Presenting my version of Disney's Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Continuing in my series of Disney customs and stories, I apologize for how lengthy the story is.
Recipe: Simple re-paint of a large unknown red/yellow dragon figure with minor resculpting done to head.
What the pics may not sure is that she has an iridescent purple and green sheen on her body and wings. Also her eyes, nostrils and mouth glow in the dark.

Fairies are elemental creatures of light and magic. Most are mischievous with fleeting emotions and a playful nature, usually remaining neutral in the affairs of mortals. Fairies possesses a form of magic know as glamour and are adept at simple spells and charms. They are capable of changing size from being no bigger than a thumb, to the size of a small infant. Fairies have large iridescent insectoid wings sprouting from their shoulder blades that enable them to fly. Fairy Godmothers however are a greater class of fairy and are able to grow larger in size, that of a small adult female. They are always benevolent, often offering their services to those mortals pure of heart. Their magic is far more powerful than the average fairy, but these powers can only be used for good. Then there are a few fairies that are dark and sinister in nature and revel in chaos and destruction. Of these fairies, Maleficent was once the worst of all.

It was many many years ago, and Maleficent was a fairy much like any other, however she was born without wings. A fairy’s wings are the main source of their power, absorbing light from the sun or moon and converting it into magic. Fairy dust is the by-product of fairy magic and this has magical properties in itself such as granting the power of flight. Curiously, despite the lack of wings, Maleficent still possessed the basic magical powers all fairies are born with but they were harder for her to perform and took more time. That did not stop Maleficent pushing the powers she did have to their greatest capacity, hoping that with time her wings would grow. Soon she could perform the most complex of fairy spells with ease and somehow she could will herself to grow taller than even a fairy godmother, but she remained wingless still and as more time passed Maleficent grew more envious of the wings she cruelly lacked. Soon this envy consumed her, till her skin slowly became a pale sickly green and she turned to the dark arts to search for the wings she lacked. As the years passed she taught herself things beyond her basic fairy powers. She could appear as a ball of flickering yellow green flames, she could dissolve into the shadows and travel through the darkness, she could summon lightening and wind but despite her best efforts she could not get her wings to grow and her jealousy began to darken into a bitter hatred and her actions became cruel and wicked, taking delight in tormenting others, and two small horns sprouted from either side of her forehead. Maleficent took a solitary residence in crumbling and ruined castle on the peak of the Forbidden Mountains and there she ruled for many years commanding a horde of goblins and striking fear in mortals and fairies alike. The most powerful dark fairy of all and yet she remained wingless.

Then one night not so very long ago the goblin guards dragged an elderly peddler woman, they had found knocking on the castle doors, before Maleficent’s throne. The hag of a woman grovelled before Maleficent asking for help. She explained she was once a beautiful Queen; the fairest in the land and a powerful sorceress but her powers had been greatly lessened ever since a spell she’d cast had gone horribly wrong and left her trapped in the guise of a hag. Her spell books had failed her and now she was in need of dark fairy magic. Maleficent was about to have her sent to the dank dungeons for her impudence of thinking she would help her, when the peddler woman said something that caught her attention. The hag said that she was a former apprentice to the great Sorcerer Yensid, and knows all his secrets and perhaps she could be of service in getting her the wings she lacked. Maleficent’s interest was piqued for she has heard of this most powerful sorcerer, who knew of magic outside of a fairy’s parameters. She agreed in return for wings, Maleficent would help the Queen reclaim her powers and her beauty. Maleficent explained that her no dark fairy magic would be able to help her. Reversing the ageing process and restoring lost beauty calls for very powerful and complex magic, for aging is the natural process for all mortal beings such as she, even though her aging was created by magic, the potion she used has changed her essence to the core. In order for the Queen to regain her beauty and power she will need various ingredients, including the blood of one who is fair of face, the voice of one who is sweet of song and the tears of one who is shallow of heart. Once collected, she would need a vessel with which cast and bind the spell, a vessel of purest and untainted magic and such a thing was very hard, almost impossible to come by and would require much waiting and patience on her part. The vessel she would need is deep in the heart of the Far Away Mountains, a thing of legend, the Blue Fairy Diamond. Grimhilde smiled with her wrinkled crooked lips. At last she had the knowledge she needed and she could begin to seek out the ingredients needed, binding her time patiently waiting for the diamond to come to light. In fact she could use it to her advantage, out of sight and out of mind.
Maleficent demanded her repayment, wings now or else a life time in the dungeons. Grimhilde produced from the folds of her robes a small dagger and bottle containing a poultice of crushed dragonflies, bats blood, firefly embers and a powdered lizard skin. She made Maleficent turn and bare her back and with the point of the dagger scratched a small X on to the dark fairy’s shoulder blades and then with the flat edge of the blade smeared the poultice onto the marks.

