Request from MG- Rapunzel and Merida being friends. It kind of spun out of control from there, because I am incapable of resisting the call of the crossover (or crackfic). Then I decided to polish it up and share, because the world needs more crossovers (and crackfics).

Technically not an AU, since this occurs before/after the respective movies.

Once upon a time, in the fair land of Corona, a young girl was watching her mother cook. The girl was curious, as Mother only cooked from the special pot when she was in a bad mood, but the special pot always produced bright, shiny soups that made Mother happy again. On this particular occasion, the girl decided to help make the wonderful soups, so that she could make Mother happy. Unfortunately, her presence startled her mother, who then tripped on the girl's hair, knocking an entire shelf of ingredients into the pot, and the contents of the pot onto the girl.

There was a nauseating swirl of neon light, and the girl disappeared, Mother's screams of "NO! RAPUNZEL!" echoing after her.

Elsewhere, another young girl was hiding from her mother in the woods. She stomped the flowers and kicked the rocks on the path, but nothing changed-Mother still wanted her to come in and practice embroidery, no bows allowed. It was at the precise moment that the redheaded girl was considering giving up her pouting and going home when a threatening whorl of neon light swirled into existence as plot devices are wont to do. Blinded by the flash of light, the girl was suddenly and surprisingly squashed by a squealing mass of hair.

"YAAAAA- oh, oh dear, I'm so sorry, Mother always says I should be less clumsy! Who're you? I'm Rapunzel! I've never met another girl before, where's your tower?"

"Ehm, Merida." She paused as the blonde moved closer, squinting at - examining? - her thoughtfully. "Whyyyyy are you here?"

"Well, Mother was cooking, and I fell. Where ARE we? OH! What is that? Can I touch it? How do you use it? How did you get your hair so red? Why do you speak so weird? When-"

"Oi! I don't speak weird! And I was born with red hair, thanks!" Merida glared at this strange girl, who had taken it upon herself to stretch Merida's unruly curls out and watch them spring back into place with an utterly fascinated look painted across her face.

And so it was that after a rather strange start, the two young girls acted in the manner of young children everywhere and became fast friends. Of course, it was mainly through the insistence of the bubbly blonde one, because the slightly terrified, slightly amused red head decided it would be too much to fight such a force of nature- forest spirits should not be trifled with, so why should a sun spirit?

The two adventurers spent a wonderful afternoon in the woods together, the young Scottish princess teaching her new friend the art of the bow, and the excitable sun spirit (really, what else could she be?) returning the favor with ventriloquy and a few tricks of hide and seek.

Unfortunately, that evening as they were heading back to Merida's home, filled with equal amounts guilt surrounding their mothers and excitement about the new playmates, Mother poofed into the clearing. She took poor Rapunzel home, but not before erasing both girls' memories of the day and of a friend that could somehow understand.

From that day, neither girl could shake the feeling that something was vaguely missing, something that wasn't there before. Although this awareness abated with a changed fate and a fulfilled dream, the final happily ever after came several years later in a state visit by Corona to Scotland, where the princesses-now queens- reunited with much rejoicing.