Trapped in a cave

A/N: This is my first one-shot. Basically, Star and Marco get trapped together on a desert world, in a cave. What happens? Why don't we see how they ended up there in the first place.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea for this particular story, and the OC characters that may or may not use again.

Marco PoV
How did we end up here? "Cupcake blast!" Star casts, shooting a multitude of deadly cupcakes at the enemy.

"It's not working!" She shouts, dodging a blast of white, that impacted on the stone wall behind us, turning into spikes of ice.

"Star run!" I say, grabbing her hand and running into a cave. Well, it's more like a collapse well that has an opening barely big enough for Star and me to squeeze through. Once we're in, the knights in cold steel and silver armor, helmet covering his face with a skull like design look in behind us.

(A/N: Looks like the Wild Huntsmen from the Witcher 3:Wild hunt)

"Shar'kar ni'li ka'sa!" It says in it's alien language, voice deep and soft at the same time. Kind of like Voldemort, no, say on topic!

"Marco get back!" Star says, pulling me out of the way and pointing her wand at the knight. "Super turbo fire bird!" she shouts and a phoenix shoots out, blowing up when it hits the knight, and sending us flying back. Once the smoke clears we see the entrance a pile of rubble. "Uh oh… whoops," Star says. "Well… at least we have a breather."

Again…. how did we end up here?

Earlier that day, Earth, near after school. Still Marco's PoV

"Ok class," Ms. Skullnick said, "most of you did a pathetic job, and yes! Even you Star Butterfly," She said pointing to Star with her math test. Ouch. "But," she said relenting, "Slightly less so than last time, you get a D-" She placed her test on Star's desk. She gasped and her eyes went wide and sparkly like it always does when she's excited or extremely happy. "But that's barely passing. Keep studying." And then she goes on to passing out the rest of the tests. I of course, got an A+... with a smily face :)

The bell rang and everyone stuffed their belongings into their backpacks and ran for the door. After I put everything away, I waited for Star to carefully put her paper away, and we both walked out of school.

Once outside, she could barely contain her excitement. "MARCO! MARCO! MARCO! I DID IT!" She shouted, pulling her test out. "I actually passed!... Kind of!" She was so excited that her wand acted on it's own, and fired off sparks the weird little animals that she creates sometimes.
"Star! Calm down, it's just a D. It's not bad, but not exactly good either," I say trying to calm her down. "You still need to study to get a good grade, and GPA."

"I have NO idea what you're talking about!" She says happily.

I sigh. "I know you don't," I said. "But still, when the next test comes around, I'll help you out."

"Ok!" She said. "But first, we need to celebrate! Come on!" She grabs out her dimensional scissors and cuts open a portal.

"But, wha, wait!" I try protesting before she grabbed my arm and threw me in.

On the other side, we find ourselves in the cloudy club of the Bounce Lounge. "Star, what are we doing here? I nearly died the last time!" I say to her.

"Aw, come on!" She says hopping through the portal. It closes behind her, and she makes her way to a bar cloud. "We need to celebrate in a good way! Come on, let's get something to drink."

"But I don't drink alcohol," I say. "And you shouldn't either!"

"Don't worry Marco," she says, "I know we shouldn't drink stuff like that, this place cards anyway."

"Wait wait wait," I say, "alternate dimensions have such a thing like plastic card identification?"

"... I have no idea what words you just said," she says, slightly confused. "But yes, everyone has an ID. It's called your face!" She says, and then touches one of her heart marks on her face. And a square card with her smiling face, and a bunch of her information.

"Um…" I think my mind just blew up.

"You got one too!" She says poking my cheek where my birthmark is. "Um…" she pokes it some more.

"Star," I say grabbing her hand, "I'm not magic, remember?"

"Ohhhhh," she says. "Neat." She stares at me, and her face blushes a bit. "Um, Marco?"

"Yeah Star?"

"Mind giving me my hand back?"

"Oh!" I say quickly dropping her hand and jumping away. "Um, right, drinks!" I say, face feeling like molten lava, "What kind of stuff do they have that's non-alcoholic?"

"Oh a bunch of stuff!" she says pulling on my arm. Once we get to the bar, the bartender said, "Ah! S. Butterfly! What can I do for you today?" He asked with a slight surfer accent. He was a tallish blue alien dude, with ram horns poking out of his forehead, and yellow hair. He was also dressed in a semi formal suite.

"Just two of the usuals Jasper!" Star says happily, still a bit red.

"You got it!" He points at her, and makes a 'chick-chick' sound. "Two Purple Whatevers, coming right up!" Then he walks down the bar a bit, and starts making two cups of whatever he just said.

"Uh, Star?" I ask. "Whats a Purple whatever?"

"It's a drink silly," she says, kind of playing.

"Yeah, I know, but what's in it?" I ask as the bartender, Jasper, come up and hands me a cup of this purple looking syrup with a mini umbrella.

"Oh I am so glad you asked, friend of Star Butterfly," Jasper said. "It's a mixture of honey, maple syrup, grapes, porcupine juice-"

"What!?"

"A little bit of this spicy sauce, buttered fingers, ice and an umbrella. Pretty simple, and must have for our underage patrons." He walks away to tend to some other people who came and sat down at the bar.

"Star!" I say, admittedly whining a bit. "What did you have that guy make me? Is it poisonous to humans!?"

"What? No! Of course not silly," she says, picking up a couple of straws from a dispenser and putting one in her drink. She takes big sip and sighs. "Gosh I needed that!" She says content.

