Disclaimer: This is The Princess Bride as Captain Swan. I do not own Once Upon a Time, their characters, William Goldman's words, his story, or his characters. I have simply taken his plot and story line and twisted it into my own. This is based moreso on the book than the movie, but they're basically the same anyway. There are a few lines that come straight out of the book (because they're so beautiful and perfect that I can't force myself to reword them). Also, Cora and Regina have no relation. My cover photo is simply the movie cover, which I also do not own. I hope you enjoy!

Once upon a time in an enchanted world there lived a peaceful kingdom ruled by the kind and benevolent Snow White and David Charming. Snow was truly the fairest in all the land and the love between the King and Queen were legendary.

After one long and strenuous night, Snow gave birth to the kingdom's new heir: Princess Emma Swan Charming.

Six years later, the princess had already begun to grow into a beautiful child. Through her mother's guidance, she became kind to all creatures, forgiving, strong, humble, graceful, and skilled in archery. Through her father's guidance, she became brave, honorable, sensitive, noble, loving, and skilled in sword fighting. But Emma only found true joy when she was doing one of two things: riding her beloved horse or teasing the young stable boy.

Emma's horse was named Buttercup, a beautiful blonde pony that had stuck by Emma's side since their first ride together. The horse was hers, and she was the horse's. Emma would find any excuse to go out and spend time with her beloved creature.

Emma's stable boy was named Killian, an adorable orphan who was found abandoned on one of the King's Navy ships when he was just a baby. The King and Queen gave him refuge in their kingdom. He was four years older than Emma. He was shy and quiet, usually kept to himself or his work. That is, until Emma came around. Even as a baby, she was very interested in the other kid who roamed within the kingdom walls. But Killian always took the time to play with the princess; in fact, the only time he would truly smile was in her company. Still, his words were limited. As they got older, Emma began to get frustrated with his lack of speech. When she would be down at the stables taking care of Buttercup, she would go on and on about her life, her day, her parents, her friends, she would even make up tales. Just to get the boy to engage in conversation. But Killian would only nod or shake his head as he listened to her stories. She began to realize that the only time he would actually speak to her was when she would give him a command or ask him for something. And his reply would always be the same: "As you wish."

As Emma grew older, her beauty only grew. By thirteen, she was already the second most beautiful woman in all the land, after her mother.

But Emma didn't notice; she didn't care. She had grown much more interested in sword fighting over curtseying, archery over studies, and riding her horse over dancing. Anything that got her outside of the castle was where she desired to be. Everyday she would walk into the castle, a trail of dirt following her from all of her outdoor adventures.

"Emma Swan!" he mother would berate, "Get upstairs right this instant and have Johanna give you a bath and get this mud out of your hair! If you keep rolling around in the dirt like that, people will start to mistake your gold hair for brown."

"I've been riding all day!" Emma would reply, trying to squirm her way out of her mother's critical eye.

Snow would only shake her head, trying hard not to smile at her stubborn daughter. "Your suitors aren't going to like a princess who smells of stables."

To this Emma would always scoff and make a face, "Oh, the suitors! I do not care about the suitors. Buttercup loves me and that is quite sufficient, thank you."

She said that speech loud, and she said it often.

Soon after her sixteenth birthday, Emma began to notice something strange happen within the kingdom. The girls that she had grown up with both within the castle and in town wouldn't play with her anymore. They would only acknowledge her whenever she was either with her parents or she approached them first. And even when they did speak to her, it was always formal with a hint of venom in their tone.

Finally, when she couldn't take being ignored any longer, she cornered her best friend Alexandra one morning and asked about the silence.

"After what you've done, I should think you'd have the courtesy not to pretend to ask!" she had replied with a roll of her eyes.

Emma rose her eye brow, "And what exactly have I done?"

"What? What? YOU'VE STOLEN THEM!" she yelled before storming off in the opposite direction.

Emma didn't understand who 'them' were. She looked around the square and noticed a few eyes on her. Being the princess, this wasn't extremely uncommon. But she noticed that most of the eyes this afternoon belonged to a few of the townspeople's sons. That's when she understood.

The boys. The beef-witted featherbrained rattleskulled clod-pated dim-domed noddle-noggined sapheaded lunk-knobbed boys.

She recalled the unusual attention she had been getting from them lately. They would ask if they could brush her horse, go riding with her, take her fishing, practice her sword play, go for walks, or bring her flowers. She had always been kind in explaining her appreciation, but she always turned them down.

"My stable boy does that." "I really enjoy riding by myself." "My stable boy does that." "My stable boy does that." "I really enjoy walking by myself." "My stable boy already brought me flowers."

