The one word that described their surroundings was panic. Passengers from the other cars were worrying amongst themselves as they tried to figure out what in the world had just happened, crowding the nearest platform. It was certainly lucky that they had evacuated so close to another station, since security and medical staff were able to arrive at the scene immediately.

Anna gaped at the sight. "What do we do?! We gotta help somehow…" She nearly tripped over her own skirt, but Elsa caught her just in time. "Sorry…" They climbed down to the platform and approached a security team investigating the damaged car. Anna spoke up. "Excuse me…"

The guard didn't even look up. "Everything's under control, just keep calm and another monorail…"

"But we wanna help!" she asserted, stomping her foot.

"We don't need…" Finally, he glanced away from his work. His eyes widened. "P-Princess Anna! I'm terribly sorry, your highness, I didn't mean…" He let out a sigh. "See, our team is specifically trained to deal with this sort of thing. I know you have good intentions, but there really isn't anything you could do that we haven't done already."

She frowned, looking more concerned now. "But there has to be something we can do."

The guard thought for a moment; his eyes surveyed the crowd behind them. "Well, since you're so willing, why don't you help calm down the Guests? Just talk to them, lighten the mood."

"Oh, okay! That sounds perfect!" she grinned. Something fizzed as the other workers inspected with their tools. "A-Are you sure you'll be okay over here?"

"Of course we are! We've been doing this for years!" Another shock went off. "Okay, so there are things we haven't had to deal with yet, but we can figure it out."

"Okay then! Have fun with…that!" She skipped into the crowd, wondering who she should talk to first. Elsa smiled, following right behind her. It'd be nice to get a chance to meet some new people.

Still, her sister was better at small talk than her, and got into some lively-looking conversations almost immediately. When the queen tried to bring up the nice weather or the scenery, on the other hand, all she got was awkward looks. Maybe she was too abrupt in changing the subject? That could be it. Or it could be that they recognized her. All the staff here did, but the customers (Or were they guests? That's what everyone called them.) she wasn't sure about. So she tried to let loose a bit more, come off as more casual…

All of a sudden, a small group of doctors and nurses rushed across the platform. She followed them, curious as to who could need medical help – especially since no one else seemed to have a scratch on them.

She gasped. There was a little girl, no older than six, and her arm was terribly burnt and peeling. Poor thing was crying hysterically, as much as her family tried to comfort her – and Anna along with them. How long had Anna been there trying to help? Now she felt bad for not finding out until now.

She pushed her way into the crowd. "Is everything okay?"

"Elsa! Thank god you're here!" Anna cried, pulling her in. "Here, you can help!"

She blinked. "I-I can try, but I'm still not really good with kids…"

"Oh, I'm sure you're better than you think," she laughed. "Besides, that's not what this is about. I bet you could cool her down and heal the burns!"

That was what this was about? What in the world was she thinking? "Anna, that's not how it works. You can't just cool down a burn…"

"Well, actually…" a doctor interrupted, "A bit of cool water can soothe the pain a bit. But anything colder than that will make it worse."

She thought it over. She wanted to do something for this girl so badly, but all she had to offer was ice – pure ice, and very cold ice. Wouldn't what she produced would be way too much? But then, she had done well refining her abilities lately. It would take a lot of effort, but she might be able to keep it low enough that it wouldn't hurt her.

"All right, I'll give it a shot." She slowly walked up to the girl, kneeling down and examining her arm. The child winced in pain. "Oh, I'm sorry!" Well, Elsa, aren't we off to a great start? She looked up and smiled at the girl, trying to reassure here.

Then she noticed something she hadn't before. That dress she was wearing – that was her dress. Well, obviously it wasn't really made of ice, but it was definitely meant to look like it. Was this kid one of the admirers she'd heard about? To think actually looked up to her so much that she even dressed like her… She was flattered, honored even. But now there was even more pressure. There was no way she could let her down.

She took a deep breath. Either this went well, or she'd have frostbite on top of everything. Calm down, calm down… She tried to focus on setting a good example, giving this girl something she could aspire to. Slowly, she let out as little cold at once as she could manage. For a very long moment, everything was quiet. No one even said a word.

Finally, Elsa decided to speak up. "A-Are you feeling any better now?"

The girl nodded, and before she knew it, was hugging onto Elsa's leg. "Thank you."

