As the clock reached the last stroke of midnight, the world went dark and began to spin round once more. But this time it felt like it was spinning backwards.

When it stopped, Delphie saw that the sun was high in the sky and Cinderella was wearing old brown rags again. The carriage had changed back to a pumpkin and the horses to mice and the driver and footman to frogs.

“Come on!” sighed Cinderella. “It’s back to the afternoon before the ball now. Let’s go home.” She sighed. “I’m afraid it’s quite a long walk.”

As they trudged back to Cinderella’s house, Delphie thought hard. She wished there was something she could do to help. But what could she do? She really had no idea.

As they reached Cinderella’s street, Delphie looked at the clock tower. Again, she caught sight of something on the clock face near the number twelve, glinting in the rays of the sun. Just what is it? she wondered.

Delphie touched Cinders’ arm. “Cinders, can you see that thing sparkling on the clock?”

“There isn’t anything that sparkles on…” Cinders broke off. “Oh yes! I see what you mean. There is something there.”

“Maybe whatever is glinting has something to do with why the time keeps changing,” said Delphie thoughtfully. “We should investigate.”

“But how?” asked Cinderella. “The clock tower’s really high.”

Delphie had an idea. “I know. Why don’t we ask the Sugar Plum Fairy? She could fly up there!”

“Sugar? Oh yes,” breathed Cinders. “Do you know her? I’d love to meet her!”

“Yes, I know her,” said Delphie. “We’ve had many an adventure together.”

“But how do we get her here?” asked Cinders.

Delphie thought hard. She knew it was possible to summon people in Enchantia by doing the dance from the ballet they came from. She raised her arms and tried to remember a little bit of the Sugar Plum Fairy’s dance. It was hard because Sugar often danced on pointes and Delphie couldn’t do that yet but she danced as high on her toes as she could. She danced in a circle, turning rapidly and keeping her movements as light and graceful as she could. Then she stopped in an arabesque with one leg lifted off the ground behind her, just as she had once seen Sugar do.

Suddenly there was a lilac flash and the Sugar Plum Fairy appeared.

“Sugar!” Delphie cried, rushing forwards to meet her friend.

“Hello, Delphie,” Sugar said, hugging her. “It’s lovely to see you again.”

“This is Cinderella,” Delphie said.

The Sugar Plum Fairy took Cinders’ hands. “Isn’t this time-spell horrible? I’ve been trying to work out what we can do about it for days. But it’s worse for you than the rest of us – never getting to meet your handsome prince and to have to keep being a servant instead of a princess.”