In “Once Upon a Time,” Season 1, Episode 4, “The Price of Gold,” Cinderella is about to be granted her wish to go to the ball and change her life for the better by her fairy godmother. Then the fairy godmother is incinerated.
In steps Rumplestiltskin. Looks like things have taken a turn. Spoilers follow.
Cinderella, determined as she is to exchange her life as a drudge for the life of a princess, goes through with the deal with Rumplestiltskin. There will be a price in this now suddenly combination of two fairy tales.
Sure enough, sometime later, married to Prince Thomas, with a baby on the way, Cinderella is the belle of the ball, admired even by Prince Charming and Princess Snow White. But then Rumplestiltskin shows up to collect. He wants the baby growing inside of her.
The royal family hatches a scheme to trap Rumplestiltskin and to save the baby from being brought up by the disgusting little troll. Through the use of a magic quill pen and a dark dungeon at the bottom of a dwarf cave, Rumplestiltskin is undone. However, Prince Thomas has now gone missing and won’t be back until Rumplestiltskin gets the baby.
Back in the real world a girl named Ashley (got to love these pun names) has made an unwise deal with Mr. Gold to sell her baby. Emma, who has been in this situation herself, decided to lend a hand in breaking the deal and letting her keep the baby. Ashley’s lover, Sean, is being kept away from her by a domineering dad who does not want his boy wrecking his life by stepping up and being responsible for his child.
Cinderella/Ashley could have saved herself a great deal of trouble by learning how to read and negotiate contracts. But both versions have a tendency to want something so desperately that they’ll sign anything without reading it.
In any event, the baby is born and Mr. Gold agrees to renounce his claim in exchange for an unspecified favor from Emma. Considering that Rumplestiltskin/Gold has his own ambitions, this may involve doing something like murdering the Queen/Mayor. But that is something for a future episode.