Princess Ashlyn

Princess Ashlyn is a supporting character in Barbie in The 12 Dancing Princesses. She is one of King Randolph and the late Queen Isabella's twelve daughters. Ashlyn loves to play music, especially the flute. She and her sisters all love ballet dancing, and Ashlyn loves geranium flowers and garnet gems. In the movie, Ashlyn is voiced by Nicole Oliver. She and her eleven sisters discover a magical world of ballet dancing. When their evil second cousin, Duchess Rowena, tries to poison Ashlyn's father to take over the kingdom, Ashlyn and her sisters work together to stop her.

Story
King Randolph and Queen Isabella's eldest daughter is Princess Ashlyn. Queen Isabella passed away at some point in Ashlyn's life, probably at the birth of the triplets as they are her last children, but when Ashlyn turned five she was given a copy of Queen Isabella's favorite story. Her mother had a copy made for each of Ashlyn's twelve sisters as well: Blair, Courtney, Delia, Edeline, Fallon, Genevieve, Hadley, Isla, Janessa, Kathleen, and Lacey, Ashlyn's youngest sister. They were all different, but they all love to dance, which is a family tradition their mother taught them.

King Randolph loved them all, but sometimes felt as if he didn't understand them and called for his cousin, Duchess Rowena, to teach them how to behave like proper princesses. Ashlyn welcomed Rowena politely, and Rowena was kind to her, but some of Ashlyn's sisters weren't as lucky, and were nitpicked at by Rowena. Rowena made the girls change out of their colorful gowns and taught them how to flutter fans in front of their faces.

At four o'clock that day, Rowena told her assistant, Desmond, to change the girls' bedspreads and he placed an alarm clock on a table. At eight o'clock, when the girls were in their nightclothes and ready for bed, Ashlyn was talking to Blair and Courtney, telling them she couldn't believe what was happening, but the clock chimed and she urged her sisters to quickly get into bed before Rowena caught them. After Rowena checks on them and leaves, Ashlyn and Blair ask Genevieve to talk to their father about Rowena.

The next day, after Genevieve was unable to convince her father ask Rowena to leave, the girls stay positive; it would be the triplets fifth birthday the next day and Ashlyn comforted the triplets by telling them it would be a good day. In the morning the triplets woke up to Ashlyn and Fallon playing music and their other sisters dancing and singing a birthday song to them. As they are having fun, Rowena interrupts to tell them they are late and forbids the sisters to sing or dance until they learn to act like royalty.

To cheer up the triplets, Ashlyn gave them presents, which were their copies of their mother's favorite story. Genevieve read the story to the triplets, and the other sisters gathered to hear also. Lacey dropped her book on the stone floor and Genevieve notices that the flower on a stone matches the flower on Lacey's book. Ashlyn and her sisters all matched the flower on their book to a flower on a stone and followed the story of The Dancing Princess; Geneveive danced on the stones, from Ashlyn's to Lacey's, and a magic portal opened. A staircase materializes out of gold dust and Genevieve begins to descend it. Ashlyn was the first to follow, along with Blair and then their other sisters, and the portal closes behind them.

In the new, magical world they are in, there are two islands separated by a magic sea. One has a tower, which is where the portal lead them to, and the other has a dance pavilion. Ashlyn and her sisters took a boat to the other island and Ashlyn wished for music. She danced with Blair and Courtney, but Lacey fell and scraped her knee. Some magic water healed her cut. When Ashlyn and her sisters had all worn out their dancing shoes, Ashlyn told them they should all leave before Rowena found out they were gone, and Lacey took some of the magic water home with her.

Ashlyn and her sisters were very tired in the morning and fell asleep during breakfast. Rowena was curious to know why, but as she had forbade the princesses to sing or dance, they could not tell her why they were tired. Their father had missed breakfast because he was tired so the princesses went to see him. The triplets received presents from him and the sisters all sang to him, but Rowena stopped them. Genevieve asked her to call a doctor for her father and Rowena received medicine for King Randolph, but poured it away.

