Small Lady and the Seven Amazons

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a beautiful, but vain, queen named Nehelenia. Her vanity was so great, she had any woman she considered more beautiful than her killed - including Neo-Queen Serenity, the previous ruler of the kingdom and the first wife of her husband, Endymion.

After Endymion's death, Nehelenia was left custody of her stepdaughter. The child was also named Serenity, but was better known by her nickname, Small Lady. Small Lady was an adorable little girl, and as she grew up, she began favoring her dead mother more and more.

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"

Every night, Nehelenia asked the same question of her magic mirror, who would usually reply, "You are, my queen." However, this time, the mirror had a different answer.

"I'm afraid you are no longer the fairest, my queen," the mirror said. "The title belongs to the lovely Small Lady, who is now a teen."

Nehelenia growled with frustration, her hand clenching into a fist. She had feared this day would come. Immediately, she called for her most faithful servant, Zirconia.

"Yes, my queen?"

"Zirconia, you are to take Small Lady out to the Elysion Forest tomorrow and kill her," Nehelenia ordered.

Zirconia, who was the queen's chief assassin, had no qualms about the assignment. The next morning, she lured the young princess to the forest under the pretense of showing her a winged unicorn.

"Zirconia, where is the Pegasus?" Small Lady asked. "Are you sure you really saw one?"

"You stupid fool!" Zirconia cackled, forming a ball of energy between her hands. "There's no such thing as unicorns. Now die!"

Small Lady had no idea what was happening, but when Zirconia launched the energy ball in her direction, she began running for her life, going deeper and deeper into the forest. Though Zirconia was a wrinkled old woman, thanks to her magic, she was able to keep pace with Small Lady and continued to lob energy balls at her.

Small Lady ran without direction, only knowing that she had to get away from the old sorceress. Unfortunately, she failed to notice the cliff up ahead and fell into the dark depths below.

Zirconia came to a stop at the edge of the cliff and looked down. There was no sign of the princess, but that was of little importance. No mortal girl could possibly survive such a long fall. Satisfied that she had completed her mission, Zirconia headed back to the castle to inform Nehelenia of the good news.

But Zirconia was wrong to assume the princess was dead. A couple of hours later, Small Lady awoke to find herself laying, unhurt, in front of a circus tent. She only had faint memories of how she had managed to survive the fall, and she doubted if they were even real. Zirconia herself had said that flying unicorns didn't exist, so how could she have been saved by one?

She stood back up and entered the circus tent, wondering if anybody was around. Inside, she found a group of performers in the middle of practicing their acts. A man in outrageous tiger-print tights was the first to notice her presence.

"Well, hello there, beautiful," he said, strutting toward her. He slapped his whip against the palm of his hand. "What are you doing here? We don't have a show today."

"I-I'm sorry," she apologized. "I didn't mean to barge in. It's just that I don't know where I am, and I -"

"What? You mean you haven't heard of the Dead Moon Circus?"

"No, I'm afraid I haven't."

"Then you must not be from around here. Who are you and where are you from?"

"It's rude to ask for someone's name without introducing yourself first," Small Lady said, remembering her etiquette lessons.

"Forgive me, where are my manners? I'm Tigerseye, one of the seven Amazons." By that time, the rest of the performers had stopped what they were doing and gathered around. Tigerseye pointed out the rest in turn as he introduced them. "And these are my fellow Amazons: Hawkseye, Fisheye, CereCere, VesVes, JunJun, and PallaPalla."

Small Lady curtsied. "Please to meet you all. My name is Ser- Serena," she lied at the last moment. She thought it best to hide her real identity, in case Zirconia was still searching for her. "I've…run away from home, and I have no place to go. Would it be possible for me to join this circus?"

"That depends," VesVes said. "Do you have any skills?"

"I know a few magic tricks," she said, pulling a coin out from behind the girl's ear. "My father taught me."

"We have been looking to add a magician… Okay, you can stay."

And so Small Lady began a new and happy life as a circus performer.

It was not to last, though. Despite Zirconia's claim that the princess had died, the mirror still insisted Small Lady was the fairest in the land. Nehelenia decided to take care of matters herself by sending Small Lady a fruit basket from a "fan" when she discovered her stepdaughter was working as a magician. With one bite of a poisoned apple, Small Lady fell dead, leaving her friends heartbroken.

The Amazons encased her in a glass coffin and mourned her for several days. On the day they were to bury her, however, a Pegasus suddenly appeared before them and transformed into a handsome young man, dressed in priestly garb. The priest walked over to the coffin and lifted up the lid.

"Wake up, my maiden," he said before softly kissing her on the lips.

Small Lady's eyes fluttered open as she was brought back to life. Though she had never met the man looking down at her, somehow she felt as if she knew him already. It was love at first sight, and the two of them flew off together, the Amazons cheering them all.

Of course, they lived happily ever after.

DISCLAIMER: Sailor Moon is the property of Naoko Takeuchi.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Written for the "Fairy Tale Life" challenge at the "sailormoonland" community at Livejournal.