A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

"…There's always the Spring Festival to look forward too," Alexandra explained.

The two princesses took a secret passage out of the castle and headed towards the stables, where all the horses were sleeping except one, Aphrodite. Alexandra patted her nose, opened her pen and quietly let her out. No one would ever let Alexandra out the castle without a guard or someone to watch over her, but the young princess was very clever, and knew her way around.

After talking with her little sister, Alexandra and Rapunzel took Aphrodite, by the reins, saddled her and led her outside the stables. Rapunzel was told to watch over Aphrodite while Alexandra left to fetch a basket of paper flowers. The two princesses arranged the flowers onto the horse's golden mane and crept outside the palace gates. That task was very easy, considering that the guards had mistaken both women for servant girls, running errands, for the royal family.

Once outside, Rapunzel was marvelled at the spectacle before her: garlands of flowers hung almost everywhere, people in the market place with all different kinds of food, and children dancing playfully around the fountain. It almost reminded her of the day Eugene took her to her own festival. Of course, there were a few differences between the two occasions, but everyone looked so excited to celebrate the occasion.

Eugene was a bit tired. Nightmares still haunted his mind, though not as much as before. He didn't want to wake Rapunzel because she looked so tired during the journey, so he decided to explore the Kingdom a bit. He went inside the stables to find Maximus and to his surprise, he also found Pascal sitting on top of the horses head, talking.

The two animals looked up at Eugene and greeted him in an awkward fashion. Both the lizard and the hose had a few issues with the ex-bandit, but they were still nice to him not only for the princess' sake, but also because Stephan would make a horrible future ruler.

"Pascal, aren't you suppose to be with Rapunzel?" he asked the chameleon.

The chameleon squeaked, and though Eugene had no idea what he was saying, he didn't care. He just saddled Maximus and went on his way, with the chameleon following him. When he got out, he didn't expect so much hustle and bustle from the townspeople. Everyone looked like they were going to celebrate and if he knew that he would've brought Rapunzel with him. She always loved these kinds of celebrations and took every opportunity that came to her.

Maximus was trotting along side Eugene, when he finally slid off the saddle, with Pascal still standing on his head. The little chameleon seemed to frighten him somehow- maybe it was that suspicious look he would always give him- so he let him sit on his head freely. As he trotted, he spotted someone that did more than catch his eye, she also sent his heart soaring and Eugene and Pascal noticed too along with two very familiar girls.

Rapunzel was stunned at the small acrobats show. The people jumping up and down, doing flips. She savoured every little moment, as did Alexandra and Aphrodite. Everyone they passed seemed to be very familiar with Alexandra- whether they knew she was a princess or not- and everyone greeted her with open arms, they didn't even need to pay for anything as long as Alexandra was around. Truly, she was loved by all her people she would always take others in consideration and the people she helped would always insist on returning the favour.

Rapunzel was running around relishing every moment she had, until she bumped into someone. Nearly falling down, only to be caught by that person's very familiar hand, she looked up and saw a certain ex-thief, a white horse and a chameleon sitting on its head.

"Eugene!" she exclaimed a bit surprised. "I thought you were sleeping."

"I thought you were asleep to," he replied. "How did you get out here?"

"Alexandra." She pointed at the other princess and the golden horse with flowers in her mane and explained the whole story.

"Well, I'm glad to see that you'll both be here for the May Queen Ceremony," said Alexandra.

Eugene and Rapunzel looked at each other, confused they never had such a ceremony in their Kingdom. And of course, dear princess Alexandra explains everything. Each year during the Spring Festival, they celebrate by choosing a queen for the occasion and then the queen picks her gentleman. They chose their queen by throwing a ball as the audience tosses it around, if the ball is caught by a girl when the music stops then we have our May Queen. The Queen chooses her gentleman blindfolded as she makes her way through the crowd the man she catches will be her gentleman.

"…Of course, this is all for fun," Alexandra explained as she patted her little sister.

Rapunzel was very excited-as always- Maximus was still staring at Aphrodite's radiance, Pascal was dancing on Maximus' head and Eugene was staring at Rapunzel's cheerful face. It wasn't every day you see a princess turned into a queen and Rapunzel loved to dance, she would participate no matter what, but Eugene had concerns about the gentleman she had to pick. Still he wanted to see her dance like the day he took her to see the lanterns.

There was still time to spare before the ceremony, so the group did as many things as they could. Alexandra went off with her little sister accompanied by Maximus and Pascal, leaving the ex-thief with the other princess, alone. He felt happy and nervous all at once. Happy because he got the chance to spend time with Rapunzel and nervous because he still had the necklace with him.

Like always, Rapunzel was busting in excitement at every detail before her. But something was different about this time. Eugene saw something different in her, something he didn't like at all. But he played along with her denial, for now.

It was just like the first festival, everyone was dancing with her, they looked at books together, and she made the most incredible chalk drawings, but this time there was no boat or lanterns, just dozens of flowers. The two finally joined with Alexandra and the others, and much to their surprise, Maximus was using The Smolder on Aphrodite, who, of course, was very resisting. It wasn't surprising to see Maximus wooing her, but using Eugene's or, rather, Flynn's old tactics was something else.

The group were on their way to where the ceremony would be held, when Rapunzel asked Alexandra, "So… Alexandra, have you ever been May Queen before?"

Alexandra wasn't expecting that question, but she still replied, "Actually, I've never participated."

Rapunzel was stunned. Alexandra was trapped inside a castle, and yet, she had all the free will in the world. "Why not?" she asked.

"Because," Alexandra explained, "when you've been told time and time again that you're not queen material you don't want to risk proving them right. Yet." She turned to her little sister. "Maximus seems to be quite fond of my Aphrodite."

"Yeah. I've never seen Max try to copy me to get some girl's attention," Eugene noticed.

"Maybe it's because you're so good with women." Rapunzel got very close to her boyfriend and snuggled against him.

"Right. Because the last girl I wooed hit me on the head with a frying pan." Eugene gripped against Rapunzel's waist and she pulled away, holding a frying pan against his neck.

"And she's still willing to use it," Rapunzel said, with false threat.

The couple chuckled as they arrived near a large crowd in front of a small platform. On top of the platform were several men: one holding a small ball, another a crown made from colourful flowers and the rest were all musicians. Everyone looked up with excitement; this celebration was a rare occasion.

The man holding the ball began to give instruction, "Citizens of Cassiopeia," he declared. "Now is the time to crown our queen." He pointed towards the musicians and said, "They shall play as you dance with the ball in hand, once the music stops the girl holding the ball shall be declared our May Queen."

The crowd turned even more excited as the music began and the ball was thrown. Every woman was preparing for the chance of a lifetime.

A/N: Who will be our May Queen?