Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful, fair lady named Ella. Her mother had passed away since she was a very young child, and her father remained her only kin. They loved each other very much.
However, she should have known that the love would not last forever. Her father had so much love- and more to give. The evening he brought home his new wife and her two daughters was truly a shock to Ella, but she knew better.
Her father was lonely, probably had some pent-up frustration, and looked forward to a new love to pretend he was still a young, budding teenager. Don’t get Ella wrong though- she was truly happy for her father.
Things did not go smoothly. She was respectful and nice to her new stepfamily, but they did not seem to want to reciprocate the same kindness she extended to them. They called her Cinderella and made her do all the housework while they stuck their ugly nose up in the air. Who could blame Ella for turning rebel?
This is the story of a rebel Cinderella, a story of a “what if”; What if Cinderella did not sit still and expect Prince Charming to save her from the dastardly hell hole, she called a home?
It was a fine morning, and dainty Cinderella was cleaning the mess on her kitchen floor. Stepsister #1, Drizella, had dripped her coffee all over the floor again and she was made to clean up. She was already 19, and she had her youth right ahead of her, but god forbade, she was stuck in the house being subservient to her stepfamily.
She had tolerated the treatment as a housemaid for years ever since her father passed away, but it has been grating on her nerves. Nevertheless, she kept up her dainty and demure impression, pretending to be the perfect subservient daughter in her father’s household.
Sometimes, she thought that her father had been very irresponsible. Afterall, how could he simply dump his nasty wife on her ass and go off to heaven? She felt like he had regretted his remarriage and decided to chuck his responsibilities on Cinderella to deal with instead. It wasn’t very fair; Cinderella had not asked for this life. She wanted a refund.
Drizella’s stomping through the house interrupted Cinderella’s pondering.
“A ball! Prince Charming is looking for a wife! And he’s holding a ball to find his true love!”, Drizella exclaimed, falling over her feet as she waved an invitation in her bony hands.
Stepsister #2, Anastasia, gasped. “A ball! We must certainly get ready for this joyous occasion!” She flipped her hair. “I must make Prince Charming notice me!”
“Gasp! A ball! What shall I wear!” Cinderella chimed in, putting her hands over her mouth exaggeratingly.
Drizella and Anastasia glared at Cinderella. “No balls for you, sister,” Drizella snapped. “Who do you think you are? You think a servant has the right to go to Prince Charming’s ballroom? You will have no time except to clean at home, anyway!”
Cinderella pouted, but behind that façade was a girl raising her eyebrows at her stepsisters’ narrow-mindedness. Who wanted to go to the ball to hunt for a lover except shallow-minded, men-crazy women? Like choosing fish from the wet market! All guys were nuts, just like her dad who was obviously blind in loving the wrong woman. There was no such thing as a true Prince Charming.
Afterall, if Prince Charming existed, he would have helped her out of this hellhole. Unfortunately, that was never going to happen, and she only had herself to rely on.
Cinderella has lost interest in the conversation. She is going to leave the room now.
Cinderella had plans to get out of her house, even though she technically owned it, but she needed someone to hire her for the investment plans she had so carefully planned deep into the night, every night, after she was finally done with her chores. If she wanted to get out of the house, she wanted to go out with a bang where she could throw money in her stepfamily’s faces and stick her middle finger up in their faces.
Cinderella’s thoughts took a 360. She needed to get into the ball, somehow. She had to meet him, present her proposals, and hopefully he would take a liking to her and keep in contact. She had to get prepared!
She ran back towards her little, shabby room. “Hey, come back!” Anastasia called. “You haven’t cleaned up the kitchen!”
Cinderella huffed, pretending she had a temporal loss of hearing as she hurried into her room and slammed the door. She had things to do, and she had to do them now.
Cinderella was angry. She was not allowed to attend the ball that was scheduled in a day. Her stepsisters and stepmother had purposefully thrown her a bunch of house chores to do, preventing her from even thinking about what to wear to the ball, or to plan the paperwork needed to convince Mr. Smith to hire her. She started her days early and ended them late. She was about to lose her patience at this point.
She decided that she needed help.
Gathering her animal friends, she held a conference in her kitchen past midnight. “I need help,” she declared, rubbing her palms together. “Prince Charming is holding a ball to find a wife, and Mr. Smith will be there.”
The animals from her kitchen started talking amongst themselves excitedly.
“A ball!” a mouse squeaked, running in circles.
“Prince Charming will be there! Will our dear Cinderella finally find her true love?” a bird chirped, ruffling its feather excitedly.
“We need to prepare her dress! It has to be so eye-catching the prince falls in love with her at first sight!” the squirrel squeaked, fluffing its tail back and forth.
“I need help with the paperwork for my investment plan!” Cinderella announced, smiling.
The animals froze.
