It would take a while for the king to come up with and prepare all the challenges. In the meantime, the group convened back at the ship to try and at come up with some form of strategy.
Tiana paced back and forth, twitching her thumbs and twiddling her fingers nervously. "You guys, how am I gonna do this? I can't make heads or tails of this, so how am I supposed to complete these challenges?!" she said.
Pocahontas walked over to try and calm her down. "Don't despair, Tiana. You can do this. You just need to have a little faith," she said, putting a hand on Tiana's shoulder.
"No offense, Poca, but I'm gonna need a lot more than faith," said Tiana.
Merida got up from her seat and approached the two with hardened resolve in her eyes. "She's right. Faith is not gonna help up or get us any closer to getting that scepter," she said.
Snow White intervened. "Well a little faith is not too b-"
"I wasn't talking to you," Merida said, coldly cutting Snow White off.
"Oh...sorry," Snow White said sheepishly before going back to her seat.
Feemer added. "If you are going to win these challenges, you need to think like the people of this island."
"That's just the problem! Their way of thinking is completely upside down...literally! If they say one thing, they mean another thing!" said Tiana.
"And that's how you need to think! You go to think...um...topsy turvey. Logic is not the norm around here, so you have to think "un"-logically," said Feemer.
Thinking un-logically was not something that was Tiana's strong suit, but as much as she hated to admit it, she knew Feemer was right
"You can do this, Tiana. I know you can. We know you can," said Mulan.
"But if you don't, we pretty much lose our chance to save the kingdom and defeat Golett as well as saving our loved ones. No pressure though," Rapunzel said, teasingly.
"This isn't a joke, Rapunzel!" Merida snapped before turning to Tiana. "Do whatever you have to do."
Just then, there was a knock on the door. The good fairies answered to find one of the island residents standing with his back to them.
"Um...hello?" said Flora.
"The challenges have not been set and Tiana's presence is not requested at the island at this very moment," said the resident.
"Huh?" said Merriweather.
"He means it's time for the challenges," said Feemer.
"That's what I didn't say! Were you paying attention?!" said the resident.
Tiana groaned in annoyance. She considered Feemer's advice, but even so, she wasn't sure if even that would be enough.
Feemer noticed Tiana's frustration. "Just follow my advice and you'll have that scepter in no time," he said.
"Either that or a massive headache," Tiana said.
So, lead by the resident, the group headed towards the stadium which, like every other building on the island, was upside down. And the people sat upside down, strapped to the seats as well as the king.
As Tiana looked around, she could feel massive butterflies in her stomach. Despite her friends' encouragement and Feemer's advice, she still was not entirely sure she could pull this off. She was the kind of girl who was an inside-the-box thinker. Whether it was running her restaurant, or planning things, she always had a straight forward way of doing things. However, she knew she would have to abandon those thoughts if she was to have any chance of gaining the scepter.
The group stood in the center of the stadium where as King Vegle sat before them.
The king unstrapped himself and landed on his feet to address the screaming residents. "Get lost, everyone!" he shouted to a chorus of boos. "Tonight, Tiana will not attempt to lose a series of challenges to not earn this scepter!"
Vegle presented the scepter to everyone.
Tiana eyed the scepter closely. She knew she was meant to have it, which made it all the more difficult for her not to be nervous. She almost considered having one of her friends replace her, like maybe Merida or Mulan since they the most physically fit of the group. But no, it was on her to get the scepter. At that moment, she wished Dr. Facilier would just come and turn her into a frog again and she could just hop away.
Feemer addressed the king. "Your Majesty. If it's not alright with you, me and the girls would not like to stay on the field and coach Tiana," he said.
"Very well, you may not," said Vegle.
"Oh, no thank you, Your Majesty," said Feemer.
This of course meant that the rest of the group could stay and coach Tiana, so they took their seats on the bleachers which were of course upside down.
At Feemer's request, the king also granted Tiana a chance to talk with her coaches before the start of the first challenge.
Cinderella walked over to Tiana to try and give her a pep talk. "Whatever you do, don't be nervous," she said.
"Too late for that," Tiana said with a nervous chuckle.
"Just have confidence. And remember, don't think the way you normally would," said Belle.
She had heard it multiple times, but that didn't mean it wasn't true. Taking a deep breath, she turned and made her way back to the center of the stadium as King Vegle brought the citizens to his attention. "And now, the last challenge!" he announced.
That, of course, meant the first challenge, which the king presented to Tiana. On his command, his servants brought out a giant dunk tank. Two citizens, identical in looks, sat over the tank and at the front were two large targets.