She couldn't help but blush. "You're very welcome," she replied, smiling.

Anna beamed. "See? I told you you could do it. And look how happy she is!" Suddenly, an older girl ran up and hugged her too. This one was dressed like Anna, winter cape and all.

"Thank you so much for helping my sister!" she exclaimed.

"Oh! I-It was nothing, really," Elsa stammered, blushing even more. "I couldn't let a friend get hurt."

Both little girls were bouncing and squealing as the family was escorted away by the doctors. "Elsa helped, Mommy! She said I'm her friend!"

Anna laughed. "They're so cute!"

"Yeah," Elsa agreed. "They both remind me of you at that age."

"You think so?" She smiled at the memories of playing together. Though sometimes they got all jumbled up, and she didn't know why. "'Cause I think the one dressed me is more like you, actually. That…that's really weird, isn't it?"

"I guess it is kinda weird," she chuckled.

The princess shrugged. "Oh, well. As long as they're happy with it."

A sound like a strong wind interrupted their thoughts. Another monorail was coming up on the other platform. "I think this is the one we get on next," Elsa remarked.

"Oh, really? Okay then!" They made their way to the other side, although Anna noticed that some of the guards were giving them odd looks. The sisters took their seats inside, and the journey seemed to start all over again.


Luckily, their destination wasn't too far ahead. The train approached its station before they could even get a conversation going. Out of the windows, a bizarre sight greeted them.

"What is that?" Anna asked, staring at the enormous landmark.

"It's…a giant ball." At least, that was as much as Elsa figured. She'd never seen anything remotely like this in her life.

Anna nodded. "…Is it a building?"

"I have no idea."

They passed by many other parts of the park – an international lagoon of some sort, a race track, an aquarium, a collection of glass pyramids. The ball stood imposingly over all of it, visible from every angle the monorail traveled. Then finally, it came to a stop. And of course, their first activity of the day was to get a closer look at that…well, that thing.

It wasn't exactly a ball. In fact, it seemed to be made up of tons of triangular panels. Elsa had read that such a thing was theoretically possible, but to have the skill and time to actually assemble it. "Wow…"

"It's huge!" Anna shouted out of nowhere.

Elsa laughed. "Yes, yes it is."

"What…what would you even call it? Is it like, a golf ball for giants?"

"Probably not."

"Then what?!"

"I don't know!" She looked and saw the sign on one of its pedestals. "I…guess it's called Spaceship Earth."

"A spaceship?" Anna's eyes widened. "That goes into space?!"

"I doubt it. But it does kinda look like a planet." Well, that was kind of stretching it. "A big, metal planet."

"Oh…" At first, she was a little disappointed. Surely something so big much have a more extravagant purpose! What was the point of having a big ball in the middle of everything if you weren't gonna do anything with it? But then, she noticed people walking inside.

"I wonder what's in there," she wondered to herself. She gripped Elsa's hand. "Why don't we find out?"

Elsa looked to the entrance. "There's a really long line to get in," she noticed.

"Well, if it's that long, there's gotta be something good inside!" Anna grinned.

She did have a point. "Okay, then let's try it!"

"Yay!" Both girls took their place at the back of the line. Even though it looked long, it moved forward surprisingly fast. The mural on the building ahead of them interested them. "So is that what space looks like?"

"Well, nobody really knows for sure," Elsa replied. Or did they? With so many people with such varying magical abilities, she supposed anything was possible. But then, everything they had seen here resembled industrial technology more than anything else. Especially in the mural itself. "I wonder what that strange machine could be."

"It probably is space. It has planets and everything," Anna said. Now she was even more excited to see what was inside, if just the mural was this pretty.

Through the doorway, there were a bunch of little cars going around in a circle. It was a pain to get into one when they never stopped for people to do so, but they did manage it eventually…although their legs felt cramped in the tiny compartment. Little movie screens were attached to the front, and there was one up on the ceiling that reflected them somehow. Anna waved at herself, and soon Elsa joined in.

In the blink of an eye, they were surrounded by hundreds of twinkling stars. A woman's voice surrounded them.