"Umm… What about the thing called 'porcupine juice'?" I ask.

"Oh, well, on some dimensions, porcupine quills are poisonous," She takes another sip.

"WHAT!"

"Don't worry, it's like an earth bee sting. Some people use it to treat things like arthritis and headaches." She takes another sip. "But if you boil them down, and add this herb, that's actually kind of like earth mint, you get porcupine juice. It's like soda, only it's not fizzy."

I look down at my drink. "And it's not poisonous?" I ask double checking. She makes an "Mmhmm," sound through her straw. Making up my mind, I put the straw she handed me in and took a sip. "Wow," I say. "Tastes just like hot chocolate!" If hot chocolate was made out of grapes, then yeah, this would be exactly this! "Seriously!" Sip. "If it wasn't for the fact that it tastes like grapes," another sip, "it would be just like the hot chocolate that mi Abuela makes!"

Star laughs. I look at her, and she's shaking her head, but good naturally with a smile. "Well, to Abuela's!" she toasts.

"To Abuela," I toast back, and clink our glasses.

After we finish our drinks Star hits the dance floor and starts tearing it up. At one point she pulls me in and starts spinning me around like she did when we were here with Pony Head last time. After that, we both went to a really comfortable cloud couch and sat down, both of us panting heavily. "Man," she says, "I think this was my best idea yet!"

"I'll bet," I say. "Hey, the day's still young back on Earth, right?"

"Oh yeah," she nods.

"Ok, well, how about we kill some more time here, and then see what else there is in the universe to do?"
"Sounds good! Come on, let's get one more song in!" She grabs me again, but I stop her.

"Hey, where do they get their music from?" I ask.

"Oh, all over! They have this type of magical computer that searches and translates whatever language and dialect, and plays the song from that dimension! Kind of like that youtube thing you showed me last week."

"Ok, go on the dance floor, and I'll get you a song."

"Don't you mean, 'us a song'?" She asks with a confused smile.

"Uh, naw," I say. "I much rather watch you dance, I'm all danced out."

"Oh, so you wanna watch me,eh?" She says with a smirk. I start to blush and splutter, but she laughs it off and says, "It's fine Marco! I just wanted to see the look on your face!" Then she skips off and starts to dance.

I watch for a few seconds, completely dumbfounded, then shake it off. Star can be diabolical when she wants to be. But, I get up and make my way around the dancefloor, aware of Star watching me as she's dancing, and make it to the DJ booth.

"Hey, dude!" I ask the blue DJ. He looks kind of like Jasper, but his hair is red, or what I can see is red, he has most of it under a backwards cap. The rest of his attire is that of a basic DJ, baggy pants, a white undershirt with a black T over it, gold chains, sunglasses and headphones.

"What up?" He shouts over the music.

"Can I make a request?" I shout back.

"Sure! Your request will be… number 43!" he shouts.

"What!? No no, um, how much to skip ahead?" I ask pulling out my wallet.

"43 Ruuples," he says holding a hand out, with a 'gimme' gesture.

"Umm…. how much in Earth american? I only have Earth currency, and I'm not familiar with interdimensional trades." I hold out a 5 and a 20, part of the hundred and fifty that I had for the rest of the weekend, but since it's Friday back on Earth, it is the weekend.

The DJ's eyes go wide and he smiles and starts to sweat. "Did you say… Earth?" he asks.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Dude! You are my new best friend! I go to Earth all the time! And the currency from any country is worth 10 times as much in this dimension! And the currency for this dimension is worth more in others! Look bro, I was gonna stiff you when you pulled out the money-"

"What?!"

"But from one bro to another, and the fact that the girl that came with you is eyeing you, don't look!" He says as I was about to look at the dance floor. "Don't look, but, give me the 20, and you'll be set up for the next 20 times you come in. Sound good bro?"

"Um… sure, why not?"

"Ok, what song you craving?"

"How about… Light em' up by Fall out boy! Earth dimension."

"You got it bro!"(I was having trouble deciding between that, and Where did the party go, also by Fall out boy.)

He types on his computer, a laptop, and messes with his DJ equipment, and winks at me. "It'll come on after this song! Why don't you go and get a drink for you and your lady?"

I nodded as the song I requested came on. As I make my way over to the bar, I see Star looking at me as this song comes on. She grins widely and starts to dance, she motions for me to come and join her, but I shake my head and point to the bar. She nods, and continues to dance.

Everyone started to dance like they were at a rave back on Earth, they put their fist in the air, and moved in place, not really stepping dancing, but just curving their bodies and banging their heads to the beat. And Star was a MASTER at it. Looked like fun actually.

I turn to the bartender and say, "Hey, uh, Jasper, right?"

"Yup," he says smiling, but it looks strained.

"Can I get two more of those Purple Whatevers?" I ask with a smile.

"Sure thing, braw," he says. Typical surfer dude. "Hey, dude," he asked.

"Marco," I correct him. He starts to put a bunch of stuff in a martini shaker, namely honey and grape juice.

"Yeah, whatever," he grunts out. "How do you know Star Butterfly?" He asks, not taking his eyes off of his work. But the look in them is kind of hard.

"What?"

"How do you know her," he slams down the shaker and looks at me.

"Woah dude, take it easy!"

"Listen boy," he says pointing a finger at me, "if I find out that you hurt one hair on her head, I will personally decapitate you, with this." His other hand brought out a golden sword from under the bar.

"WOAH!" I say leaping up and putting my hands up in a 'I give up' way. "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!?"

