Featured song:

1. "My Time" Elena of Avalor Cast
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"Bruno! Where are Mila, Rosella and Pedro?!" Alicia exclaimed.

"I thought they were with you!" Bruno gasped.

"We're here, Mami. Papi." Mila said, placing the twins down, the little ones rushing to their parents.

Alma did one more count, and was relieved to see all of her children and grandchildren made it inside alive and safely.

"They come, they eat, they leave!" Mirabel whispered to herself frantically and repeatedly.

Everyone hid inside their homes as they heard the buzzing of the puss moths' wings, and then the buzzing went silent. But, to everyone's surprise, they heard voices.

"Hey! What gives?" said one voice.

"Yeah! Where's the food?" said another.

Everyone gasped in both shock and confusion.

"What are they talking about?" Mila whispered to her parents.

"I don't know." Bruno said.

Suddenly, there was the sound of screams as puss moths started breaking into people's homes, and the palace too! People tried to run, but the puss moths started to taunt and scare everyone, the lavender plants not seeming enough to repel them this time.

And in the palace, the royal family was approached by a powerful looking figure with very large green moth wings and a hood that concealed their face. She cracked her knuckles, her hands covered by green gloves, which had even the big and strong Luisa terrified.

"Mariverde," gasped a scared Antonio, hiding behind his big brother.

Mariverde walked around a little bit to build up intimidation in everyone, and it worked. She was silent the whole time.

"So where is it?" said Mariverde, albeit calmly. Then she shouted angrily. "Where is my food?!"

No one made a sound. Then, Mirabel spoke up.

"Isn't it out there?" Mirabel said.

"What?" said Mariverde, sounding irritated as she approached Mirabel.

"The food was sitting in baskets on the stone temple we-" Mirabel got scared as Mariverde appeared to get even bigger as she got closer.

"Are you calling me an idiot?" said Mariverde.

"No! Of course not." Mirabel said fearfully.

"Do I look like an idiot to you? Let's think about this logically for a moment, dear child. If the food were out there," Mariverde got closer and into Mirabel's face, flashing her green eyes while keeping the entirety of her face invisible. "Would I be coming into your house looking for it?!"

Mirabel froze and squeaked.

"Why am I even talking to you?" said Mariverde. "You appear awfully young to be queen."

"She's just learning to take over for me, Mariverde." Alma said.

"Ah, I see now. So it's you're fault my food is missing."

"No! I don't know what happened, I swear! I had nothing to-"

But Mariverde made Mirabel sit down.

"Uh, uh. Let me remind you the first rule of leadership, Princess. Everything is your fault. It's a vicious world out there. One of those, circle of life types of things. In an unusual twist with our clans, it goes like this. The sun grows the food, the butterflies pick the food, the moths eat the food-"

"And birds eat the moths," said a little blonde girl with orange monarch wings who was in fact Mariverde's daughter. Her name was Mona. "Like the one that attacked you once."

Mona started going on about how there was this one time her mother got too close to a macaw that was really cranky.

"Mama was all kicking and screaming, okay?" Mona went on, which irritated her mother.

"Mona...!" Mariverde growled.

"Oh, Mama... it's a good story and-"

Mona immediately started screaming as Mariverde grabbed her by her hair and pulled her to a wall to lecture her. Now Mona looked terrified.

"I told you you could come on this gathering, if you would behave yourself." Mariverde scolded. "This goofball, soft attitude of yours... you're just like your father. Weak."

"But Mama, I-"

"Shut up! I don't want to hear another word from you from the rest of this trip. Do you understand me?!"

Mona squeaked.

"I said do you understand me?!" Mariverde said louder.

With tears in her eyes, Mona nodded.

"Good."

Everyone else looked in horror at the way Mariverde was to her own daughter. The child was only eight, and probably being badly abused at home. But, Mariverde softened her tone.

"Hey, I'm a compassionate woman. I believe there's a deal to be made. There are still a few months before the cold season comes, so you can all just try again."

"But, Mariverde," said Alma. "With it almost being the rainy, cold season, we need this time to gather food for ourselves."

