Once upon a time, the Infinite Wish Lantern acted as a gate between our Material Plane and a mysterious realm known as the Transient Plane. Many of the fairy tales that exist are said to have occurred due to the creatures who reside there, the Astral, interacting with our world.
Much like people, not all Astral are good.
A powerful, dragon-like Astral named Eternal Greed had come through to our land. He almost ended the world, but warriors rose to fight him. Their bravery is how a new legend, one of the Pretty Cure, was forged. With the powers of the Astrals on their side, they sealed him away within a deep part of the Transient Plane through the Infinite Wish Lantern's vast power. They shattered it to ensure that he would never be released again, but closed the gate forever in exchange.
The legend had become forgotten over the centuries. But the bonds of our worlds continue into this modern age. Once again shall the legend become reality...
"Get back here~!"
A young girl's voice echoed throughout the long, open hallways of Astral Academy, home to people of all ages training to become meisters with their Astral partners. Her ocean blue eyes were wide in panic and her breath ragged as the two charms hung from her large purple witch hat on opposite sides jingled quietly with her quickened steps. Oddly, she had an Astral asleep on her hat. It matched the left half of the girl's orange and blue star-shaped crystal necklace, as it resembled a water drop with a deep blue center that lightened along its edges. Its stubby paws were folded over its mouth.
"Sparky! Don't get ahead of me!" the girl cried again. Many of the other students watched this happen and whispers began to spread among them. She covered her ears in a feeble attempt to block out their voices, her face felt hot with embarrassment.
"Oh, look! That's Nina Radiant, right?!" "You mean that new kid with two Astrals?" "She really needs to control them. I saw an Astral by itself behind us." "That one on her head is pretty cute, though!" "It seems useless, if you ask me." No, no, no, no, no...! This is the worst first impression!
"Score!" Nina stopped running when she heard a girlish voice shout. With a sharp turn of her head, she realized with growing dread where Sparky was and gripped her necklace tightly.
The fireball-like Astral was orange for the most part with only a small bit of the top of her body a bright yellow. She circled around the head of a much taller and older elven girl with a similar but copper-colored necklace. Her silver eyes had an ethereal shine, as if they were the metal itself, while they confusedly followed Sparky's movement. "What has you so excited, little one...?"
When Nina was finally able to take in a breath, it caught their attention. They turned to her and the Astral flew back to her side with a giggle.
Of all people for Sparky to bother...! "I-I'm so sorry, Your Majesty! We-We're bothering you, aren't we? Aren't we? She got ahead of me before I-"
Her stammering was interrupted when the royal's necklace began to glow and another Astral popped out as she looked to it curiously. "Is something the matter, Spirit?"
It matched the color of the necklace with a metallic sheen. Its dark eyes looked to Sparky with a sense of familiarity as it waved at her slightly with its pointy paw. "Trust." it said with a deep, masculine tone to his voice.
Both of Nina's Astrals were wide awake and shocked as they immediately dashed for him and hugged him tightly between the two of them with a small fit of excited giggles. He was both completely unsurprised and unamused as the air was forced out of his body with a groan but his elven meister was overjoyed.
She clapped somewhat at the revelation. "Oh, how wonderful! You three all know each other...?"
She turned to Nina to say something but by that point, the girl's head began to spin with a million thoughts, her heartbeat quickened even more, and her skin paled. She let go of her necklace when she fainted from her nerves.
The royal gasped, now worried as her Astrals flew to her on the ground and patted at her face with their paws as they cried out. "Miss Radiant?!"
She noticed that students crowded around them again but at a distance in awe and confusion who began to whisper again, her ears drooped as she frowned. "..."
"Trust."
She then turned to Spirit's voice. He motioned his paws towards Nina in an indicative manner. "You're right, Spirit. We should help Sparky and Rainy get her to the infirmary at the least." She carefully lifted Nina to help her walk alongside her when a slip of paper fell out of her skirt pocket.
Rainy immediately grabbed, unfolded, and held it in front of the elf's eyes to the best of its ability to help her read it with a shout.
"Thank you, dear." She stopped in concern when she noticed something. "...This is her admission sheet?" That dorm number...
Sparky groaned and Spirit flew next to her while his meister turned to him. "Trust."
"I see. You were helping her find the headmaster's office and then you got distracted by me? Oh, dear... I feel like this is my fault, somehow," she said as she pushed at the bridge of her nose with her right index finger.