Soon, the boys began to tease her, despite her royal status. They would insist that she thought she was too pretty for them, that she thought she was too good. Sometimes she couldn't even walk outside the castle walls without a group of boys teasing her and laughing at her. Without hesitation, Killian would always mysteriously run to Emma's side and pull her away from the gang of boys. It only took one boy who would continue to harass Emma for Killian to show his strength, leaving the poor boy with a broken nose and black eye. After that, just Killian's presence was enough to scare off the boys.

Emma never failed to thank him whenever he would save her from the harsh words of the village boys. And each time, he would answer with "As you wish."

She began to spend more of her time within the castle grounds. Through this confusing time, Killian became her only friend. She found comfort in his silence and patience, though she desperately would try to get him to speak.

One afternoon, a neighboring kingdom whom Snow and Charming had formed a truce with paid a visit to their kingdom for dinner. The king and queen were an older couple who had never produced an heir, but the queen had always given Emma the creeps.

"King Henry and Queen Cora!" Snow greeted as they were escorted into the main hall of the castle. "Welcome back! It is wonderful to see you again."

"Hello sweet Snow," Cora smiled, though Emma couldn't help but squirm in her place as she watched. "And the beautiful Princess Emma," she said as she took a few steps towards her. Emma had just come in from riding, so she hadn't bathed yet. "Though, from the looks of you, I'd mistake you for a stable girl instead of a princess."

"We have a stable boy," Emma expressed with a shrug, "he probably smells worse than I do."

"I apologize for my daughter," Charming announced. "She enjoys her outdoor activities just as much as I did when I was a young boy."

Cora smiled, "Yes, but you were a shepherd boy."

"Dear Snow, we would love a quick tour of the castle," Henry interrupted in an attempt to change the conversation. "It's been so long since we've come for a visit."

Snow smiled and nodded as she began to lead the way around the castle. As Emma followed the pack, she began to wish in times like this that she weren't a princess. She knew that the pressures were soon going to fall upon her to find a proper husband, preferably a prince in which they will be able to join the two kingdoms, and she would have to begin learning how to run a kingdom like a proper queen. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to find some far off adventure.

It was when they walked out to the field that Emma began to pay more attention. She noticed Cora cringed at the horses behind the fence. Her gaze then turned to the stables, where she noticed a figure working within it.

"Is that the stable boy?" she asked. Emma nodded. "Let me meet him. Stable boy!" she called out to get his attention. He looked up and began to walk over to the group of people.

"Oh, he's not dressed proper for an introduction," Snow tried to say, noticing that he was only dressed in a pair of breeches. Obviously whatever work he'd been doing had caused him to lose his shirt, probably because of the heat. He was sweaty and dirty, his hair was messy. He kept his head down and his hand clung to his arm in an attempt to shield himself.

Cora scoffed, "I've seen bare chests before." He stopped when he stood in front of the group, all eyes on him. "Have you a name, stable boy?"

"Killian, your highness," he replied in a soft voice, head still bowed down.

Cora inspected him closely, Emma noticed. "Show me the stables. I'm very interested in how you feed the horses."

"You want me to feed the horses for you, your highness?" Killian asked.

Cora nodded, "Bright lad. Now shall be fine. I've been told we have some time before dinner is ready."

Cora offered her arm to Killian, and he had no choice but to take it. He sent one final look towards Emma before he began to walk her to the stables as everyone followed.

They walked into the stables and Killian began to pull out the heavy bag of feed. Emma ran to his side, "Here, let me help you."

"If you wouldn't mind, dear, I'd prefer to see the stable boy perform the stable chores. If I wanted to watch the princess do farm boy work… well, that would be crazy."

Emma backed off, but felt uneasy with the way that Cora kept looking at Killian. He kept his bright blue eyes on the feed and the horses as he took the time to pour the bag of food for each of the horses. His sweaty muscles would flex when he would do so, something Emma noticed Cora noticing.

At dinner, Cora had spoken fondly of Killian throughout the meal, stating how much she wished they had a stable boy who tended to their horses like he did. Emma got the impression that Cora was trying to get her parents to offer Killian to her – a thought that immediately made Emma sick.

When they left, Emma got ready for bed. After a quick bath, Johanna insisted on combing Emma's long blonde curls. But she only got through a few strokes before Emma bolted out of the room and down the halls. She didn't care if she were only in her night dress, she was angry.

When she got to the stables, Killian was reading by candlelight. Emma noticed the book was one about sailing. He noticed her presence and jumped up to attention.

"Stable boy," she commanded. "I have some problems with Buttercup. She needs to be cleaned, her hoofs varnished, her ears massaged, and her tail plaited. By tonight. You hear me? Tonight."

