"Nnngh...Am I still alive-ouh?"
A blue owl opened their eyes, and their feathers ruffled with horror upon seeing what had become of their homeland. Suddenly, a massive piece of concrete came hurling towards them, and they swiftly flew out of harm's way. When all the dust from the impact subsided, the owl noticed that the piece of concrete was a sign; "Welcome to Le Jardin du Ciel". The sign read. Garden was far from what this wasteland was, however. Thunder boomed and rain poured onto the debris and wilted flowers that littered the once beautiful land the owl was familiar with.
"Where is everyone? Hello? Hello?" The owl flew around the garden as they searched for any other living friends. However, after a few minutes of flying around, their search was proved futile. The owl perched on a broken pillar to rest their aching wings, and let out a wail in frustration. Apparently, their cries of despair were enough to earn them a response.
"Cloudy, please come here." The response's voice echoed.
"Oh-oh-okay!" The owl flew off to the temple in the center of the garden. Towering in front of them was their Queen, who was nearly a frozen statue save for her head. It sent chills down their to see their queen like this. Nonetheless, they bowed before her, "What did you call me here for, dear Queen Celestia-ouh?"
"Here," The queen said. A quartet of glowing rings floated down in front of Cloudy, who looked at them with awe.
"These are Celestial Charms. Take them to Earth, and find the four Pretty Cure that will find all the pieces of the Prism Comet and protect the world from The Black Hole."
"Oh-oh-okay! Leave it to me, your majesty-ouh!" The owl cooed. But as they reached their wing out to take the rings, a loud, unanimous voice blared out, disrupting the silence in the area:
"Sister, will you please make up your mind?"
"My Stuffed Owl Talks? Cure Lune's Luminous Awakening!"
After being awoken from their nightmare, Cloudy saw two teenage girls in front of them. When looking around, they saw stuffed toys to their left and stuffed toys to their right. It was only then that they realized that they were in a toy store, and that they had the potential to be one of the girls' next picks. Cloudy saw the pouch of charms Queen Celestia gave them, laying on the belly of a stuffed teddy bear. Cloudy reached their wing out to grab the pouch before it could slip off the bear and get lost. When they opened up the pouch, though, they realized that one of the four Celestial Charms was missing.
"Alright, sis" The girl groaned. She stared at the different stuffed toys in the bin right in front of her. Cloudy looked into her piercing blue eyes, and was sure that the girl looking down at them would probably sooner try and do a toy operation on them than accept their offer to become a Pretty Cure. They prayed to Queen Celestia that she wouldn't choose them, but unfortunately, the girl's hand came down to pick them up by their face. The last thing Cloudy remembered before passing out was landing onto the checkout counter…
And once they came back into consciousness, they realized they were surrounded by more stuffed animals- this time, they were in the girl's bedroom. The girl herself wasn't here right now, but Cloudy figured they would wait until she came back. While waiting for her, they tried to strike up a conversation with a stuffed duck, but their words fuzzed out when they realized they couldn't speak back.
Sighing, Cloudy laid on the pillow and took a well-deserved nap...for a few minutes, at least, before they heard the footsteps of the girl again. The girl had a grouchy look on her face as she stomped her way into her room and sat on her bed.
On one hand, Cloudy should've flown out of the girl's room and looked for a much more even-tempered girl to be his partner. But for some reason, in the dark corner of their mind, they felt like they should muster up the courage to ask the girl to be a Pretty Cure. As much as they didn't want to ask her, the Garden of the Sky wasn't going to save itself, and the sooner they found the first Pretty Cure, the better, so…
"Hello there, miss! I'd like to tell you that you're a Pretty Cure-ouh!"
And the girl's response was...well…let's just say it wasn't kind on Cloudy's hearing.
"Wait, you can talk? As in, you're one of those talking mascots from old anime? And I didn't press some button to make you speak?" The girl yelled, grabbing a pillow and holding it in a way that made Cloudy fear she was going to hit them with it.
Cloudy didn't know if she was horrified, surprised, excited, or amazed. On one hand, the girl's clenched teeth and the tiny pupils in her eyes made Cloud believe she was horrified. But oddly enough, the words they just said made them wonder if she was amazed that her new owl "toy" could talk. All Cloudy hoped was that the latter was true.
"A-Anyway…" Cloudy murmured, their feathers ruffling from all the anxiety the girl was injecting into them. "I-I can talk...you're not dreaming, okay-ouh?" They also wanted to add, "Now please don't eat me-ouh!", but decided that extra line wasn't necessary.