She then steadied her hold on Nina as she slowly walked with a weak smile. "I suppose I'll introduce myself while we have the time, girls. I may be a Miroir, a royal of this kingdom, but please just call me Silve, all right?"
The young Astrals nodded with bright smiles as they followed Silve.
Nina opened her eyes slowly with a slight groan and was quickly surrounded in hugs from her Astrals. One cheek felt Sparky's warmth and the other Rainy's cold as they cried out in worry.
She sat up with the two of them on her face and switched glances between the two. "I'm okay, really... I was just surprised from what just happened."
Sparky let go but Rainy insisted on staying and hugged tighter as she began to feel even colder. "Splat! Splat!"
The meister stroked Rainy's back slowly as she shivered briefly. "R-Rainy... Don't be upset. You two were excited about seeing your mentor and his meister. It wouldn't have been right for me to interrupt that moment..."
As if on cue, said mentor teleported into the room with a pop and bowed toward Nina with a paw close to his chest as he closed his eyes.
"Where are we, anyway...?" Nina asked curiously as Rainy let go of her head. She grabbed her hat on the nearby nightstand to place back over her light brown hair. She walked around the room to see posters covered most of the walls of TV shows and boy bands. There were a few bookshelves filled to the brim with DVDs, books, and plastic figures of characters along the top, a wardrobe, a guitar resting in a stand and a keyboard set up in one corner, and the bed that she was resting in had a pastel orange bedspread and three big pillows while the other bed had pastel green sheets.
The furniture had a few things in common: they were made of mahogany, were much bigger than she was used to seeing, elegant with a gold-leaf finish...and much to Nina's dismay as she frowned, had a light coating of dust. The mismatch of the elegant furniture and the modern merchandise fascinated Nina and made her wonder who could be living in this... wait, was this a dorm room at the academy?
Spirit directed Nina to sit down in a chair in the small kitchen. She took in a deep breath to smell the relaxing aroma from the teapot on the table. Sparky and Rainy followed and sat on the table to face their meister. Spirit left.
Sparky shouted and pointed to her open mouth. Rainy smacked the back of Sparky with a scowl and a grumble. Nina giggled at their expense.
Silve walked into the kitchen as Nina jumped out of her seat in surprise. "Careful, now! You're up just in time for tea, my little roommate." Silve said with a smile but Nina was still confused.
"R...Roommate?" Nina asked and put her hand in her pocket to grab at something only to find her pocket empty.
Silve pushed the admission sheet that was previously there in front of the young girl's seat as she picked it up. "Yes, this is our dorm room," the upperclassman noted quietly with a gentle smile. Although it was just mine for the longest time. She had a sad look to her eyes that Nina couldn't help but notice as she walked over to the sink to pour more water into the kettle.
"What time is it now, Your Majesty...?" the girl asked, hesitant for a few reasons.
Silve playfully waved her left index finger at her with a confident smirk. "Please, I insist that you call me Silve." She then began to blush for some reason. "N...Nina. We're fellow students at the academy and now we're roommates. So, I feel that we're allowed to be more relaxed than we would around others, yes?"
Sparky and Rainy helped Silve when they opened the china cabinet and carefully set down tea cups and saucers for the two. The elven meister set the kettle back down on the stove.
"Oh! They're quite helpful. Thank you, girls," she said with a gentle smile and a slight bow. The twins smiled brightly and laughed in return.
"I suppose we can be, and I appreciate your kindness," Nina said as she watched the tea get poured into the cups. She then took in a small sniff and sighed in relief from the aroma. Then, she blew on it quietly before she sipped it, and tried not to flinch too obviously at its taste, but the clacking of the dishware in her shaky hands prevented such a sneaky maneuver.
"...Would you like some sugar or honey? I apologize for not offering at first. I usually prefer my tea black," Silve said as her ears drooped in worry.
Nina cleared her throat after she swallowed. "Y-Yes... It really good, though. If a bit strong."
"Score!" Sparky floated up to Silve's eye level and pointed at her open mouth again while Rainy groaned in disappointment.
Silve, on the other hand, giggled as she regained her cheer. "You'd like a snack, Sparky? Of course." She began to look in the cupboards. "I'm not quite sure what you'd like, but-"
Sparky immediately interrupted her when she sat on a take-out box with German writing and a pumpkin symbol on it with a big smile as she tilted her body. "Score?"
