Just a little bit of Silver Millennium life for you, enjoy.
The Moon Princess and the Princess of Jupiter danced across the ice rink like it was natural to them. The pair made it seem like it was easy, as if it was second nature, as if it was easier than walking.
There was Jupiter completing twirl upon twirl in succession which was enough to make the Mercurian princess want to throw up, but at the same time she wanted to know how to do the exact same thing. Moon leaped a seemingly impossible height into the air and landed in reverse which was just fantastic! Magical even. The ice rink had to be holding at least forty people presently, but the only two who stood out at all were the aforementioned princesses.
Jupiter smiled devilishly at Moon. This was no longer leisure time; it was a competition. And Jupiter wanted to make sure that the Lunarian Princess wouldn't out do her. While her and Serenity were as close as sisters, that didn't mean to say that there could be no rivalries. Jupiter made a beeline for the centre of the rink to make sure that she was the centre of attention and performed the most dazzling combination of a back-flip, pirouette, and did something with her leg which made the Mercurian Princess question whether her hip joints were functional. Everyone had stopped dead on the rink, watching Jupiter dance on the ice. After her little performance she received a round of applause from the moon folk and retreated closer to the edge of the rink to let Serenity have her turn. Serenity wasn't quite daring enough to carry out a back-flip, but that didn't stop her from showing off her incredible leaps and jumps and mid-air splits.
Mercury was just dazzled. But also slightly embarrassed. One might think that the Mercurian, who possessed powers of ice and snow, would be able to perform like this. But she wobbled and fell more than she was able to keep herself right on the ice. She was simply a disaster. She'd always dedicated herself to her studies and her books; one day she was going to be the queen of her home world and was on a mission to make sure that she'd be intelligent enough to fulfil that role. But when she'd began to visit the moon in her teenage years, her attention was always on the beautiful princess and her astonishing skating. Why couldn't she do that?
And then the war came along with Earth and her focus was shifted once again to defending those dear to her. But here were Jupiter and Moon giving light to their people in such desperate times - more than she had ever done for her people at this point. At some point, the ice princess had come to accept that she had no natural talents. She watched her sisters on the ice rink for a while longer and decided it was time to go back inside.
From the window she had a clear view of Jupiter and Moon; they were no longer competing, but performing as a duo with Jupiter using her impressive strength to hold Serenity as if she were a feather. Serenity's excellent balance allowed her to perform some impressive moves in the air. It was truly a privilege to admire such a dazzling performance. But it would be even more of a privilege to be able to do it herself.
That was it! She'd had enough of sitting and feeling sorry for herself. It was time to take action. This war with Earth could very possibly end her life. She sure as heck wasn't going to allow herself to die without even trying to learn.
Days went by, and each day Mercury woke up very early, plopped on her skates, and set off to the rink. The first day was tough, she'd never wanted to give up on something more than she'd wanted to now. She'd fell flat on her face at least a dozen times and had only tried to increase her speed. After a quarter of an hour of sulking and poking at her wounds, she got up and tried again and again and again with little success. But by the end of the day she'd managed to go around the rink ten consecutive times at a faster-than-normal pace without falling!
Day two was challenging; she'd almost mastered her speed increase and by the end of it had taught herself to go faster and slower on demand without falling and had even worked on skating backwards (although she had fallen over on her backside tons of times).
By day five, the ice princess had taught herself how to do simple twirls and spins and had earned a collection of bruises that could almost be called impressive. All of her hard work was paying off. She'd even been able to accelerate her training by recording herself and studying her movements later on. She studied the details; how much force she was putting into her pushes, the movement of her joints and had even calculated various measurements on how her positioning would affect her balance. Being a genius definitely paid off and she was glad that she could apply her knowledge to her new hobby.
After day seven when returning to the palace from the rink, she ran into Queen Serenity. "Your majesty." she kneeled before Serenity who told her to stop being so formal.
"You have quite the amount of bruises, child. What on the moon have you been up to?" the queen questioned. Mercury blushed in embarrassment before meekly telling the queen that she'd been trying to improve her skill. The queen only smiled and gave her face a reassuring stroke.
"I had no idea you'd been trying so hard! You must have quite the passion to persevere despite your injuries. Why don't you get Serenity and Jupiter to help you?" Ami blushed and shook her head and the queen gave her an understanding smile. "I see, well I hope you heal well. Goodbye, child." the queen and Mercury went their separate ways and Mercury continued her day as normal. She trained with the senshi and even managed to dodge a few attacks coming her way instead of having to waste precious energy to form a shield. Her practice was paying off in more than one way! Her results only encouraged her to go further.