"Making sure you see the point," he says, and brings the tip of his sword to eye level. "Here it is!" He says happily and tosses the sword over his shoulder. "Sit down," he says as the sword clatters to the ground. I do as he says, and he goes back to making the drinks. "Listen pal," he says, "I'm a cook for the castle at in Mewniee, this is a part time gig. I have been for the past 20 years, and I literally watched Princess Butterfly grow up," he points to the dance floor, and I look to see Star dancing to a new song. I don't know what it is, but it also sounds like it's from Earth. "And I've seen the type of guys she's into. This one dude named Tom, total cunt." I shoot a look at him, but he just shrugs. "Look, the point is, just treat her well, and we won't have a problem."

"Dude, what are you saying? I'm not with Star-with Star, she's my best friend, and my housemate. Her parents sent her to Earth and she's been living with me and my family."

"Oh…" he says. "Well this is awkward."

"Yeah, no kidding," I deadpan. "Look, whatever. I'll let the whole 'sword thing' slide, and in return, no charge on the drinks?"

"Star's tab goes straight to the kingdom of Mewniee. All her drinks are for free," he says pouring the Purple Whatevers into a few glasses.

"Oh," I say.

"But I will give you some free advice," he places a mini umbrella in them, and pushes one towards me. "Don't wuss out," he says.

"What?" I say, completely confused.

"With Star, don't wuss out. I seen the way she looks at you, and I see the way you look at her. And I've only known you for, like, 5 minutes, but I know Star like the back of my hand. She likes you, you like her. It's obvious. And I mean, I would have gone for her if I wasn't so much older."

"How old are you? You look 19."

"My species age differently than yours do. I may look young, but my years are 5 times that of you or Star. To you, I would be a 129 years old," he shrugs at my face. "And if I was one of 'those' guys, I would have taken Star, and when I was done, chuck her away like yesterday's garbage," he smiles when he sees my face. "See, you do like her. Point is, if I had the chance to be with Star, I would take it, but I hold back because I'm so much older. And I mean, in long terms, by the time she would be 90, I would look like I'm still in my 20's."

"Well…" I say, struggling for something to say, "at least you aren't one of 'those' guys," I say making finger quotes, and take a sip of my drink.

"Oh, I would have gotten all up in there either way," that make me splutter and he laughed like hell. "Dude, you need to lighten up. Listen to the music, loosen up, and think about what I said." And with that, he left to tend to the other patrons at the bar.

I take another sip of my drink, and look to the dance floor. She's dancing to an upbeat Earth song, and I can't help but smile. Yes, I admit, I do like her, but, she's a princess. I thought the only reason why she puts up with me is because she has nowhere else to go on Earth. But… if what Jasper said is true, then, maybe…. I look at Star again, so carefree, dancing to foreign music like it was her own, and I smile.

Maybe, I think as I sip my drink and close my eyes, head baning softly to the beat of the music. When I open my eyes, I don't see Star, on the dance floor. I look around, and spot her sitting with a shady guy in a hoodie. Their playing a card game.

I take her drink and go over to where she is. "Hey Star," I say placing her drink down. "What are you doing?"

"Shuush Marco," she chided me. "I'm trying to concentrate." She then bends down, so her face is hidden by her cards from the stranger.

"Um, concentrate on what?" I ask.

"This guy says that he has a map to a secret dimension. I wanna see it."

"So… you're gonna play him at cards for it?"

"Yup!"

"Do you even have a poker fa- WOAH!" I whisper shout. It looks just like poker cards, but only the hearts are the same. The diamonds, shamrocks and spades are instead replaced by an hourglass, a scepter looking thing, and a crown. And she has 3 kings of crowns, and Ace, and an 8 of hourglass. 3 of a kind.

"Wow, Star, are you cheating?"

"Nope!" She said proudly.

"Ok," the stranger said. "Let's see what you got." He has a soft voice, kind of gravely, like he hadn't had a drink of water in a while.

"Ok," Star said giddily. "Read em' and weep!" She showed her hand and waited for the stranger.

He looked at his hand, tapped the cards on the table and said, "I fold," placing his cards face down. "Looks like I lose Princess Butterfly, here are your winnings." He reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a rolled up piece of parchment. "You just unfold it and place your dimensional scissors near it. It'll automatically know where this location is and take you to it. And once you know where it is, you'll always know where it is." He places the map where the pot usually goes. "Oh, and a warning. The world may be dead, but it hides a terrible danger, tread lightly, and you may be finding what ever that world may hide."

He then took out his own pair of scissors and cut open a red portal. He bowed to Star and stepped through.

Once he was gone, Star snatched up the map and unrolled it. And… for a better or worse word, it looked like gibberish. "What is this?" I ask. It had a bunch of dots and dashed lines connecting some of them, and some circular diagrams.

"It's a Star Map!" She said excitedly. "Ancient dimensional travelers would use magic to open portals or travel through space, they would make these maps. Their magic, and anyone who can decipher them can learn where to go!"

"And do you know how to read it?" I ask, going over to where that guy put down his cards.

"Nope!" She said proudly.

"I thought so," I said.

"But I know something that does! Blegh!" I look up to see her tongue out, holding her dimensional scissors. She lays the map flat on the table, and puts the scissors on them. They start to glow, and the illustrations on the Star Map began to move around. "This will take a minute," she said sitting down.

