Title: Third Midnight
Fandom: Fairy Tales
Length: 100
Content notes: canon-typical violence
Author notes: Combines elements from two different versions of Cinderella, "Cendrillon" by Charles Perrault and "Aschenputtel" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. This one's for theicescholar.
Summary: "The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means." (Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest)



The spell breaks at midnight for the last time. Her coach is a pumpkin drawn by six white mice. Her ballgown shreds itself to rags, and she's lost a shoe. Time to limp back to the ashes of her abusive family life.

But the transformation this midnight brings is not over. She is sought out, recognized at last as the heroine she is, a princess throned in glory. Her not-mother rages, and her not-sisters get what they deserve. Toe and heel chopped off to make the slipper fit, eyes pecked out by her faithful friends the birds.

Happily ever after.