"Listen! If you don't keep up your end of the bargain, then I can't guarantee your safety, and there are people out there who will take advantage of you. Someone... could get hurt."

Mariverde snapped her fingers. And out came another puss moth. This one looked particularly dangerous. She was even held with chains and had wings black as night with red spots that looked like blood, and she had sharp fangs in her mouth and beady red eyes.

Rosella hid behind her mother and Pedro tried to run away, but he screamed as he was picked up by none other than Mariverde.

"What's the matter, little boy?" Mariverde taunted. "Are you scared of vampire moths?"

Everyone looked in horror as Mariverde brought little Pedro closer and closer to the vampire woman. Pedro was starting to cry and whimper, and no one was jumping in to help him.

"Pedro!" Mila gasped. Why wasn't anyone doing anything?! She couldn't let that vampire hurt her little brother!

"You don't like Pyra?" Mariverde continued to taunt.

Suddenly, both Pyra, the vampire moth, and Mariverde found themselves gasping for breath as some invisible force was choking them, to everyone's surprise.

"Leave my little brother alone!" Mila said. "Want the choking to stop? Put my brother down!"

And Mariverde, probably by accident, dropped Pedro to the floor, and the child ran into his sister's arms... once she let the two go anyway.

Mariverde started coughing to catch her breath, and she glared at Mila. Mariverde then approached the girl, her holding her brother protectively.

"Have spunk to attack me, do you?" Mariverde said. "Would you like to try that again? Go ahead. I won't stop you."

But, Mila said nothing, and only glared at Mariverde, saying with her eyes, "Just get out of my house while I'm still in a good mood."

"No? Then get back in line." Mariverde said.

Without another word, Mila walked off.

"It seems to me you little caterpillars are forgetting your place," said Mariverde. "So, we'll double the order of food."

Everyone gasped at that. How were they supposed to make that amount of food in such a short time?

"We'll be back at the end of the season... when the last leaf falls." Mariverde promised. "You oruguitas have a nice summer."

And so, the puss moths got ready to leave, but Mariverde stopped Mona.

"Not you, Mona." Mariverde said. "You will stay here and learn to be a tougher leader. On your own."

"But, Mama-"

"No buts. You are to stay here. And if you even think about coming back... I think you know the consequences of disobeying me."

Mona whimpered and just ran off while the other puss moths followed Mariverde.

"Let's fly!" Mariverde declared, and then she and her posse flew off and disappeared.
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Everyone went over to the offering stone, and made the announcement to the rest of the kingdom about Mariverde's threats to the land and her demands.

"She can't do that!" said one woman. "Does she not know how long it takes us to harvest all that comida?"

"I don't think she cares." Pepa said. "But something happened to make all that comida vanish, and it wasn't the puss moths."

"I think I see the problem," said Augustine. "One of the supports broke here, and it looks like all the baskets rolled away."

"The earthquake we felt earlier must have caused that." Camilo shook his head.

Except, Mila looked at the support, and noticed some pinkish juice splattered near it, as well as tiny black seeds, bits of a basket, and... green rinds? And then Mila remembered just before the whole incident happened when she threw that basket of watermelons.

"Oh no!" Mila said quietly. This is all my fault!

"For now, everyone go home and get some rest. We must start re-harvesting as much as we can tomorrow." Alma declared.

Everyone began to go home with disappointment clear in their voices and faces. They'd all already worked themselves tirelessly to harvest all that food all spring, and now they had to do it all over again.

With everyone going home, Mila decided it was time to come clean.

"Abuela?" Mila said, sounding worried.

"What is it, Milagro?" Alma said. "Are you worried about the puss moths?"

Mila started to cry and replied, "Yes. But, I have something I need to confess. And... I just know you're really not gonna like it."
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"MILAGRO MARIANA MADRIGAL!" Alma screamed. "How could you let this happen?!"

As you can probably guess, no one in the royal family was happy to learn Mila was the cause of all this.