"Hmm," I say, and pick up the cards. And what I see makes my breath hitch and eyes go wide. "Um, Star? Can you take a look at this, like, right now!?"
She gets up and piers over my shoulder. Then her eyes go wide. "Is that a…"

"Winning hand," I finish for her. He had a Royal Flush. A 10 of hourglass, an Ace and all three royal cards; Jack, Queen and King. "Star, I think he took a dive."

"What? But there's no pool here," then she gasped. "Unless he went to a pool dimension! I think I know which one he went to!"

"No! Star, I think he took a dive as in he lost on purpose! He wanted you to win to get that map!"

We both look at the map, the diagrams on it still moving around, and the scissors glowing. Finally, they stop, and it's just normal looking scissors and old parchment.

"Didn't he say that the world was dead?" I ask.

"Yep," she replies.

"And that there's a danger there still?"

"Yeah."

"But we're still going… aren't we?"

"Oh yeah," she exclaims, going over to pick up the scissors and cuts open a portal. It looks muted grey, like old paper about to fall apart. "Come on, I thought you wanted a little danga' in your life?" She says.

"Star," I say warningly, "don't go there!"

"Oh come on, you actually want to be called Safe Kid?"

"That's it! Come on, let's go!" I say marching to the portal.

"That's what I like to see Wild Man," She says smugly from behind me.

"Shut it princess," I say. "And let's see what this world is hiding."

Going through the portal felt… cold. Usually it's just like stepping through a door with a really bright light. But this took a few seconds, and it sucked all the warmth out of my body. On the other side, we find ourselves shivering in a barren wasteland valley, with mountains far in the distance . All around us is nothing but dust, and craters. But some of the dirt around the craters look like scorch marks. Overhead the sun is slightly obscured by a low hanging overcast, giving the sun a muted look. Like it doesn't want to shine down and warm up the planet.

"Ok…" I say. "So, dead world. Neat."

"Yeaaaaah," Star says as the portal closes. "Neat is a kind of strong word here…. Whats that?"

"Whats what- Ohhhhh!" Directly behind us is the only structure as far as the eye can see, besides the mountains. It's a castle. A old medieval looking castle. It was surrounded by a wall and draw bridge, which was down, and a basic square building and four towers. It must have been a base or something, because it doesn't really have the flair that most noble castles have.

"Well," I say, "At least there was civilization here at one point."

"Yeah… let's go to it," she says, already walking towards the dead building.

"Wait, what? Are you sure Star? What about the danger that the guy said?"

"Well, it's either the scary falling apart castle, or the miles and miles of empty wasteland!" She throws her hands up in the air.

I take a look around, and say, "Good point. To the scary castle with possible dangers it is."

But after about 10 minutes of walking, and we still haven't reached it. "Um, Star? Is it me, or are we going nowhere? Are we on some kind of magic treadmill?" I say looking at the bottom of my shoes.

"No," she says, sounding a bit disappointed actually. "It's probably really far away."

"Right… wait," I say realizing something. "If it's just really far away, wouldn't it be smaller looking then?"

"Umm… yeah?" She says not getting it.

"But we've been walking for a while, and it hasn't gotten any bigger," I say trying to hint at something.

"Um, should it?"

"Ugh," I face palm. "Star, if we've been walking all this time, and it looks like it's just a few feet away, and we still haven't gotten to it, that means it's huge!"

"What?"

"Yeah, this is the relative size of what it is and it looks like that because of the distance we are from it! If so," I say looking at the castle. It only looks to be about 4 stories tall, but we haven't gotten any closer to it. "It must be huge." I finish.

"Um, how huge?"

I don;t answer, then, "I don't' know. Really huge."

"Oh, then in that case," she grabs my arm in a death grip and readies her wand. "Turbo nuclear bunny rocket blast!"

"Wait, Star! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I yell as an explosion of bunnies propel us into the air. After I got use to it, and stopped screaming, I noticed that the ground is zipping by us at break neck speeds, and the castle is steadily growing in the distance. "Woah… yeah, this was a good idea Star!" I shout over the wind.

"I know! Thanks!"

Soon, we touch down at the draw bridge, and marvel at how huge the structure is.

"Why would they bother building a wall… when it would take weeks to siege this place!" I say staring straight up the vertical surface of the stone wall.

"I know right… how tall do you think it is?"

"I… I don't know. I can't even see where it ends! It kind of just blends in with the sky, but… it has to be over 200 stories tall!"

"Hmm… Hey Marco?" Star asks.

"Yes Star?"

"How tall is a story?"

"I… I don't actually know," I said dumbfounded. "Um, but, my house is 2 stories, 4 with your room. Imagine that, over 200 times stacked on top of each other, and you get this," I say gesturing to the massive wall in front of us.

"Oh… cool," she says and then starts walking. I was about to protest, but seeing as there would be no point trying to talk her out of this, and not wanting to really go myself, I just follow here.

The second we step through the arch, it was about 30 feet worth of tunnel, we stepped in this massive courtyard, that held the ruins of a town.

"Woah, this looks kind of your home town when we visited Mewniee!" I say.

"Yeah… right up to the ridiculously huge castle that smack dab in the middle," she says. "Come on Marco, let's go to the top."

"Ok," I say following her. Soon, with every step it feels like we're plunging into a deep freezer in the dead of winter. "Brrr," I say, pulling the strings of my hoodie tighter. "Is it me, or is it getting really cold?"

"Y-y-yeah, i-it is," Star says shivering.