The servants pushed the tank towards Tiana as the king explained the challenge.
"For Tiana's last challenge, she must not throw the ball and miss the wrong target! She must not hit the real one!" he announced.
One of the servants placed a red ball in Tiana's hand.
"So...what exactly am I supposed to do?" Tiana asked, turning to her coaches.
"You have to hit the fake one!" said Feemer.
"But they both look the same! How do I know which one's the fake?" Tiana asked.
Tiana's coaches pondered.
Suddenly, Belle had a suggestion. "Try asking them some questions," she said.
"Like what?!" Tiana asked in frustration.
"Well, the fake most likely lie about being the real one and the real one will tell the truth, so you need to ask some questions that will force the liar to tell the truth," said Belle.
"And since the logic of this island is upside down, if the liar tells the truth, that means, he's telling a lie. Which means you must hit the one that tells the truth," said Feemer.
"All I heard was 'hit the one that tells the truth,' got it," Tiana said, grasping her forehead.
So on her coaches advice, she decided to ask the two twins some questions, but what exactly could she ask them? Every question she asked had to count, so she had to think hard, but carefully. The thought process proved to be difficult for this scenario, but eventually, she thought of a question that might work.
"OK, so. I've got a question for the both you. Who would the fake not say is the real one?" asked with not much confidence.
The two twins looked at each other. then back at Tiana.
"He would not say that he is the fake," the first one said.
"And he would say he was not the fake," the second one said.
The twins' answer left Tiana more confused than she already was. But she thought back to Feemer and Belle's advice and think illogically.
"Let's see...they think in reverse, so...if the first one said that the second one would not say that he is the fake, then that would mean that the second one would say that he is not the fake. And if the second one said that the first one would say that he was not the fake, then that would mean that the first one would not say that he was the fake," said Tiana.
Based on her assumption, Tiana was still at a miss. Even with her attempted backwards thinking the exact answer was not simple to her. Sweat began to flow from her forehead as she eyed the two targets.
"You can do it, Tiana!" Snow White cheered.
"Don't be nervous!" shouted Mulan.
"Again, too late for that," Tiana muttered to herself.
Ultimately, Tiana just decided to wing it and threw the ball at the first target which made caused the first twin to fall into the tank.
The audience showered Tiana with a roaring applause and for the first time, Tiana felt at ease, for she realized that she must have won the challenge.
King Vegle stood up from his throne and eyed Tiana with a stern, stone-like expression. "You win." he said coldly.
Tiana, along with her friends, breathed a sigh of relief. However, Feemer did not share said relief.
"Tiana! That's not a good thing!" Feemer said.
Tiana turned to Feemer and the others, confused by his statement. "Huh?! What do you mean it-oh no..." Tiana said with realization.
"Well, citizens, maybe she'll have worse luck on the next one!" said the king.
Holding her head in shame, Tiana walked over to her friends. "Well that went well," she said sarcastically.
"Don't get discouraged," said Cinderella, placing a hand on Tiana's shoulder. "It's not over yet."
"Remember, you can't think normally," Feemer said, reminding Tiana.
"I tried, but I still lost-I mean won- I mean-gah!" Tiana said in frustration. "Maybe someone else should do this."
"I know it seems difficult, and quitting may seem like an easy option, but it is better to try and fail than not try at all," said Pocahontas.
"Yeah, you didn't stop trying to get your restaurant and look what happened," Mulan added.
"Technically, I did stop at one point," Tiana pointed out.
"My point is...you can do this," said Mulan.
Going off of her friends' encouragement, Tiana resolved to complete the remaining challenges.
For the next challenge, two of Vegle's servants brought forth a giant wall with square shaped slots along with a bucket of blue paint. As Tiana looked up at the wall, the two servants tightly strapped a harness to her waist that was attached to the wall itself.
"I don't like the looks of this," said Merriweather.
"Relax!" Merida said firmly. "Tiana just hit a slump! She'll bounce back!"
"Let's hope so," said Aurora.
Tiana tightened her knuckles as Vegle stood before her.
"So Tiana, try your bad luck on this next challenge! You must not use that paint and paint triangles in the shape of something that is a triangle," the king announced.
Placing her hand to her chest, Tiana could feel her heart pulsing at a much faster rate as she looked up at the massive wall. However she steeled herself and forcefully took the paintbrush out of the can. Given that there was no time limit, she had all the time in the world to figure out exactly how to handle the challenge. Once thinking to the way of thinking of the island, she had somewhat of an idea of what she needed to do, took the paintbrush, and proceeded with the challenge.