"I didn't mean to! It was an accident, and it wasn't even from one of my inventions this time." Mila said. "I'm really really sorry, everyone. I'm sorry, Mami and Papi. I'm sorry, Abuela. I'm sorry, Mirabel. I'm sorry, everyone. I didn't want to make you look bad, Mirabel."

"Well, Mila, you did." Mirabel said.

"Mirabel, be nice." Bruno said. "Mila said she was sorry, and she didn't mean for this to happen. How did you say it happened again, Mija?"

"I was with the twins and we were running to the castle, when Rosella noticed a basket of watermelons had been missed. Long story short, I saw it, I used my gift to move it there. I guess I must've thrown it too hard and too far, and with the combination of the velocity of the basket and the weight of all the watermelons, it was enough to shatter the support beam and angle the rest to lose all the food."

"She didn't lose all of it though," said Dolores. "The recovery team was able to find at least a few of the baskets, and most of them still have most of the food left."

"At least it's a start." Isabela shrugged. "But what do we do about the rest?"

"What we do every year." Alma said. "As for you, Milagro. You still must face consequences."

"Isn't it bad enough that you make me conform to standards set for women here? I'm more than just a pretty face! I can do so much more to help around here."

"If you really want to help, then don't help." Luisa said. "We don't need anything exploding right now."

But then, Mila started to get an idea. Help by not helping. Clearly, Mila's family didn't want her helping, but maybe someone else could help them. If she left the Encanto, she could find someone who could help them. Mariverde and her cronies lived outside the Encanto, and so did Alma long before she was born, so chances were there had to be other folks out there.

Mila brainstormed this while the rest of the family was debating Mila's punishment.

"It's perfect!" Mila exclaimed, startling everyone.

"What's perfect, Mila?" Bruno asked.

"Abuela, don't you see? We could send someone to get help!"

Everyone gasped at that idea.

"Leave the Encanto?" Mirabel said.

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Abuela pretended to think. "Oh, yes. Because it's suicide!"

"Yeah," said Isabela. "We never leave the Encanto. There's wild animals, God-knows-what harsh environments, and bigger, tougher people out there."

"Exactly! Bigger, tougher people. We could get bigger, tougher folks to come here and fight, and forever rid us of Mariverde and her cronies."

"That's ridiculous!" said Tio Felix.

"Who would ever do something so crazy?" Pepa said, starting to cloud.

"If no one else will...I'll do it." Mila said. "I got us into this mess, now I can be the one to get us out of it."

"Mila, while I'm sure we appreciate your courage, no one will want to help us." Bruno said.

"How do you know? Did you have a vision of it?"

"Well... no."

"So, who says we can't try? It's not like I haven't at least seen a little bit of the outside."

"You've been outside before?!" Mila's parents exclaimed.

"Not exactly. But my eyes have. How else could I test how far my multi-scope can see without climbing up a few trees and the mountains? Or while testing my extended scissor lift? Not to mention these things called wings? There's a city out in the distance with lots of people. I could search there."

"If you went, you'd be on that search for weeks." Mirabel said.

But then, everyone decided to think about it, and they started to like the idea. If Mila left, that would mean her inventions wouldn't mess things up. Of course, Mila's parents didn't like the idea of sending her alone.

"At least one of us should go with her." Bruno said. "Just to make sure she'll be okay."

"Papa, I'll be fine. I'm not a little kid anymore."

Bruno sighed, so he agreed to let Mila go, but on one condition.

"I need to have a vision first."
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Bruno went to his vision cave and looked into the future. At first, he couldn't see much, but then, he saw Mila entering the city. Nothing seemed to happen at first, and then... he saw a fight going on somewhere. There were a lot of people involved though, so it was a little difficult to remember or even make out some of the faces. But, he started to see Mila looking happy and cheering, and she was with... Mona? And then, Mila and Mona were riding a horse, coming home and sharing a big hug with Mirabel.

Although he couldn't tell where the fight was happening or why, at least he could see in his vision Mila would make it out alive and come home. At least it made it a little easier for him and Alicia to let their oldest daughter go.

Mona, however, was sitting alone, crying underneath a tree. So, when Mila approached her with a little cup of fruit, Mona got scared.