"I was just thinking about those!" Silve said with a proud grin. "Good choice!" she added with a hearty laugh as she pulled it out.
Nina was surprised at how lovely Silve's smile was. She blushed somewhat in admiration. She watched on as the two of them sat back down at the table again and Silve put down the sugar bowl and the box. Silve opened the box for Sparky, who quickly grabbed one of the pumpkin-shaped donuts, finished it just as fast, and shouted her thanks. She rubbed at supposedly where her stomach was in relaxation and Silve laughed quietly.
The elf gently offered Rainy one and the Astral thanked her quietly before she slowly began to munch at it. The package was left open on the table.
Nina put three cubes of sugar in her tea and began to mix it in. "So, erm, Silve. Can you help me to get to the headmaster's office? I wanted to get my class schedule for my official first day tomorrow, you know, before Sparky got distracted..."
The fireball chuckled nervously. She had a paw on her back and filling on her face. Nina offered her a piece of a napkin with a sigh. Sparky wiped off her face before she ate that too with another giggle.
"Oh, of course dear. We can go as soon as we're finished with our afternoon tea." Silve said, hesitant now as she looked away.
The younger girl was curious about that expression but she picked up one of the snacks and bit into it, soon overcome with happiness. "These are really good!"
"I had them special-ordered from a famous bakery in Munich! They only bake so many of them during the day and it arrived to me by broom this morning, actually," Silve explained proudly as she took a bite into one and squealed in delight. "Pumpkin's my favorite!"
After they had finished their tea, the girls began to walk together to the headmaster's office.
Silve gave Nina a tour of the academy grounds as Rainy resumed her nap on Nina's hat while she held onto Sparky. They were both awestruck about the history of the architecture and committed each of the locations to memory.
"Oh look, it's Lady Miroir! She's directly related to the crown princess, right?" "She's so beautiful~!" Silve's ear twitched when she heard someone call out her name and sighed with a frown. Not again...
"I bet she's not too happy giving that Radiant girl a tour." "I heard she fainted when they first met!" "Really? So disgraceful..." "That fireball Radiant's holding is really chaotic, I heard. It started bothering Lady Miroir and her Astral right away!" "Oh, come on, I think both of little Miss Radiant's Astrals are cute. Leave them alone!" "What an unlikely pair!"
Nina groaned quietly in embarrassment. She was bright red and kept her eyes on the ground while the students had formed a sizable ring around the two of them.
Sparky looked up at her meister in worry and began to glow as heat gently radiated from her body. Nina looked down at her with a small smile as she grinned back. "Thanks, Sparky..."
A young woman stood on a higher floor of the academy, her clouded green eyes unfocused on anyone in the courtyard. A wolf-like Astral lightly tapped the girl's shoulder with his red-clawed paw and barked out something.
She scoffed with a sneer. "They won't be having fun as long as we're around, Apollo. But I certainly will."
She then pulled out a broken piece of crystal that was surrounded in an ominous purple glow. She grinned darkly as she turned her head toward it. "Take a bite out of this world, Desserted!"
Three portals of that same color opened as the students including Nina and Silve were confused. Rainy woke up as she and Sparky clung to each other in anxiety while Spirit grimaced.
The earth began to shake as large monsters exited the portals. One was covered in straw armor, another in wood, and a third in bricks.
"Desserted!" all of them shouted. The students screamed and panicked as they fled.
Nina's knees, meanwhile, gave way to her nerves. She took the twins down with her as she fell, the three of them trembled in their fear. "W-W-Wh-What are those?!"
Spirit shielded Silve with his body to the best of his ability as she stepped back in hesitation, stunned into speechlessness.
The Straw-Armored Desserted approached them slowly. Its attention was caught by Nina's scream; she, Silve, and the Astrals were the only other people there. Another tremor of fear coursed down their spines. However, Nina jolted up which surprised the twins. They both looked to her in awestruck wonder. Tears streamed down her face as she gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on them, the tears rolling off Rainy's body but sizzling in Sparky's heat. "I'm not going to let you hurt my friends, you monster!"
Silve's body freed itself from the fear as she moved to lightly touch Nina's shoulder. She placed her other hand over her heart to calm down. "You're... You're right. We need to stop them, and protect everyone."
