The Ninth Planet

The day he joined the Planets was the day he got everything he wanted, and lost everything he had.

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The other Stars are cruel. Humans think of them as children of the Light, the cheerful granters of their selfish wishes, but the Stars don't comply. They burn bright, deceptively so.

"It's 1930," one Star says with a sigh. His badge reads Helios. "We must appoint him as a new member of the Planets. The humans have discovered his potential."

I don't see how, he seems to be thinking to himself. 

The second Star, a much nicer girl named Kore, frowns. Her golden hair is adorned with two deep-red flower crowns, like the color of human blood, but she is pleasant enough. She gestures at him worriedly. "But he is still a dwarfed one! This could put him at risk of-"

"Enough!!"

The entire starry convention lapses into dead silence. Several Stars dim considerably. 

"Boy." Helios clears his throat, beckoning him up to one of the transparent milky rings in the center of the dark room. "Introduce yourself. Who you are, whatever you have to say."

He debates stepping onto the huge platform. Charon from behind him gently nudges him on, and he stands there for a while, the darkness getting bigger and the Stars seemingly smaller. It swallows everything, it consumes everything.

"Hi. I'm Pluto. I'm still a dwarf star." He chews his fingernails nervously. "And I don't have as much experience as the other...erm, seniors."

One of the huge Planets, a colossal blue-skinned man, crosses his tanned arms. "Damn right."

His brother, holding a green trident, pushes him slightly. "He has served our pantheon and the Star Convention for a long time, despite most of us not knowing him. I, Neptune, will vouch for him."

"Well, I won't!" Jupiter yells back.

"Let the boy talk!" Helios barks, and the space flares up with white sparks shooting out from his frizzy hair.

"I....I'll accept. It'd be great if I could learn from you seven." Pluto says hopefully, looking at Charon for reassurance. Charon is dwarfed by the other giant Planets, but his black eyes shine with pride. 

Helios doesn't look happy, but he brings out a thick book from a side cabinet.

"Very well." He nods gruffly. "By accepting the decree to become a Planet, issued by the entire human species, relayed to the Star Convention, Pluto will become the ninth Planet."

"A dwarf planet!" Jupiter booms.

"Shut your trap!" Helios snaps, and the room lights up again momentarily. "By doing so, you lose all your privileges as a Star, and prove yourself as a Planet. You isolate yourself from the human world, and serve as a Planet, along with the eight others. As a Planet, you will stay in your place as the last of them, and keep order in the galaxy. Since the humans will never be able to reach your planet-"

"Are we sure about that?" Selene, one of the older Stars says, laughing. Helios glares at his sister, then continues.

"You will maintain the condition of the rocky sphere now named Pluto, after you. Do you accept? This is your final answer."

"Yes," he says.

The eight other senior Planets form a tight circle around him, raising their arms and start to chant in an unfamiliar, haunting language. He catches the unfamiliar, cold glares of all of them, and decides to train his eyes above him, to the Stars.

Before he can regret his final answer, the world boils into a rainbow of colors, and tilts sideways. The Stars disappear into the darkness.

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Pluto wakes up on rocky land. He blearily scans his eyes across the horizon. Nothing but reddish rock and mist. He takes a glance down at his body. Still the same, but his insides aren't. His entire body shudders with hidden, flowing energy, the same energy he felt when he stood near the other Planets. 

"...Hello?" He says uncertainly.

No answer. 

He tries again.

"Hello?? Charon? Neptune? Kore? Anyone?"

The silent wind whips his long hair around his face, and he feels the first pangs of loneliness settle in. 

"I'm here!!" He calls out to the empty air and mist. 

"We know," a deep voice responds at last. Pluto whips around to see the other eight Planets. Jupiter stands in the lead, eyes stormy. 

"This is your planet!?" Saturn snorts as he looks around. "How rocky. How terrible. It looks nothing like all of our surfaces. The size is ridiculously small."

"Just like you," Mercury murmurs at Pluto, eyes glowing molten silver.

"You do not deserve to stand here in our presence, little dwarf." Mars says behind Jupiter. He spits out a clump of red rock and silvery mist. "Your planet is hideous as well."

"Just like you," Mercury repeats.

"The humans are foolish." Venus sings, her voice a lilting accent, tinged with fire. "They have chosen an unfit dwarf to help us keep order in our galaxy. Our pantheon will be in ruins!"

"You all are being insufferable," Neptune protests, then upon seeing Jupiter's frosty glare, shrugs. "I'm just saying! You six teased Uranus to no end when he joined."

"But I had talent and experience," Uranus sniffs disdainfully. "What can this boy do?"

"Maybe the humans were foolish." Pluto blurts out before he can stop himself. "But because they chose you to be Planets. Maybe they'll come to their senses someday and demote you all or something!"

"Take that back," Mars growls, stomping up to him and bunching Pluto's collar into his calloused fists. "You take that back right now, or you'll regret you ever became a Planet, stupid boy!"

The rest of the group stares at Pluto in shock. Jupiter's eyes crackle with barely contained anger. "We'll see about that, Pluto. We'll see about that." He spits. "Come on, you seven."

"But-"

"Neptune, let's go!! Back to our planets, now! He'll regret it after we leave!" Jupiter commands, and the entirety of the planet shakes under his echo. A ringing headache starts to form in Pluto's skull.

The green-skinned man gives one more sad look at Pluto, then vanishes into the reddish clouds, his comforting sea-green glow disappearing with him. Mars shoves Pluto into the dusty ground, and follows Neptune.

He's alone again.

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Minutes, hours pass by. He can't tell, because the sunlight doesn't change. The rocks have scraped Pluto's hands pink. He stands up, furiously swiping them on his black jacket. They don't heal like they did when he was a Star.

"Alright!!" He screams to the sky. "Fine! Be that way!"

Thunder rumbles in the distance. He retreats to a shallow ditch in the ground, wishing the mist could swallow him up. The Planets not liking his new home isn't unprecedented, but as he looks around the frozen landscape, he realizes that he doesn't like it either. It isn't just the planet itself. This eternal loneliness, in the middle of nowhere. The eternal verdict that he will never belong here. Maybe he never really belonged in the first place, even before he had accepted becoming the ninth Planet. Jupiter may be vile, but he is right. 

Pluto regrets everything.