Killian simply nodded, "As you wish."

Emma stormed back into the castle. She wasn't thinking straight. She'd never been that rude to Killian before.

As she laid in bed a few minutes later, she couldn't stop thinking about the way that Cora had looked at Killian. About how she wanted to take him from them. From her. Why would she want him anyway? What could she possibly want with her Killian?

She obviously saw something in the stable boy. But what? He had eyes like the sea on a bright, beautiful day – but who cared about eyes? His hair was as black as the coal used to light the flames in the fireplace – if you liked that sort of thing. He was broad in the shoulders, a physique King Henry certainly lacked in his age. He was certainly muscular and tan, but who wouldn't be after years of working in a field in the sun? He was taller and his stomach was certainly flatter than King Henry's. And, with his age, the stable boy had grown an interesting stubble of hair around his mouth and jaw, but who cared about a litter of hairs?

Emma sat up in bed. It must be his teeth. The stable boy had very good, bright teeth.

She shook her head. Could it be anything else? She had noticed that a lot of the village girls would follow Killian around when he would go into the market, and Alexandra had always swooned whenever they would visit him in the stables. But he always ignored the girls and never spoke to them, so they couldn't ever really catch a glimpse of his teeth.

Though it was strange that someone with such prestige as the Queen would be so wrapped up on teeth that way. She shrugged and decided to close her eyes to get to sleep.

People don't look at people the way Cora looked at the stable boy because of their teeth.

"Oh, dear," Emma groaned. Now the stable boy was looking at Cora! Emma was watching as Killian fed the horses with his rippling arms in his tan skin and his bright eyes as he looked at Cora. How could he?

Emma sprung out of bed and began to pace.

"But she's so old." "And she's married." "She's not even all that pretty."

Emma did this for most of the night as she went from tossing and turning in her bed to pacing on the floor. She couldn't get the image out of her mind and she couldn't understand it.

She found her feet walking her out of her room and down the stairs. It was almost dawn, the sky was beginning to brighten when she made her way to the part of the castle she knew his quarters to be. She knew it was incredibly inappropriate to enter a man's quarters unchaperoned, but she didn't care.

She didn't knock, she was on a mission and her adrenaline was feeding her heart beat as it began to race. When she opened the door, Killian was sitting in his bed with a sheet up to his waist as he read, candle lit on his nightstand, still shirtless. He jumped at her intrusion, but stayed silent. He simply sat and waited.

She couldn't look at him, he was too beautiful.

"I love you," Emma stated, still refusing to look at him. "I know this must come as something of a surprise, since all I've ever done is boss you around and tell you my stories. But, I have loved you for several hours now, and every second, more. I thought an hour ago that I loved you more than any woman has ever loved a man, but a half hour after I knew that what I felt before was nothing compared to what I felt then. But ten minutes after that, I understood that my previous love was a puddle compared to the high seas before a storm. Your eyes are like that, you know? Not before a storm, but after. After all the excitement, and the sun comes out to brighten the surroundings and it shines upon the waves. That's you. How many minutes ago was I? Twenty? Had I brought my feelings up to then? It doesn't matter." The sun was beginning to rise behind her and Emma let the warmth and the heat feed her courage as she continued. "I love you so much more now than twenty minutes ago that there cannot be comparison. I love you so much more now than when I opened your door, there cannot be comparison. There is no room in my body for anything but you. My arms love you, my ears adore you, my knees shake with blind affection. My mind begs you to ask it something so it can answer. If you plan to leave, I will follow. If you long for something, I will fetch it. If there is anything I can do for you, I will do for you. If there is anything I cannot do, I will learn. I know I am a simple princess without the charms and knowledge and beauty of Queen Cora, and I saw the way you looked at her. But please remember, she is old and is married while I am seventeen and for me there is only you. Dearest Killian – sweet, wonderful Killian. Whisper that I have a chance to win your love."

And with that, she did the bravest thing she would do all night. She looked up.

Killian had gotten up somewhere in the middle of her speech to stand in front of her. His eyes watching her intently as he listened to her words.

She gulped as her eyes begged for him to say something – anything.

He smiled, "As you wish."

As soon as the words left his mouth, she wrapped her hand around the nape of his neck and pulled his face to hers. They fell into each others arms as her lips pressed against his.

The precise rating of kissing is a terribly difficult thing, often leading to great controversy, because although everyone agrees with the formula of affection times purity times intensity times duration, no one has ever been completely satisfied with how much weight each element should receive. But on any system, there are five that everyone agrees deserves full marks.

This one left them all behind.