Princess Fantasy D X-2

A/N: I have never been inspired enough to write stories about any fanart before, until I saw the work of deviantart artist Skirtzzz, specifically her Final Fantasy Disney Dressphere series. With her blessing, this will be the first of a series of final scene rewrites, using the powers of the dresspheres to possibly change the script, or failing that, make the scene worthy of a Final Fantasy series. Replicating the feel for such an incredible franchise will be a challenge, but I swear I'll do my best!

If you haven't seen any of the movies or their endings, this could be a little spoilerific, but if you have or don't mind, hang on for the ride!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of the Disney Princess line nor the elements of Final Fantasy X-2, those belong to Disney and SquareEnix respectively. Nor do I own the costumes featured anywhere in this story: those belong to Skirtzzz!

Pistols of Poison

"… and that he would carry me away to his castle… and we would live happily ever after…" Snow White breathed dreamily, holding the ruby-red apple to her breast and thinking of the life she would live once the magic apple granted her wish. As innocent as she was, the old dwarf Doc's warning had flew right out of her head.

"Fine, fine!" the "kindly" old crone whispered in anticipation. 'Now take a bite, and make your dreams come true! Don't let the wish grow cold!'

The young girl took a deep breath and bit down.

As the piece slipped down her throat, almost instantly she started to feel lightheaded, as if her body was going to sleep before her mind was. "Oh… I feel strange…" she murmured, reaching out to steady herself. When she tried to take a breath of fresh air, her body wouldn't respond. A feeling of cold crept over every inch of her, and for the first time in her life since she was left in the woods, her thoughts were nothing but fear and confusion.

As her legs gave out, she heard the crone hissing, "Her breath will still… her blood congeal…"

Her eyes fluttered closed and the apple rolled from her numb fingers, and the last thing Snow White heard before her mind gave way to oblivion were the crone's – no, the witch's – malicious cackle:

"Now I'll be fairest in the land!"

The twisted shape of the transformed Queen Grimhilde exited the small cottage into the pouring rain, cackling gleefully to herself. She had done it! The only one fairer than herself was no more, and once she regained her natural beauty, there would be no-one to overshadow her glory!

But all her thoughts stalled when the sound of galloping hooves reached her ears, and she gasped when said white horse galloped through the trees into the clearing in front of the cottage, that accursed handsome, brown-haired, Prince Frederick on its back. Upon seeing her, he pulled up his steed with a whinny. "No… I'm too late…" she heard him cry out.

"You!" she howled in anguish. "How did you escape my dungeon? You should've drowned!"

"Those chains of yours were so rusty they couldn't hold a child!" the prince called back over the sound of the rain and wind, his face a mix of anger and despair. "You would murder an innocent girl just to assuage your own vanity?"

"I will be the fairest of them all!" the Queen screeched. "It has been that way for 10 long years, and I will not stand for some airheaded young twit taking it away from me!"

The young man let go of the reins with one hand to grasp the hilt of his sword. "You will pay dearly for this. Do you hear me, witch? My love will be rescued!"

"Rescued?" snorted the Queen, before letting out a sharp laugh. "Hah! Do not fool yourself, boy; you're too late to do anything! Snow White lies inside that cabin, her heart all but stilled! And there is nothing you can do to change that!"

Whatever the response she was expecting from Prince Frederick, be it a charge of fury or a collapse of sobbing, what she didn't expect him to do was narrow his eyes in determination. "Is that what you think?" he said grimly.

"What? What could you possibly –" the old hag's bulbous eyes widened when she realized something. "You… you read my spellbook, didn't you? But how could you know what spell I used?"

"Your friend here was very helpful, your Majesty,' answered the Prince, reaching to a saddlebag hanging from his horse's saddle. Opening it, he pulled out a gilt-gold frame that the Queen, to her horror, recognized instantly.

"The Magic Mirror!" she shrieked, as the greenish, mask-like face emerged out of the dark clouds in the glass surface. "This cannot be! You dare?! How dare you choose to betray me?!"

"My owner is my master, that is my only rule," the mirror answered stoically, ignoring the rain pattering on his glass face. "To believe I am evil is to call yourself a fool. The Prince is my owner now, that much is true. And you cannot betray someone who does not own you."

