On planet Eneiru, the ever curious Pianta returns from her latest relief mission. Whilst relaxing with her friend Albero she discovers that there are stories about mysterious silver crystals all throughout the galaxy. Mixed Manga/Anime/Movie/headcanon canon. Written for the 30th Anniversary of the Silver Crystal.
Rated: T - Mystery/Spiritual - Words: 2,513 - Queen Serenity, Fiore, Princess Serenity, OC
A/N: If you see text written in italics it means characters are talking telepathically, unless of course it is the odd word here or there.
This story is a pseudo sequel to another of my stories 'Second Chances', specifically chapter 3. Although you do not need to have read it to follow this one.
Pianta yawned as she levitated herself into the dining grounds. Descending through the foliage she could see an array of huge mushroom tables around which dozens of off-duty ambassadors were relaxing and replenishing their energies. Spotting Albero in his favourite seat (the one nearest the Life Tree's trunk) she levitated herself over and sat down upon an appropriately scaled toadstool.
Evening Albero. Pianta opted to communicate telepathically as she failed to suppress yet another yawn.
Albero looked up from the chunk of old bark he was painting upon. Setting eyes on Pianta he jolted back in his seat, his green skin turning an unhealthy shade of pink. "Pianta? What on Eneiru happened to your hair!?"
Pianta was taken aback for a moment before realising what her friend was talking about. "Oh, right." She ran a hand over her smooth green scalp. "One of my recent missions was to a bug planet. Lots of lice and humidity, it just became practical to shave my hair. Although since then I've kind of grown to like it," she shrugged.
"Hmmm, it would save me time everyday," said Albero ponderously, casually patting one of the twin navy hairbuns atop his head.
"Plus that style is a little out of fashion these days."
"It's traditional," Albero pouted, "Father Ail and Mother An favoured this style."
"Exactly," retorted Pianta, "No disrespect to the ancestors, but what they favoured over a millennia ago isn't exactly current."
Albero pursed his lips. "That's not untrue. But I'd still be reluctant to shave off all my hair, not even for a mission."
Pianta rolled her eyes. "Thank the Life Tree you weren't sent to the Poux then."
"Was Poux the name of the lice planet?"
"Yes, although it was a moon actually, orbiting planet Cocoon."
"Did you meet a platoon upon the Cocoon Moon?" Albero asked in a sing-song tone.
"No, they were pretty friendly, they even put on a little tour for me."
"Personally I've always found those parts of the job tedious," said Albero. "The hours we spend being polite and learning about a planet's culture could be better spent going to the next planet and helping more people."
Pianta shot her friend a condescending look. "Seeing new places, learning about new things, that's the best part of the job!"
"Well, I guess some of us just don't have the same sense of curiosity as you do." Albero cocked an eyebrow. "Nor are we as keen to get ourselves in trouble to satisfy it."
Pianta couldn't deny the truth of Albero's words, well remembering the scoldings she'd received growing up and during her first missions. Well, if she couldn't deny her nature, she might as well embrace it. "It's funny," she began, in a pretence of casualness, "their history reminded me a little of that planet you told me about? The one with all the cats?"
"Mau?"
"That was it. Loux had stories of this special crystal that could do anything, or something like that. I remember you saying Mau had similar stories in their culture?"
"If I recall correctly," Albero began, clearing his throat slightly, "The Mautians spoke of an Illusionary Silver Crystal that was passed down the lineage of some royal moon family."
Pianta tilted her head, intrigued. "Huh? The Louxians art work depicted the crystal as silver too."
"Same thing on planet Mermaid."As one, Pianta and Albero looked over to the next table. There they found Ramoscello running a comb through the pink streaks in his otherwise sky blue flattop.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to eavesdrop, Ramoscello?" Albero chastised.
Pianta however was far too interested to care. "Mau and Mermaid are like four star systems apart, you're telling me they had the same legend?"
"Well…" Ramoscello had stopped combing his hair, a blush threatening to engulf his green cheeks. "...Well it was kinda the same legend. They talked about 'Imperial Silver Crystals'."
"Crystals, as in the plural?" Pianta said.
Ramoscello nodded, slightly embarrassed. "They talked about a royal moon family where each member got their own crystal."
