A long time ago in a small kingdom a child of a wealthy man was born. The girl never knew her mother for she died shortly after giving birth to her so her father named her after her mother… Sakura.
The man soon married another woman named Yuko who had two girls of her own. There was the eldest named Soma and the younger one named Tomoyo. Both of them were beautiful girls but they were extremely jealous of Sakura and her pure heart.
A few years later Sakura's father had died leaving her alone with her step-mother and step-sisters. Ever since then she had been forced to do chores and other forms of back breaking labor from dawn till dusk.
After many years Sakura had grown up to be a beautiful woman despite the rags she was forced to wear from her step-mother and step-sister's cruelty.
One day the King announced that he would be having a festival in which all of the beautiful women in the country were invited to in order for his son, a boy named Syaoran, to find himself a bride. At this Sakura begged Yuko to let her go to the festival with her step-sisters but she refused saying she had nothing to wear and would only make a fool of herself.
Regardless Sakura continued to beg her step mother to let her borrow something for the festival so Yuko responded,
"If you can separate the grains of rice in the kitchen into separate piles by morning I will loan you a dress for you to wear."
At this Sakura rushed to the kitchen where sure enough there was a basket of rice which she tried to separate but by the evening she had only been able to separate an eighth of the rice into separate piles. Sakura continued her work until she noticed a small bird with a broken wing. She then opened the kitchen window and used a small portion of the fabric of her rags to wrap around the bird's broken wing and continued her work.
As the bird watched Sakura separate the rice the bird called out three times and soon a small flock of birds flew through the window and helped her separate the rice much to the young girl's surprise and before dawn broke over the horizon all of the birds that helped her flew out the window taking the injured one with them leaving no trace of them left behind.
When morning came Yuko appeared in the kitchen and was astonished to see the rice separated into separate piles and true enough to her word she gave Sakura a plain white dress that had belonged to Tomoyo. However when Sakura asked if she could go to the ball Yuko responded, "No, for your dress is plain and you have no shoes so you would only be laughed at."
Yuko then told Sakura to continue her chores while begging her step mother to loan her something for her dress so she could go to the festival. When the evening sun was beginning to set Yuko said, "If you can separate the grains of rice that are in the two baskets down in the kitchen, I will loan you something for your dress."
At this Sakura rushed down to the kitchen and was surprised to see two baskets that were both larger than the last basket filled with rice. Never the less Sakura began to separate the grains of rice until she began to feel hungry. Sakura took a small bit of cheese and bread from her personal cupboard and began to eat until she saw a small scrawny rodent on the floor.
Sakura knelt down and gave the last bit of her cheese to the mouse who consumed it gratefully and skittered away, leaving Sakura alone to continue her work. However the mouse returned with a small group of mice who, like the birds before them, began to sort out the rice into their separate piles before the sun rose and ran back to the places they hid leaving no trace of them ever being there.
And much like before Yuko appeared in the doorway again surprised that the grains of rice had been separated like she asked but she did give her a long strand of ribbon from Soma's room which Sakura gratefully accepted and when Sakura asked if she could go to the festival with them Yuko said, "No, for you have no shoes to dance with and would only be laughed at."
At this Sakura nearly cried as she was sent off to do her chores with only one day left until the festival she continued to beg her step-mother for shoes to wear but each time Yuko refused. When the sun began to set she went outside and heard a voice coming from the trees and when she found herself standing under a tree that she and her late father had planted it back a few years after she lost her mother.
In the tree Sakura saw a strangely familiar bird and a mouse standing beside each other but before she could ask the tiny creatures she heard the sound of thumping at the foot of the tree and when she looked down she saw a pair of fur slippers that would look perfect with her dress. Sakura grabbed the shoes and then looked up the tree to thank the tiny creatures believing they had brought the shoes for her but they had vanished.
Sakura ran back to her home and prepared her dress for tomorrow and when she was done dawn had finally broke over the horizon and she made her way down in her dress and shoes to ask if she could go to the festival with them. Yuko was about to say no because she had no shoes but when Sakura had told her she found the current shoes she was wearing Yuko was shocked to see that Sakura had met all the conditions she had mentioned. However Yuko was a sly woman and when she examined Sakura's dress and shoes she mentioned to her daughters how beautiful the dress and the ribbons on it were until they both finally recognized that the ribbons and the dress itself belonged to them so they began to yell at Sakura believing she had stolen these items from them. They then began to pull at the ribbons and the dress until the her clothes were reduced to torn up rags and with nothing left for her to wear to the festival she ran out of the house with only the torn up bits of clothing she had on and began to cry underneath the very same tree where she got her slippers.