"Star!" I say, beginning to unzip my hoodie, "here, let me,"

"N-no no!" She says stopping me. "I-I got i-i-it!" She brings out her wand and says, "Princess style warm jacket!" Her wand zaps an elegant looking blue jacket with a tail coat on her, complete with new pants, boots that's styled in her usual ones, gloves and earmuffs.(A/N: Looks like the genderbent version of Star in Mewniee, am I spelling that right? Look it up on deviantart) "Ah, that's better!" She exclaims. "What do you think Marco?" She asks doing a bit of a twirl. Her golden blond hair and tail coat fanning out as she does so.

"Amazing," I mutter.

"Huh? I didn't hear you!" she says, still spinning.

"Oh, uh, I said you look nice! Great actually," stop talking! I tell myself. " Come on Star, we're burning daylight!... And I think we left our stuff back at the Bounce Lounge."

"Nope! I got it! Give Marco's' stuff back!" she cast and my backpack appeared in a flash of light.

"Woah… when did you do take my backpack?" I ask slipping it on.

"After I threw you into the portal, you dropped your stuff back on Earth, I just zapped it into my wand for storage use! I use it for other stuff too, like snacks!" She flicked her wand and a bag of doritos appeared in her hand. She opens them and starts munching. "Mmm… want some?" She offers the bag to me. I take a few chips and she says, "Great!" She zaps the chips back to non-existent. "Let's go!"

After about 15 minutes we find ourselves going up these stairs, and up to this really big entrance to the castle. Guarding the doors are these twin statues of these hooded druid looking people with wooden staves. They're both at least 50 feet tall, and I get a sense of foreboding as their empty, permanently set in a scowl face leers down at me.

But swallowing my fear, I push on in with Star.

On the inside of the castle, it's even colder, so cold that my breath mists in the open air. But I put it out of mind as I survey our surrounding. It's not too hard to imagine what this place would have been like back in it's prime. We walked into a grand entrance hall that looks like a ball room. The marble tiles are faded, not shiny, but still smooth, the pillars are still adorned with decorations and ribbons that tie to the other pillars, some have snapped, but most are still there. On the walls are these tapestries of this once vibrant blue, gold green and other colors. The edges are a bit threadbare, but it's still holding together.

"Wow," I say. The tapestries depict a prosperous, kingdom. In the middle of the one on the left, shows a bearded man with a crown and elegant red and white cloak around his shoulders, having his left hand held up, and seemed to be holding the sun like a torch. The rays from the sun are depicted as lines shining down on a the village below, and the fields around outside the city, but no wall. Further down, where the lines seem to reach their limit, are the mountains with black storm clouds and red lightning.

"Hmm… I think this one is telling a story of the kingdom itself," I say pointing to the one on my right. "And that one," I point to the left. I walk over a bit to get a better look, but trip over something. I look down to see a pile of dust, and some golden armor. I tripped over the breast plate, and the shield. "Woah, looks like someone died here…. AND I TRIPPED OVER THEIR REMAINS!" I say freaking out.

"Marco! Marco! It's ok!" Star says coming over to comfort me. "I don't think he'd mind, seeing as you kind of dislodged the thing that killed him," she points to a line on the armor, to a silver sword that could have fit. "See?"

"Oh yeah… still though, that's kind of disrespectful."

"Marco, we're in a battle field. There's no such thing as disrespectful here," she says, going into warrior mode.

"I… I guess you're right," I said not really wanting to pick a fight with 'Princess Kukie Pants'.

"Darn tootin I'm right! Now, pick up that sword and avenge this fallen soldier!"

"Um… how do you know that he's not the invader?" I ask not really wanting to pick up a murder weapon.

"Because of that," she points to the other tapestrie.

I look to see it depict the city in the middle, with it's walls half built, and it's army defending against some silver armored invaders. The ones defending were golden armored. The King and the sun he was holding, are standing on top of the castle. Only what it's rays touch, are on fire. In some places are great plumes of fire and smoke, kind of like an explosion. Well, that explains the craters and scorch marks we saw outside. "Oh," I say dumbly. I look down, and pick up the sword. It's about 4 feet long, guarded at the hilt, double edged, and comes to a point. Somehow though…. it's well balanced. It fits perfectly in my hand, and it's not too heavy. "Weird," I say to Star. "It feels great in my hand. Almost natural," I take a few swings and swipes at the air. "It's not even withered or corroded…. Star, I think we should leave, Star? Start?" I look around and see her half way down the hall. "Star!" I exclaim. I put the sword in a side pocket of my backpack, it rips through of course, but the guard keeps it from falling all the way through.

"Star!" I say, panting when I reach her. Though,not from the running, the air is colder than it's ever been, but Star keeps walking forward. I pull my hood over my head, and stuff my hands in my pocket. "Star,what are you doing?"
"I… I think I know this place," she said as if in a trance.

"What?" I say. "Look, never mind, but we have to go. Look," I pull out the sword and show it to her. She looks with half laid eyes. "Star, this metal is still perfectly smooth, the floors are still in good conditions, and the tapestries aren't moth eaten. Star, whatever happened to this world, it happened fast, and it killed everything here! Even the weather! That's why the clouds are like that, that's why nothing is growing, and that's why everything is still the same as if they just left a few days ago. Star, we're in trouble. Star-Star!" I say as she starts walking again.

At the end of the entrance hall are 4 thrones. One is taller than the rest, and the two on the ends of the row are as big as a regular chair. On the biggest chair, I'm assuming it's the kings, a Butterfly was carved into the head of the backboard. "Umm… Star?" I ask.

"This was Mewniee…" she mutters.

"What?"