The girl's face slowly eased up, and her expression no longer looked like it would haunt the poor owl's nightmares. She grabbed the owl with her two hands and held them to her face, as if she was doing an investigation on him. She squinted her eyes to let them know that even if she wasn't freaking out like before, she was still being serious.
"Alright, now tell me why you're here, Monsieur Owl? What important mission do I have to do?" The girl's voice was eerily calm, but that didn't stop her from sending chills down Cloudy's spine.
"Your mission...well, first, please set me down!" The girl nodded, and placed Cloudy in her lap, but still looked down at him menacingly.
"Okay-okay, first things first, you're a Pretty Cure-ouh!"
The girl looked down at them with her mouth open in shock, and she then tilted her head to the left side as she asked, "Pretty Cure? Are they a sort of magical girls?"
"Correct-ouh!" Cloudy exclaimed, "Now, your mission is-"
"I've seen the Pretty Cure on television several times. They're really cool, but I always thought they were fictional until now."
"Well, yeah, the Pretty Cure are real, miss...uh, your name-ouh?"
"Lucinde." The girl seemed to smile when she told them her name, although Cloudy was sure it wasn't because of them. She still was scared of them, they thought.
"Miss Lucinde-ouh." The owl cleared their throat before going back to their main topic. "Anyway, Miss Lucinde, your duties as a Pretty Cure involve finding pieces of the Prism Comet to…" Before they could continue any further, Lucinde's grandfather interrupted them by telling Lucinde that it was her bedtime now.
"Oh, sorry, Cloudy. Le Grand-père says I need to go to sleep now. Don't worry, you can tell me about my duties tomorrow. Night!" Lucinde placed Cloudy on the side of her bed before going to turn off the light.
"Telling her about her Pretty Cure duties might take longer than I thought…" Cloudy thought. "But things can't get worse than this, right? Hopefully a Cauchemar won't attack tomorrow…"
"Where is the Sky Garden's princess, Beta?" A girl whined, tapping her fingers on the dinner table she was sitting at. "I need to know! I need to know so I can get that owl before they find the first Pretty Cure!"
"Patience, Omega." Said the girl sitting in the chair next to her. She pat her on the shoulder, but the girl immediately scooted away.
"I don't care about patience, Alpha! If we keep waiting like we are right now, the Pretty Cure might get all the pieces of the Prism Comet and be knocking on our door right now waiting to beat us!"
"Omega, please. I'm sure it won't take Beta that long…" Unfortunately, it was already too late, as Omega had already started banging her fists on the table.
"WHERE IS THE PRINCESS? WHERE IS THE PRINCESS? WHERE IS THE PRINCESS!"
Alpha was slowly losing her own patience with Omega. Before she could snap and tell her to shut up, however, Beta came through the door with her laptop in hand. From the wide grin on Beta's face, the two girls were certain Beta had finally found out where the princess was, much to their relief.
"A-ha! I found where that little bird is, sisters! She's in Lyon! Lyon, Frrrrrance!" Beta then started laughing crazily.
Omega was literally rocking in her seat with joy. "Yay! Yay! Hooray for big sis Beta! I'm going to go after the princess myself now!" She jumped out of her seat and ran out the door, leaving her two sisters in the dust.
"Beta, do you think I should tag along? I don't want her to get hurt…" Alpha whispered.
"Nonsense, sister! I'm sure Omega will go out and do us proud! Hahahaha!"
Beta proceeded to laugh nonstop, as Alpha tapped her fingers together with concern for her little sister.
"Lucinde, will you please hurry up?" Lucinde's sister screamed from downstairs.
"I'm coming, Colette!" Lucinde hollered back.
Lucinde's heart raced as she pulled on her shoes. Afterwards, she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder, but realized she forgot to grab one of her stuffed toys. She hurried over to her bed and browsed the assortment of plush animals that lined the side of her bed. She wondered which one she should take, before deciding to take the one that looked like a sleeping owl, unaware that it was Cloudy. She zipped open her bag with one hand, placed Cloudy in the bag with the other, and rezipped her bag before running downstairs to join her sister.
"Ugh, it's about time you got here," She groaned, folding her arms.
"I'm sorry, sis. I shouldn't have slept in so late…" Lucinde muttered.
"Now, now, girls. Please don't get into a fight." Grand-Pere said, "Have a good day, you two."
"Fine, Grande-Pere." Colette shot Lucinde a look before going out the door to join her friends. Lucinde sighed, and went out the door after Colette and the others were out of her sight.
Immediately, she noticed her friend, Leone, waving to her from across the street. Lucinde looked both ways before she ran across the street to join Leone on their walk to school.