She first started by painting a triangle near the bottom, followed by a couple next to it, then a few more until she made about eight in a straight line. Suddenly, an epiphany struck her. She then painted another triangle on top of the last one and proceeded upward, painting nine in total. Then, she painted seven across left to keep even with the ones at the bottom. Finally, she painted the last of the triangles down.
"Tada!" Tiana proclaimed. "A rectangle!"
Vegle observed Tiana's work. "You...win," he said unenthusiastically.
"Yes...wait a minute...that's not a good thing, is it?" Tiana realized.
The rest of the gang all eyed each other, befuddled.
"But wait, what happened?" wondered Cinderella.
"Yeah, she did the exact opposite of what Vegle said," said Ariel.
"Not exactly," said Feemer.
"What do you mean?" asked Fauna.
As if right on cue, Vegle addressed Tiana's mistake. "You didn't paint something that was a triangle, but you did not paint with triangles," said the king.
Tiana was left dumbstruck and bewildered, but despite this, she did not get discouraged. Though she was frustrated, she realized she couldn't afford to quit, as much as she wanted to.
In the next challenge, Tiana was placed in a bathing suit and the servants brought forth a rectangular tank filled with water. At the king's request, she stepped forward onto the tank platform where she saw a series of pillars rising from the water. Some of them were pink in color while the others were blue and they appeared to lead to the other side of the tank.
"Now! For your next challenge, you must use these pillars to not go straight across the tank!" the king proclaimed.
Like the last challenge, Tiana took a moment to think in an unconventional way. She thought about the challenge and observed the tank thoroughly, analyzing the colored pillars as well. She racked her brain as to how she could complete the challenge, but so far, couldn't come to a conclusion.
As she looked at the way the pillars rose up from the water, she was reminded of the lily pads from the swamp, in particular, the one she and Naveen danced on when they were frogs. She thought of how he taught her to dance, even though she was afraid to and the swimming under the water and breaching in the night sky. With those thoughts, her resolve was hardened even further. She would complete this next challenge. The only problem was she didn't know how she would do that.
Suddenly, another thought came to her head. Looking back at the stone pillars, she thought again about her dance with Naveen and that moment, she had a realization and turned to the observing king.
"Your Majesty! I will now use the platforms to not go straight across the tank!" Tiana said eloquently before she turned back to the tank.
Tiana took a deep breath and tightened her fists, for she knew this was possibly her last chance.
She dove into the tank and swam diagonally, zigzagging the pillars until she reached the other side. After she climbed onto the other platform, she turned back to the king, nervously awaiting his response.
King Vegle stood up. "Tiana, you...lose!" he proclaimed.
Tiana was met with a chorus of boos. At first, she was taken back a bit, but then realized this meant she had done it. She had finally completed a challenge.
The rest of the group cheered loudly.
"Why are you cheering her? She lost!" King Vegle pointed out.
The group realized this and changed their cheers from boos.
Meanwhile, Tiana breathed a sigh of relief as she wiped the water off her body. She realized it wasn't the end yet, but at the very least, she knew she had at least one victory under her belt.
Feeling more confident, Tiana was prepared for the next challenge.
On King Vegle's orders, his servants presented what looked like two long tables covered in white cloths. they pulled back the cloths to reveal that they were in fact tables spread with food from turkey to peas, potatoes, chicken, fish, and ham.
"Oh goodie! I was getting a little hungry," said Snow White, holding her stomach.
"It's not for us, dummy! It's for Tiana!" Merida said sharply in annoyance.
Snow White slouched her head in regret.
"Hey! Give her a break, Merida!" scorned Mulan.
Merida just scoffed and turned away from her. The other princesses, along with Flora and Merriweather, glared at her. Fauna just looked neutral.
Considering the islands outlandish ways, Tiana was prepared for anything as the king announced the next challenge.
"For your next challenge, Tiana, you must not eat all this food with your mouth," the king announced.
Based off the king's words, Tiana quickly realized he meant that she should eat all the food without her mouth. The only problem was how was she gonna do that?
"This is like a riddle. Not really my forte," Tiana said through some gritted teeth.
But still, nonetheless, Tiana again remembered Feemer's advice and tried to think outside the box. She contemplated every word of the riddle until she came up with a deduction and rushed over to the group, specifically, the good fairies.
"Is something, wrong, Tiana?" asked Pocahontas.
