"No...Please...Why are you doing this? Aaaah!" an anguished plea escaped the prone fairy.

"Why am I doing this? You Ask. Well, that is answered simply... Because I can!"

"You are mad!" screamed the fairy

"Mad? No, my dear Sugar Plum, I am not mad at all. I simply see things clearly for the first time. Now relax my dear this will only hurt a little." he laughed manically.

The fairy's screams rose as each of her wings was pulled from her back. With the removal of each in turn her magic was drained and collected by the purple crystal that was held in the assailants hand. The blood flowed down the back of the fairy staining her mint colored gown a dark crimson.

"Now my dear your power is mine and I shall use it to rule this land better than you ever could." grasping the sides of her head he kissed her on the forehead. With a twist of his hands the fairy's neck snapped and her body fell limp.

The assassin laid the fairy's dead body onto the floor and waived his hands over it. The body began to glow with a faint yellow light that grew brighter by the second until there was not a shadow in the room.  The body exploded sending pieces of flesh and bone around the room leaving nothing but a bloody stain on the floor. Around the stain, he neatly arranged the wings that had been unceremoniously removed from the fairy. Satisfied with his work, he turned and walked out the door into the night.

The path before him was lighted by the glow of the pale marshmallow moon that hung low on this night. He took in a deep breath, he could taste the sweetness of the gumdrop bushes as he passed. His plan had been set in motion. By this time tomorrow he would sit upon the candy throne and he, Anise, would be crowned the new king of Sugarland.

For too many years, the rule of the Sugar Plum Fairy had cast a glaze over the land. Hiding the true pain and misery under a thin candy shell, but no more. He would restore order to this land, and anyone that stood in his way would be eliminated.

Anise soon arrived home in the licorice forest where he gathered his troops for the invasion of the kingdom.

"With the Sugar Plum Fairy dead, there is nothing to stop us from taking back what was once ours." He began, to the delight of the assembled crowd. 

"No more will we be fed the sugar-coated lies that have rotted the nation for years." The crowd began to murmur as he continued. 

"Tomorrow we unite the land once more from the Peppermint Forest to the Cotton Candy Mountains. I promise you now, I will be just in all I do and we shall once again live in peace."

The masses burst into cheers raising their lolly pop sticks and mint spears above their heads as one.

Anise could not sleep, his nerves were on end. He was certain that his plan would work, but at what cost. He had done the unthinkable by luring the Sugar Plum Fairy into the gingerbread cottage where he was able to subdue her and steal her magic as well as put and end to her reign of terror.

The problem was she still had plenty of supporters, out there that were still under her spell. Many innocent people who would join his cause if their will was still there own.

He hoped that by capturing the fairy's power into the crystal that the spell would be instantly broken. However, this was not the case. His scouts had reported that everything in the capital was status quo. His only hope now was to find a way to reverse the evil magic that enslaved the people.

This was no easy task though, he was not magically inclined. It was the witch of Soda Pop bog that had given him the crystal and taught him how to use it to inprison the power that it now held. She had not however, shown him how to use said power, nor was he inclined to.