"He has told me the curse of Sleeping Death that you used on Snow White, and I found its antidote,' Prince Frederick declared, dismounting his horse, slinging the bag over his shoulder and drawing his sword. "Now stand aside peacefully, or be cut down where you stand. I will rescue Snow White, and you will not stop me." He started forward, his determined face illuminated by a sudden flash of lightning.

"No… NO!" the crone howled, throwing herself forward at the Prince at the crash of thunder, trying to snatch the saddlebag from him. "I will not let you awaken her! She will sleep in death forever, and I will forever remain the fairest!" A flash of steel glinted through the rain as she drew something from beneath her cloak.

Prince Frederick just managed to see the dagger in time to block it with his own weapon. A deft twist with his hand sent the weapon skittering out of the Queen's aged, gnarled hand and across the forest clearing, and a firm boot sent the crone herself splashing in a puddle.

The crone snarled like a cornered rat, staggering to her feet, but the standoff was suddenly interrupted by a chorus of yells, as a horde of woodland creatures stampeded into view, the deer carrying several short, old dwarves on their backs. Taken aback by the reinforcements, Grimhilde decided to cut her losses and hobbled off towards the forest.

The posse of critters and dwarves skidded to a halt when they saw the young man watching the crone head for the treeline. "Who in the world are you" Happy asked in confusion.

"What he's wearing – he could be a print… no, no, a prance… no, that's not right… a mince…' Doc tried to say, stumbling over his words as usual.

'A prince?' Bashful shyly suggested, before hiding his face behind the deer's neck.

'Yes!' Doc exclaimed. 'But what's a prince doing here? Does he know about Snow White?'

'I have come to rescue Snow White. The Queen captured me in her dungeon for trying to stop her, but I managed to escape and find the cure,' the Prince said quickly. 'I'll take care of her; the seven of you must not let the Queen get away!'

'How do we know we can trust you?' Grumpy growled, standing on his deer's back to get in the Prince's face. 'You just waltz in out of nowhere, saying you're a prince and that you want to save her, well, I for one don't believe – what?' he bellowed, turning to Dopey, who was tugging on his tunic frantically. The youngest dwarf pointed to the edge of the clearing, where the dwarves could see the Queen just disappearing through the trees.

"She's getting awa… get-getting awa… awa-a-a-aaacchh *gasp* Thanks," Sneezy wheezed, almost letting out one of his trademark sneezes if Sleepy hadn't stifled his nose again.

Grumpy looked back and forth between the Prince and the Queen, before shouting in exasperation. "Gah! Fine! You go wake her up, we'll get her! After her, men!" he yelled, waving his cudgel in the air as his deer mount galloped after the escaping crone. Shouting and yelling, the rest of the dwarves and their woodland posse joined the charge.

Ducking his head to enter the tiny cabin, Prince Frederick's own blood ran cold when he saw the prone form of Snow White sprawled across the wooden floor, the corrupted apple just a few feet from her outstretched hand. In a heartbeat he was knelt by her head and had rested the mirror against the nearby table, where the green face could see everything.

Quickly, the Prince rummaged in the pockets of his tunic and extracted the page detailing the antidote. "The victim of the Sleeping Death can be revived only by Love's First Kiss," he recited quietly.

As he reached over and turned Snow White onto her back, his eyes rested on the girl's face, so quiet and pure like her name, and felt his heart melt all over again. "From the moment I saw you all those days ago, there has only been one song in my heart: the song we shared the day we first met."

Gently, he took her small, cooling hand into his own. "I have never seen another so beautiful, nor ever loved another so pure. And I swear on my name as Prince Frederick of House Hohenstaufen, I will protect that purity until the day I die." Closing his eyes, he leaned down, and softly kissed her.

The contact was sweet, demure and brief. But the second he lifted his lips from hers, the hand he held suddenly tightened and her whole body started to tremble as if in the last throes of a fever. Her innocent face wrinkled like she was having the worst nightmare imaginable, and he could feel her skin grow cold and clammy with sweat.

Mortified, he turned to the mirror. "What in God's name is happening?" he cried frantically. "Magic Mirror who knows and sees all, what ails Snow White by this ghastly pall?"

For the first time, the Magic Mirror's face almost seemed concerned. " 'Tis the Curse of the Sleeping Death that ails Snow White so, but 'tis not the only Curse that assails her soul though. When the Queen made the poisoned apple to destroy that which she hates, her very hatred formed a poison known only to the Fates."

