who now has long hair and is enslaved to Bo Peep and this is emphatically a different storyline than the other storyline(s) he's featured in? Maybe a curse made it this way? Anyway, Anna teaches. him to use a sword and stand up for himself. Then she and Kristoff go to the castle to research or something, and Elsa's there (maybe this is the backstory of how Elsa got to the real world?) and they find out about a spell that causes shattered sight (you only see the worst in other people, or maybe in the people you truly care about.) The spell is based on that mirror in The Snow Queen where a bit of flawed glass gets in your eye. Anna falls under the spell, gets resentful for the way Elsa treated her in childhood, and traps her in the vase (yes, this is definitely backstory!) Later Anna ends up in the water in a sea chest and somehow gets to Storybrooke?

Ingrid explains to Elsa that she wants a perfect family because her-non-magical family treated her like an outsider, and she wants Elsa to be part of her magical family. Elsa is appalled and resolves to fight her. Later, everyone in Storybrooke realizes the shattered sight spell is coming, and they all lock themselves in the jail or something so they don't tear each other apart. It doesn't affect Anna and Elsa though. But most notably Snow and her prince are fighting, and it's awful! They somehow got it all figured out in the end...

Many curses happen.

At some point Henry is the only believer. (In what? Magic? Love? their true fairytale identities? Who knows?)

There's an Author, and he's a scum, and maybe behind a lot of what's going on?

Merida shows up, and Emma goes through an arc where it looks like she might turn evil (the Black Swan? The Dark Swan?) and they go underground and stuff.

Eventually there's a musical episode, because Snow in the fairytale world wished for magic to help defeat the Evil Queen, and love expressed through song is super powerful. They sing a duet about how cool the singing is, and the fans are shocked that they're both great singers. Something evil happens, and they go in search of Hook, who's at a tavern and sings a big musical number about how he wants revenge on the crocodile for taking his hand, and he's backed by a wonderfully over the top chorus of pirates. (I have in fact seen this clip multiple times, because it's very fun.) Turns out the Crocodile he's talking about is the Dark One, who is Rumpelstiltskin, who is currently locked in Snow and the Prince's dungeon. Um... things sort out.

Eventually Emma and Killian have a wedding and it's a very climactic episode. There's a later season made, but we don't talk about it.

Best I got, folks.