Work Text:
It was the spring of 1992 MSK, and high up in the sky of Planet Popstar, there was a peaceful kingdom of six ecologically diverse floating islands named Floralia. On its top island named Royal Road was where the kingdom’s royal family lived, comprising of a species of eight-eyed (two main white ones on the face, two weaker ones in the forehair, and four in the backhair), six-handed, two-horned spider-like creatures named Spydeairs. And to say that the past year had been a turbulent time for them would be a massive understatement. The previous summer, the kingdom's most notorious queen, Joronia V, had passed away after years of egotistically dragging the kingdom down to all-time lows. Shortly after her death, her 22-year-old daughter, then named Joronia VI, was hastily named queen. The thing about her was that, while she was a very kind, loving, and brave person, she also held a deep resentment for her entire dynasty, not only due to her own ancestors' known misdeeds, but because of her mother's horrible treatment of her, as she was rushed along to being queen with her own well-being and self-esteem being put last; and it didn't help that her far more caring father, the one man keeping her mother on the rails, died protecting her from a shadowy Knight just weeks after she hatched. It was to the point that as soon as she was crowned, she buried her family's longtime matriarch name and rechristened herself as "Sectonia", both to try to make her own legacy and to try to distance herself from her foremothers. She specifically took "Secty", a nickname given to her by her late father and later a couple of close people in her life besides her mother, and gave it the "-onia" suffix largely out of obligation for it being the royal part of the name. It also wasn't long until she proposed to and married the only other Spydeair left, her bodyguard/entertainer and lifelong best friend Taranza. Taranza was a bit of a sappy snob at times, but pretty cool and nice once you got to know him. Having hatched a mere three weeks after her, Taranza and Sectonia were close from the beginning due to Taranza being part of the royal bodyguard-entertainer family that were always the closest associates of the royals. As kids, they always played around wherever they wanted and were absolutely inseparable, no matter how hard Joronia V tried to crack down on them. (It helped that Taranza's father, who helped give her the "Secty" nickname alongside his son, was cool enough to let them be and won so many arguments with her that pretty much everyone wished he was ruling instead.) As they grew through adolescence, their unbreakable friendship blossomed into love, although they rarely expressed it to each other; partially due to concerns about how the people would react, but largely out of fear for how the queen would react this time, as for generations the royal and bodyguard families had been forbidden to marry. But once Joronia V passed away (Taranza's father had died months prior, giving him the title), they fully embraced their relationship and were quietly married by the winter (kind of helped that, as far as they knew, they were the only Spydeairs left in the universe and certainly in Floralia). In fact, during their engagement, when an attempt was made on Sectonia's life, Taranza swooped in to confront the wanna-be assassin. But as he was viciously attacked himself, Sectonia jumped in to stop the attacker and saved her own bodyguard's life. Regardless of the surprise that the people of Royal Road felt at the scene, the couple really didn't care about that and were still more than ready to rule their beloved kingdom together. Their actual first months on the throne had been a tad rough, but promising, as Sectonia made massive reforms to the well-being of the people and the kingdom, and she was quickly far more popular among her people than her any of her foremothers. Taranza didn't do nearly as much as his wife, largely because she was way better at actually handling all of the royal duties, and literally everyone including the two of them knew that. But he was still relatively well-liked by the people, and he was exactly the partner and support that she needed on the throne. Everything seemed to be going smoothly for the two, but their optimism took a massive hit when it was revealed that they were biologically unable to have children. While taking in a possible heir was theoretically on the table, adoption was practically non-existent in that region of Floralia, and the couple was crushed to see their dreams of raising a child seemingly go up in smoke.
Now we return to 1992 MSK, where on a lovely, warm spring night, Sectonia and Taranza were floating around in their royal garden, which had been maintained as a source of pride for the royal family ever since they arrived in Floralia six generations ago. With how hectic the past year had been for them, floating in and taking care of the garden had been the perfect form of escapism. Now relaxing in the garden, the couple then went to discussing Sectonia's 23rd birthday the previous day and a rare miniature Dream Seed (essentially the little cousin of the even rarer Miracle Fruits that grew giant Dreamstalks that had been gifted to them as a birthday present. They were unsure where to plant it, especially as she and her family had long been against planting in the center unless something special happened there. Then all of a sudden, the couple caught a glimpse of something somewhat soft-looking slowly falling to the garden. It slowly and magically levitated down to the center, and before the couple could even float up to it, they heard sounds of crying coming from it. When they did slowly float to it, they saw that it was an absolutely precious newborn baby fairy girl wrapped up in blankets, with pale skin, tiny blonde hair, two tiny antennas, and a tiny set of butterfly wings; it appeared to be a member of the Fairie species, a species perhaps loosely related to the Spydeair, although neither of them were very knowledgeable on them. As she started crying, Sectonia picked her up and held her in her arms, which seemed to calm her down back to sleep. The couple tried looking out for where she came from and if there were any other Fairies nearby, but when they couldn't see any, they decided they would just bring her inside and take care of her for a bit until someone maybe tried to find her here.