Prince Frederick stared back and forth from the Mirror to Snow White as it continued, "Pandora's Lament is the name it is given, and it turns one's own body into one's eternal prison. Bonds around the soul forged from hatred so pure, to crush it to oblivion… and there is only one cure."

"A cure?' gasped the Prince, seizing the mirror and pulling it to his face. "What is it? Tell me please! I will collect it even if I have to sail the Seven Seas!"

The face in the mirror shook from side to side grimly. "It is not a cure from outside, but a cure that comes from within. Her soul must fight the poison herself, and only then will she win. Until her strength proves vast enough, she will remain as cold as stone." Empty blackness seen through green eye-holes looked directly into the Prince's own. "There is nothing you can do to help; this fight is hers alone."

The Magic Mirror could almost see the light fade from Prince Frederick's eyes as he turned back to Snow White, who was now murmuring in disquiet. He lowered the mirror and slumped, resting his forehead against the wooden floor.

"Oh Lord Almighty," he murmured in despair, "the moment I rested my eyes on this girl, I knew she was the one I was meant to love for the rest of my life. I cannot afford to lose her now, not when I just found her all over again. Please, give the woman I love the strength to win her fight… please…"

What does death feel like? The absence of heat, sound, light or anything that resembles the world you know… where only blackness surrounds you as you wait for something, anything to bring your soul to a better place. This was all that Snow White felt as she floated in the endless void that she found herself in a second after she had taken the bite from the poisoned apple.

She wondered where she was, and how she got here. Was she having a dream? Did it really come from eating that apple? She remembered the old woman screaming something about being fairest in the land… but was she really her jealous stepmother in disguise?

It was only now that she remembered Doc's last words to her before he left with the others: to beware of strangers, for her stepmother would never stop looking for her.

"… foolish girl…" a voice that seemed to come from both nowhere and everywhere suddenly caught her attention.

"Wh…who's there?" she called out timidly.

"… ignorant girl…" the same voice spoke out, louder this time, a grating, guttural voice that seemed to be spoken by a demon, "… good-for-nothing child…"

"What do you mean?" Snow White asked, the feeling of fright reaching the same levels as when she first entered the forest, the day the hunter Humbert tried to kill her, but told her to run away instead.

"… too naive to see the danger of overshadowing the Queen… too foolish to recognize what should've been someone else's… too much beauty to be yours!" the voice suddenly bellowed out like a clap of thunder, and all of a sudden, agony gripped the young girl unlike she had ever experienced, as if the sound was a physical force that had struck her down. A pained scream ripped from her as her very soul was tormented, and she shut her eyes in a vain effort to block out the pain.

"…hate you!" the voice shrieked, somehow sounding more and more like the Queen with every moment, although Snow White could barely register it over the torment her soul was suffering. "… despise you… loathe you!Useless! Insignificant! Naive child! Should've died in the forest if that waste hadn't lost his nerve!" With every word, pain struck her from every direction, like a horrid mother disciplining her children with sticks and chairs.

As she trembled under every word, the pain was suddenly replaced by a severe crushing feeling around her dream body, as if a giant had grabbed her and was trying to squeeze the life out of her. As she opened her eyes, all she could see was the horrid, fury-ridden face of her wicked stepmother, enlarged by a hundred times, as fingers the size of trees held her to her face.

"Scream!" screeched Queen Grimhilde, her giant hand tightening, sending another surge of pain through the girl's battered soul. "I want to feel your despair! I want to see your tears! I want you to know what you have that should have been mine from the start: the beauty that you hold that should never have existed to overshadow my own!"

"No… no…" sobbed Snow White, her very essence too ravaged and weakened to scream or cry, "Why? Why do you hate me so? Is everything you have done because of how I look?"

"It has ALWAYS been!" the Queen snarled, her eyes dripping contempt, her teeth bared, the very embodiment of her hatred trying to snuff out that which was better. "You, your looks, your heart, your innocence – YOUR BEAUTY! I am the fairest in the land, in every way, and it will remain that way once you DIE!"

A second hand rose out of the darkness to clasp around the first, and a final wail of despair rung through the blackness, as the 14-year-old girl was literally strangled by hate and odium from her stepmother. Her eyes fluttered shut in a last, desperate to dream it all away…

A sudden deafening crack rang through the void as the maiden's pure heart finally cracked.