Nina nodded slightly before she let go of Sparky and the girls instinctively grabbed onto their necklaces, eyes closed in concentration.
Please, grant us one more wish. Give us the power to protect the ones we hold most dear to us...
As if in response, their necklaces began to glow. They detached themselves and flew out of the girls' hands. The gold metal chain links surrounded the star-shaped crystals into a small, cage-like lantern and returned to their hands just as quickly.
"The Wish Pendants changed...?" Nina asked in surprise.
"I believe these... Wish Lanterns are trying to tell us something." Silve replied in concern as Nina nodded.
They then held out the Wish Lanterns forward and shouted, "Astrals, follow our light and let's Pretty Cure!"
A portal of prismatic light appeared in front of Nina while another portal of metallic light was in front of Silve. Both radiated calm energy unlike the ones from earlier. Without another word, the two jumped into the portals as the twins cheered excitedly and Spirit was stunned into silence.
Nina found herself in a vast library, wearing a white, prismatic short dress. The books began to explode into thousands of pages and each of them covered her body. When they released, her transformed state was revealed back on Earth. Long curly blonde hair tied into a ponytail at the end with white streaks all throughout, azure eyes, bracelets, white thigh-length dress with leggings underneath. Her Wish Lantern sat in a pouch on her hip along her ribbon-like belt. She had poofy sleeves, flowing silk ribbons, pearls, and rainbow trim all over.
With her right foot forward, her left hand braced her right arm's bicep while her right hand spread open and she blasted prismatic mana around her body with a concentrated stare. "Master of the Elements, Cure Flow!"
Silve saw a mirror in front of her. She wore a black, reflective dress. The mirror reflected herself as a more confident duchess, who soon extended her hand from out of the mirror to the real girl. Silve took the reflection's hand only to get sucked into it and she came out the other side transformed on Earth. She had slate grey hair that had some of it tied into a bun with a small portion in a small braid swept to her right side, white eyes, gold chain link earrings with mirrors on the end, bracelets, and long fingerless gloves. Her Wish Lantern also looped into a pouch onto her ribbon-like belt. A short black dress with a metallic translucent high-low skirt on top, metallic frills, round pieces of obsidian, and metallic trim and fish netting on her chest completed the look.
With her left foot only slightly in front of her right, she has her left hand close to her body while her right is down and away, metallic mana formed into swords around her hands as she had a relaxed, confident smirk on her face. "Master of Blades, Cure Sharp!"
They briefly examined their new outfits in awe as Flow examined each piece in her hands. Sharp seemed proud of how it looked on her, as she wore a smile.
"Score!" "Splat!" The twins quickly circled around Flow while Spirit held one of Sharp's hands with the flat side of his paws. "Trust."
The Desserted roared again and Flow took in deep breaths. She lightly slapped her face to focus. "I'm a hero like in our books, now. Heroes are brave." She whispered to herself.
She then charged forward past everybody toward the Straw-Armored Desserted which caught them off guard. And heroes always strike first!
The monster noticed and revved its arm back for a punch in Flow's direction as the small amount of courage fizzled from her expression. She panicked and stopped in her tracks. "I can't do it after all!" she shrieked in Italian as she thrust her hands forward and winced while she braced for the impact.
She heard the impact and slowly opened an eye followed quickly by the other in shock as she saw that not only were her hands surrounded in a prismatic glow...but that the monster's fist that was about to hit her had that same glow around it. It struggled to pull out its fist from the huge crater that it just formed.
Flow let out the breath she didn't know she held in when Rainy sat on her head as she relaxed and Sparky hugged her face, the two of them cheering with their usual energy (or in Rainy's case, lack thereof).
She giggled. "I did it for you guys, even if I'm not that brave..."
The twins then suddenly flew in front of her face, bodies tilted in-time with each other in their confusion as Flow was confused right back. "...What?"
Sharp chuckled as she watched this awkward scene unfold before her. "N... Flow, I think they're trying to tell you that-"
"Desserted!" The Wood-Armored Desserted's fist now aimed toward Sharp but she dodged the punch gracefully in a spin. Then as she completed it, she chopped her right hand into the wooden armor which exploded as metallic mana formed a short blade around her hand. The monster roared in pain as she pulled back in her surprise and caught a brief glimpse of pink skin, previously covered by the armor.
She chuckled playfully. "That's certainly different!" She dispelled the blade around her hand and turned toward her partner. "Flow! We should finish these two off before the third one gets away!"