It was their underneath this tree where she heard the sound of whistling and when she turned around Sakura saw a tall man with blue eyes and blond hair standing in strange white and blue robes with a staff in hand.
"Dear Sakura why are you crying?" asked the man
"Who-who are you?" asked the young girl as she wiped the tears from her eyes
"Dear little one I'm an old friend of your father. So think of me as your godfather, now what has made you so sad?" asked the man
Sakura explained why she had been crying and the man nodded his head as she spoke until she finally finished her story.
"Well I suppose I can help you with this but let me give you these," the man pointed his staff at Sakura's slippers and they changed from fur to a sparkling glass along with the rag clothing she had been wearing changed into a beautiful dress and even her hair had been trimmed and combed which made her look completely different from earlier. "And now how about I send you to the festival? But first I must warn you at the stroke of twelve the spell will be broken and you will return to the clothes you once wore," that was all the man said before he waved his staff one final time and Sakura appeared just outside of the festival.
When she arrived at the palace her step-mother and step-sisters didn't recognize her and believed that she was a princess from some foreign land. Soon all the girls were called to dance with any man they could find, for the king had his son among all the men in the festival so as the prince himself could choose his own bride without being swarmed by women, and as fate would have it Sakura had caught the eye of the prince himself.
And no matter who asked to dance with Sakura the prince insisted that Sakura was his partner and the men left to dance with other women.
As time passed the prince and Sakura had danced until most of the guests had left and the King, a man named Kurogane, was overjoyed that his son had found a bride but it was then that the clock had struck and she had noticed that it was midnight and she explained that she must leave but the prince wouldn't let her escape his sight but soon Sakura had managed to escape the palace as the last three strokes began to echo through the town beneath the palace. However in her rush Sakura had lost one of her slippers which the prince had managed to find and brought back to his father with a plan in mind.
When the twelfth stroke had rung throughout the town Sakura's fancy clothes had returned to the rags she once wore save for her glass slipper which she placed into her pocket to hide it from her step-mother and step-sisters as she re-entered her house just as her step-mother and step-sisters returned believing she had been there the whole time.
The next morning the King had his son and guardsmen search throughout the town for any young woman who might have been the mysterious woman and soon the prince came across Sakura's house right when she was in the middle of cleaning the fireplace as her step mother had ordered. The men from the palace ignored her believing that she was simply a household maid and most certainly not the woman the prince was looking for, but the prince strangely insisted that she also try the slipper on.
However Yuko insisted that the prince try her daughters first which the palace men also agreed to so Soma was the first to try on the slipper but her toe was too big for the slipper to fit so the men and the prince insisted that they try the next young woman Tomoyo. Tomoyo's feet were much smaller then Soma and since she was only a year older then Sakura it looked like Tomoyo might actually be able to wear the slipper but to everyone's surprise the slipper did not fit because of her heel so the prince insisted that Sakura would try the slipper much to the men from the palace's laugh at the idea. After all how could a soot-covered house maiden possibly be the beautiful woman that the prince had danced with all night?
Never the less the prince had insisted and when Sakura put the slipper on the palace guardsmen couldn't believe their eyes and one shouted "H-how can this be? This woman could just have the same sized foot as the one you seek your majesty!"
At this Sakura reached into her pocket and pulled out the other glass slipper and this time the prince himself took the slipper from her and placed it on her foot and there was no longer any doubt from the palace guardsmen as they brought the two back to the palace where the two were to be wed. Hoping to gain good favor to Sakura Yuko, Soma and Tomoyo attended the wedding but strangely for the two step sisters as soon as the rice was thrown some rice fell on their eyelashes and the birds that would eat the rice flew towards them and pecked their eyes out leaving them blind for all of their wickedness. And as for the step-mother the rice had fallen into her shoes and the moment she had returned home a swarm of mice had surrounded her and despite all her attempts to escape the mice they had managed to not only gobble up the rice but had even torn and scratched so much at her heels and even tore through the shoes she wore that her feet were permanently scarred leaving her unable to walk forever.
So what do you guys think of this one? Yeah crazy that I had Yuko be the step-mother and not the fairy godmother but she just plays the part of evil step-mother so well! (Not sure about Tomoyo and Soma being the step-sisters though) Anyway this one was a request from KJC71790 (I hope you enjoyed it despite all the delays!)
And to be honest with you guys I originally had this planned having Syaoran actually play the role as 'Cinderella' in this case but as I thought about it I thought that would be an insult to both Sakura as a character (seeing as this could be her chance to shine a little more since I used mostly the original Brother's Grimm story of Cinderella as opposed to the Disney movie we all know-though I couldn't resist putting in Fai as the 'Fairy Godmother'/Godfather in this case) and the story Cinderella as a whole. So that's mostly the reason why it took so long!