Svanhild had thought over the years. She had seen all kinds of stuff happen. And it was tonight of all nights she finally, finally came to the conclusion that'd been a long one coming:

Auradon sucked.

For her entire childhood, Svanhild had grown up with stories of what her parents had done. Every night before bed her mother or father would tuck her in and tell her about wonderful things they did in their youth, how they ended the war between Vikings and dragons, and as she got older they started to tell her things they did after the war. The things that came after were the part Svanhild had always loved the most.

After the war her parents had become a protectors of Berk and kept dragons safe from hunters, but also spent years of their lives after their union with Auradon fighting for the rights of those who didn't have them.

The look in her father's eyes was Svanhild's favorite part; he looked so in love with each and every story. His adoration of his wife was so obvious anyone could have seen it. He held her in such high standing and Svanhild had always wanted what they had, to have someone who adored and respected her and would be by her side forever.

But then she went to Auradon Prep and everything changed.

Unlike most of the girls there, Svanhild wasn't a princess. Her parents, despite how famous and amazing they were, weren't royalty. It took only a single day for Svanhild to realize that she had been raised very differently from all the other girls at the school. They all wore pretty dresses and had pink hairclips and looked like they had never played outside a day in their lives.

Most of them thought Svanhild was strange for wanting to climb trees and learn about history or be among the beasts they called dragons, and wear pants instead of skirts.

It took months for Svanhild to realize why. Her parents had raised her on stories of powerful people who saved their island, who saved the dragon race, who brought peace, and then went on to fight for human and animal rights the rest of their lives, all with each other at their sides who were nothing but supportive. But these princesses had been raised to play piano and sew and be seen but not heard, all while their fathers ran countries and their mothers sat by his side and looked pretty.

There were a few people who had been raised somewhat similarly to Svanhild. Kai's parents ran their island equally; even after Hunter's parents wed, they continued to spend their lives helping those who couldn't help themselves; Elias' parents were powerful sorcerers who ran their kingdom equally, and if he decided the throne wasn't for him, his step-sister Tara was happy to rule with her girlfriend Annita at her side; the twins' father had spent his entire life stealing and working for what he wanted and continued to take none of the miracles of his life for granted even after he married a princess and even found himself to be a prince while they ran their kingdom side by side and helped those who had as little as he had growing up.

Despite these few friends who had mothers not raised to do nothing but support men while looking beautiful, Svanhild still constantly felt like an outsider even in her own dorm room.

For a very short while during freshman year, she had tried to change in an attempt to feel less like an outsider. She wore dresses, tried wearing skirts but then quickly discovered she preferred the practicality of pants; she had stopped always tying her hair up and started to let it fall by her shoulders, but she soon tired of it always getting in the way; she practiced her sword work in private, making sure no one would ever find her, but envied the boys in fencing and missed the training and fighting more than allowed back home.

This all seemed for naught when she was fourteen and realized no one was ever going to like her because of her background. And just...stopped caring. Once she knew that nobody was going to like her whether she was herself or fake, she decided she would rather be hated for being real and be happy as she was.

Especially when she realized she also liked girls alongside boys.

She knew that there was nothing wrong with it; her dad was the same way and she had been raised knowing that it didn't matter who you want to kiss as long as you love them.

But she also knew that it wasn't considered normal to most people. She only knew some people who were like her - her dad, Hunter, her uncles Night and Kolbrun, Elias' stepsister Tara, Queen Merida and Queen Hestia - and she knew what many of the students and royals thought of them.

So she ignored it, shoved it deep down so no one other than herself could find it. The only people she told were her parents, who had immediately gathered her in a tight hug, and assured her that it was okay and that she should ignore anyone who said otherwise.

Ignoring was easier said than done, especially when she heard the jokes made about Lonnie's father by people who were supposedly his friends and snide comments about Hunter and Kai when the person knew that either were within earshot.

Sure, some of the conditions back home were terrible. Unseasonably warm meant just barely being able to feel your fingers and nose, food was hard and tasteless, and their diets often consisted of fish, meat, and greens (her mother would often complain about how she had no idea how she ended up marrying a vegetarian), and untamed dragons or enemies might always try to invade. But it was home. And Vikings were a hard, tough people who were used to it and had grown up dealing with it.

Growing up on Berk, everything was about survival. This meant that no one cared what you did in your personal life so long as you could carry your own weight and weren't a burden on the village. Nobody was ever punished for realizing they were a boy or girl, or for wearing different clothing than was expected of their gender, or for who they decided to kiss in dark alleys. You might get a weird look or two, but everyone was weird, so they'd shrug it off and walk on.

That wasn't how it was on Auradon. Kai and Hunter had received tons of detention in the years they'd had been there and everyone in their group had agreed that none were for good reasons. Here were just a few examples.

Exhibit A: Fairy Godmother had once pulled Hunter aside after biology class and told him he had to stop wearing eyeliner. He refused and wore it the next day. Next thing he knew, he was being given a pink slip. Detention. And detention for every day he decided to wear it afterwards.

He still had yet to stop unless it was for tourney practice.

Exhibit B: Chad was being a jerk, as usual, but had decided to cross the line and had purposely called Kai a girl, even dared to use his birth name. Hunter hadn't realized he had punched Chad in the nose until the prince was on the floor, clutching his bloody face. Detention. Chad didn't even have to apologize.

