Friends and Fairy Tales

by CrackedInkWell

(A Tale of Two Grimm Situations)

Author's Note:

Man I'm tired. *Crash* I'm okay.

“Cinderella!” the voice of the stepmother cried. “Come up here at once!”

Celestia sighed and put the broom away. It was already the afternoon and yet she felt exhausted. She didn’t have any idea that the life of a maid could be so… grueling. Day in and day out, with her magic was useless and her wings refuse to help fly away from this horrible place – month after month she has been forced to do all the dirty work for her so called “family” – and year after year, this awful family mocks her at every step of the way.

Not to mention that she’s always filthy. The Solar Princess wished that for at least one day that she could bathe to get the ash and dirt off of her coat. She missed the days in which she had on clean, fine clothes that didn’t involve the gray bed gown and wooden shoes she was wearing.

“Cinderella!” the mother yelled, “We art waiting!”

“Coming,” she called back. Up the stairs to the bedrooms, she found her- no! Her other stepfamily if these other memories were right. In the dressing room were her two stepsisters and stepmother. “You called?” Celestia asked.

“Yes,” the stepmother asked while looking in a mirror. “Comb our hair for us, brush our shoes and fasten our buckles, for we art going to the festival at the King’s palace.”

She obeyed, picking up the comb, she began with their hair, “Do you think it would be possible,” Celestia asked, “that I might come along too? After all, I have been working hard.”

“Thou go, Cinderella!” her stepmother scoffed, “Thou art dusty and dirty and wouldst thou go to the festival? Thou hast no clothes and shoes, and yet wouldst dance!”

The sisters too laughed at the idea, “Canst thou imagine?” one said, “All the most beautiful women in the land will be coming to this three day festival, and she wants to go?”

“Cinderella,” said the other, “the King is looking for a wife for his son, not some filthy wrench for his kitchens!”

“So what?” Celestia questioned, “Everyone deserves to have some fun once in a while, including me.”

“The festival would require knowing how to dance,” the stepmother pointed out, “Yet, thou can’t dance, if you were to go, we shall be the laughing stalk of the whole kingdom.”

“But there must be some way that I can go.”

The stepmother thought for a moment, “Cinderella, once thou art done, I shall empty a dish of lentils into the ashes for thee, if thou hast picked them out again in two hours, thou shalt go with us.”

Celestia agreed, once she combed their hair, brush their shoes and fasten their buckles, they went into the kitchen in which her stepmother tossed her uncooked meal into the fireplace.

Of course, the Princess knew that there was no way she could accomplish such a task without her magic. But she did know one trick from her other memories. She went through the back-door into the garden, and called out, “You tame pigeons, you turtle-doves, and all you birds beneath the sky, come and help me to pick the good into the pot, the bad into the crop.”

Then two white pigeons came in by the kitchen window, and afterwards the turtle doves, and at last all the birds beneath the sky, came whirling and crowding in, and settled among the ashes.

“I must say Cel, that’s a really impressive trick,” Celestia’s ears perked. Quickly returning into the kitchen, she gasped as she found Luna among the birds. “Perhaps you should teach me that if I wanted to scare off some of our most annoying of nobles.”

“Luna!” Celestia rushed over, embracing her sister, “I’ve missed you so much!”

“Missed me?” Luna stepped back, with a confused look on her face, “What are you talking about? It’s almost half a day,” she said before she yawned.

“What?” the dusty alicorn asked in confusion, “What are you talking about? I’ve been trapped in this dreadful place for years. Luna, where have you been?”

“Well, this is certainly new,” she said. “To tell you the truth, it’s rather very interesting. While the real you is indeed still asleep, your body however is not only awake, but has a different personality running it too. Apparently, she goes by the name of Cinderella.”

Celestia’s eyes opened wide, “What? You mean that sorry girl is controlling my body in the awaken world?”

“Fortunately, we think that we might have an idea what it was that has trapped your consciousness here. Twilight Sparkle had accidentally sent an enchanted book she was studying when it somehow fell into your hooves. And apparently, a character from that book now possesses your body while she too says that she has, ‘other memories’ of you.”

Sighing, the Sun Princess sat down on her hunches, “I think I see… So what is going on while I was working like a slave?”

“I’m sorry to tell you that the Prince’s Blueblood, Shining Armor, and all of Twilight’s friends in Ponyville have fallen into the same predicament. As for me, I’m lending a helping hoof in hopes to find the cause of all of this. Tell me, do you remember anything before you came here?”

“It feels so long ago, back when I was much cleaner than this,” she looked down at her gray bed gown. “All I remember was that I was getting ready to go to bed when I open the package that Twilight had sent me. I was looking through those books when I came across something that I didn’t remember ordering, a book of fairy tales. Curious, I went to bed to read through a couple of stories when I came across a curious title of Cinderella… And I think that I got a paper-cut when I turned its pages before the world became blurry. The next thing I know, I was at the deathbed of a mother that although I’ve never met before, yet I wept as if I’ve known her all my life. She promised me to be good and kind so that she’ll watch over me, that was before that… that witch with her children came along.”

