Forlornly the woman gazed into the mirror's cold surface. Sighing wistfully she turned away and the mirror scoffed. The lady turned around and glared angrily at the mirror, who tried it's best to look sorry. Despite the mirror's long acting history, it did not succeed. Annoyed at the dumb mirror Joan picked up a rather large baseball bat and whipped it at the mirror. Much to Joan's dismay, the bat missed, causing the mirror to erupt into loud, obnoxious laughs.

Joan decided to just ignore the stupid thing and return to her bedchamber, where her clothes for the evening were so neatly strewn about. Grumbling to herself she managed to squeeze herself into a too tight skirt and a belly bearing top. Last but not least she proceeded to attach a pair of large, rather fake looking wing. It seemed almost every mortal was convinced that in order to be a fairy you needed a set of gauzy fluttering wings. After being fired from her job as fairy godmother, Joan was strapped on cash, causing for her to settle for a less than desirable Halloween costume look.

Reflecting on the manner in which she had been fired; Joan felt the child had deserved what was coming towards her. After all, how many ill tempered people can handle catering to a selfish girl's every wish? Certainly not Joan.

So in this rather awkward, uncharacteristic manner, Joan found herself walking (yes walking, not flying) to another poor girl's house, ready to grant her every wish.

"Ella! Get down here this instant!" A sharp nosed woman screeched from the downstairs.

"More! More! It has to be tighter if I am to look my best." Ella primly ignored the orders of her step mother and proceeded to instruct the poor maid to further tighten her corset.

Sighing the maid complied, though her hands were already red from the biting of the laces. Why the mistress ahd to insist on such a vicious corset, the maid would never know.

"I'm warning you one last time, you had better get down here right now, or we will leave without you!" Marie called one more time in vain, in hopes that her step daughter would comply. After waiting a few heartbeats, Marie decided to give up, and quickly ushered her biological children into the carriage.

"But mother, I don't want to go!" Clara, the youngest protested.

"Nonsense, don't you want the Prince to fall in love with you?" Marie asked annoyed. Clara looked thoughtful.

"No." she replied frankly.

"Get in the damn carriage." Marie ordered angrily. Clara cowered slightly and climbed into the carriage sighing. Carefully smoothing out her large, voluminous dress Marie settled in next to her daughters and ordered the driver to take them away.

Ella heard the clip clopping of horse's hooves against the bricks downstairs and pulled herself away from the mirror. The maid still holding onto the ribbons was dragged part way across the room before letting go, releasing the rolls of fat that clung to the sides of Ella's (once) slim figure.

"They left without me!" she cried, before slumping into a messy ball of silk and taffeta.

Thunderbolt looked around his lair broodingly. Everywhere there was treasure, heaps of gold, silver, and ...wood. Yes wood. Thunderbolt yawned, sending a stream of thick smoke across the room.

His gaze came to rest on a large photo of a beautiful woman. It was something Thunderbolt had managed to keep after burning a stupid and over enthusiastic knight into a crisp. Sometimes Thunderbolt regretted burning people without inhibition, but he just couldn't help it. Even after Millie the aged sorceress tamed him halfway, he still got a sick pleasure at watching live people go up in flame. Maybe it had something to do with the ridiculous name Mildred had given him. He would have preferred a name like Ravyn or Misque, something exotic. Mildred however had a very limited imagination and had called him Thunderbolt.

He stratched his head, wishing for an idea to magically come to him. Almost everything came to him magically, everything except for ideas. He had once overheard someone saying he was the least intelligent dragon in the land, something he had regettedly decided was true. It was hardly his fault however. When you live in a dark cave in the middle of a mountain and you exhale hot smoke every few seconds, you could hardly not expect for at least part of his brain to melt.

Then the unexpected happened! As he sat staring at the picture an idea came to him! Maybe he could capture a princess. He dimly remembered reading a story about dragons that would kidnap princesses to eat and sacrifice. Thunderbolt did not particularly like the taste of flesh, he was a vegetarian, but capturing a princess would definitely add some spice and adventure to his life.

Decisive Thunderbolt stomped over the the entrance of his cave. Expanding his great ruby colored wings his let out a great burst of fire, causing the fire around him to burst into flame. Smiling to himself he jumped off the cliff, feeling the wind catch beneath his giant wings. Then he soared towards the nearest palace. The palace of King Philipp and Prince Charming.

Millie looked up as the great shadow of a dragon passed over the village. She smiled as she recognized Thunderbolt, her pet dragon. The villagers around her screamed and fled into their houses, leaving Millie alone in the street.

Now alone, Millie hobbled through the streets of the small, un-named village. Most villages in the land were un-named, too small and insignificant. It was thought that this might anger the villagers, who would just name the village themselves, but it seemed the villagers were all too lazy to disobey the law of King Philipp.

Milllie entered a small, in descript tavern. Letting the cloak fall from her head, Millie expected to have the eyes of everyone in the tavern on her. Instead, a small crumpled looking man gave her one look and started laughing, while everyone else ignored her. Shaking her head Millie ordered a drink. People just did not recognize true beauty these days.

A/N: I decided to go against almost everyone's wishes, and updated this story instead. This is somewhat of a challenge for me, since I am not really a humorous writer. I hope that this matched the first chapter as much as I think it does.

Anyway, I drew some inspiration from a few authors here, of whom I hope they don't mind:

the cranky fairy godmother: Danelle's story Broken Glass (sort of, the only thing in common is that they are reluctant to help others and need to please the faery queen, which I will talk about later.)

stealing a princess: this is actually from Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest chronicles, but only sort of.

Well, please review, I would very much like to hear any comments. But please no flames!

oh and I'm hoping to change the title of this story so it sounds a little more sophisticated, so if you have any ideas, please let me know! Thanks!!

lots of love and inspiration

Aerinha