Rapunzel sat at the bar in Granny's, her shoulders slumped as she stared down at the empty shot glasses on the counter in front of her. Emma and Mary Margaret sat at a booth nearby watching her intently over two glasses of cocoa.

"Underage drinking seems to be an overlooked law in this town," Emma muttered, more to herself than to Mary Margaret.

"Back in our world, there wasn't exactly a drinking age. Besides, could you blame the poor girl? Being raised by Rumplestiltskin," her mother replied as she picked up her mug and tapped her fingers aimlessly against the sides.

"I can't even begin to imagine."

"So after all this time, he had a daughter that none of us knew about?"

"Yes. No. Who knows. Her name's Rapunzel," Emma said as Mary Margaret nearly spit out a sip of cocoa in her mouth.

"Oh no. That can't be," she said when she'd finally recovered.

"I agree. In all of the fairy tales, Rapunzel has long hair. That's the whole point of her story. This girl's just got a pixie—"

"No, Emma," Mary Margaret interrupted. "I don't mean that it isn't Rapunzel. I mean, I didn't believe it was possible that she could still be alive."

"What?"

"Back in our world, there was a kingdom called Corona. The king and queen had a baby girl, but she was sick as an infant. Supposedly, the king saved her life with magic, but shortly after Rapunzel was born, she was taken. The king and queen searched and searched. They never stopped looking for her. Even after their death, the kingdom would release thousands of lanterns into the sky on her birthday as a beacon to the lost princess. That's what the lantern celebration in Storybrooke tonight is about. But…" she hesitated for a moment, glancing from Rapunzel to Emma and back.

"What is it?"

"Rapunzel would have been born hundreds of years before I was. Before anyone in Storybrooke existed…except…" she trailed off, though the widening of Emma's eyes told her that she already knew the end of the sentence.

"So you're saying that Rumplestiltskin kidnapped this princess and raised her for HUNDREDS of years, but she still looks 18?"

"You'd be surprised, what magic can do," a new voice said as they both looked up to see Rapunzel looking at them from across the diner. She stood up from her stool and approached their booth.

"So you're Rapunzel, the lost princess. I'm Mary Marg-"

"Snow White, I know," Rapunzel interrupted, though after seeing the hurt look on Mary Margaret's face, was quick to continue. "Even locked away in a tower for as long as I was, I know your story. It's nice to meet you." She managed a smile, though it didn't quite travel up to her eyes.

"Would you like to sit and talk?" Mary Margaret asked, shifting her eyes to Emma and hoping her daughter would pick up on an unspoken request for the two to talk alone. Emma nodded as she started to slide out of the booth.

"I have a few things to do down at the station. I'll see you tonight, Mary Margaret."

Emma smiled down at Rapunzel as she turned and left the diner, casting one last glance back at the booth just as Rapunzel sat down.

"So you were raised by Rumplestiltskin?"

"I was kept in a room at the top of the tallest tower in his castle and believed that I was his daughter," Rapunzel answered flatly.

"And you never aged?"

"Once I turned 18, I stopped aging. A product of the magic I was born with. I had the power to heal wounds and turn back time on aging for others. I guess the same worked on me without my control. But I've started aging since the curse broke," she said, glancing down at the table and absentmindedly fiddling with a napkin in her hands.

"Why?"

"My magic…didn't make it to Storybrooke," she replied, her eyes filling with tears.

"What else didn't make it to Storybrooke?" Mary Margaret asked, knowing that there was more than what she was letting on. Rapunzel's head snapped up, obviously surprised that Mary Margaret had caught on to whatever it was she hadn't said. After a moment, she sighed and turned her gaze out the window.

"I sat looking out a window for so long with this feeling that I belonged somewhere else. That my magic wasn't something to keep hidden but to be able to share. And back in our world, there was someone…who showed me that my power didn't define me. That I was worth more than that." She carelessly wiped away the tears that were rolling down her red cheeks.

"You fell in love," Mary Margaret said in complete understanding as Rapunzel slid out of the booth and turned to walk away before turning back for just a moment.

"I fell in love," she repeated, her voice full of despair and pain. The kind of pain that Mary Margaret had only known for a brief period of time and couldn't possibly imagine having to live with for the rest of her life.