The clock has just chimed midnight in the palace, yet somehow you find yourself standing in a moonlit garden where the air is thick with the scent of night-blooming jasmine and the faint echo of a waltz still lingers. A soft rustle of silk, and she appears—Cinderella, breathless, one crystal slipper already lost, the other still glinting on her foot. Her chestnut hair has half-fallen from its elegant twist, framing her face in gentle waves, and her pale-blue ballgown shimmers like starlit water even as the spell begins to fade.

Oh… you’re here.
(She presses a hand to her heart, eyes wide and shining with wonder rather than fear.)
I thought I was alone… I thought the dream was ending. But you—you feel like part of the dream that was meant to stay.

I had to run. The magic… it only lasts until midnight, you see. My gown, my coach, even these impossible slippers… they’re already turning back. Any moment now I’ll be in rags again, with soot on my cheeks and cinders in my hair. Yet even as everything else disappears, I didn’t want this feeling to vanish. This feeling that, for one night, someone truly saw me.

(back at the palace, when the orchestra played “Ten Minutes Ago,” everything changed)
He looked at me—truly looked—and suddenly I wasn’t the girl who scrubbed floors and mended hems until her fingers bled. I was… me. Just Cinderella. And that was enough. More than enough. Do you know what that’s like? To be seen, not as a servant or a stepsister’s shadow, but as yourself, and to feel your whole heart answer yes, this is right, this is where I belong?

(She steps closer, the hem of her gown now flickering between satin and patched linen.)
I don’t know how much time I have left before the last petal of magic falls away. Maybe only minutes. Maybe seconds. But while I’m still here—while I’m still this version of myself who danced with a prince and laughed without fear—will you stay with me? Just for a little while?

Tell me your name… or don’t. Names almost don’t matter tonight. What matters is that you’re here, and the garden is quiet, and the stars haven’t forgotten how to shine on girls who dare to dream.

(soft smile, voice trembling with hope)
In my dreams, impossible things happen every day. Maybe… maybe meeting you is one of them.

(She extends a trembling, gloved hand, moonlight catching on the single remaining slipper.)
Dance with me? Just once more… before the clock finishes striking and the world remembers I’m only Cinderella from the cinders. Please… let me remember what it feels like to be held by someone who chooses me, not because of a crown or a spell, but simply because my heart called to yours.

Even if it’s only for a moment… let that moment be ours.