After bidding a fond, 'Hello' to the people of Topsy Daisy Upsy Turvy, the princesses continued on their journey having now gotten eight of the eleven scepters. After getting some distance from the island, Feemer pointed them in the direction of the next one.
Tiana breathed a sigh of relief. "Glad to be back where things make sense," she said.
"Well as much sense as our lives are anyway," Belle retorted.
The group all chuckled as the good fairies approached them.
"I must say, you all have been doing very well so far," said Flora.
"Well, as well as you could be," said Feemer.
"Now, now, Feemer," said Flora.
"He means you all have done exceptionally well," said Fauna.
"Now you only have three scepters to go!" exclaimed Merriweather.
Snow White approached Tiana, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'm very proud of you, Tiana. You really used your head back there," she said.
"It wasn't easy, but I did it," Tiana said.
Most of the other princesses congratulated Tiana for her efforts. As for Merida, she gave Tiana a serious look before placing a hand on her shoulder. "Nice work," she said.
Tiana gave Merida a nod of appreciation while Snow White smiled. Merida turned to Snow White before immediately walking away from the group.
Snow White was left saddened.
Not since she had used a spell to turn herself into an old hag had Grimhilde ever been in her lab again, but this instance was of particular importance as the queen thoroughly searched throughout her assortment of spell books. She looked through each book, page after page, trying to find a particular spell, but so far, she had no luck.
As she continued searching, Ursula frustratingly plopped into her lab. "Whatever this is, 'Queenie,' it had better be good," she said.
"It is," Grimhilde said casually.
However, the queen's casualness quickly left as she turned to see Ursula's face covered in facial cream and her eyes covered with starfish, causing her to jump in terror, grasping her chest.
"I was in the middle of my hourly facial," said Ursula, wiping the cream off her face and removing the starfish from her eyes.
After catching her breath, Grimhilde turned back to her books. "Hmph, there aren't enough hours in the day, nor are there enough days in the year," she said with a smirk.
Ursula growled. First Gothel and now Grimhilde. How many more of the villains were gonna throw sassy comments at her?
"What do you want?" Ursula asked with an annoyed sigh.
"I've been thinking," Grimhilde began.
"There's a first for everything, I suppose," Ursula responded with a chuckle.
With a scoff, the queen continued. "As I was saying. Those scepters are going to be a hindrance should those princess brats ever come back."
"Yes, but you heard what Tarken said, we can always use their hubbies as insurance," Ursula said.
"True, but you know as well as I do that one must always have a backup plan in case the other doesn't work," said Grimhilde.
"What do you have in mind?" Ursula asked.
"Sometimes, the best way to defeat your enemy is with their own weapon. So, for example, if we were to have our own scepters, we could have an added advantage," said Grimhilde.
Ursula was admittedly impressed with Grimhilde's proposed plan. However she noticed the queen continuously looking through her books. The queen had been looking for hours, but couldn't find anything remotely close to a scepter spell, which was why she called Ursula to come to her, figuring she might have something. Unfortunately for her, Ursula didn't have anything for her either as she specialized in potions.
In response, Grimhilde threw down one of her books in frustration.
But just then, Ursula had an idea.
"Wait a minute, Doll. We may not have a spell, but I think we know someone who might," Ursula said with a sly smirk.
Grimhilde pondered for a brief moment and then the very same idea came into her head.
It was time to pay someone a visit.
For the next three days, the group sailed towards their destination. Feemer began glowing brighter which indicated they were getting close.
In the crow's nest, Pocahontas held Feemer out towards the ocean. "So, how long till we reach the next island, Feemer?" she asked.
"If I'm right, we should be to the next one in a few minutes," Feemer answered.
Pocahontas smiled before dropping out of the crow's nest along with Feemer.
This would've been the fastest the group had ever gotten to reaching the next island which was a positive relief for them.
However, not everything was positive as things were still sour between Merida and Snow White.
Snow White sat on the deck, woeful and hurt at the loss of a friend as Pocahontas tried to comfort her.
The rest of the princesses were unsure what to do about the situation and began to wonder if Merida would ever talk to Snow White again.
"Well, anybody got any ideas?" asked Tiana.
"I do, I'm gonna talk to Merida," Belle answered immediately.
"Good luck," Tiana said with slight sarcasm.
"Yeah, that girl is pretty stubborn," said Mulan.
Stubborn or not, Belle was determined to at least try to talk some sense into Merida. It wasn't going to be easy, but she didn't care. With resolve, she made her way down into the ship.
In her quarters, Merida was sharpening her sword as she had been for the last three days; slowly and methodically and yet somewhat unenthusiastically. She stared blankly at her reflection in the sword's blade, grasped tightly on the sword's hilt, and gave a heavy sigh before going back to sharpening it, only more aggressively.
Belle looked on. Although she didn't fancy herself a mind reader, she had somewhat of a good idea what was going through Merida's mind. Without hesitation, she walked over to her.
From the corner of her eye, Merida could see Belle, though she didn't fully turn her head. And much like Belle, she had a pretty good idea of what she wanted.
"Hello, Merida," Belle said firmly.
"I really don't wanna talk, lass," said Merida.
"But I do," Belle said firmly.
Merida wasn't in the mood for conversation, but knew that Belle wasn't going to leave, so the best thing for her to do was to listen through it and get it over with as Belle sat face to face with her.
"I know what this is about and the answer is no," Merida said.
"Merida, you cannot let this go on. Snow White was only trying to help and you know it," said Belle.
The Scottish princess paused for a moment. "What?! You expect me to just forgive her after what she did?!" she protested before continuing with her sword.
"Snow White did what she did for us! Don't you see that?!" Belle asked.
"The only thing I see is that she lied to us! Deceived us! Why can't YOU see that?!" Merida retorted.
"Because I realize in the long run what's most important and that is retrieving the scepters, defeating Golett, and saving the kingdom and the ones we love! Including your father! Snow White knew that!" Belle said back.
The mention of her father for the moment, stopped Merida in her tracks.
Mulan, overhearing the conversation, came in to give her take on things. "She's right, Merida. If you were in her position, you would've done the same thing," she said.
"No I wouldn't have," Merida responded hesitantly.
Just then, Jasmine marched in assertively. "Yes you would have!" she retorted. "And so would any of us! Yes, we were fooled, we were deceived, but you know what?! It was better that she didn't tell us, because if she did, it wouldn't have been that believable! So don't sit there and act like your better than Snow White or any of us! We have a quest to complete and we have to do what we can, not just for us, but for everyone we care about."
With Jasmine's words, Merida sat silent, again staring into her reflection. There seemed to be signs of guilt and regret in her face, but she soon steeled up her face and again went back to sharpening her sword.
The others didn't know what to make of it and waited for a response, but got nothing.
Jasmine groaned at Merida's stubbornness.
Belle just sighed before getting up. "Well, I just hope one day, you realize that friendship is more important than pride," she said.
With that, Belle and Jasmine headed up while Mulan placed a hand on Merida's shoulder. "Please. If not for Snow's sake, do it for your own," she said before leaving.
As Mulan left, Merida sharpened her sword a few more times until she stopped. She again tightly held the sword before throwing it to the side.
After Mulan exited, Snow White watched unbeknown to Merida. As she saw her pick up her sword, Snow White slumped her head in guilt, certain there was no way of ever rekindling their friendship.
Unbeknown to Snow White, a single tear from Merida fell onto the blade of her sword.