Beautifully arranged and exquisitely detailed scenes of the history of language and writing passed as the cars moved forward. The visuals were fantastic, and both sisters enjoyed that aspect. However, the narration quickly took on a didactic tone, and Anna found herself paying less and less attention to it. Elsa was a little better about listening to it, but she'd already read about these events in her study books a hundred times over.

Then came the history they weren't familiar with.

All the books and paintings that had been displayed before were gradually replaced by movie screens, televisions, things they hadn't seen before in their lives. They continued to get more and more confused, trying and failing to keep up with the ride's timeline. By the time the historical portion of the ride had come to a close, neither of them knew what to think. Their heads were spinning so much that they didn't even notice the screens on their car flicker back on.

"Elsa?" Anna finally uttered.

Elsa glanced to her sister. "Yes, Anna?"

"Are we in the future?"

She hesitated. "It's…possible. Uh…I think…" Was there really any better conclusion to come to? No, that was the only explanation for all this. "Yeah. I think so."

Another moment of silence. "Well, why didn't they tell us with to start with?" Anna huffed.

"I don't know," she said with a shrug. "Maybe they didn't want to scare us?" Even though finding out about it this way was a lot more unsettling.

"I guess that makes sense…" The ride ended soon after, and once the girls exited the building, the only thing they could bring themselves to do was plop themselves down on a bench.

"Well…" Anna started. "That was…was…"

Elsa tried to find the word for her. "Unexpected? Overwhelming? Absolutely incomprehensible?"

"Uh, actually, I think 'overwhelming' was it," she interrupted. "That sounds about right. Overwhelming…"

The older sister smiled. "You really seemed to be doing well up to now," she told her.

"Huh?" She tried to figure out what her sister was trying to say. "Well, of course! It was…confusing, but it was still really fun!"

"Yeah, I get what you mean," Elsa nodded.

"But you've been stressed out through this whole trip," Anna countered.

She paused. "That's…true. But I am enjoying it! I guess it's just in my nature to worry…a lot."

"Got that right," she snickered.

The queen rolled her eyes. How could they get back on track now? "Anyway, don't worry about me, really! What's important is that you're enjoying it," she said.

"I am," Anna replied, scooching a bit closer. "But how can I not worry about you? I'm your sister, it's my job!"

"No, it's my job," she argued, playfully elbowing her. Soon they were elbowing each other repeatedly, and they broke out into laughter. It was always easy to relieve some tension with a sister by your side, even in a setting as unfamiliar as this.

Anna let out a sigh of relief. "So, what should we do next?"

"Well…" What else was there to do around here? There were the interesting glass pyramids, though passersby didn't seem very interested in those, oddly enough. And then there was the aquarium. She couldn't help but smile at the cute pictures of fish that decorated the building. "What do you think about the aquarium, Anna?"

"Sounds good to me!" she grinned, springing onto her feet immediately.


The aquarium itself was on the small side, the rest taken up by a ride made to look like it was under the ocean, as well as a decent-sized gift shop. But however small it was, it was still new for them. Arendelle didn't have any aquariums of its own, though they've heard visitors talk excitedly about the ones in London. Most of the fish and sea animals were ones they had never seen before, so they were eager to learn as much about them as possible.

Then they moved on to other rides. There was a little dragon who sang a song about imagination – cute, certainly, but not as awe-inspiring as some of the other rides. Then they watched a pop-out movie about a group of aliens driving a spaceship. Why were so many things here about space? People from the future sure seemed to have a strange obsession with it. And then there were a few hands-on activities and exhibits around… They wanted to do a lot more, but soon the sun was starting to set.

Anna's stomach growled. "Hehe… It's been a while since we ate anything, huh?" she chuckled sheepishly.

"Then we should find somewhere to eat dinner," Elsa responded.

At this point, they had come to center of the park, where the futuristic setting transitioned into the internationally themed World Showcase. Unique smells from every restaurant assaulted their senses. "Oh my goooosh…" Anna mumbled, entranced by the aromas. "Which one do we choose?!"

Elsa looked at the guide map they had picked up earlier. "There's a place with Norwegian food," she remarked, happy to see something familiar.

"But we always have Norwegian food!" Anna whined. "We're in another country, for pete's sake. We should try something different!"

"Yeah, you're probably right." Time to look more closely at the map. "Let's see here. We've got Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Italian…"

Suddenly, Anna caught a whiff of something. Chocolate. Cinnamon. Pastries! Like a wolf on the hunt, she followed the smell, paying no notice to what was around her. Elsa didn't even notice until she looked up from her map. "A-Anna? Anna, wait up!"