From Maleficent’s shoulders stumps began to grow from which small bat like wings erupted, unfurled and began to grow. But that was not the only changes taking place. Maleficent’s body began to transform, slowly it started twisting out of shape, growing larger and larger, her neck lengthened, her nails grew into curved talons, her teeth sharpened, and her once pale green skin slowly became as black as her bitter heart and as tough and calloused as her soul, until at last she looked nothing like her former self. A great black dragon stood beating her powerful new wings where Maleficent the dark fairy once stood and she was grateful for now she had wings and a form as powerful as the magic that flowed under her skin. As an act of gratitude, Maleficent pledged her allegiance to powerful Sorceress and then soared up into the clouds breathing jets of vivid yellow green flame.

Many years later Maleficent descended upon the Kingdom of Perrault on Grimhilde’s orders. A princess fair of face slept an ageless sleep in the turret of the tallest tower, cursed by Grimhilde. The kingdom searched for a cure to break the curse ever since. Grimhilde thought this impossible but her mirror had recently shown her otherwise, it could be broken, she just did not know how. So she sent for her once trusted ally to guard the Princess at all costs. Most of the Kingdom had fled or perished when the great black dragon landed on the castle ramparts, breathing scorching flames. The King and Queen’s knights tried to slay Maleficent, but their weapons where of no match for her thick scaly, leathery skin and their metal armor melted under the heat of her fire, and so they retreated and sealed themselves deep inside the castle’s fortified great hall. Maleficent using her powers caused a twisting dense forest of thorns to grow around the castle and now slept coiled upon high around the sleeping Princess’ tower, one eye open to watch for escapees or trespassers. The scent of strangers awoke her one day. Somehow two men had cut their way through her thorn forest with little more than a scratch. One was a handsome stranger, the other a strangely familiar old man with a long white beard but that did not matter, they would meet their fate in her flames. With a roar she spread her wings and launched at them, jets of flame blasting from her fanged mouth directly at the two men. With a wave of his hands, elderly man caused the flames part around them. That was an unexpected turn of events, turning round Maleficent attacked again, this time lashing out with her tail and this time she was quicker than the pair and the two men leaped aside as her tail came crashing down between them and shattering part of a wall. With a roaring laugh she soared high above them, and then descended rapidly beating her powerful wings, the force of which sent the two men blowing to opposite sides of the courtyard floor. Maleficent then set the floor surrounding her alight causing a near impenetrable barrier to shoot up between her and the two strangers that began to expand out towards them. The handsome stranger drew his sword and began climbing the crumbled wall, up out of reach of the flames. Over the crackling flames she heard the elderly stranger whisper an incantation “Sword of Truth, fly swift and sure, That Evil die and Good endure!” Maleficent then realised who the elderly man was, Yensid the Sorcerer. In those seconds she turned to late to see that the handsome stranger had thrown his sword spinning through the air. It struck her straight in her heart and with a shriek of rage and pain, her body disintegrated into a swirling cloud of blackened fairy dust around a column of green and yellow flames before dispersing into the wind.

With Maleficent gone, the Kingdom was free however the sleeping curse remained on the Princess in the tower. Ascending the steps, the handsome stranger, Prince Phillip, and Yensid arrived in the chamber of the Sleeping Beauty, Aurora. Yensid said that no magic would be strong enough to break such a curse, what was needed was something far more powerful. Phillip gazed sorrowfully down at the sleeping maiden, saddened that Yensid’s magic would be unable to break the curse. She was so beautiful, with golden hair and lips that shamed the reddest of roses. Bending down he placed a small and innocent kiss upon those lips and as their lips touched, a spark greater than any magic ignited their hearts. The Princess’ eyes fluttered open, the curse was lifted for Loves First Kiss had broken the spell. With such joy came a realisation, Grimhilde was still at large and must be stopped.