Yet again, it was entertaining to find Audrey did have some redeeming qualities since after hearing of it, she had actually stomped over to Chad during lunch, smashed his food tray into his face and dumped her own onto his head. Then made sure to smear it in.

Exhibit C: Raquel needed a model for a skirt she was making and she had roped Alex into doing it. One of Snow White's daughter (there were like six of them and Svanhild hadn't bothered to learn any of their names) had walked in to ask her something but had instead ran out to tell the Fairy Godmother that Alex was wearing a skirt. Fairy Godmother didn't care that he was only serving as a mannequin. Detention.

And the list didn't stop there. During class one day Hunter got caught by a teacher with his arm wrapped around Kai's shoulders, the smaller boy pressed into the side of his body. They had both gotten detention for that, and then both Raquel and Alex had gotten one each as well for cussing out the teacher who had handed out the detention.

This time Kai was the one actually wearing a skirt. Raquel had made him a few after he had indicated he might want some of his own and he had managed to not be caught for weeks. Then one day Chad walked in on him, and Kai had bribed him into not saying anything. But the idiot had left the door open and a teacher who was walking past saw. Detention.

Hunter had been in Kai and Audrey's room with the door closed after dinner and a teacher had seen him leaving. No matter how many times Hunter swore they were just studying she wouldn't believe him. Detention.

The last straw had been when Fairy Godmother learned about Kai and called him into her office. She had first apologized for all his previous detentions, but then had proceeded to tell him to stop wearing pants, start going by Sina again, and to stop pretending to be a boy.

He had cursed her out and she had threatened him by saying he would get "a detention for every day you wake up and decide to be a boy." (Svanhild had gotten three detentions herself for calling out the woman, but knew there was nothing she could do.) Then Elias, quiet, shy Elias who'd never raised his voice in his life, had decided enough was enough, stormed into her office, shoved the school handbook in her face and lectured her with facts and highlighted evidence to support his argument, why she was wrong to give detentions based on nothing but her own prejudice.

The detentions hadn't really stopped after that, but they were less and less now.

Nah, Auradon had a habit of making Svanhild feel like she could barely breathe. She felt more comfortable surrounded by the smell of fish, the ocean, the wind in her hair, and the sounds of violence in a way she hadn't in Auradon.

There she knew who she was, and everyone knew who she was.

It wasn't like that in Auradon. Here she was meant to be some perfect, pretty princess who wouldn't dream of picking up a sword and who held hands with boys and nothing more. But she couldn't be that.

More than once she considered going home and just...never coming back, but Kai had protested, saying if they did that they may as well be telling everyone they'd won. So she came back every summer's end, but this was still a place where it was acceptable for Chad to call her friend a girl if he pissed him off.

This was a place that had banished and imprisoned teenagers, children, an entire generation, and doomed them to poverty and abuse where, if the Isle kids were anything to go by, everybody had to fight each other for scraps to survive. Of course they were the way they were.

What else were they supposed to be when it was all they knew?

But Ben would change things. He had to.

With that thought in mind, Svanhild stood up from her spot on the beach to go find Ben and talk to him. Tell him that he better not forget of the others still on that Isle. Of the injustice all those people their own age was suffering. Of the injustice people here were suffering just for being themselves. Just for being different from what was considered tradition.

And maybe Ben couldn't fix everything, but he would become king in a few days. He had the power to change things. Things not everyone was quite so open-minded to fix. Her parents fought for the rights of humans and dragons, and maybe she wasn't completely like them, but there was nothing saying she couldn't do the same in her own way. She and Ben were one of many future leaders. Leaders who would now work together when it came time for them to rule. And together they would change things.

Together they would just have to try to be good ones. For Ben, it would mean being a better king than his father, and for Svanhild, it would mean never forgetting her father's humble beginnings and the good he'd done fighting for others.

As she climbed up the steps to his dorm, careful not to be seen or else risk getting caught, she knew that though her father and Ben's butted heads over their ways, (Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was about solving problems in a more peaceful, open-minded way, and about changing minds to create peace and alliances, one of the few to vote against the creation of the Isle; King Adam thought him foolish for that way of thinking, and in meetings would dare remind him that that way of thinking was what had gotten his father, Stoick the Vast, killed, by thinking he could change Drago Bludvist's mind) that didn't mean they had to. They weren't their parents; Svanhild knew that.

They could be better. Work together in this new generation and era they were born into.

People more invested in what was tradition and the old-fashioned way probably wouldn't agree with them.

But good thing Svanhild had stopped giving a single damn what people thought a long time.

(Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait for those who've been waiting for an update, I had some writer's block in Svanhild's part, and eventually I guess I decided this to just be centered on her thoughts. The part about her having uncles was also a bit of reference to my other fanfic, Night Rider. Anyway, I hope you don't mind me writing this part, but I thought for this chapter I'd explain a bit how I view Auradon being very traditional since most of the Disney Princess's and Prince's grew up in times where some things weren't right. Also, I kinda now want Svanhild to be an adviser of sorts for Ben for some reason. Is that crazy? Anyway, hope you like this! :)