She was surprised how difficult it was to catch up to her sister. "Anna, where are you going?"

"I smell something really, really good over there," she said, pointing ahead.

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "Since when is your sense of smell that good?"

"Since about two minutes ago."

"All right then, if you say so…" She followed Anna for a while, hoping they'd end up finding something good to eat from this. And if not, at least they could enjoy the scenery. It was really set up well, how one 'country' seemed to transition seamlessly from the next. Thinking about it now, she couldn't recall a thing in this place that wasn't incredibly detailed, almost excessively so. When she thought of 'entertainers,' what usually came to mind was something a bit more...low-grade.

"There!" Anna shouted suddenly. She could see a bakery was just around the corner, and rushed inside. "Cookies!" she whispered excitedly.

Lined in glass display cases in front of them were all kinds of cookies, cakes, and pastries. Most of them had German names, but that didn't matter, since it was all stuff she recognized. They all looked so delicious, Anna had to keep herself from drooling. So many choices! Which one could she try first…?

"Anna, that's dessert, not dinner!" Elsa laughed. She agreed that the selection looked amazing, but she still felt a little guilty about eating so much chocolate fondue for lunch.

"So?" Anna pouted. "It's a vacation! We can do whatever we want!"

"But I thought you wanted to try something different," she smirked.

"Well…yeah, but…" She sighed. Maybe Elsa was right about this. "Fine, we can eat dinner somewhere else. As long as we come here after!"

She chuckled. "Sounds like a plan. Come on, there's another restaurant down the street." She led her sister to a nice café, where they could get something other than sweets. It was a fairly quiet place, unlike the larger restaurant across the plaza. This place was so crowded most of the time, and it was nice to find a space away from all the people for a little while.

The only other person eating at this establishment was a woman sitting in the corner by herself, captivated by the book she was holding to her face. Elsa certainly knew the feeling. In a moment, however, the girl looked up from her book and their eyes met. Elsa sheepishly looked away. How embarrassing to be caught staring… Wait, was she walking toward them? What was she going to say?!

The brunette smiled. "Hi! You must been Elsa."

Elsa hesitated. "Uh, y-yes, that's right." Wow, she really was popular here. Now that she got a closer look at this person, though, she did seem familiar…

"I thought so!" she said. "In that case, that must be…"

Anna turned around to face her, in the middle of chewing some potatoes. Her eyes lit up. "Belle!"

"Oh! Belle!" Now she remembered. From the Beauty and the Beast movie. She'd really enjoyed that one. "Sorry I didn't recognize you…"

"It's fine, really," she interrupted. "You'd be surprised how often it happens. It's not very often I go out here in something other than a ballgown, actually," she explained with a laugh.

"Oh, I see…" Walking around a place like this in a ballgown? She couldn't begin to imagine how inconvenient that must've been. There was a good reason her ice dress had as little poof to it as possible.

Anna butted into the conversation. "It must be really fun. Like, coming here all the time, I mean."

Belle nodded. "It's really a unique experience. Although it can be a little…chaotic sometimes." Just as she said that, a large group of very talkative people came through the door and took their seat. "There's so many people trying to have a good time, especially in the summer."

Elsa gave a tired chuckle. "I know what you mean."

She sat down at their table. Obviously, this conversation would go on for a while. "You haven't had any trouble, have you?"

"Oh, no! It's fine once you get used to it." That was a bit of a lie; she really wasn't used to it. But she was convinced she could handle it. The fewer people who were worrying about her, the better. "There was a bit of an incident on the…monorail, but that was the worst of it."

Her eyes widened. "You were there when that happened? To be honest, everyone's been talking about it. I usually don't pay attention to gossip, but this was everywhere. Is everybody okay?"

"Everybody's fine!" Anna piped up. "There was only the one girl who was hurt, but everyone else was totally fine."

Belle paused. "Only one person? Sounds like there was a problem with a spell…"

"S-Spell?" Elsa blinked.

"Well, everyone who works here has to know a few," she explained as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "Someone probably set up a force field, and it just…didn't cover everything."

