Holiday In Enchancia-revised

Disclaimer: Disney owns Frozen, Sofia the First and all related characters.

Author's note: A couple of weeks after Frozen premiered Disney aired an episode of Sofia the First titled Holida In Enchancia. The episode description read something like, "King Roland is trapped by a storm and cannot return home in time for the holidays." I thought to myself, "What if Disney uses this episode to introduce Anna and Elsa to the Sofia-verse. What a bold and brilliant way that would be to cement their places among the Disney Princesses!" Unfortunately, that is not the way the episode played out. They went with Princess Aurora instead, which is okay, but I thought going with Anna and Elsa would have been much cooler. (Heh, heh. See what I did there? ...Anyhow...) This fic is based upon how I wish that episode would have gone.

Snow, snow, and more snow. King Roland II of Enchancia sighed as he stared through the window at the swirling curtains of snowflakes as they fell from the sky. One might be forgiven for wondering why such a melancholy had settled on this man. He was in an unusually well-appointed inn, there was a fire blazing merrily away in the common room's fireplace, and there was a mug of exceptionally fine hot cocoa cooling at his elbow. He had all that one might desire to endure a wintery day indoors.

The problem was that he hadn't endured a wintery day. He had been trapped in this inn for well over a week.

King Roland sighed again as he went through the same arithmetic that had been running through his mind since the storm started. The amount of time it would take him to get home if he had to clear the roads as he went was far too great to get him home in time even if he left right then, or even if he left two days ago. If he took a sleigh he should make it, but only if the weather was ideal, and only if he left within a day. If he had a flying carriage he could make it in hours; but, again, the weather needed to clear up. He could be home immediately if his royal sorcerer could only get his act together, he thought dourly. Although Cedric had not been able whip up a teleportation spell he had been able to get some messages through, and the last one had made it clear that he had used up certain necessary spell components in his failed attempts. Unfortunately, he would not be able to get them replaced until it was too late.

"Until after Christmas," thought King Roland. "My first Christmas with Miranda and Sofia and I'm stuck here."

King Roland sighed again, then picked up his hot cocoa and stepped away from the window. He walked over to his coachman to see if the man had had any brilliant ideas for getting home. He had little hope at this point, but the two of them, along with anyone else they had managed to pull into the conversation, had met every evening to discuss their plight. He expected the results to be the same as every other time: either the storm stopped, or Cedric came through.

"Well, George, how does..." King Roland began.

"Sire, do you hear that?" asked George.

King Roland blinked, surprised. George was usually the soul of decorum. If he had heard something that would make him forget himself like this, it must be something truly exceptional. The king stood still a moment, listening intently. "I don't...wait, wait, I do hear something. It sounds like...singing?"

"That's it, sire," said George, nodding emphatically. "But the strange thing is...I think it's coming from outside!"

"Outside?!" said the king, startled. He moved back to the window and listened again. "You know, I think you may be right."

The king and his coachman rushed to the front door of the inn. When George found himself unable to open the front door by himself, both men put their shoulders to it and shoved. No one had arrived at or left the inn since the blizzard started. All the staff took care of anything that needed doing outside during the middle of the day. The last of them had come back inside hours ago, and the venerable old inn had hunkered itself down to endure another night of heavy snowfall and wind. No one should be outside right now, much less singing merrily and in apparent high spirits.

King Roland and George forced the door open and peered through the snow and deepening gloom. It did not take long to see where the music was coming from. Three sleighs pulled up to the inn. This was astonishing in and of itself, for no one had dared to brave the storm since the king had arrived just before the blizzard had made travel impossible. What was even more amazing was that as the sleighs approached the wind and snow simply ceased! No, that wasn't quite true, because blue light was pouring from the lead sleigh, and wherever the light went snow cleared and the wind stilled. The king and George stood amazed as the singers paused, then began a new tune as they piled out of the sleighs.

Here we come a-wassailing

Among the leaves so green;

Here we come a-wand'ring

So fair to be seen.

Love and joy come to you,

And to you your wassail too;

And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year

And God send you a Happy New Year.

The carolers continued their song as they approached the inn. In the lead were two young women linked arm in arm. One was a cheerful and exuberant woman dressed in dark greens and blues with rosy cheeks and strawberry blonde hair. Close behind her was a tall and rugged-looking man strumming a lute. The woman's companion, however, commanded King Roland and George's undivided attention. She was a tall and elegant lady with pale blonde hair wearing a blue gown that looked far more suited to a ballroom than traveling through a blizzard. Even more amazing, she was the source of the blue light that seemed to still the storm. Whenever she waved her free hand the light would spill forth pushing aside the flurries of snow, calming the wind, and even clearing the snow from her path.

"Sire, did you ever see the like..." breathed George as the party approached, but he suddenly realized the king was striding forward to meet the group, arms outstretched as if he were greeting longtime friends.

"Elsa! Queen Elsa of Arendelle! I can't believe we are finally meeting again after all these years! And you must be Anna. You've certainlly grown since the last time I saw you. Well, you both have, of course. I can't..." The king paused as the carol came to a sudden stop, and the group of travelers stared at him, mystified.

"Oh, where are my manners," said the king. "My name is King Roland the Second of Enchancia. Your father and I were old friends!"

Author's note: Anyone reading this fic probably already knows all about Sofia the First and how it works. They will undoubtedly already be scratching their heads and thinking, "Wait, this isn't how the Disney Princesses work in this series!" Don't worry, I have a plan.

I should also take this opportunity to say a few things. Sofia the First is, in my opinion, Disney's boldest attempt yet in creating a shared Disney Princess universe. There have been a few stabs at this in the past, like certain Disney Princess video games and a manga series where a young girl got to meet various Disney Princesses. (Mickey's House of Mouse might also fall into this category.) Kingdom Hearts clearly takes place in a multiverse where each Disney Princess has their own world. Sofia the First, however, takes place in a well-developed world where the various princesses all exist in their own right.

Sofia is a young girl whose mother marries the King of Enchancia. She and her mother are commoners, and they have to learn how to behave and what is expected of them as royalty. Enchancia is described as a magical kingdom, but I will be calling it an Enchanted Kingdom. I plan to do a certain amount of world-building over the course of this fic. The king had been previously married, and has two children: twins named Amber and James. Soon after the marriage the king gives Sofia a mysterious amulet called the Amulet of Avalor. He doesn't know what makes it special, but his otherwise ineffective royal sorcerer, Cedric, does. Among other things, it can summon a Disney Princess to help Sofia when she is in especially bad trouble. When these princesses arrive people are surprised to see them, but in a "What's a famous princess like you doing here?" way, not a "But you died two hundred years ago!" kind of way. Yes, other people besides Sofia can see and interact with them. Apparently, they are usually well known and all live in the same time period, despite there being evidence in the Disney canon to suggest that some of them live millennia apart. The princesses arrive and disappear in something that looks like pixie dust, usually off camera and when no one is actually looking directly at them.

That's it for trivia about the show. See you next chapter!