"Bonjour, Lucinde!" She exclaimed, "How was your weekend?"
"Ah, my weekend? I got a new stuffed animal…" Lucinde wondered if she should include all the juicy bits about the stuffed animal being a real mascot and telling her she was a Pretty Cure. But she felt like Leone would ask her too many questions if she brought it up, she she decided against it. "...I decided to name him Cloudy. Because he's light blue with white wings, and they sort of look like clouds..."
"Woah, Lucinde! That's so cool!" Leone stopped walking for a second to dig up something in her coat pocket. She pulled it out, and opened her palm so Lucinde could see what it was: It was a light pink stone that looked like a sort of foreign candy. She forgot the name, but her sister called them sugar stars. One peculiar thing she noticed about the stone was that it was glowing on it's own.
"It's...pretty nice, Leone. Where'd you get it?" She asked.
"Oh, me? Dad found it in the park! He said it reminded him of a comet! It certainly looks like it came from a comet, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, sort of...Anyway, let's just hurry to school before the teacher gets mad."
"Alright, Lucinde! Last one there's a rotten egg!" Leone bolted down the street, and Lucinde hurried after her, her sore legs barely managing to trail behind Leone.
When Cloudy woke up from their nap, they realized they were in a dark,cramped, and stuffy area. For a second, Cloudy thought that the villains had finally caught them and trapped them in a pocket dimension, but those thoughts stopped when Cloudy noticed a small speck of light in the corner. The speck grew into a large, gaping hole, and Cloudy crawled out of it as quickly as they could. They gasped for air before Lucinde pulled the rest of their body out of the space, which Cloudy could now see was their bag. They were placed to the side, and watched Lucinde grab her textbooks out of the bag.
"So...where are we now, Lucinde-ouh?" Cloudy asked.
"We're at my school, Cloudy," Lucinde replied. She placed her bag in her locker and closed the locker door, and then grabbed her textbooks off the floor. "I go here to learn about Math and English."
"Is it fun-ouh?"
"Well, I don't know, honestly." The girl chuckled, "But I want you to not go anywhere, please. I don't want to cause any panic regarding an owl flying around the school." Lucinde laughed again, but Cloudy didn't find her remarks very funny. Nonetheless, they hopped over to her locker and sat in front of it, trying to be as still as possible.
Lucinde gave the owl a smile and went inside her classroom. The first person she noticed was a short brunette girl standing next to the teacher in front of the chalkboard. Lucinde assumed she was a new transfer student and sat at her desk, her eyes still glued to the girl.
"Miss Nanako, will you please introduce yourself?" The teacher asked.
"Yes, miss! I'm sorry for not doing so earlier! I'm Nanako Ueno, and...uh…" Nanako was smiling with her mouth, but not with her eyes, and her legs were shaking like gelatin. Lucinde looked over at Leone, who was sleeping at her desk all the while Nanako was presenting. She let out a sigh and looked back at Nanako, who was apparently writing her name down now...but not in French. Apparently, according to her older sister, this language was Japanese. And she apparently wrote it so large that it took up the entire chalkboard.
"...I come from Japan. Sorry for not saying so earlier. I just hope everyone here likes me." Nanako bowed, noting that her introduction was over. Lucinde gave Nanako a wave as she passed her desk, but Nanako didn't seem to notice.
Sitting outside Lucinde's locker was quickly becoming a bore, as Cloudy realized when they felt like their eyelids were getting heavy. Before they could doze off, however, they heard a loud voice echoing throughout the hallways, calling their name;
"CLOUDY! CLOUDY, WHERE ARE YOU?"
Cloudy's little heart froze when they heard that. It could only mean one thing: The villains were nearby. But how could they know they were here? Did they somehow manage to put an invisible tracking device on them? Whatever it was, that wasn't important. What was important was getting help. Cloudy noticed the classroom door nearby, and they knew they needed to get Lucinde's attention. So, Cloudy flew up to the window in the door, and beat his wings against the glass in an attempt to ruse Lucinde.
From inside the classroom, the teacher was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the door. She stopped teaching about Algebra for a minute to go get the door, but was knocked back when Cloudy flew into the classroom and landed on Lucinde's desk, causing ruckus in the classroom.
Lucinde herself, however, was the most shocked when Cloudy entered the room. She stared at the owl for a second before whispering, "Cloudy...I thought I told you to stay outside my locker," Before the teacher could grab the owl off her desk, she took them in her arms and ran out of the classroom, shutting the door behind her.
"But Lucinde! it's an emergency!" The owl exclaimed, waving their wings around in a panic.
