|^|Random fandom one-shots|^|

|^|His Little Butterfly|^| -The Amazing Digital Circus

Pomni found herself pacing around outside of the circus tent. Her little bells on her jester hat breaking the silent atmosphere with every step she took.

She could've sworn just a minute ago she was in her bed, trying to get some sleep. Now she was nearing the lake, it's waters eerily still, like it was just another smooth surface.

She never liked it, reminding her that she was trapped in a VR headset, stripped away from the real world. Never again being able to admire the soft waves of a real lake and feel the warm sand under her feet at a bustling beach.

She could almost hear the chatting of people, the music coming from little music boxes, and laughing from children splashing in the water. She tried to picture it all, but was not able capture this lost memory. She sighed in defeat as it began to evaporate, and soon she was left in the deafening silence once more.

Pomni shook off the sadness that was beginning to settle in, this wasn't the first time a memory began to resurface and it sure wasn't going to be the last. It's just, if you can't relieve it to its fullest, then why relive it with just little snippets? It would just make her long for whoever she was before and that could lead to abstraction, which was the last thing she wanted.

Pomni looked across the lake and that's when she noticed a figure on the other side, slouched over like they were sitting. The jester hesitantly crept over, unsure if this entity was friendly or not

When she got closer, the silhouette became more clear, it's features starting to look a bit familiar. It was more slim and lean, it had no arms and whatever legs it does have was covered in a cloth, with it's eyes unevenly popped out of its head.

"K-Kinger?" Pomni called out. But right when she stepped up to the figure, she noticed they didn't have the usual cross on the head of a king chess piece, instead replaced with a pointy crown of a queen piece.

The figure turned to face the jester, and she was met with chocolate brown orbs instead of blue.

Queenie.

Pomni's mouth fell open at the sight of the chess piece. Queenie was meant to be abstracted, appositely lost her sanity before Pomni joined the circus. But she was sitting right in front of the small jester, with not a jagged, black glitch on her.

"Hello, Pomni." Queenie's soft voice broke the silence, startling the said jester.

"Y-you know my name?"

Queenie gave a small nod. "Of course, I know the names of all my royal subjects."

Pomni cocked her head in confusion. "Subjects?"

Queenie sighed. "Usually a queen would her call her subjects "peasants" or "servants" but I could never stoop so slow to call you all that, that's not what a good queen would do."

Pomni almost thought that the queen chess piece sounded as insane as Kinger. But the ora around her gave a sense of wisdom. Like she knew exactly what to say, but just told it in a different way.

"H-how are you here?" Pomni finally decided to ask. "S-shouldn't you be...um...gone?"

Queenie's expression unwavered. "Perhaps, but a part of the queens presence must be left in the memory of her subjects after death. Now under the wing of the lunar moth, I can visit you when you slumber."

"So-wait, this is a dream?" That explains why she wasn't in her bed anymore and the abstracted queen was sitting right in front of her. But what was Queenie doing here, why was Pomni dreaming about her, when she's never even met her before?

Queenie seemed to have read her mind. "Listen, there's a reason why I've called you here tonight." Her voice was edged with worry, making Pomni grow anxious. "The kingdom has been slowly crumbling ever since the end of my story, and I'm worried he doesn't have much time."