Smile Precure: Shining Smiles

Prologue

A dark, rapid figure hurried through a landscape intensely familiar to them. Dead, rotting trees filled the scene, bringing an unwholesome atmosphere- which the rushed figure simply adored. The figure stepped into a small sliver of light, scowling as they did, despite the light not being very bright. The figure looked up, revealing a face half obscured by a white mask that seemed to be almost glued to their face. On their head was a tri-colored jester's hat, composed of the colors red, blue and yellow. They smiled as they lifted a small vial filled with a sinister, yet bright material.

"The Precure were much stronger than we had anticipated, hm? How unfortunate. I regret this deeply, Pierrot, really I do, but I simply think you've gone past the point of no return.. even all the Bad Energy on Earth- think big, the universe- may not save you now."

Joker smiled as he held up the vial.

"This is all that remains of you, is it not? For you, this is barely even a fraction of your power. But.. perhaps if we combined? Yes, it's.."

Joker opened the vial, spilling the remains of Pierrot onto his hand and letting it spread. His hand turned black, but then his hand soaked it up and it reverted to normal. Joker's grin widened.

"It's just enough to defeat the Precure one last time!"

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"But Onii-chan, I don't want to ~kuru!" A high pitched voice complained.

"Don't want to what? As the royal queen you must strive to maintain the kingdom, and part of that means this!" Another one, not as high-pitched, replied.

The two voices in question came from Marchenland's Castle Library. In front of the two fairies was a stack of books, all dusty and dull. The smaller one, who resembled a lamb, was pouting and complaining. Beside her, a slightly taller fairy, orange with a fox's tail and a lion's mane, stood with an exasperated expression on his face. He sighed, trying not to lose ground with his younger sister. She was so young to be leading a Kingdom on her own, so he had to push her in the right direction every now and then. He rubbed his forehead.

"I get it's hard, Candy, but.. the Marchenland has never been more disorderly since .. never! After the Royal Queen was sealed away, the place has never been more chaotic. Now that you're the new Royal Queen, you must live up to your standards! That means studying the history of this kingdom and it's inhabitants. Come on, Candy, please. Do it for Pop?"

Candy couldn't argue with that, but she huffed anyway as she opened one of the books and started dully staring at it. She did this for one second.. two.. three.. until:

"Onii-chan?"

"Yes, Candy?"

"I dunno how to read~kuru!"

Pop mentally slapped himself. He didn't teach her, did he? And how long had Candy been ruling? Almost a year. A queen who couldn't read, and sure as hell couldn't write, was supposed to do all this. How had Candy been managing Marchenland for a year without any background knowledge on reading?

"Majorin and Wollun helped me read~ kuru!"

Pop sighed and mid-sigh, he asked, "They didn't help you read, they read it to you. Alright, Candy, I guess we have to teach you to read before anything else."