"This was Mewniee Marco!" She shouts at me. I flinch back. "Sorry," she says. "But, there's this legend that my mother use to tell me, as a bedtime story," she stops and looks at the thrones. "A long, long, looooooong time ago, Mewniee was in a different dimension than it was now. Before, it was set on a world 5 times greater than the one it's at now, which is about the size of Earth," she says looking at Marco. " It was ruled by 10 kingdoms, and the one we're in now, was called Mewniee. And it was ruled by a one, King Draco Tiberius Butterfly." She looks at the tapestry on the left. "He was fabled to be a kind and gentle ruler, like his last name said, but he was also ruthless and cunning when it came to protecting his people."

"And his kingdom?" I ask looking at him blasting the invading army with his sun hand.

"No," She said. "My mom was very specific, just his people. She said that as long as he had his people, he could rebuild his kingdom anywhere. But it was too risky to move all of his people elsewhere, so he built a wall around the city. And when these being my mom called the Scourge invaded, the walls helped but the army was just too massive. Too many soldiers, catapults, mages and technology, he himself had to step in." She pointed to the King on top of the castle. "And it is said that he obliterated the army that day, and gave his own soldiers a fighting chance, but in the end, only a few companies and platoons survived the onslaught."

She starts to walk to the big doors again."But it is said that as the invading army retreated, that the top general of that army swore a blood oath, right there at the city gates, that he will return with unimaginable power and numbers, and slaughter everyone.

"So the King finished his wall, and gathered the top mages from all over the world. And one day, during an eclipsed moon, they performed a ritual to infuse the King with power. Power, my mom said, from the gods themselves. But he didn't use it to destroy the invading army, he used it as a way out for him and his people. On the day of the invasion, dark clouds of pollution and ice announced the presence of the army, so he had his army throw open the gates to the city, and had everyone in the kingdom gather, right here in this entrance hall.

"Here he used his newfound power to tear open a portal to a new land, one without the Scourge. He had his family and a portion of the royal guard go through first, and then the nobles and common folk. And once everyone was though, the general was inside the room with him, and it was said he brought a raging wind with him, making the room feel like it's in the dead of winter, in the most coldest place on the planet.

"The invading general and the King fought to the death after he sealed the portal closed. After that, no one knows what happened, but they say that with his dying breath and life, he use his magic to seal the Scourge in this world forever, never to age, or die, but to just stay here for the rest of forever!"

By the time she was done, we were at the front doors again. "That armor you tripped on was probably King Draco, and the blade you pulled out was probably the invading general… I don't know his name."

"Maybe it is General Kai'shah'hall!" A voice hisses.

Feeling cold dread in the pit of our stomach, we both turn to see a knight in silver armor, and skull like helmet and visor, standing halfway down the hall. With a golden crown atop his head. "And yes dear boy, that sword is indeed mine. But don't worry, you can keep it. At least until I kill you and take it myself." Two more knights come out from somewhere behind him. "Take them!" he shouts and the two men charge. From what I see, one is a heavy set man, maybe about 6"2, with a giant sword strapped to his back, which he pulled out and started running.

The other one was still studded in silver armor, but more of a robe, skirt and he's holding a staff with a glowing blue snow globe looking thing on top of it. He's also significantly shorter than the brute, but still just as fast.

The mage guy points his staff at us and shouts, "Eeese, glom'lo!" and a blue energy orb fires at us.

Start jumps in front of me and shouts, "Shield!" And a see through film of energy comes out of her wand where the orb explodes into ice spikes. "Narwhal blast!" She shouts and blasts through the ice with deadly fishes. It hits the mage by surprise, but the brute keeps coming. "Glitter dragon extention bridge!" A sparkly blue dragon with wooden planks in it's form shoots out of Stars wand, and slams on top of the brute, or it would have if he didn't jump out of the way and started running on the back of the dragon. "Explode!" Star shouted and the dragons wood planks started to explode, throwing the knight in the air, leaving a trail of glitter mist and clouds.

"Hmm…" The general said. Given the distance, his voice somehow carries. "I did not expect this. King Butterfly's legacy continues ey. I thought I saw him throw something in the portal before he sealed us in this accursed world. No matter, once I destroy you, I will have that power for myself, and be rid of this place."

"Hmm…" Star says, "nope! Bye!" She grabs my arm and points her wand to the ground. "Turbo bunny rocket blast!" And once again we sail through the air and land at the bottom of the stares.

"What the heck! Star, we need to get out of here!" I shout frantically.

"Yeah, I got that!" She said, digging in her star purse and brought out the dimensional scissors. But hey buzzed, and then the colors on them flickered and dimmed. "WHAT?! Oh no, oh no, oh no! Marco! We need to get out of the city!"

"Yeah, but why can't we just open a portal?" I ask.

"Because of the curse my ancestor put on this place! It's directed at the Scourge so they can't leave the world! And we're too close to him!"

"How does that even make since?" I ask.

Star glances up, then grabs my hand and says, "I'll explain it to you later, run!" She starts to push me as the mage falls out of the sky, "Eeese, glom'lo sha'kar!" He says dive bombing. When he hits, the impact makes more ice. Then he makes it explode as he stands up. The brute fell out of the sky behind them, and the general walks out from between the two.

"These are the last of my forces," He says. "The rest have faded from time, and soon, we will too. But at least we will have some fun, before we are nought but dust. Do as you please, but save some for me," he tells the mage and brute. He walks away as they ready their weapons.

I pull out my sword, and Star readies her wand. "Marco," she whispers to me.