"Yes!" Flow replied and looked to the Brick-Armored Desserted. The monster searched intently in the bushes as it effortlessly smacked them out of its way. With its touch, color began to drain from everything around it as dark purple mana was swirling out of the ruins.
The cloaked meister's eyes widened as she felt the loose mana being absorbed into the piece of crystal in her hand. "Nice."
"More," a loud voice moaned from within the crystal.
I have to finish this... Finish this... As Flow began to calm herself down with deep breaths, she found that new words had entered her mind. And that she had to say them with all her heart. The twins moved off and backed away from Flow in their awe of their meister's newly discovered mental fortitude, speechless.
Once again her hands glowed with prismatic mana. She kneeled and slammed her hands into the ground in the direction of the Straw-Armored Desserted. "Pretty Cure Flowing Rhetoric!" Directly under the monster, a twister of book pages erupted and sliced it into pieces as it roared one last time.
After the twister subsided, it was revealed that the Desserted's true form was a pig-like Astral that wore a straw hat and a yellow Wish Pendant on its body. "One!" it said as it floated over to Flow and hugged her cheek as she stood up.
Sparky snickered, Rainy smiled, and Flow giggled. "You're welcome!"
Sharp had a gentle smile as she watched over the three. She turned toward the Wood-Armored Desserted with a determined glare, a hand in front of Spirit. "Stand back, Spirit. I'll take care of this one just as quickly."
He nodded with a similar expression while she closed her eyes and took in slow, deep breaths. Metallic mana surrounded her open hands as she moved them in opposite directions and formed a mirror with them that once again reflected her inner duchess. She opened her eyes when her hands came back together.
Swiftly but surely, she pulled back her "Pretty Cure Sharpened Divination!"/strong The mirror shattered when she made contact, which launched the pieces forward to shred the Desserted to pieces.
This Astral also turned out to be another pig-like Astral with a pencil tucked behind its ear and a brown Wish Pendant. "Two!" It flew to hold Sharp's hand as she smiled.
"You're more than welcome."
The Cures then moved to where the Brick-Armored Desserted was, as it was still focused on searching for something. It held up a piece of crystal that was tiny in its large fingers.
"Score!" Sparky shouted before she threw a small fireball at its back. The monster slowly turned in their direction but in that time, Rainy quickly flew in to swipe the crystal.
The twins roared in their excitement as Rainy flew back into Flow's arms and held the mysterious fragment over her head and Sparky stuck her tongue out. The two Astrals aimed matching, angered glares at the monster. The Desserted shared their resentment, it seemed, as it roared back.
Flow tightened her grip on her colder partner and maintained her determined glare at the monster. "Thanks, Rainy...!"
Up above on their safe perch, the wolf growled again and the meister scoffed. "Great, just what I wanted to hear..."
She then teleported away somehow in a flash of purple light.
"Pretty Cure Sharpened Divination!" Once again, Sharp destroyed the Desserted as the final pig-like Astral was revealed to be holding a brick between his paws with a brick red Wish Pendant. "Three!" he said before he kissed Sharp's cheek as she giggled.
The three Astrals gathered together as they cheered. Flow's Wish Lantern began to glow from its pouch as she and her Astrals all looked at it curiously. Rainy gave Flow the crystal piece as the White Cure nodded with a small smile and thanked her before she pulled out her Lantern.
The Lantern's crystal was glowing with her prismatic light and shot a short beam of light which then formed into another portal. The damage done to their surroundings was fixed as the portal spread out its energy. The three Astrals shouted something and flew into the portal which quickly disappeared with a pop.
Not even a moment later, Sharp's form had also vanished and Silve's knees were weak as she gasped in surprise. Flow caught her carefully but soon also lost her form. Nina's breath became heavy from the newly felt weight on her body.
"We... We should get some rest at the dorm room, Silve..." she said worriedly through her exhaustion.
"Do you need some help, ladies?" A woman's voice called out as Silve's ears twitched. She turned out to be a humanoid Astral with purple eyes that had an ethereal glow and blue, flame-like skin as she offered her hand toward Nina.
Silve grimaced and smiled nervously while Spirit bowed to her. "D-Deputy Headmistress Willow..."
The new meister and her partners were awestruck at the woman's introduction for different reasons. The twins gasped in their surprise as stars filled their eyes.