“P-Paperwork?” another mouse asked, nervously touching its whiskers. “Not a dress?”
A sparrow swooped down on Cinderella, pecking her on her head. “Not paperwork!” it screeched. “You need a dress!”
Cinderella rolled her eyes. “I am not there for Prince Charming, I am there to find Mr. Smith for my investment plan. I don’t need a marvellous dress.”
The animals looked appalled.
“We cannot accept that,” the sparrow snapped. “We will have to get you a good dress to catch Prince Charming’s attention! You need a husband!”
Looking affronted, Cinderella flipped her hair and scoffed. “A husband! Who needs a husband? I need to get out of the house, that’s what I need!”
The sparrow ignored Cinderella. Chirping a command, the other animals made noises of approval and followed the sparrow into Cinderella’s bedroom, shutting it. Cinderella rolled her eyes once again. Clearly no one was going to help her with the paperwork. She sat at the corner of the kitchen, staring at the bunch of papers in her hands. It was going to be a long night.
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The next morning, Cinderella woke up realizing she had fallen asleep in the kitchen. She hurried to wake up to do her daily chores and before she knew it, it was nightfall again. Once again, Cinderella was postured in the corner of the kitchen with her paperwork, no thanks to her animal friends.
Just then, the door to her bedroom slammed open. The animals ran out of her bedroom, their fur and feathers covered in streaks of red paint. Cinderella was shocked, only because a dumpty old lady in a blue cloak ran out after them.
“What is going on? Who did you kidnap this time!” Cinderella hissed, grabbing her paperwork and shoving it the kitchen cupboard.
The sparrow rolled its little black beady eyes. “Oh, please,” it snarkily said. “These red paintings on us are a symbol of rebellion! A war! Have you not heard of tribal war paint?”
Cinderella shook her head. “I meant the old lady behind you! Who is she!” Just as she asked, Cinderella spotted a cult-like circle painted on her bedroom floor with red paint, through the gap of the door held ajar. There were several extinguished candles around the circular painting as well, and a pile of ashes in the middle. “What have you done to my bedroom? Stepmother is going to kill me!” she gasped. She definitely felt a headache coming on.
“W-Well,” a mouse volunteered shakily. “We don’t have hands big enough to make a dress and we don’t know how to do measurements… which is why we decided to summon a Fairy Godmother to help us with your dress!” The small mouse beamed at the kind grandmother in the kitchen. “She gave us cookies! And said she could make you a dress! Isn’t that great?”
“My bedroom,” Cinderella moaned. “What do I do?”
The sparrow flew over Cinderella’s head and smacked it with her wings. “One thing at a time,” it advised. “First, we have to make you the perfect dress!”
The Fairy Godmother smiled kindly at Cinderella, surveying her appearance. “You must be Cinderella, who needs a dress for Prince Charming’s upcoming ball. She waved her wand, and a whole stack of papers appeared in thin air, flying everywhere.
“Here are some dress designs! I would like to make you the dress of your preference for your debut in the great ball! Pick one, would you, my dear?”
Cinderella admired her own outfit once more, before she made a grand announcement.
“My friends!” she declared. “It is time to find more allies!”
“Allies? Why do you need allies? You are going to the ball!” The sparrow asked.
Cinderella smiled.
Stunningly cunning.
All her animal friends and Fairy Godmother had a bad feeling this was not going to go in a way they expected…
“Cinderella, no!” The Fairy Godmother groaned, weakly chasing after Cinderella and avoiding the chaos around her. “Why are you gathering an animal army! Aren’t you going to the ball?”
Cinderella grinned. “I am gathering an army of allies precisely because I am going to the ball!”
“What are you going to do with an army?” Fairy Godmother shrieked.
“We are going to enter the ball- by force, of course!” Cinderella explained, happily swinging her big bag of goodies, and approaching another cottage in the forest.
Fairy Godmother looked like she was going to faint any time soon.
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Cinderella had vacated her premises after receiving her new dress. There was no one to stop her, because her stepfamily had gone ahead to the ball, probably to find the best spot to position themselves against the Prince for the best “Notice me, Senpai!” act.
While her animal friends followed her thinking that she was heading straight for the ball since she has been all “dolled up”, little did they know that they would find themselves in the Fairy Tale Forest, a few miles away from the town they lived in.
Upon reaching the village in the forest, Cinderella had proceeded to bang on the little doors of the little cottages, and the next thing that came out from her mouth was something neither of them had expected-
“Be my ally! I am going to the ball and I need allies who can fight with me!”
Needless to say, the three little pigs who had appeared at their door upon the doorbell, were looking at her as though she was crazy.
“Excuse me, do I know you?” The oldest pig, Big Pig, asked.
