Selenia found the gaggle of fairies crying together within a meadow outside of the town. The five of them were morose, huddling together by the meadow’s small waterfall that fed into a pond. The whole area was filled with various plants and trees that overhung the area. The fairy children sniffed as they wiped tears away from their eyes. Their glossmar butterfly wings were flat, as if sullen.

  The day’s light from the artificial sky of Alsium Two was growing fainter. The artificial forests of Alsium Two, the underground arcology, didn’t have dangerous wild animals, but it wouldn’t be good for these children to be by themselves out in the darkness all alone. Their guardian, Captain Titanetta, wasn’t anywhere to be found. It seemed like their older sister wasn’t particularly worried about them.

  She sighed as she made her way through the surrounding trees and foliage to the fairy children, popping into the clearing of the meadow, to approach them. The sounds of the small waterfall muffled her footsteps as she approached them, as it bubbled and foamed from the contact with the pond.

  She was a princess of the Selenar family, of the Selenar Union, of the orbital and lunar colonies of the Settlement Front Alliance. She needed to present herself better than blowing up and yelling childish insults at them, even if they aggravated her. The guilt from seeing their tiny forms run away from her after her outburst was like heavy stones in her stomach.

  At the very least, she could apologize as a princess should.

  Selenia approached the fairy children, though they perked up as if sensing her presence. They turned their heads towards her, faces full of sadness and guilt, their eyes puffy and red. Their eyes widened.

  Selenia coughed under her breath, preparing to open her mouth to apologize. She had to be calm and—

  The fairy children ran at her, throwing their little arms around her waist as they dogpiled her.

  Selenia stumbled, but quickly adjusted her feet to balance herself. Her mouth gaped open in surprise as the fairy children all stammered out their own words quickly before she could speak.

  “Big sis, we’re sorry!” “We shouldn’t have said all that stuff so much!” “We didn’t mean to be so mean!” “We’re sorry for making fun of you! “Please forgive us!”

  Selenia blinked, turning her head to and fro, unsure of who to speak to first. She thought they’d be outraged. Or fearful. Yet they were the ones saying sorry to her?

  “I-I…” Selenia began. Here she was thinking she was the one going to make apologies. She hadn’t been expecting an apology herself. “...I accept your apologies?”

  “Please don’t be mad at us,” One said on behalf of them all.

  “I’m not mad…” Selenia said. “I was just annoyed…”

  “Liar,” Another said, still sniffing.

  Selenia’s eye twitched. “Okay, listen”—Selenia turned her head downward at them—”I am mad, but I’m not mad at you, just the stuff you keep saying.”

  “Really?” A different child fairy said.

  “Yes, really,” Selenia replied.

  The gaggle of fairies disconnected from their tight grip on her, looking a bit better than they had previously. A small sense of relief filled their eyes. And they….

  She realized she didn’t actually know their names.

  Selenia readjusted her elegant silver robes as she coughed. “You know, I don’t believe I actually learned what your names are.”

  The fairy children looked at each other as they began to sound off one after another in a line.

  “I’m Galetta!” The fairy with green eyes and hair said with a faint smile.

  “I’m Maletta!” The fairy with red eyes and hair said with a shy look.

  “I’m Haletta!” The fairy with purple eyes and hair said with an embarrassed face.

  “I’m Taletta!” The fairy with yellow eyes and hair said with a grin.

  “I’m Caletta!” the fairy with blue eyes and hair said with a happy smile.

  They wrapped their arms around each other as they put their heads together. “We’re the Letta sisters!” They all said together.

  Now that Selenia looked at them properly, they all seemed like quintuplets, aside from their colorful hair, like something out of a rainbow.

  The twilight of the artificial sky above turned to night, indicating that the outside world above on Gaia had also turned to night. As it did so, Selenia began to glow with the same light that the artificial triplet moons above did in the artificial sky above. A faint sliver shimmer emanated from her, which intensified until she glowed as the moons did.

  The eyes of fairy children widened in amazement, little sparkles within them. Their young voices filled with oohs, ahhs, and little giggles.

  Selenia braced herself.

  “You’re a glowstick!” Galetta said.

  Selenia bit her lip as she pushed down her own feelings of outrage at the words. She idly noted that a small campfire at the nearby pre-prepared campsite had been lighted and was glowing brightly in the darkness to her side.

  “A nightstick!” Maletta followed.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “A nightlight!” Haletta added.

  “A moonlight!” Taletta continued.

  “A melonlight!” Caletta concluded.

  Selenia’s eye twitched. That was the last time someone called her a glowstick. What if…

  Selenia reached into herself, feeling for that radiance that came so naturally to her. Then, she pushed. She pushed it hard. She gritted her teeth as she kept pushing, her silver glow intensifying further as if it were a white fire. It reached a crescendo. It was as if a flashbang had gone off.

  “My eyes!” “It burns!” “It hurts!” “It stings!” “It hurts so much!” The children fairies all said together.

  “Ha!” Selenia said, a victorious smile on her lips. “How do you like that, you little brats! Not so fun is it now?! Call me a glowstick again! I dare you!”

  The happiness on the children’s faces vanished in an instant. Their lips quivered.

  Oh no. What had she done?

  A dam broke as the fairy children all resumed crying and wailing.

  Damn it!

  In between all the cries of the children came a voice from the nearby campsite.

  “Well, what do you think, Fafapan?” Aster said.

