Happily ever after...or was it?

We have all been told that Cinderella and her Prince, who in the story is never named, lived happily ever after. But consider: Cinderella's defining feature was her Very Tiny Feet, feet that were smaller than any other woman's in the whole kingdom. So small, in fact, that her glass slippers had had to be whipped up especially for her by the Fairy Godmother. No store carried Very Tiny Shoes.

Would Cinderella, after she and the Prince were settled in at his castle, have been satisfied with ONE pair of shoes, even if they were custom-made? Of course not. Here we join the Prince and his beloved on a morning soon after their fairy-tale wedding...

Cinderella, opening her eyes and smiling at the sun streaming in the castle window, swung her feet round to get out of bed. And shrieked.

Instantly the Prince was alert. 'What is it, my sweet? Has a mouse terrified you? Dreams of your awful stepmother?"

"Worse!" She cried. "I have no shoes, Prince."

He blinked. "No...shoes?"

"I have but these glass slippers. They cannot be worn every day!"

The Prince did not understand shoes very well, and this confused him. It was a feeling he would soon find himself becoming well acquainted with now that he was married. 

But he gallantly offered to go throughout his kingdom -- surely he would not have to go that far -- and procure some shoes for his beloved. 

Grateful, the Princess handed him a list as he prepared to leave. "As long as you're going," she said shyly.

The list said she needed:

Morning shoes

evening shoes

Afternoon shoes

Midmorning shoes

Slippers

Riding boots

Deck shoes

Rain boots

Going-out shoes 

Staying-in shoes

"You need all...of these?" he said, seeing his plans for a midmorning hunt evaporate.

She shook her head. "Goodness, I need LOTS of others too! But these will do for now."

And so the Prince bravely set off for the nearest cobbler. 

"I need, uh" -- he looked at the the list and then thrust it at the cobbler  -- "these shoes. In a Very Tiny Size. For the Princess."

"I'm sorry, Your Highness," the cobbler said regretfully. "We don't have any Very Tiny Shoes, nor can they be made. My fingers, you see" -- he held them out -- "are too big and clumsy to work in so delicate a size."

The Prince tried another cobbler, who regretfully told him that he, too, was unable to fashion such dainty items.

And so it went, throughout his kingdom. No one knew how to make such a Very Tiny Shoe.

The Prince had slain dragons, he had once been thrown into a pit and left for dead, but that was nothing compared with THIS.

Finally, exhausted, longing for his simple, dragon-slaying days, he found one pair of Very Tiny Shoes and snatched them up. He had no idea which one on the list they matched. Nor did he care. He crawled into the castle, parched, and croaked out, "Here are your shoes, my sweet."

She smiled, took them, and asked, 

"Were they on sale?"

And the Prince -- that great slayer of dragons, rescuer of cruelly treated princesses and cats stuck in trees -- cried. 

Yes, I'm sure he did.

But perhaps they DID live happily ever after...as soon as the Prince got Cinderella her own credit card. And as soon as he made sure the cobblers learned how to make Very Tiny Shoes. 

And when he never, ever had to go shopping again.