"It's okay, Mona. I'm not gonna hurt you." Mila said, placing the fruit in front of the child. "I know what it's like to be treated badly for being a little different. You don't deserve that."

Hesitantly, Mona picked up the fruit and started to eat it. The fruit tasted so good to her.

"Good, huh?" Mila said.

Mona nodded.

"There's plenty more where that came from. But for now, I need your help."

"With what? Mama says I'm useless."

Mila was shocked to hear this.

"She said that?"

"And a lot of bad words too."

"Mona... how exactly are you treated at home?"

Mona told Mila that her mom treated her really badly at home. She barely got more than a slice of apple, if that much, per day. And she had to sleep on a mat on a hard floor instead of a bed. Mariverde said it would make her a tougher woman. She never did anything moms usually did for their kids. She never tucked her in at night, bathed her, gave her warm meals, or hugged her. Not even a lullaby to help her sleep.

"What about your father?"

"Mama got rid of him when I was smaller. And I'm never allowed to leave home either. Mama only took me out this time to show me what a real leader looks like."

"Well, I think she's wrong. She's not a good mother to you if she's not giving you tender loving care. And it's even worse that she denies you the chance to really see the world." Mila gave Mona a little jacket she'd found in some of her old things and put it on to help her warm up. "How would you like to come on a little adventure with me? If we work together, we can teach your mom a lesson about being a family, and we can make this land peaceful again and make sure this time you'll have a safe, loving home."

That got Mona interested.
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By the next day, Mila was packed and ready to go on her journey. And she wasn't going to be alone. Mona got a backpack too, with everything she would need on this long journey.

"Be careful out there, okay, Mijita?" Alicia said, hugging her daughter.

"I will, Mami." Mila said.

The last ones Mila said goodbye too were the twins.

"Okay, you two." Mila said. "I don't know how long I'll be gone, so I need you to be strong, okay? Can you do that?"

"But who's gonna take care of us?" Pedro said.

"Mama and Papa will keep taking care of you, Pedro. And I already asked Dolores to help look after you until I get back." Mila said. "Rosella, you still have the multi-scope I gave you?"

"Uh-huh." Rosella said.

"Good. Hold onto that, and you can use it to see when I'm coming back, and you'll be the first one to get a big hug when I finally come home."

Mila gave the twins each a kiss before grabbing her bag, climbing onto her horse, and taking off with Mona.

Mila and Mona took off on their horse to get to the city, in the hopes of finding brave warriors who could fight off Mariverde's gang and restore peace to the land. For Mila, this was an exceptionally exciting journey, and she'd been out of her home land for only an hour now. It felt so strange, and so much ran through her head as she felt all the nerves building up inside her.

Mila:

It feels so weird being outside kingdom grounds

It's been a while since I've been looking around
With my own eyes, I can finally see
My dream has come true, I am free

As happy as Mila was to get a glimpse of the outside world, sightseeing would have to wait. She looked at a picture of her family she carried for motivation and to keep a piece of home with her always.

But now that I'm here, there's a mission at hand
To drive that witch out of our beautiful land
I'll banish the darkness and bring back the light
'Cause this time I'm ready to fight

This is my time, my time to face some old foes
My time, reclaim what was ours long ago
This is my time to stand up with honor and pride
My time, I've come too far to be denied

Mila was determined to mend her mistakes and prove to her family that a girl could be as strong as a man, and that despite her numerous mishaps, they only helped her come back stronger and more determined than ever. This time, she would be venturing into unknown territory.

Now off I must fly off into the unknown
To win back the freedom of all Encanto
I've spent my whole life waiting just for this day
And nothing will get in my way

For hours, which turned into days, Mila made her way to the city with Mona. Before they knew it, they were halfway there. So she made her horse run faster.

This is my time, I have a plan that can't fail
My time, I won't stop 'til I prevail
My time, to honor my family and friends

The sun was setting as the horse kept running, Mila and Mona more determined to make it to the city than ever.
My time, this is my time once again
This is my time once again