Authors note: It has been a long time since I published anything. I've been busy with lots of things going on. However, I have not had a very good week and so I decided to publish this in the hopes of lifting my spirits. I've always hated how people seem to think that a Disney Princess is weak or somehow incapable simply because her dream is getting married, she wants someone to rescue her, or cannot fight. Somewhere I heard someone point out that the early princesses had even greater strength knowing they had nothing to fight with yet still were willing to open up their hearts again. Thus the story of princesses who came up with their own stories, to escape from something far worse.

A/N: There is also now a prequel of sorts published called If the Shoe Fits. It is a possible explanation for how all the princesses are there.

"Queen Elsa created an ice rink for her people. Queen Elsa and Princess Anna loved to skate together. And they all lived happily ever after . . . The end!" Elsa finished the story, her teeth chattering all the while.

Belle made the turn in her cell. "Who's next to tell a story?"

"Belle, we don't exist to keep your mind active," Ariel sighed from her bed, cringing as Belle passed her bed, the slight movement rocking her broken legs.

"I know that," Belle hissed, "but what else do you want to do since we're locked in these cells?"

"Go ahead and tell another story," Meg encouraged, "It's interesting to hear what stories the voices in my head can come up with."

"You're just as sane as we are," Cinderella soothed as Elsa moved to sit beside Meg again while shivering.

"That doesn't say much, does it? This coming from the girl that can't stop cleaning your's and the Sleepys' cell," Jasmine sassed back at her.

"Says the one who's chained to the wall," Tiana snorted.

A scream echoed down the hallway again and the girls all fell silent.

"Who do you think that was?" Cinderella whispered as she glanced at Snow White and Aurora. But they were drugged enough that they didn't even twitch.

"I don't know, who all is still gone?" Merida murmured.

"Snow, Aurora, and I are here," Cinderella assured her.

"Meg, Elsa, Ariel, Jasmine, and I are here." Belle commented.

"Rapunzel and I are here," Tiana assured the girl across the way.

Merida sighed, "I think it's Anna or Mulan then. It might be Pocahontas, though. I haven't heard her talk enough."

The whimper from Elsa disappeared into the silence.

Cinderella took a breath, "Rapunzel, they're fading again."

"You can't ask her to do that again! It's too hard on her!" Tiana snapped.

Rapunzel's rusty voice started "Flower gleam and glow. Let your flower shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine . . . what once was mine . . . " Her voice cracked several times but her hair lit up still.

Rapunzel was huddled on her bed lit up by her hair. Cinderella winced as she could imagine more life leaving the long haired girl as life was added back to Snow and Aurora.

"I'm sorry," Cinderella whispered.

Tiana sighed, "I guess not everyone can live around the dead." That was about as close to an apology that Cinderella was going to get.

The rusty voice spoke again. "Water, someone sing?"

The others could hear Tiana rush over to her side and pass her one of the canteens they had in their cell along with most of the bread that they had.

Cinderella took a deep breath, she'd asked for the magic so she had to provide the distraction too. "A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you're fast asleep…" Belle and others started joining harmonizing with her. The music sounded beautiful. For a few seconds Cinderella could almost see herself being swung around in a castle in a beautiful gown. Then the image faded when they heard the slamming of a door. Tiana carefully checked that the hair had stopped glowing and was hidden from the guards. She saw that Rapunzel had fallen asleep.

Pocahontas stumbled into the hallway with two guards pushing her. The silent scream and look of terror on her face when she saw her cell was truly heartbreaking. The guards picked her up and tossed her into the cell. The whimpering and hyperventilating began almost immediately. Another guard came in with refilled canteens of water and food for the princesses. As soon as they were gone, Belle was up and pacing again.

"Stop it!" Ariel finally screamed.

Belle rounded on her. "I'm bored and I'm in a tiny cell with two other people! Either give me something to do with myself or stop complaining!"

Jasmine hissed at her,"But with all that pacing you're jolting her legs and almost hitting me!"

"I am bored," Belle hissed back "I've given you two options, figure out how you want to handle it from there."

"Stop it!" Merida whispered. "I can't hear what's going on at all with this stupid argument. Why can't Rapunzel just fix Ariel?"

"I've got to be hallucinating the glowing hair," Meg muttered.

Elsa shook her head and murmured "It's real. Always ask, I'll tell you what's real."

Tiana rounded on both of them. "You're saner than you think. Megara. And no, Rapunzel can't just fix Ariel, little girl!"

Belle positioned herself so she had her best view of Merida, "Merida, Rapunzel can't reach Ariel. Cinderella and the sleeping girls are in cells right next to each other. In any case, Rapunzel is pretty weak, I'm not sure she's up for much at the moment."

Merida deflated even more, "Oh." The answer was so obvious that everyone else knew it clearly, except the blind girl.

Cinderella started up the singing again. Clearly, Belle along with others were bored and maybe it'd help poor Pocahontas. "Someday my Prince will come, someday . . . " Her voice echoed off of the stonework and the iron bars.

The cells were getting darker when Mulan and Anna were dragged back to the cells. Mulan was skin and bones and covered in bruises while Anna's gag was clearly back in place. Mulan was thrown in with Pocahontas and curled up next to the Native American princess. Anna sat down in her cell with Merida. Silent sobs coming from her as she sat there unable to make a sound. For any sounds made would be repaid on Merida and Elsa.

Jasmine dreamed of waking up and finding that her family, Raj, or Aladdin had found her. She missed them all so much. And while her princess story hadn't happened exactly as she told it ... who needed to know that.

In fact, that was on every princesses mind, dreaming of family, pets, or princes coming to take them away from this horrible dungeon.

Belle finally turned to the tried and true way of falling asleep, "Once upon a time . . . "