  “Well, she certainly has the looks of a mythical fairy,” said Fafapan, the pixie, hovering in the air beside Aster, who sat on a large log. “ But the moment she opens her mouth, it all disappears like an illusion being dispelled. She needs to stay as still as a doll; otherwise, the image is broken.”

  Everyone was sitting there by the campfire, having caught up to her—Arnis, Saphie, and Garrod together with Fafapan and Aster. And the newcomers, Bridges and Trois. Everyone was eating the food they had brought. Though they rubbed their eyes, it looked like they had averted the worst of the little silver fash she had made. The fairy children ran to them, away from Selenia.

  She sighed. Some princess she was.

  She walked towards the campfire and sat on an open spot on one of the logs by the fire, refusing food offered to her. The fairy children were hunkering around the others and showed interest in Trois, who wasn’t that much taller than the children. They looked at her long, thin, white wings wrapped around her waist with curiosity. Trois looked at the children with her typical disinterested and emotionless look.

  Every so often, they glanced at Selenia and stuck their tongues out at her, which Selenia returned in kind.

  Fafapan sighed as she hovered over to Selenia. “Their fairies, mischievous little punks. It’s how they are. Unfortunately. Don’t worry about it too much.”

  “Big sis is a meanie!” Galetta said, a bit of childish anger on her face amidst her tears.

  “I’m not a glowstick!” Selenia retorted, crossing her arms. Galetta turned her head away as if to shun her.

  “You little—” Selenia said, before cutting herself off.

  Aster glanced at her. “But from a certain point of view, you kind of are… A glowstick….”

  Selenia’s glare made Aster turn his head away. Chuckles and laughter went around. Though she spotted Bridges and Trois giving her strange looks that she couldn’t place.

  The other Letta sisters were still crying in various amounts.

  Selenia sighed. Had she ever been like this? Or her sister Leticia? She couldn’t remember a time when she or her sister were ever this petulant. Growing up, proper manners and demeanor had been instilled in her from a young age. Yet, even she and her sister had their moments, though, not as bad as the Letta sisters.

  Selenia sighed as she propped her face up with an elbow. She had come to apologize, but had only made things worse. What had her mother Lalalithra, done again in times like these with her? The memory of her mother, singing gently as ethereal butterflies danced around her while she clapped happily and delighted with starstruck eyes, came to her mind.

  “Hey,” Selenia said, calling out to the Letta sisters, who turned their heads towards her. “I’ll show you something my mother taught me.”

  Selenia focused as she raised a hand up, a single finger pointed outward. She concentrated her mind, her silver radiance beginning to concentrate, wisps of silver energy drawn to and gathering to a single point around her finger. In moments, the energy coalesced into an ethereal, glowing butterfly.

  It took off from her hand as it flew around the fairy children, who were captivated and drawn to it. The fairy children gathered towards Selenia as she formed more of the ghostly silver butterflies until a small swarm of them fluttered and danced around everyone, small motes of silver energy trailing behind them. They moved in patterns as Selenia smiled at the fairy children who took off with their own glossmar wings, playing with the silver butterflies.

  As Selenia made more of the silver butterflies, she fell into a trance as she sang a soft, simple tune—the same one her mother had sung to her as a child. The sounds were ethereal on the moon-lit winds. Motes of silver light fell around her as she serenely glowed with the light of the moon.

  “La la la… la la la… la la la…” Selenia sang softly.

  “Selenia really is a Moon princess!” Garrod said, laughing.

  “Ya, it’s hard to remember sometimes if Selenia really is a moon princess,” Arnis added, chuckling.

  Selenia broke out of her trance as if cold water had been splashed on her. She turned around to the two, annoyed, her eye twitching, “What do you mean if I’m a Moon princess!? I am a moon princess!”

  The only response she got was the others joining in with chuckles and laughter of their own.

  A slight blush formed on Selenia’s face.

  The fairy children ran up to her, tackling her, happily delighted smiles on their faces that reminded her of her own when she was young. “She really is a moon fairy!” The fairy children said together.

  Selenia smiled at them in return.

  “Well, it’s just sometimes you seem more like a melon princess than a moon princess,” Aster replied.

  Selenia ground her teeth at Aster as she quickly looked at the various food in the containers around. She spotted one of the small melons that had been harvested; its outer shell was rough and as hard as a rock. There were several of them.

  Selenia grabbed it and threw it at Aster, who blocked with his arms as he recoiled from the hit.

  “Melon princess!” Saphie said happily as Selenia threw another melon at the flesh mimic, who let the melon hit her and bounce off her face. Saphie bent down and grabbed it, inspecting the melon fruit.

  “Melon princess,” Trois said, muttering as she kept chewing on a meat stick.

  Selenia threw another melon at her. Trois didn’t bother to move as Bridges caught it with two hands, an apologetic look on his face.

  Selenia grabbed another one of the rock-like melons.

  “Anyone else!?” Selenia said

  More laughter and chuckles came her way.

  “I’ll show you all!” Selenia vowed. “One of these days, I’ll do something that only a princess of the Triplet Moons can do, or I’m not Selenia Res Selenar!”

  The fairy children giggled.

  “You’re amazing, big sis!” The Letta sisters said together.

  Selenia sighed as she returned the hugs of the fairy children. As she looked at those young faces, she couldn’t help but be reminded of her sister, Leticia, who was still in danger in the orbital and lunar colonies within the Settlement Front Alliance. Well, for now at least, she was Selenia, and that was enough for now.