Some say the heart of a child, one that is pure and innocent, fragile and devoid of the sins that plague the world around us is the most precious treasure ever known, worth more than all the gold or gems buried under the soil and stone of the earth. To care and nurture for one is said to be the greatest responsibility of any one or two people ever, and to destroy or corrupt one is undeniably one of the worst sins one can ever do.

But the strength and purity of one of these truly innocent hearts, when exposed to those who wish it harm, is all too often sorely underestimated in its potential. The raw untainted emotion emanating from one is incredibly resilient to attempts to taint it, and evil in its pure form cannot hope to succeed against such purity. Such as it was written by the Creator.

Sadly, the power of the heart to resist the sins of the world can only be shone through the eyes of the innocent, which is often insufficient to hold off the taint for long. The sins corrupt the heart through the emotions experienced, leaving it unable to bring its full potential to resist the taint except in very rare cases.

But now, with the embodiment of the Queen's rage and hate pushing against such an innocent and beautiful soul at its very core, it was fully exposed to every iota of purity and light held by Snow White's heart upon its release.

The instant what defenses Snow White's heart possessed fell, a radiant light bloomed out from her soul, that banished the darkness to the far reaches of limbo. The embodiment of the Queen howled in sheer agony as her hatred literally disintegrated like shattering glass at the touch of the light, leaving a glowing silhouette floating before the Queen's disbelieving, handless, giant form.

The remnants of the Sleeping Death, almost fully cleansed by the first, brief release of love and beauty, witnessed the corona of beauty and light… and all it could feel was utter remorse for even trying to take this girl's soul before her time; such a heart being too beautiful to even attempt destroying. All at once, it swore to amend its mistakes by helping to drive off the other taint that came along with it, that which would choose to try and extinguish the heart.

Like a wisp of green smoke, the poison snaked its way into the the center of the corona, and felt its pure energies empower it and start to change its form. It wound its way around the girl's glowing body like a long green scarf, melding its strength with that of the light, as both merged to form the defenses against the hate and contempt.

Garments were brought into existence to both defend her from the enemies that she faced, while at the same time representing both the innocence of her heart and the strength of the poison that her love had conquered. Patterning itself against the outfit she wore, the dress and all its adornments burst into color one piece at a time, from a collar-like choker, a bright blue bodice and toeless stockings adorned with lace, red shoes, knicker-like shorts, a flowing yellow half-skirt, red and blue bands around her biceps, and a brown belt with an attached pouch. Satisfied with the creation, the poison split the remainder of itself in front of her and let the strings of Fate take over, as they shaped it into a pair of objects only recognized by an old English wizard that had managed to see the future.

The embodiment of hate struggled against the light like someone fighting the pull of the ocean's tide, trying in vain to smother or corrupt it, but every beam of light that touched was like molten lava, burning away at the form bit by bit. Every moment that passed by, the sheer purity of the girl's heart was wearing away at the poison of Pandora's Lament.

Suddenly the light started to die down, and the half-disintegrated entity took its chance, surging forward like a vengeful fury. But the next moment, a bang like a cannon echoed across the void and the Queen's entity of malice froze in its tracks, its shoulder fracturing like china and beginning to fall apart.

Floating before her in the void was the girl that filled her with so much revulsion, now dressed in an outfit that exposed more skin than should ever be decent. Said skin was glowing like the sun, and clutched in her hands were two odd devices that looked to be crafted out of wood and gold into two L-shapes. Both of them had holes in one end, and the device in her left hand was aimed straight at the embodiment's shoulder, a wisp of smoke trailing from the hole.

Snow White, still wearing that innocent-looking red bow, gazed into the giant face of her cruel stepmother. The entity gazed right back with nothing but disgust. The girl's expression was filled with regret as she raised the right device – pistols, she somehow knew what they were called – to aim right between the Queen's eyes.

"I'm sorry, stepmother," she whispered quietly, "but I need you to go now. Burst Shot." The last two words whispered so quietly no one could hear them, she squeezed the trigger and a second bang roared out, the pistol spitting out a shaped piece of metal that tore through the entity's head, leaving a perfect round hole in her forehead and cracks spider-webbing across her face. The next second, the sound of breaking glass was heard as the evil Queen shattered into a million pieces of glass that vanished into the void.

Snow White closed her eyes and pulled the pistols close to herself, as her soul, freed from both the Curse of Sleeping Death and Pandora's Lament, began to return to her mortal plane. As her form started to vanish from the blackness, she missed the light from her heart taking something from her to repair its defenses – six whole years of her life.