"Yes Star?" I ask shakily.

"We're gonna die if we fight them."

"Yeah, I kind of figured."

"I saw a collapsed well on our way in, I'm gonna cast a smoke screen and a barrier, then we run like hell! Sound like a plan?"

"Sounds like our only plan," I say. "But it's the only one we got. Lead the way princess.

I see her smile out of my peripheral vision. Then she points her wand at them. "Jelly bean hallucination mist!" Out from her wand a spray of blue smoke and floating jelly beans blew between us and the Scourge knights. Once they were out of sight, Star waved her wand in the air and said, "Peanut brittle wall barrier!" A giant wall of see through peanut brittle sprouted from the ground. "Run!" She shouted and grabbed my arm pulling me with her.

We didn't make it more than 10 feet before we heard, "Shar'kar no'lar!" and the wall exploded into a million pieces. "Run, run, run!" She says making it to the courtyard where the entrance is. The bruit fell out of the sky with a "Yaaaar!" I smacked him with my sword, he actually seemed surprised by that because I managed to knock him back, he spun with the force of the hit. " Narwhal blast!" Star shouted knocking him into the air, and he fell into a house.

A lightening bolt sailed over our heads and blew a chunk out of the wall. Star retaliated with, "Cupcake blast!" Star casts, shooting a multitude of deadly cupcakes at the enemy.

"It's not working!" She shouts, dodging a blast of white, that impacted on the stone wall behind us, turning into spikes of ice.

"Star run!" I say, grabbing her hand and running into a cave. Well, it's more like a collapse well that has an opening barely big enough for Star and me to squeeze through. Once we're in, the knights in cold steel and silver armor, helmet covering his face with a skull like design look in behind us.

"Shar'kar ni'li ka'sa!" It says in it's alien language, voice deep and soft at the same time. Kind of like Voldemort, no, say on topic!

"Marco get back!" Star says, pulling me out of the way and pointing her wand at the knight. "Super turbo fire bird!" she shouts and a phoenix shoots out, blowing up when it hits the knight, and sending us flying back. Once the smoke clears we see the entrance a pile of rubble. "Uh oh… whoops," Star says. "Well… at least we have a breather."

Again…. how did we end up here?

…. Oh, I guess it came to full circle now. "Yep, full circle…"

"What was that Marco?" Star asked, lighting up her wand. The well is big and kind of spacious. It smells like mold and moisture,which means that there's water down here, the question is how much and if it's drinkable. "Sorry Star, I was just reliving the day, and the points on how we ended up here."

"Oh…. I'm sorry Marco," she said, looking down. She sits down, and hugs her knees. Then she starts to shake a bit. "I-I'm sorry. So sorry Marco," she sobs out. Oh no.

"Star, no, it's ok, really."

"No it's not!" She wails. "If we had just stayed home and studied like you said, we wouldn't be dying in this tomb and-"

I grab her arms, and force her to look at me. She has tears in her eyes, some snot dribbling out, and I steel myself for what I'm about to do. Don't wuss out, I hear in my head, and then I lean in, and press my lips to Stars. My eyes are closed, but I can feel her stiffen, but then she relaxes and we both melt into each other. (A/N:This is me trying to recreate the scene from SAO, episode… 12 I think? Where Kirito kisses Asuna for the first time, after he just fisted that guy to death XD)

We break apart, and I say with a soft voice, "Star, if we die, then I want to die with a clear conscience. I like you Star. I mean, really, really, reaaaaaaly like like you. In that way. And if I'm gonna die, then I wanna die with you, in your arms. Can I do that?"

She nods dumbly, and leans in for another kiss. Then a voice says, "Oh yes, yes, keep it up, keep kissing. Now, brush her hair," thinking it's my conscience I do exactly that, and Star kind of purrs into my mouth. "Yes… now take her shirt off."

We both snap back, and look around. A bit deeper into the cave is this 12 year old kid watching us from behind a rock. "Oh… you stopped," he said sounding disappointed. He looked like a dirtier, older version of Jeremy. I hate him already.

"What the heck kid!?" I shout, my voice echoing.

"Hmm… blocked the entrance into the city, that you did," he mutters, stepping out from behind the rock and going to the collapsed entrance. "No getting in that-a way. So, might as well sneak out the back, yes we shall," he said rubbing the stones.

"What are you on about?" I ask, groaning from the slight pressure in my lower regions.

"Was enjoying the show, that I was," he said, not looking at us but at the stones as if they were a puzzle, "but then you took notice of me, so, what is little ol' Hugo suppose to do, but take you two to the entrance that's outside the city walls."

"Wait, this place leads out?" Star asked, going up to the boy. "Where? Which direction? Is it short?"

"Woah, woah, calm down Star, let's just take a breather-"

"No,the pretty one is right, ugly one," the boy says.

"Ugly?!"

"We must flee before the snow flinger opens this door up and turn us into chilled treats."

"... Popsicles?" I try to clarify.

"Is that what you call them?" The boy asks. "Wow, it's much better than what I got," he's actually starting to sound normal. Or what passes for normal with a weird hermit that lives underground.

"Umm…. what?"

"I said, let's get out of here, least become popsicles!" He starts to walk off, muttering, "Yeah… popsicles, I quite like that."

Me and Star look at each other and then start to follow the boy.

"So…" Star says, trying to start a conversation. "What's your name?"

"I was given the name Hugo, for my mother's father, and the name Mortimer, for that's my father's surname."