"Way to go, Mercury!" Venus cheered, as enthusiastic as ever.
The days turned into weeks, and Mercury decided it was time to try her first ever flip. Perhaps she was being too sudden. And she was right, no sooner than she had tried did she find herself laying on her back with her head stinging.
She strolled dizzily into the palace and was devastated when the doctor told her she'd be out of commission for a week. Reversibility would definitely come into play and she'd lose precious progress!
Her fellow senshi let her off of training for the week two while the ice princess spent her time studying her books and her recordings. She was determined to make use out of this time: time was important.
When she was allowed back on the ice it took her five days to get back to where she was, but she did. And on her sixth day returning to the ice, and after an hour of training, she fell again. Panting and breathless, the princess didn't even hear two more pairs of skates come onto the rink over her own breathlessness.
A familiar duo took her by both arms and pulled her off of the floor.
"You okay, Mercury?" asked Serenity, the concern in her voice flattering the ice princess. She nodded her head and thanked Jupiter and Moon.
"Good, because we brought you something." Jupiter revealed a helmet, a pair of elbow pads, and a pair of knee pads. "You still want to learn how to skate like us?"
Mercury was speechless, how did they know?! And then Mercury recalled her encounter with Queen Serenity. Of course…
"We've been watching for the past couple of weeks and you're learning really fast! We just wondered if you'd like our help. You never ask for our help." spoke Princess Serenity. Mercury looked down to her left, a clean giveaway that she was embarrassed. Both Serenity and Jupiter sandwiched her in a hug.
"It's okay to ask for our help, y'know." Spoke Jupiter, leaning in and plodding on Mercury's helmet for her while Serenity took care of her knee and arm pads.
"Thank you." she replied, a small tear of appreciation slipped from her eye which she immediately got rid of.
"Enough soppiness!" announced Serenity. "Let's make the most of this while the rink is still empty!" Jupiter took Mercury's left hand and Serenity took her right. Together, the trio danced on the ice until they could no longer.
'They were happier times', thought Mercury to herself. With her senshi uniform in pieces and her body in a similar state, the ice senshi smiled to herself. 'At least I don't regret not learning to skate'. But now Serenity was dead, and the senshi were without a princess. The war was coming to an end, and so was her life.
The ice princess let her final breath escape her, her final memory of the times she'd spent on the ice with her sisters, her final expression: a smile, and her final heartbeat gone.
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Winter was here! The quintet stood with their skates and their scarves by the frozen lake, ready to make the most of their day. Galaxia was gone and the earth felt peace once again.
Minako was the first one on the ice, wobbling around and having herself a giggle. The rest followed her, slowly getting used to the new feeling. They hadn't skated since last year! And before long, other people would come and skate on the lake.
Ami Mizuno put on her gloves and began to glide around the lake, easily finding her feet (unlike Minako, who was down for the fifth time, and Rei who hadn't quite eased into it yet) and setting her rhythm. She slowed to a stop and faced Makoto and Usagi, feeling the nostalgia rise inside of her.
She felt back at home on the ice. As if she belonged here. Ami practised a few spins and twirls but found herself on her butt. It had been a whole year since she'd been on the ice after all.
Before she could get herself up, Makoto grabbed her left hand and Usagi grabbed her right. Together they pulled Mercury off of her butt.
"Let's make the most of this while the lake is still empty." Makoto said, grinning. Usagi let out a small giggle.
"Just like old times." she said. Ami laughed.
"I think you mean ancient times." With Minako and Rei struggling in the background, the trio skated hand in hand; each of them had a nostalgic smile on their faces.
'All of those years ago I was wrong. I should never have felt ashamed of myself.' Ami took a deep breath and let go of Usagi's and Makoto's hands. She raced on ahead, leaping into the air, and performing her first ever successful flip.
"Wow, Ami! That was amazing!" shouted Rei and Minako, while Usagi and Makoto exchanged glances and looked proudly at their former student.
She turned on her heels, faced her audience, and bowed through the applause.
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I hope you liked my little silver millennium flashback fic! The idea suddenly just came to me while I was re-watching season one of the anime and Luna mentions that Princess Serenity and Princess Jupiter were good skaters.
Anyways, if you liked that then please check out the fic that I've been focusing on a lot recently, Compromise. It's a romance involving Minako and a certain saiyan prince. Please check it out if you have time!
I hope you're all safe during this scary time, too. Bye!