Prince Frederick had only bowed his head for what seemed like a few moments when Snow White's body suddenly froze and went as still as a board. The Prince looked up in shock and alarm, in time to see her ivory skin suddenly light up like the morning sun.

Frederick gave a shout of surprise as he stumbled backwards, falling onto his rear and watching the glowing maiden rise into the air into a standing position. Beams of light shone down from out of nowhere to whirl around her body, and as they passed over her dress and outfit, they started to change.

Her high collar curled around her neck to resemble a white choker, while her blue bodice shrank to resemble a high-cut, lace-edged corset, fastened under her arms and curving upwards to form an upside-down V around her navel, exposing it. Her blue and red puffy sleeves now became similarly-colored wraps around her upper arms, and small golden bangles appeared around her wrists. A thick brown belt with a small sack attached latched itself around her hips, as half of her flowing yellow skirt vanished, leaving her with a half-skirt covering her left leg, but keeping her right leg exposed, and also exposing ruffly bloomer-like shorts, revealing more leg than any decent woman should in that day and age. Lastly, knee-high blue stockings in the same shade as her bodice, also topped with lace, and a pair of scarlet high heels, in the same shade as her lips and hair bow, materialized around her legs.

Prince Frederick was so stunned that all he could do was stare as the girl floated back down to her knees, and the glow around her finally dimmed. But he was further taken aback at the new sight of what was once a 14-year-old girl, now a young woman a year or so younger than his own 20 years of age, still with inky-black curled hair and a little red bow. As the last remnants of light faded away, a final pair of sparks bloomed in her hands before coalescing into a pair of wood-and-metal contraptions, with small shaped apples resting on their tops.

As Snow White's eyes fluttered open, her eyes fell on the handsome face of the astonished Prince sitting on the floor gazing up at her, and she instantly gasped, dropping the pair of devices in the process. "Oh! You're the Prince I met all those years ago! How did you get here? Are you alright?" In a second, she was kneeling at his side.

"I… I…" Frederick, for his part, managed to regain his sense of etiquette a second later. Instantly moving to a bow, he declared, "Prince Frederick of House Hohenstaufen, at your humble service, Princess Snow White." He looked up into the face of the woman, much older than a few moments ago, but still as demure and innocent as ever. "I found the cure for the poison, and gave it to you in time. I am so happy you were strong enough to overcome your stepmother's hatred!"

"As am I, and I thank you greatly for your help." Snow White smiled and bent down to curtsey in response, when her eyes fell on her new outfit for the first time. "Dear me! Where have my clothes gone? These are the same clothes as in my dream!"

"I do not know," Prince Frederick said, studiously keeping his eyes on her face and not anywhere else, but a sudden crack of thunder quickly reminded him of the situation. "Oh! I almost forgot! Those little men outside, are they friends of yours? They seemed to know you."

"The dwarves? Where are they now? Are they alright in this storm?" she asked, looking outside where the rain was coming down in buckets.

"They were chasing after your stepmother, last I saw of them. For what she has done to the both of us, we cannot let her escape!"

"My stepmother? Oh dear!" Snow White gasped. Quickly, she stood and picked up the two devices, hooking them into her new belt. "We must rescue them; who knows what her magic could do to them!"

"Then let us be off! We shall share our stories later," declared Prince Frederick, getting up too. He turned to the Magic Mirror still leaning against the table. "Magic Mirror, we thank you for your aid, but your shine could be damaged if you go into this cascade. For the time being, we shall leave you here where it is dry. We swear to return for you when the end to this is nigh!"

The mask nodded. "Young Prince Frederick, I shall hold you to your word. To return soon rather than late is very much preferred!" With that, the face vanished in a quick flicker of flame.

The Prince and Snow White emerged from the cabin where a small group of woodland creatures had stayed behind to keep an eye on the cottage. When they saw their maiden, they started jumping and chattering in joy, and even the rain seemed a little less oppressive.

"No time to waste; we need to aid the dwarves!" Prince Frederick declared, gathering the pleasantly-surprised Snow White into his arms and hoisting her into his horse's saddle, before leaping on himself. "If you can understand me, please show me the way!"

One of the deer reared up as if volunteering, before bounding off into the woods towards the cliffs. With a crack of the reins, the Prince's white steed whinnied and galloped off after it.