Albero rolled his eyes. "Lots of moons have royal families, and I bet more than a few of them had silver jewellery too."
"I think Albero is right."
Pianta's brow furrowed at hearing her own thought paraphrased aloud, though in a far less defeated tone. Swivelling her head to the left she scanned across Ramoscello's table but found no one. To her right though, she discovered a short, noticeably younger, ambassador.
"Seme, right?"
Seme nodded vigorously at Pianta, the motion making her wavy strawberry locks bounce, evoking ocean waves. "On my first mission to this planet of fish headed people, I heard stories of this silver jewel called the Imperium Silver Crystal. It was supposed to be the brightest star seed in all history!"
I heard something like that on Rastaban too!
Albero was so taken aback he almost fell off his toadstool. A scowl formed on his face as he righted himself. Tronco! Immediately the image of a similarly young ambassador to Seme, although somewhat taller and sporting his hair in an admiral blue ponytail, popped into Pianta's mind. How many times have I told you to NOT telepathically butt in like that!
Sorry! Tronco said apologetically. I'll excuse mys-
Hold on! implored Pianta, I wanna hear what you heard on Rastaban.
Oh, said Tronco, Well they had a story about this star seed called the Phantasm Silver Crystal that was supposed to be the counterpart to this other star seed called the Sapphire Crystal. Or Saffir Crystal. Saffire? Safyre?
It was called the Phantom Silver Crystal and it was the counterpart to the Lazurite Crystal!
Albero threw his hands into the air. "Honestly, doesn't anyone have any manners these days?"
A quick telepathic probe conjured the visage of a third youngster with a shoulder length salmon bobcut. But before Pianta could probe the open mental channel further Tronco butted in again.
You are dead wrong Radice! You weren't paying attention when we were there.
Was too!
Was not!
Sensing the youngsters were going to continue like this, Pianta made a conscious effort to block their thoughts. However, they had given her an idea.
Sorry to bother everyone, but have any of you guys ever heard about a special silver crystal in your travels?
Albero's jaw dropped. "Pianta, an open broadcast, seriously!?"
"You said it yourself Albero. I'm just too curious." Not to mention too tired to observe decorum, though Pianta kept that fact to herself.
Within seconds however, Pianta regretted her rash decision as her mind was flooded with dozens of responses.
Someone on Kinmoku claimed that there was this Holy Silver Crystal which is actually the Cosmos Crystal by another name.
By combining seven so called Rainbow Crystals a Cristal d'Argent was forged, at least according to the Grimm refugees.
The Sucre Realm paintings depicted the Imperium Crystal as a small silver golf ball.
The wicked denizens of the Tau Nebula fear a Messiaianic Argent Quartz that could bring silence and darkness to a whole Solar System.
The Planet Kaguya had a giant ice sculpture of a teardrop diamond they called the Moon Crystal.
The Queen of the Aisling Asteroid claims that the Dream Silver Crystal restored her kingdom and subjects from their long dispersed atoms.
The twin planets of Mnemosyne and Lethe have remembrance ceremonies commemorating how the Argentum Crystallum ended their eternal war.
The pirate refugees of Artuka sing space shanties about a lonely Queen who sailed to the Galaxy Cauldron and created a daughter in her own image. The daughter had no star seed of her own, so when she died the Queen sacrificed her own existence to transfer her silver star seed to her daughter so that she might be reborn from the Cauldron.
The historical records of planet Φ and planet Χ corroborate that the galaxy was saved through the power of the Asiménio Krýstallo.
When I helped terraform Neo-Nemesis, their flag was a crystalline lotus flower they said represented the Mystical Silver Crystal.
Chuu legends speak of a Vision Silver Crystal forged from the tear of a Goddess.
The ambassador from Dark Siren told me about a Legendary Silver Crystal that could heal people and extend life.
On Coronis they sing of how the Magical Silver Crystal was segmented into the Seven Rainbow Crystals.
When I visited Sagittarius I heard about a Silver Moon Crystal that can manipulate the fundamental life forces of the universe.
Wincing, Pianta forcibly closed herself off from the psychic feedback and massaged her temples. "I am never going to figure this out," she groaned.
"Maybe you don't need to."