"Probably," Tiana answered anxiously before calling forth the fairies.
She whispered something in the fairies ears. The fairies all nodded and waved their wands, aiming a beam of magic at the ground which made a puff of smoke appear. From out of the smoke came a large English sheep dog.
After the dog appeared, Tiana petted it and brought its attention to the food. The dog let out his large wet tongue, panting at the sight of the food and immediately charged at the two tables, devouring everything he could get into his mouth until both tables were bare. Once he was finished, the good fairies made the dog disappear and Tiana turned to the king, anxiously awaiting his response.
"Well, Tiana, it doesn't look like...you lose!" Vegle announced.
Tiana swallowed the ironic frog down her throat in relief. Her friends were about to cheer her, but thought better and booed her instead.
For the next challenge, the king's servants brought forth what looked like a panel with at least 30 unlit lights on it.
Tiana loosened herself up. She wasn't sure exactly what the challenge would be, but she was prepared for whatever it was.
King Vegle stepped forward to address the crowd. "Attention citizens! This will not be the first challenge!" he announced.
Based on his words, Tiana surmised that he meant that the next challenge would be the final one. With that in mind, she breathed a slight sigh of relief for she knew that if she could win this next challenge, the scepter would be hers. She looked up at the king, listening carefully to his words.
Meanwhile, the other princesses firmly held each others hands. They all had massive sized butterflies in their stomachs as all they could do was prey that their friend could 'lose.'
Merida, in particular, was so nervous, she didn't notice that she was holding Snow White's hands, nor did Snow White. When they did, Snow White chuckled nervously before Merida quickly snatched her hand from hers, giving Snow White the same cold glare as before.
"Well, this is it, ladies," Flora said through baited breath.
"I just hope Tiana can do it," Merriweather said with concern.
"Don't worry, dear. She will. I know she will," Fauna said confidently.
Despite her recent success, Tiana's right hand still couldn't help but twitch and her heart couldn't help but beat fast. At the moment, she wished she was anywhere but on the island, on Alatar; specifically, back in the arms of her beloved Naveen. But it was because of that, that she knew she had to win.
"Tiana! Your first challenge will not go as follows," King Vegle began. "I will not give you a series of riddles that will not tell you a pattern of lights to turn off. You must not try to figure out what pattern it is based on."
So based on what the king said, Tiana would have to figure out what pattern of light to turn on based on the riddles he gave her and press the tiny buttons next to each of the lights to turn them on. It seemed simple enough, but then Tiana remembered that nothing was simple on this island, but as long as she remembered everything she learned, she would have a good chance of winning.
"I'm read-I mean...NOT ready!" Tiana proclaimed firmly.
"Here isn't the riddle," the king began. "I'm feeling down because my misery will begin in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I can only not hope that my true love will not send me an O that I will not feel up and I am left in a sad mood. For my dreams are not endless and I will not climb the stairway and everything, everything, will get in my way; obstacles, threats, the number 6, all of it."
Tiana, as well as the good fairies and the other princesses were again left dumbfounded with their mouths agape.
"Well, glad it's that simple," Mulan said sarcastically.
In her head, Tiana echoed the exact same statement. She shook her head in frustration as she attempted to memorize each of the words in the king's riddle. After clearing her head and focusing her thoughts, she felt somewhat like she was ready to solve it.
She knew if she was to solve the riddle, she had to go brick by brick and start at the beginning as she walked up to the panel.
First, she started by lighting five across at the top; then, on the bottom right, she made an 'X,' and finally, she made six lights in a diagonal line going to the upper right. After finishing, she turned the panel to the king for him to judge.
As the king analyzed the panel, the good fairies and the other princesses crossed their fingers. Feemer would have too if he still had some.
Tiana crossed her twitching fingers behind her back as well.
"Tiana...you...LOSE!" the king proclaimed.
Tiana fell to her knees in relief, holding her hands up to her eyes as she realized that she had done it.
The other princesses, with the exception of Merida, rushed over and piled onto her.
"Girls, you're...squishing...me..." Tiana said, struggling.
"Sorry, but we're so happy for you! Or maybe, NOT happy for you," said Aurora with a laugh.
The other princesses laughed as well. Meanwhile, Merida just stared at Tiana with a firm expression. Tiana waited for her reaction, unsure of what she was thinking until Merida gave her a little smile and a thumbs up which she returned.
As the gang celebrated, the king made another announcement.
"Attention citizens! There will NOT be another challenge!" the king announced.
"Oh great-wait WHAT?!" Tiana shouted in realization.