Hidden in the trees, a pair of griffon vultures took off into the rain.

Huffing and puffing, the seven dwarves scrambled up the cliff face in the pouring rain, waving wooden cudgels in the air, pursuing the gnarled, hobbled old crone known to be the evil Queen. In her haste to escape the vengeful dwarves, she had started climbing the rocky ledges of the nearby mountain.

"Come on, men!" yelled Grumpy. "We know where this path leads! Once she reaches the top of that cliff, there's no way down except through us!" The other six gave a yell (except for Dopey), and they redoubled their efforts to catch up. As they charged after their quarry, Doc couldn't help but notice that the rain seemed to be letting up somewhat, and the thunder wasn't as deafening as before. He quickly brushed the thought away, though, seeing the shadow of the Queen on the top of the cliff, having finally reached the dead-end.

As the dead-end cliff finally came into view through the downpour, Grumpy gasped when he saw the crone struggling with a wooden branch, and she was using it to try and lever a gigantic boulder off the cliff back the way she came, which would crush them all!

"Look out!" he yelled, as the group huddled beneath a small rock outcropping, offering a scant shelter from the impending avalanche. They could hear the old hag cackling madly over the howling wind, while the seven dwarves braced themselves for the impact of tumbling rocks.

A pair of muffled bangs suddenly sounded from lower on the cliff, before two streaks of light suddenly rocketed upwards in front of the dwarves' astonished eyes. The next second, a third, much closer, explosion rocked the cliffside, the hag's laughter turned to howls of pain and surprise, and a layer of gravel and loose scree poured down on the group, half-burying them in rubble.

When the greatly-reduced avalanche finally died, the dwarves dug themselves out and looked up to find the deluge reduced to nothing more than an ordinary spring shower, and the sun just starting to break through the clouds. Looking up, the boulder the crone was trying to drop on them was nothing more than a pile of shattered rubble, and the Queen was picking herself up from beside it where she had fallen down from the explosion, somehow not blown off of the cliff-face.

"Stepmother!" suddenly came a shout from down the cliff, and the dwarves turned towards it, to see the Prince they saw earlier balanced on the rocks, and slightly higher up… was Snow White, aiming two metal-and-wood devices up at the witch, completely unperturbed by the rain.

"Snow White!" laughed Happy, jumping up and down in joy. "She's alive! The Prince did it! She…" His voice stuttered to a halt when she saw exactly what she was wearing. "Good grief!" He spun around and determinedly faced up the cliff at the crone.

All the dwarves turned crimson when they laid eyes on Snow White, and equally determinedly averted their eyes. Bashful in particular only looked at Snow White for one second before his face went purple and he fainted on the spot, and Dopey took so long to realize what he was staring at that Doc had to bodily turn his head the other way.

When the Queen laid eyes on her stepdaughter, her eyes almost popped out of her head in disbelief. "NO!" she shrieked. "You can't be alive! Curse you, you annoying Prince!"

"There is nowhere to run, 'Your Majesty'," Prince Frederick said, the last words obviously condescending. "Either you come down and be imprisoned until the end of your life, or I come up there and cut your head off." He exposed a few inches of steel to accent his point.

"I should've just cut your throat out when I had the chance!" the crone wailed. "Then Snow White would finally be dead and I'd be the most beautiful around!"

"Why you…" Grumpy growled, "One more word out of you and I'll come up there and push you off myself!"

"Enough, everyone," Snow White's voice interceded between everyone. "No one is killing anyone today." She stepped closer, aiming both pistols at her, although her expression showed nothing but regret. "No-one has to be hurt, stepmother. All you have to do is come down peacefully."

"Not in a million years, child!" Queen Grimhilde hissed venomously. "When I get down from here, I will not rest until you lie dead! Strangled with a corset! Poisoned with a cursed comb!" Despite her defiance, she couldn't for the life for her find a way off the ledge that allowed her to escape.

"I see…" Snow White whispered, her voice sounding even more mournful. "Then I guess I do not have a choice." Both pistols centered on the Queen's crooked form.

"What are those?" she hissed.

"They are my Poison Pistols, made from the very poison you used on me," the maiden said quietly, summoning up more of the knowledge she didn't quite know about. "They pack quite a bite, as you no doubt saw." She gestured to the pile of pebbles that was once a giant boulder. "Gained from conquering all the hate you put into the creation of your curse."