What were you supposed to say to that? "I see…" Their hosts had been right about there being incidents, then, but she didn't exactly think of second degree burns as something that was 'easy to clean up.'

Anna furrowed her brow in thought. Magic sure sounded tough, especially considering all the trouble Elsa had with it. Then there was the incident itself. "What do you think even happened?"

"Nobody seems to know," Belle remarked. "There have been theories. There was an accident a few decades ago that caused a car to catch fire, so I think it was just something like that. Then there are the stranger ideas." She chuckled, though she knew it was in poor taste, even if some of these ideas were really outlandish. "Some crazier people are blaming this on terrorists, but I really doubt it."

Anna cringed. Arendelle was lucky enough to not have any political trouble in its recent history, but she'd heard what happened in other countries… She also recalled how much more heavily guarded the kingdom had been since the incident with Hans.

Belle put a hand on her shoulder. "Oh, don't be scared. Like I said, it's very unlikely."

The potential existence of a political opponent did worry Elsa, but something about this didn't sit right her. There was no way it could've just been a fire. There was a distinct bang the moment it had happened, and then any trace of it went away just as quickly. Some sort of bomb could do that, she supposed. Then again, Belle had said the monorail could, in fact, catch fire, so why wouldn't it have done so upon detonation? Her thoughts drifted back to the information they'd gotten before they departed on this trip. An alternate possibility soon occurred to her.

"Do you think…maybe the incident itself was also caused by magic?" she suggested.

They didn't know what to say at first. "I guess that's possible," Belle finally replied. "If that is true, I hope it really was an accident. There are some really frightening people around…"

The princess was quickly getting tired of talking about this. She shouldn't have been worrying right now - nobody should. Why were they busy thinking about scary things in a place like this? At this rate, the shops would close before they even had the chance to buy dessert. There had to be something else they could talk about…

And just like that, her distraction appeared. Unfortunately, it took the form of another BANG, scaring everyone at the table.

Belle was the first to calm down as multicolored lights shone through the windows. "Oh, whoops! It's just the fireworks." She got up out of her seat. "Come on, you need to see this! It's wonderful!"

Anna eagerly ran outside to see the spectacle – and so did Elsa, who had quietly been looking for a way out of that grim discussion as well. The fireworks were beautiful. All sorts of colors decorated the sky, and an illuminated globe was in the center of it all. For that moment, at least, there was nothing to worry about.

"Oh, and since you're here…" Belle pulled a fancy slip of paper out of her book. "Here, I'm supposed to give this to you."

"Oh, really? Thank you!" she exclaimed. A gift from Princess Belle! What could be better? Anna unfolded the paper. She could tell it was some sort of letter, but it was too dark to see the writing at this time of night. All the street lamps had been turned off for the fireworks, so as much as she hated to walk away from the show, she was forced to stand in the doorway of the bakery to read.

Dear Princess Anna and Queen Elsa of Arendelle,

It is with great honor that we invite you to a special brunch tomorrow at Cinderella's Royal Table in the Magic Kingdom. Please arrive at 10 AM sharp. Formal dress will be supplied for you. We are so excited to meet you!

Sincerely,

Snow White

Cinderella

Aurora

Ariel

Belle…

It went on like that for a while, all the princesses' signatures lined up one after the other. And with each one, Anna got more and more excited. By the time she got to the end, she was squealing with happiness. A real princess gathering! Sure, there had been other princesses at the coronation, but this was different. She'd be talking to the best of the best! She at least hoped they would like her... Not a lot of other princesses seemed to be fond of her.

"Anna?" Elsa strolled over. "What's gotten you so excited?"

"It…I…" Unable to form a coherent sentence, she just forced the invitation into her sister's hands. "Just read this!"

She skimmed over the writing. "Oh, wow! That sounds like fun," she remarked.

"I know, right?!"

She was surprised when Elsa hugged her. "I'm so glad you're having a good time."

Anna smiled. "This is the best vacation ever, sis! Thank you so much for letting us go!" Sure, the crowds were insane, and all this future technology was hard to grasp… But overall, this really was a fun place.

Elsa grinned. "It was nothing, really! I'm having fun, too."

The fireworks completely lit up the sky in a dazzling finale, and both girls looked out into the sky and wondered what might still await them.

Neither of them noticed a raven with plotting eyes watching them from above.