Derek gave the sisters new dancing shoes and the girls went back to the magical world for a second night. Genevieve wished for ballet attire and Ashlyn wished for music. In the morning, Rowena's monkey, Brutus, found Edeline's worn out dancing shoes and decided to lock the princesses in their room so they could not go out and dance. The girls felt as if they were burdens and Ashlyn told them they couldn't disappoint anybody in the magic world, so they all decided to go for the third night.

In the morning, when Rowena found the locked room empty, she wondered where the girls could have gone. Derek snuck into the princesses' bedroom and remembered what Genevieve said about the dancing steps. He followed them and went to the magic world with his parrot Felix. Rowena and Brutus also go to the magic world after Brutus does the dance steps, and she took a magic flower from the magic world so she could use its powers. When Ashlyn is dancing with a statue brought to life by a wish, Derek finds Genevieve. He lets her know that Rowena has been stealing from the girls' mother. He also explains how ill their father is getting and Genevieve tells the others they have to go back.

Before the girls can take the boat back across the sea, it disappears because the stone steps that took them to the magic world were being smashed by Desmond. They go to the stones in the magic world and decide to dance their way out. Derek and Genevieve followed the dance steps and the princesses danced, being carried home by magic through a portal in the sky. When they go to find their father, they overhear a guard and find out Rowena is queen. They will be thrown in the dungeon if they are caught, and their father is so ill he won't not survive the night. The girls get very worried, but Genevieve stays calm and tells them they are more powerful than Rowena.

Blair and Courtney knock a guard off of his horse and Blair rides it to bring the doctor as fast as she can. Delia and Edeline knock two guards down a flight of stairs after hitting croquet balls at them; this was to make two other guards chase them as a distraction. Genevieve, Derek, Ashlyn, Fallon and Courtney run into a basement in the castle, while Isla and Hadley take out some more guards. Genevieve makes Desmond follow her to the basement. Derek trips him, he lands on a cart pushed by Courtney, and Ashlyn and Fallon trap him in another room. He later escapes and tries to help Rowena, but she wished that Genevieve would dance forever and it backfired, so after Desmond touched Rowena, they had to dance together, forever. Lacey gave her father some of the magic water to drink and he became well again. In the end, Ashlyn's sister Genevieve married Derek, making him Ashlyn's brother-in-law. Derek, the twelve sisters, and their father, danced around the fountain in the garden of the palace.

Personality
Ashlyn is close to Blair and Courtney, most likely because they are the three eldest sisters. Most of the time she is calm and she is understanding. She is a good role model and is comforting to her younger sisters. She also respects people's decisions and enjoys getting shoes from Derek. She gets excited when he arrives and she praises him. She is very kind but was a bit of a tease to Genevieve about her crush on Derek.

Appearance
Ashlyn has long dark brown hair and light blue eyes. She has quite tan skin, especially her doll. She wears a purple gown, and a purple ballet outfit. Her nightdress was white like her sister's. When Duchess Rowena arrived at the castle, she made the girls wear grey dresses and tie their hair up identically in a bun. When she is dressed normally, however, Ashlyn looks the most like her late mother, Queen Isabella. Ashlyn wears purple eyeshadow and pink lipstick.

Quotes

 * "Hello, papa."
 * "You're amazing, Derek."
 * "Maybe the problem is he's not a prince."
 * "Genevieve's got it bad!"
 * "I don't know, he did ask her to be in charge...
 * "At least tomorrow will be a good day."
 * "Pinch me, I'm dreaming!"
 * "It's a sign you know, that we've danced enough for one night. We'd better go home before Rowena finds out we're gone."
 * "We wish we had ballet music!"
 * "(To the triplets) We still have a present for you."

Trivia

 * Ashlyn is scared of spiders.
 * Ashlyn's favorite gemstone is a garnet, so it could be possible her birthday is in January, since the garnet is January's birthstone.
 * The meaning for the garnet is patience, endurance, and peace.
 * A copy of Ashlyn can be spotted in the audience at Luciana's wedding in Barbie as the Island Princess.