For just a moment, the innocent, mournful voice of the Princess took on a coldness as befitting her name. "And a curse is what I now put on you." Cocking both apple-shaped hammers with a click, she murmured four words unheard to everyone except the Prince.

"Target MP. Cursed Bullet."

The twin pistols went off with twin bangs, sending twin bullets arcing up the cliff and right through the crone's shoulders before she could react. Although there wasn't a spray of blood, the Queen gave a howl of anguish and collapsed to the stone ground.

"My… my magic," she moaned, touching her face and heart in disbelief, "I can't feel my magic… what did you do to me?!" she screeched down at her.

"My Poison Pistols allow me to send curses or poisons of my choice to whatever I shoot, as a reminder of how they came to be," Snow White said, her voice still possessing that minute icy timbre, "and the curse I have put on you has permanently sealed you off from your magic… including that which could've turned you back to normal."

All the colour drained from the crone's wrinkled face at the last part as she clutched at her chest and her face. "No… no… you can't… all my beauty…"

"I will not kill you, stepmother, but you have left me no choice," Snow White declared, her next words possessing no ice, only sorrow. "Now you cannot hurt anyone else, and you can't do anything to hurt me any more. So please, please, stepmother, just leave us alone."

Quietly, she slipped her pistols back into her belt and turned down. "Come, everyone, let's go home." The Prince smiled, and kissed her on the cheek as he took her hand to help her down the mountain, offering what support he could. The dwarves looked at each other, before silently following the couple down the mountain. Even Dopey managed to not pull any of his clumsy antics.

The Queen watched the procession head down the mountain, her mind numb with a mix of disbelief, rage and horror, before letting out an anguish-filled scream that echoed across the mountain. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

As she ranted and raved, cursing Snow White's name to the deepest points of hell, she hobbled upright and shook her fists at the sky. Snatching the broken branch from the ground, she swung it violently, as if trying to beat magic out of the air for her to use, only to make a grave error.

She was moving across a small rock outcropping that was covered in recent rainfall, and her foot just slipped.

A moment later, the griffon vultures started to descend.

"Are you sure you have to leave?" asked Sneezy, watching the pair slip the Magic Mirror into the saddlebags that again hung off Frederick's white horse. Snow White had found that by flipping a switch on the pistols and dropping them, it made them and her new, elegant (albeit rather chilly) outfit vanish into a small card she now carried with her, her old outfit having been restored.

"I have found my prince after all these dreams," Snow White said, gazing lovingly at her Prince. "My heart tells me to go with him, now that I am safe from the Queen's evil at last."

"Well, if that's your choice, my dear, none of us will stop you,' Doc declared, not tripping over his words for once. "We all want what's best for you."

"J…just, please don't forget us, okay?" Bashful stammered.

Snow White smiled, a smile that put everyone that saw it completely at ease. "Of course I won't, Bashful! I could never forget any of you! Don't worry, if I have the chance I will come visit!"

"I too will never forget you seven brave men," declared Frederick, bowing to the dwarves. "I am forever in your debt for keeping my love safe, and I swear on my name I will repay it one day!"

"Just keep 'er safe and I won't have a reas'n to find yer, got it?" Grumpy sniffed.

"If I can't, the only reason will be my own death," Prince Frederick declared, turning to Snow White. "Shall we, milady?"

"Just seven more things to do," Snow White said with that glorious smile, walking up to each dwarf in turn and giving them a kiss on the forehead. Dopey tried to get a kiss on the lips instead, but was satisfied with his own forehead kiss in the end.

"Farewell, everyone! Farewell!" Finally, cries and goodbyes echoed back and forth between the two parties as the Prince and Princess departed from the cottage towards their new future, an accompaniment of forest animals following close behind.

Welp, for a first installment, I hope it passes muster. I might go through it again a few times if I feel it needs perking up.

Skirtzzz, thank you so much for waiting! I hope this story is good enough to fit your picture, and I hope the rest will be as good!

To those that start yelling about how the Magic Mirror isn't that size in the movies, consider it the one small change in canon I'm entitled to as a writer.

Find Snow White's gunner costume, created by the talented DeviantArtist Skirtzzz here (scrap all the spaces)!:

skirtzzz . deviantart dotcom / art / Gunner - Snow - White - 191714706

Review and Critique please; more support will inspire me to work faster, and I'd really like the feedback! But please, no flaming!

Next Chapter: The Redhaired Ronin