"So, Hugo Mortimer."

"Ay," he confirmed.

"How long have you been here?" I ask.

"Yeah, I mean, according to the legends this place should have been dead for thousands of years!" Star says.

"I have been here for many a 3 months," Hugo says, slipping back into cave hermit. "I came here with my father and twin brother for an expedition, but the Scourge found us, and struck my father and separated me and my brother. I saw them escape through the portal,but I know not of what fate they have had. The blow the brutus dealt to my father looked fatal. I have been living in this cave, feasting on the vermin and fungus that still grows here."

"Ew," Star says.

"Yeah," I agreed, "that cannot be healthy for you."

"Oh it's not, I got dysentery my first week here, but found a moss that cleared that right up, and these mushrooms that make me see colors!" To prove his point, he picks off a yellow mushroom with brown spots off the cave wall and starts to much on it. "Mmmm, ball trippy," he says happily. "These got me through some rough times here my new friends. Want some? We're not coming back here if we make it out."

"Um… no thanks," I say as I slap Star's hand away from the mushrooms. "Aww," she says.

"Eh, suit yourself," Hugo shrugs and fills his pockets with the mushrooms. "The fresher ones don't kick in for at least an hour, the more older ones hit you in less time, and the more dried out ones start almost immediately. I picked a fresh one because I'm gonna need the stamina boost, before you came, I feared that I will not fare well in the coming weeks. I have been growing steadily weaker."

Now that he mentioned it, he was looking a bit gaunt. His cheeks a bit sunken and kind of shallow, and from what's left of his shirt, the ribs showing were clearly visible.

"Come, and stay close. Tread carefully because the area ahead is filled with water. Lot of sharp rocks, unfinished stalagmites and all that. Step where I step."

He was right, soon we slope down to a big pool of water, that goes knee high, and pitch black. We follow Hugo as he makes his way through a zig zaggy path. Another 5 minutes of this and we walk out of the pool and onto a steep climb.

"We are outside the walls now, we go for another mile or so, and come out from under a rock. We should be outside the curses influence for you to open a portal. I have no magic, nor scissors that my father used to bring us here."

"Right, and on the topic of here, why didn't you speak up when you saw us earlier?" I ask, starting to blush at what had happened.

"Yeah!" Star said, her hearts going from cute red to inflamed.

"Well…" he rubs the back of his head. "Puberty and all that, plus you were the first people I had seen in a while. That and given the fact that the only entertainment I have had was running from the Scourge, watching rats fight over scraps of food, and the color mushrooms."

"Mmmmm…. Fair enough," Star says. I shoot her a look, but shrug it off. Heck, if I was in this kids shoes, I would have died a long time ago.

Soon we see light up ahead, and come out between a crevice in some rocks, barely big enough for us to squeeze through one at a time.

"Finally! Fresh air!... Or what passes for fresh in this world," I said breathing in the air that's barely better than the stale air in the cave.

"Yeah, and not a moment too soon," Hugo said.

"Why?" Star asks.

"Because the mushroom starting to hit me," he said stumbling a bit. I go over to catch him, and he smiles and laughs a bit. Then he looks behind me and the smile drops. "Uh oh," he says pointing. I look to see a massive storm cloud forming over the city. "The Scourge is coming. Quick, open the portal so we may leave."

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Star says opening her purse and pulling out her dimensional scissors. Again, they flicker, but this time they flicker on. "Yes!" She shouts.

Looking over see these figures running from the front gate. "Star!" I yell. She looks,yelps and quickly cuts open the portal. In the 10 seconds that happened, they made it more than half the distance. "Quick, help me with Hugo!"

"Levitate!" Star casts on Hugo, then she flicks her wand and he flies through the portal. The Scourge is less than a hundred yards away, and we dash through as well, ending up in front of my house.

Not a second too soon too, because because as soon as we leap through, General Kai leaps, but the portal closes before he could make contact.

I was so relieved that my legs gave out right there. "We made it… WE MADE IT!" I shout jumping up, my fists in the air. "WE WON WE WONWEWON!" I Say grabbing Star and spinning her in the air. She laughs at my antics, but I stop her by stop sinning, and crashing my lips to hers. She kisses back with as much vigor, maybe even more, but once again we are interrupted by Hugo.

"Yes! I'm out! And look at that! Sunlight! The once dreaded star that was a symbol of despair is now a beacon of hope for pore ol' Hugo! YAYYY!" He actually starts running around in circles, until he makes a wrong turn and smacks face first into a telephone pole. He bounces off, a stupid smile on his face, before he crashes into the ground unconscious.

Me and Star look at each other and burst out laughing. Both of us brabbin Hugo under his armpits, we haul him up and walk him inside.

"So…" I start. "I take it that you want to do some more kissing?"

"Oh yeah, definitely," she says with a smile.

"Good. Oh, and just to let you know, I don't plan on ever letting you go," look into her eyes. "Ever."

She smiles, eyes tearing up, but nods and we both drag Hugo inside for some rest and proper food. Plus a shower, because, this dude smells something fierce!

End

A/N: MAN! 18 pages! Shit, that took a long time to get out. I was working on this all day, literally! It's 11:20 at night where I'm at! Jesus, I need sleep. Well as alway, thank you for reading, please read, review, favorite and follow at your own pleasure. This was my very first one shot, if you don't count that Mabel and Bill story I have out, I was planning on continuing it, but I had no idea on how to make that into a story. Hope you guys like it, this has, ONCE again been Bigmike33321 signing off! *BOOP*