“Out of curiosity,” Luna said, “have you by chance been to a festival?”

She shook her head, “No, at least I hope so. Luna, could you help me get out of here now?”

The dark blue alicorn lit up her horn, “Unfortunately, I can only interact but not wake you up. Something’s blocking that.” After the aura died away, she added, “But do not worry Celestia, me and Twilight will do everything in our power to rescue you. And I vow that I will not sleep until it’s all settled.”

For the first time since she arrived in the house, Celestia smiled, “What did ever do to deserve such a sister?”

“You have forgiven me, so that’s quite enough. In the meantime, just play along until we fix this. And I promise you that I will fix it.”

_*_

Shining had been hungry before. But even with the strict diets during his training years, it didn’t compare to the emptiness in his stomach. For the first time, the Prince understood perfectly what the word, “starving” meant. For three days, he and his “sister” have been lost in a dark forest with no food or water.

If anything, he’s still shocked over what had happened. One moment he got a paper-cut from a weird looking book with an equally weird title, the next he’s playing the role of a brother whose father and stepmother had twice left them alone in the woods to fend for themselves while there was a famine going on. He couldn’t believe the cruelty of this so called “mother” had even convinced this poor fellow that all he does is to collect firewood, to leave his children to starve in the middle of the woods.

Of course, the unicorn tried to use magic to solve this, but he found that something was blocking him to perform said magic. He then tried getting cleaver by leaving a trail of shiny stones from the first time, but when the mother had locked the door, he stupidly used breadcrumbs in which he quickly realized that the birds had quickly eaten the trail.

“How big is this forest anyway?” Shining asked to no one in particular. Looking up at the sky of the morning of the third day, he tried to see where the sun was. He could feel the little girl named Gretel still riding on his back shift while keeping her arms around his neck.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I never knew if there is another village across the forest.” Gretel looked down, “Hansel, dost thou want to rest? I think I can walk.”

“No, I’m alright,” he lied, “I can still go on for a while.” In truth, Shining was anything but alright. The emptiness in his gut was hurting, his hooves were blistering, and his strong legs were stiff.

He heard a roar coming from behind him, and it didn’t take long to figure what it was. “I’m so hungry.”

“I know me too,” he said, “Maybe there’s a village somewhere. I would think that there should be one nearby.”

“Why does our stepmother hate us?” Gretel asked.

“I don’t know,” the unicorn sighed, “Even with little food, this is very wicked for her to do.”

“Do you think we’ll ever see any food again?”

“Gretel, let’s not talk about…” he trailed off when his nose caught something sweet. “Do you smell that?”

“Smell what?”

Shining followed his nose through the forest. The sent was something fresh, sweet, and his stomach wanted something else then tiny berries that weren’t poisonous. Eventually, the Prince spotted something, “Gretel! I see a house and… smoke! We’re saved!”

The unicorn galloped straight towards the clearing, and when they got into the grass, he slowed down before coming to a complete stop at what they were seeing.

It was a house alright, but in a way it reminded of Sugar Cube Corner in Ponyville only nothing on the house looked fake. The house’s walls were made out of bread, the roof was covered in cakes and the windows looked like they were made out of clear sugar.

Looking up at the little girl that was getting off of him, Shining asked, “You’re seeing this, right?”

“It’s beautiful,” she went up to one of the windows and took a lick, “it’s real! Hansel, try something!”

Curious, Shining hopped on a rock, stood on his hind legs and took a nibble at the roof. To his surprise, it was made out of real cake!

Soon, the two of them began to attack the house like animals, breaking off pieces of the house and feasted on their first meal in days.

Then from inside the house, came a soft voice: “Nibble, nibble, gnaw, who is nibbling at my little house?” Suddenly, the door opened, and a very, very, very old woman stepped right out of the house using crutches to walk. Whatever Shining and Gretel were eating they quickly drop it onto the ground in the sudden realization that in the mist of their hunger, they’ve forgotten that someone was inside it.

“Oh, we’re so sorry,” Shining apologized, “We’ve been lost for three days and when we saw that your house was made out of food we-”

“Oh you dear children,” interrupted the woman, “who has left thee out here? Do come in and stay with me. No harm shall happen to thee.” Thanking her, the pony and the little girl went inside. “Thou must be very hungry? Come sit at the table, food I shalt bring thee and perhaps thou can tell me why art thou here.” Several minutes later, the lady returned, placing on the table milk and pancakes, with sugar, apples and nuts.

“Would you mind if we eat this first before we tell you?” Shining asked.

The lady sat down across from them, “Take thy time,” she said with a smile.

Comments

[Skye Mist]

Oh god, how will this go on and end? I really don't have any idea how they're going to revert to normal.