Setsuna watched the news in uttermost horror:

"The IAU has decided that Pluto is no longer a planet, but a dwarf planet," stated the man on the screen.

"NO!" gasped the time guardian. It took all her strength to hold back from smashing the television.

It was just then that Michiru entered the room – and stopped in surprise.

"What's up?" she asked, and then she got the same shock that Setsuna had.

"That can't be!" she stuttered.

Setsuna was devastated: why her planet? It had exactly the same characteristics as the other planet, but the simple fact was, the astronomers had not yet found a way to land on it, so they instantly decided that the easiest way to deal with it was to simply say that is was not a planet at all.

Haruka got the same shock when she came in.

"I'll kill the b------s who did this!" she yelled.

"Calm down," muttered Michiru, though she secretly agreed with her lesbian lover. "Besides, we can't go storming in, what the hell would we say? 'Oh, hello, we are the princesses of the planets, now give Pluto its status back'…sure, lovely, they'll be like, 'um…maybe we should call the assy…"

"THIS ISN'T FUNNY, MICHIRU!" screamed Setsuna from out of the blue. "I WANT MY PLANET BACK!" She truly was angry – something that the other two rarely saw. Even Hotaru – who just happened to have entered at the wrong moment – had a look of surprise on her face. Setsuna grabbed the remote control and switched off the TV. Then, she stormed out of the room.

"What are we going to do?" Michiru nearly whispered.

"Well, technically, Pluto still has planetary status. After all, now that it's known as a dwarf planet, I mean, it still has the word 'planet' in it, right?"

"Well, yes, but…the fact is it now has the word 'dwarf' in it as well," sighed Michiru. "Who knows how that will affect Setsuna?"

"We'll just have to wait and find…"

It turned out that they did not have to do much waiting: their communicators beeped and Sailor Mars's face appeared on the screen.

"Trouble at the planetarium," she gasped. "Huge, cockroach-like creature located on the second floor at the right wing."

"Got it," Haruka and Michiru said at the same time.

"Man, Setsuna's day has gone wrong…she hates cockroaches!" said Michiru.

"Still, we'd better get going," said Haruka. "Get Setsuna and meet me there – the planetarium's mere minutes away, we can run."

"Okay," said Michiru, who went off to look for Setsuna. However, upon searching the whole house, she couldn't find her friend. Sighing, she made for the planetarium, thinking that Setsuna was probably sulking at some coffee shop or the other. Therefore, she was surprised to find that Setsuna was already at the planetarium when she arrived at the second floor of the huge building, but hadn't yet transformed.

"Neptune planet power!" She transformed.

"Pluto planet power!" Setsuna transformed as well, but both girls were shocked when Setsuna started breathing heavily and leaned against one of the big pillars. Neptune rushed over to her.

"Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"I…don't…know," gasped Pluto, between her heavy breaths. "I…transformed, but…it was harder."

Neptune's mind immediately thought back to the news of how Pluto had been demoted, but decided not to tell her friend – she was stressed enough already.

"I'll be fine," said Pluto.

"Are you sure? Do you even know what the monster is?" asked Neptune. Pluto shook her head.

"It's a…" but then both girls screamed as the giant cockroach tried to grab Neptune with its pincers. Pluto flinched, too scared to move. But the other senshi were already being snatched by the evil thing.

I have to save my friends, thought Pluto. I can't give up because I'm scared!

"Dead scream!" she whispered, and directed her attack at the cockroach. She was horrified to find that she couldn't achieve the same force that her attack usually had: it was maybe a quarter of its size and an eighth of its strength. Pluto backed off, frightened. Meanwhile, Neptune was using her attacks on the huge beast.

Suddenly feeling tired again, Pluto leaned against the pillar. What's going on, she thought. Why am I suddenly like this? Then she recalled the news of her planet: Is this what's become of me? Now that my planet's been demoted, have my powers shrunk as well?

Poor Pluto didn't know what to do. A single tear rolled down her cheek but she flicked it aside, determined.

"Dead scream!" she whispered again – still the attack was weak, and Pluto did not have much energy left. Neptune couldn't hold it off forever, and Sailor Moon was trapped in one of its pincers; Uranus was trapped in the other. The Inner senshi and Saturn were trying to defeat it, but could not do much with their Princess trapped.

Pluto tried one more time.

"Dead scream!" She directed the attack at the pincer that was trapping Sailor Moon. Then, she fell over, unconscious.

---

Neptune's POV

Neptune attacked again and again. Then, she saw a ball of light hit one of the cockroach's pincers: Sailor Moon was free!

"Moon gorgeous meditation!" The cockroach was hit with hundreds of light shards and was destroyed. Uranus was free, and picking herself up off the ground. But that was not her concern at the moment: she'd just spotted Pluto lying unconscious on the floor. She rushed over to her friend, and shook her until she woke.

"Are you alright?" she asked. Pluto nodded and untransformed. She stood up, still slightly shakily, and leaned against the pillow.

"What's going on?" she asked. "Why is this happening? Why Pluto?" With that, she broke down into streams of uncontrollable tears and sobbed into Neptune's shoulder.

"I don't know," replied Neptune, "but we have to reinstate your planet's status."

"But how?"

"I don't know, Setsuna. I don't know."

Now Neptune was crying, and she too untransformed.

"We'd best get home," she said.

"Yes." Setsuna agreed weakly. All she wanted was to go to her room and think.