Princess Serena had never really wanted for anything. She was born in the palace and always had every thing she needed. Her mother was a kind woman and a great leader. She was training her daughter to follow in her foot-steps. She attended the best school on the moon. Not that she enjoyed it. Serena would much rather spend her time with the Princesses, or her best friend Anna.
The one thing the queen had never counted on was having a daughter like Serena. When Serenity was little she had been dedicated to her studies. She had been a social child but she always had her priorities strait. Serena on the other hand hated to read, except for manga which she read too much of. She spent her nights staring at the stars, while her mother had done homework.
The Princess desperately wanted to please her mother, but she wasn't the same. The two got along just the same. Serena squeaked by from year to year, and watched her mother and took silent notes thinking: "I will be like that ... someday." And so the days came and went, but none of these days had yet been someday.
Serena and Anna were at the ice rink nearly two weeks after the planet conference. The worst thing about friends on other planets is you see them one weekend a month sometimes. Such was the case with the five princesses.
"Alright Serena my feet are killing me we should really get home." Anna said "O.k. just let me do one more lap." Anna went off to the sides and began unlacing her skates. Serena continued around the rink. She was unbelievably graceful on the ice considering she couldn't walk down the street with out falling over. A moment latter she slid up to Anna and sat down next to her. Anna's long dark hair was falling over her shoulder as pretty as anything.
"Hey don't forget we have a math test tomorrow." Anna said Serena groaned "Why do we learn math, it'll never help us out." "Two things Serena" Anna said putting her skates inside her bag "Number one you don't learn math, you watch the boy in the third row all hour." "But he's really cute." The princess said rising to her feet slinging her bag over her shoulder "And number two math is gonna be really important to you when you rule this kingdom, can you say economics?"
The two girls started up the road the palace gleamed in the setting sun. "Well this is my stop" Anna smiled at Serena with her friendly blue eyes She waved good-bye as she took off down the left fork, leaving Serena to the center.
The stars began to poke out of the sky and the planets glowed in the distance. The scene was so beautiful the Princess decided to stroll through the gardens instead of going strait to her room. She didn't really want to study for that math test just yet anyway. She found a pearly white bench surrounded by pink and purple flowers. Each planet seemed so close except the one that was truly closest. Serena had never been to the Earth.
But she remembered well her first trip to Venus on Mina's birthday. Her first trip to Mercury Ami had helped her memories her addition tables. She and Lita and baked cookies, or rather Lita had baked cookies and Serena had burnt them. but Serena had always loved going to Mars. True Serena and Rei mocked each other constantly, but they really liked each other. She could tell Rei anything she was a great friend.
The air around the Princesses went suddenly cold. It seemed to be settling around the gardens. And then something in the shadows whispered to her. "Princess" it said in a terribly sick hiss Serena looked over in a corner of the hedges. All that stood there was formless darkness, no appendages, just a pair of fiery red eyes. She was drawn toward it by some unexplainable force. She was lifted from the bench and floated toward it.
"Princess" it hissed again "I am a shadow creature , do you know what I am here for?" Serena shook her head, it was difficult to understand anything. the fog around the gardens seemed to be leaking into her mind, clouding everything. Suddenly the icy darkness seized her around the neck tightly. Serena tried to scream, but it was too late she was falling in the darkness.
