End of Fairytales

Once upon a again, beneath the varnished ceiling of familiar dreams, the prince politely asked for directions to his own royal ball. "Excuse me, but has anyone seen a glass slipper?" he inquired, deftly avoiding a cardboard dragon that belched digital flames.

In the corner, a princess flipped through her smartphone in search of a Wi-Fi-enchanted forest. "Hang on," she said, "I’ll Google how to unfall from this tower." Meanwhile, a frog morphed into a startup guru, pitching ideas about "Ribbit Recovery Programs" to bewildered woodland creatures.

And so, life's escalator continued, ever ascending, each stop predictable yet confoundingly nostalgic. The owl still didn't have any actual wisdom, just a knack for quoting self-help articles about the importance of staying awake.

Alas, the audience applauded, not knowing the performance was on repeat, a highlight reel of déjà vu that they secretly craved to rewind to the less commercial days. But why change the plot when the royalty is always right?