But as hours became days and days became weeks, nobody came, and the baby had become increasingly attached to Sectonia and Taranza, only making it an even more complicated situation for them. As they also grew more attached to her, providing for her only made it more tiring to try to rule the kingdom, especially for Sectonia; and it both helped and didn't help that only a handful of other servants in the castle knew about all of this. Then on one fateful evening, they were both with her alongside their top advisor, a relatively old white-flowered lady named Lily. They suddenly realized that her being a Fairie meant that she could potentially detect her immediate family similarly to Spydeairs, and so Taranza reluctantly decided to try to look with her parents’ perspectives, even if, while it couldn't hurt anyone, detecting other people's families' perspectives was never viewed well by their kind. But when trying to detect her mother, he simply couldn’t see anything but white, which would only happen in that way when they were no longer alive, until he suddenly found himself detecting Sectonia’s perspective. As Taranza shared the information with her, she decided to try and check for her father's perspective, only to also see several seconds of pure white followed by Taranza's view. Stunned, the duo came to the somber realization that the baby had, somehow, someway, lost her family, while also emotionally realizing that now the baby girl was starting to view them as her family. Lily then brought up how heartbroken they were when found out they could never have children and said that this was now their chance to raise a child like they always wanted. At first, they were hesitant to raise her, as much as they wanted to, but Lily told them that if her biological parents would want anyone here to be raising their child, it would be the two of them. With that encouragement, the emotions started overflowing for the two. Taranza could hardly begin to process the idea of finally being a father, while Sectonia, in sobs of joy and many other emotions, held her new daughter and, thinking back to how much her own mother’s mistreatment of her had affected her, promised to be as kind and great of a mother as she could be to give her little girl the life she never had. As they thought about what to name her, Taranza initially suggested just “Sectonia II”, with him and Lily saying that she certainly deserved to have her name passed down through the generations far more than “Joronia”. But Sectonia was harshly against that idea and instead thought of the name “Pikiria”, claiming that it was a fittingly beautiful name for a such beautiful baby girl while still keeping her royal status evident. Taranza thought that name was perfect and so he and Sectonia welcomed their little Pikiria into their hearts as she nodded off again smiling.
Shortly after, wanting some privacy as they started to raise her but not wanting to keep secrets from their people, they quietly let the news come out about her arrival and adoption. But as the news spread further through the small kingdom, they knew they'd have to go public with her arrival. Sectonia was a little hesitant to raise her child to be a princess or even continue her dynasty's rule at all, not only due to her resentment for her ancestors, but also because of how much her own mother hurt her by rushing her and putting her future as the queen over her own well-being. But Taranza told her that she was exactly who Pikiria deserved to be raised by in general, but especially as a princess, with Sectonia replying that the same was true about Taranza himself. Soon enough, Sectonia and Taranza were ready to present their precious daughter Princess Pikiria to her kingdom from their main balcony, and although the kingdom was surprised to see a member of the royal family not related by blood or even of the same species (both firsts for the family), they nonetheless quickly embraced her as the new Crown Princess of Floralia, and her new parents couldn't be more beaming with joy. That night, a month to the day of her arrival, the couple carried baby Pikiria to their beloved garden and showed her all of the spectacular plants there. Then, with the Dream Seed still in their possession, they broke tradition and planted it in the center of the garden to represent the arrival of their daughter, the moment of their newest great miracle. The somewhat newly-wed couple were well aware that there would be several difficult moments on the road ahead. Not only were they now taking care of a baby from a species they hardly understood one bit, but they also had to take care of a long-troubled kingdom and attempt to make up for the damage of their past rulers. There were definitely hectic times ahead, but Sectonia and Taranza were ready for them, and in the moment, they were overjoyed and excited to start raising Princess Pikiria, their great little miracle.