"What is it, then?" Lucinde yelled.
"Cloudy pointed their wing to the left side, and murmured, "Over there…"
Lucinde looked in the direction Cloudy was pointing, and her jaw nearly dropped in shock. She knew that the person in front of her, first and foremost, wasn't a student of the school, because she wasn't even wearing the uniform she and the other students did. Instead, her attire consisted of a frilly black-and-lilac dress and black boots. She twirled a lock of her purple hair as she glared at Lucinde. Or, more specifically, Cloudy.
Lucinde looked back at Cloudy and asked, "who is this woman?" But the owl was too frozen in fear to answer. SHe looked back the girl and shouted, "Who are you?"
The girl gasped in shock. "You...don't know who I am?" She yelled, stomping her feet.
"Well, of course I don't know who you are! You just showed up out of nowhere and…"
The girl growled and jumped up and down. "Well, I'll make sure you remember who I am! I am the great Omega, the North Star od Cauchemar!" She yelled. She proceeded to lunge a fist at Lucinde, and punched her in the shoulder. Lucinde dropped Cloudy, and rubbed her shoulder. Cloudy hopped off before Omega could grab them, and told Lucinde to hurry after them. Lucinde only gave a nod before following them to wherever they were going.
Omega growled in frustration as she watched the two run away. "Get back here, you cowards!" She hollered, before running after them.
Lucinde finally caught up with Cloudy at the cafeteria. Still rubbing her shoulder, she asked, "What am I supposed to do? Th-that girl just hit me, and…" Tears of pain then ran down Lucinde's cheeks, and she dropped to her knees to sob. She felt pathetic for crying over a girl punching her in the shoulder, though. Her sister told her that she was better than that!
"And that means she's a bad guy-ouh." Cloudy remarked, as if Lucinde wasn't aware of it.
"I know, but...what do I do?" Lucinde sniffed.
"Here," Cloudy pulled a ring out of their pouch and handed it to Lucinde.
"You...think I like jewelry? It's usually not my type, but Sis would really like..."
Cloudy hit their face with their wing. "No, silly. I want you to slide it on your finger, and then call out, 'Pretty Cure, Celestial Awakening-ouh!'". The owl added afterwards, "Just without the '-ouh.'"
"Really? I'm going to actually become a Precure?" Lucinde asked, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
Unfortunately, her eagerness was short-lived when Omega managed to find out where the two were hiding. "A-ha! So I've finally found you two cowards! Ugh, just give up and surrender to me already! It would make my mission much more easier!" Omega whined.
Lucinde got back up and looked over at Omega, her fists balled up and her mouth scowling. "If you want to fight, then I guess we can." Lucinde's scowl turned into a nervous frown, as she started to feel uneasy with shouting an insult. "Just...please don't go throwing a tantrum when you lose, please?" She mumbled.
"Oh, so you're trying to insult me, huh? You're a pathetic little girl."
That did it for Lucinde.
"Enough! I'm done with you and your immaturity!" Lucinde hollered, now not caring about how this girl felt. She was the one who invaded her school, punched her shoulder, and called her a little girl. Lucinde looked back at Cloudy, now feeling satisfied she got all of that built-up anger off her chest. "Alright, Cloudy, I'm going to transform! If you insist!" She told them.
Cloudy gave Lucinde a thumbs-up with their wing, and Lucinde gave a nod in took out the ring, slid it on her right ring finger, and pointed her right hand to sky. "Pretty Cure, Celestial Awakening!" She shouted.
Next thing Lucinde knew, she was engulfed in pale blue light, almost as if she was taken into another dimension. She looked around the void for a bit, before reciting the last two words, "Celestial Awakening!" In a second, her vision was blinded by a white light, before the light, and the sky-blue void, faded away. It was almost as if nothing happened...before she realized she wasn't wearing her school uniform anymore. Instead, she was wearing some sort of short-sleeved, navy blue dress that was cut into a flower-shape, with a white, frilly skirt being underneath the dress. The dress also had a dark blue belt, a silver brooch with a blue gem that held a blue bow in place. She wore blue tights beneath the dress with navy blue mary-janes, as well as blue gloves. She also noticed her hair was now silver and tied into a pair of buns, almost like a certain other magical girl.
"What...what am I wearing? It's kind of strange…" She thought, before giggling, "But also sort of cool!"
Lucinde now clasped her hands together before saying, "The luminous moon, shining through darkness!" She then struck a pose, the coolest one she could think of, before shouting out her new identity, the one that came with this new outfit;
"I'm Cure Lune!"