Just when they were about to shut the door, Cinderella whipped up a bunch of fruits and vegetables of all sorts- beets, berries, oranges, melons, grapes; everything pigs loved to eat.
Big Pig held Cinderella’s slender hand in a handshake, and their group grew.
Fairy Godmother wasn’t sure if this was a good idea at all. What was Cinderella going to do with an animal army? She could only think of violence. She contemplated with a few decisions.
1) Let Cinderella do her thing. After all, even with an animal army, what could go wrong? At most she could clean any of the mess up with a swipe of her handy wand…
2) Maybe she should stop Cinderella before things got too haphazardly wrong. She remembered the last princess she helped, and things did not go well. The princess had woken up from her deep slumber after a kiss from her Prince Charming and proceeded to challenge the poor prince to a sword fight.
3) Maybe she should ask the animals instead. They have been with Cinderella the longest, they probably knew the best decision to work with Cinderella. Animals were very sharp and instinctual, and knew when to flee at the first sign of danger…
Cinderella walked to the next door some ways down the path, deeper into the village, and beamed when the door opened to reveal a little girl with wild golden locks for hair.
“Goldilocks!” Cinderella greeted. “I would like to borrow your three bears for a mission to the palace!”
Goldilocks murmured a shy ‘hi’, before nervously looking at her feet. “I don’t think it’s easy to get them to follow your command, missus,” she explained. “Especially since they have been bored of the porridge that I make for them. They have been so grumpy…”
Just then, three black figures bounded for the door and knocked Goldilocks off her feet. She landed face-flat on the ground, as the bears sat obediently in front of Cinderella. Cinderella smirked, setting a pot of honey from her goodie bag in front of the bears.
“Will you join my animal army? There will be better food at Prince Charming’s ball!” she asked. As though replying her question, the bears glomped happily to her side, their paws covered with a generous amount of honey. Goldilocks looked shocked, but nevertheless kept her composure and smiled kindly at Cinderella before she bade her goodbye.
She was notably, slightly amused, as she saw seven dwarves, three big fluffy brown bears, a wolf in Lolita outfit, a whole group of animals, a tired looking grandmother trudging behind Cinderella. Oh, and of course, a lot, a lot of ammunition.
Meanwhile, Fairy Godmother looked like she could use about five bottles of whiskey soon.
The time for the Ball was here.
Cinderella arrived at the ball with her animal entourage, looking at the palace from afar. The lights were shining grandly in the ballroom, as couples in grand dresses and suits trudged up the stairs after alighting their horse carriages.
Frankly, Cinderella felt extremely nervous. She was not sure if she was going to be allowed into a ball that was based on invitation, which was why she gathered so many allies to begin with. She looked behind her.
There were bears still licking honey off their paws, animals that were still chatting noisily amongst themselves, the seven dwarves were brandishing their pickaxes, birds that were excitedly flying around their heads, and a dishevelled looking grandmother in a blue cloak slumped helplessly against a tree.
Cinderella pretended not to see that. She turned around again, gripping tightly onto a stick fashioned from a fallen tree branch.
“Attack!” She roared, and the animals around her gave an equally enthusiastic roar. All of them, regardless two-legged or four-legged, ran out of their hiding spot in the forest and charged at the palace.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen screamed, yowling as they tried to move out of harm’s way as the animals rushed past them. The palace guards were put off guard, but they immediately tried to stop the animals from entering the palace, only to be knocked off their feet by the joyous and cuddly bears.
“Stop them!” The head palace guard shouted, brandishing his sword. Cinderella knocked his sword out of his hand, scowling. “Oh, stop it, you,” she scolded him. “They are just animals!” She used her wooden spear to knock the palace guard off balance and charged into the ballroom on her horse.
“Mr. Smith!” Cinderella cried out as she bashed her way into the ballroom, her horse coming to a screeching halt and rising on his hind legs. All the animals had burst into the ballroom. Some of them were munching on the food on the food counters, some were munching on elaborately decorated wigs, and a few of them were having fun tripping the screaming guests.
Everything was in chaos, and everybody was dying to escape the ballroom. Cinderella had no idea where to find Mr. Smith, and she was running out of time; she had to find her “true love” before the royal guards could regroup.
1) Grab a random guy to ask where Mr. Smith is, even though it might take a lot of trial and error to find out where he is.
2) Go straight to the second floor where important guests were hosted at, of course that would not be a bad idea, even though important guests in the suite meant a lot more security!
3) Send her animals on the recon mission to find Mr. Smith. What could go wrong, her animals also listened to her so well!
Meanwhile, the real Mr. Smith, a short, tubby but friendly looking grandpa, was frightened out of his wits. He had attended the ball on request by the King, to support the prince in establishing connections with other well-to-do families. Mr. Smith hid under a dessert table, wondering when the madness would stop as a baby mouse unsuspectingly sat on his shoulder and nibbled on his bowtie.