Pianta stopped rubbing her temples, the soothing voice having helped relieve some of her mental pain. Slowly, she looked to her left and her right again but saw nobody facing her direction. Turning her sights to Albero, she noted with surprise that there was an uncharacteristic curiosity on his own features. Following his gaze, Pianta swivelled all the way around, swiftly spotting an elderly gentleman in very traditional garb standing behind her.
Pianta probed the aged green face behind the once blue hair, the pink streaks having long ago turned silver. He was far older than anyone else on their planet, and yet she had never seen him before.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The old man gave a small shrug. "Just like all of you, a fellow traveller trying to do a little good where I can."
"No offence," Pianta said, as delicately as she could, "but you look like you've done more travelling than all of us put together. Surely you've heard something about these crystals too?"
He gave her a frustratingly knowing smile. "More than heard young one."
Pianta's eyes widened. "Please, tell me more!"
The old man locked eyes with her and seemed to be peeking, not into her mind, but Pianta's very soul. "Maybe there are many crystals out there in the universe. Or maybe there is just one that has travelled from world to world. Regardless, something exists out there. Something wondrous that weaves hope, life, love and justice throughout the stars." The old man's eyes glazed over for a moment and his voice dropped a little. "Something that can even help save those of us who have lost ourselves to loneliness." His eyes regained their sharpness, as if his mind had returned to the present. "Is it not enough to simply know such a thing exists?"
"...I suppose…you're right," Pianta finally said, having nothing else really to say.
The old man smiled down at her and, seemingly from thin air, produced a crimson flower she had never seen before.
"Here. Whenever your curiosity gnaws at you, look at this and try to remember what I said."
Pianta took the beautiful flower and sampled its sweet scent. "Thank you," she said gratefully.
"I've never seen a plant like that before," said Albero behind her. "What's it called?"
The old man's eyes glazed over again, although this time his face seemed to light up with sweet nostalgia. "My friends on Earth called it a…rose."
A/N: Whilst not my intention when I began writing it, this fic can also be said to celebrate the different planets of the Sailor Moon universe, or at least the ones the anime, manga, musicals and movies invented anyway.
This fic surprisingly came together quite nicely.
After mulling over ideas that amounted to just revisiting the scenes where Usagi first gets the Silver Crystal or (bizarrely) writing a fic from the POV of the crystal itself I decided months ago that the story should be people swapping legends about the crystal. And obviously thereby giving me an excuse to reference all the different names dubs and manga translations have given it (including some I made up myself).
However, figuring out WHO would be swapping stories proved more challenging. I had this wacky idea of it being an outer space equivalent of some sailors. That became those sailors at the bar we see Galaxia drinking at in the manga. Briefly, I considered reusing the Librarian character I'd invented for my New Years fics ('Tragedy' and 'Triumph'). The problem with her was that she would 100% know the true details about the crystal because she'd be observing everything.
But the idea of using OCs (which I tend to prefer not to do) stuck with me and I realised Ail and An's descendents (whom I first established in 'Second Chances') would be perfect.
Only problem was dreaming up different descriptions for each person my main character was going to talk to. Eventually I jotted down some hair styles and assigned them to the different Silver Crystal titles I knew about/invented. I then assigned different bits of the crystal's lore to those and finished off by using google translate to help me name everyone. Following the example set by Fiore, every character is named after the Italian word for something to do with plant life. Albero is tree, Pianta is plant, Seme is seed, etc. The finishing touch was using the different planets, the following of which are my own invention:
The Sucre Realm is my headcanon for where Queen Badiane came from and is the French word for sugar.
The Aisling Asteroid is the name of Nehalennia's asteroid world and is named after the Irish word for dream, since the real life deity Nehalennia is based upon has celtic origins.
Rastaban, as I established in my older fic 'Shadows of Galaxia' is Galaxia's home planet. Rastaban is a real life star within the Draco constellation. Its name means 'beta draco' or 'head of the serpent'
Naturally, Fiore had to make an appearance as he had first hand experience with the Silver Crystal.
Also just to let you know I am involved in a discord called 'Moonlight Legends' which is dedicated to sharing all sorts of Sailor Moon fanworks, including other fanfics. If you would like to join so you can share your own work, get help with your current projects or just connect to other fan creators shoot me a PM and I'll send you an invite. All are welcome!