Prince Charming was busy making out with one of his potential future wives in the VIP lounge. She was pretty and soft, and smelled good. He was really enjoying himself.
Until Cinderella slammed into the VIP lounge with all her animal friends. Foxes, rabbits, deer and birds flocked into the room. Prince Charming’s lady friend shrieked, gripping onto her partner for dear life.
Before Prince Charming could comprehend what was going on, Cinderella kicked him down on the sofa with her heels and held him there, wielding -is that his father’s sword from his collection? – at his neck. Prince Charming smiled mildly, raising a finger to gently push the sword aside.
“Where,” she purred, “is Mr. Smith?” She tapped the sword at his neck against his finger. Prince Charming’s lady friend screamed and fainted immediately.
“That is against the law,” Prince Charming commented. “But I like your feistiness.”
“You think I do not dare to off your head?” Cinderella growled. “Answer me!”
“Will you marry me?”
“NO!”
Prince Charming pushed his fainted lady friend off the couch and patted his legs. “What a shame,” he tutted. “But I’m the crown prince. You can’t refuse me.”
Cinderella glared at him and looked at her animal friends around the room. Sadly, they seem more interested in exploring the room, sniffing the royal carpet, and munching on the fainted lady’s hair than about the politics in the room.
“That’s an abuse of power! I have no interest in romance whatsoever!” She protested. At this point, she really felt like beheading the prince, and she had every opportunity to do so now.
“This is how the world works, girly. If you have power, you will use it. How do you think every president or prime minister or royalty in the world become so successful?” The prince answered, raising his eyebrow. “They use power to obtain what they want. Isn’t that how the world works? Isn’t that what you want to do as well?”
Cinderella pursed her lips. He was… more than anything she wanted to admit, right in that sense. “Where is Mr. Smith?” she repeated. Prince Charming grinned.
“I will bring you to him, if you agree to marry me,” he declared, smiling with his irritating, blinding, white teeth. Cinderella really wanted to knock those teeth off. “Forget it,” she muttered. “I will find him myself.”
Prince Charming pulled Cinderella into his embrace just as she turned around and was ready to leave. “Come on, don’t be like that,” he persuaded. “It will be very hard to find him! Just marry me and I will help you achieve your goals.”
“Even if my goal is to earn a lot of money and get out of my stepfamily’s home?”
“I will clear your connections from your stepfamily and give you a nice home,” Prince Charming declared.
“I don’t want it,” Cinderella muttered. “I am an independent lady who does not need a man to buy my future.”
“So is it a deal?”
Cinderella pursed her lips. To be honest, it was a very, very tempting offer, but she really did not want to be indebted to this Casanova… She bit her lips, before offering a handshake to the prince.
She will take this opportunity and pluck him off if he gets too irritating. Sounds like a plan.
When Cinderella exited the VIP suite with Prince Charming, they saw that the ballroom was on fire. Everyone was either screaming and running away from the flames or were on flames themselves.
Unseen from everyone, Fairy Godmother entered the ballroom and wished it were all a dream. She could not believe that her contracted client was such a troublemaker, and it made her wish that she had not agreed to help them from the start. Prince Charming, who she spotted with a slightly embarrassed looking Cinderella who has woken up from her liquid-courage-without-the-liquid stupor, was even laughing his head off at the chaos. She did not understand youths these days.
Fairy Godmother stopped in front of a dessert table, stole a piece of éclair, and promptly proceeded to raise her wand, murmuring a string of enchanting words which sounded like curse words, with all due respect. Water gushed out from seemingly nothing in the air and rained down on the debris on fire. The fire began to extinguish, and everyone started to calm down.
To Mr. Smith who was hiding under the dessert table, watching Fairy Godmother captivated him. He was not in awe over the fact Fairy Godmother performed magic but was more enchanted by how Fairy Godmother seemingly put out the fire with so much ease and calm.
Unbeknownst to him, Fairy Godmother was just so tired and fed up with everything, an emotion furthest from being calm. In any case, Fairy Godmother saved his life, and Mr. Smith was enamoured by the mature lady before him.
Just as Fairy Godmother turned around to leave, Mr. Smith jumped out from under the table and hugged her tight. “Marry me!” he shouted, his cheeks flushing.
“Wha- “Before Fairy Godmother could get a word out, Mr. Smith had spun her around, and grasped her by her hands tightly, his gaze burning deep into her eyes. “It is love at first sight, my dear. Would you marry me?”
Fairy Godmother stared at him like he was a madman. However, he seemed like he was seriously expecting an answer.
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The End
Done by: Joey Chan
NTU School of ADM
DM3008: Generative Art
Supervised by: Prof. Dejan Grba
Song: Daystar - Fluffy / https://youtu.be/ZMl1bf9bj2c