It's generally expected that the birth of a baby is cause for celebration. The birth of a princess even moreso. Mewni was no exception.

And for the most part, everyone was happy. The shouts of "It's a girl! It's a princess!" could be heard all over the kingdom; Moon could hear them out her window as she lay exhausted but happy with her child in her arms.

And of course nobody was happier than Moon and River. Moon's shock upon seeing the baby lasted only half a second before it was overtaken with a surge of joy and motherly instinct. She'd held the newborn close, stroking the soft locks of hair she already had, whispering "Nothing bad will ever happen to you. I won't let it, my star."

She found herself repeating the words later, with a tinge of righteous anger, after the Magic High Commission had seen the baby...and had promptly recoiled, exclaiming in shock and horror.

"Did you see it?" Omnitraxus whispered as they all stood outside the royal chambers. River had unceremoniously shoved them out after their reaction to the princess, declaring that Moon and Star needed rest and quiet and to not deal with such a commotion right now. That they were being ridiculous.

They were forced to disagree.

"I did," Hekapoo whispered back, face ashen.

"She has green hair," Rhombulus added, twisting his snakes around each other, eyes going small.

"Did anyone see her eyes-?"

"She opened them at Lekmet. Lekmet, were they-?"

Lekmet bleated numbly.

"Purple," Hekapoo whispered, equally numb. "Like-"

"Let's not panic," said Omnitraxus. "Babies' hair and eyes can change. I remember a princess born with black hair that turned pink before her third month. Maybe this is nothing."

Six months later, nothing had changed. Star had her mother's hair texture, bangs like her mother and father... but in coloration, her hair and eyes were a dead ringer for Eclipsa, the Queen of Darkness's.

It was clearly a bad omen.

Something was wrong, something had to be done.

"Your Majesty," Hekapoo began, holding her hands out palm-up. "You met with... with the Queen of Darkness. There's a possibility that her dark magic could have corrupted your own, and is manifesting in-"

"That's enough!" Moon snapped, holding Star close. "Star is not corrupted or tainted!"

"Of course, that's not what we're saying!" Hekapoo said hastily, even though that had been exactly what she'd said. "The princess is...wonderful, adorable," she added. The words came out like they tasted bitter in her mouth. "But she looks so much like- It's a possibility worth looking into, we should bring in someone - an oracle, a soothsayer - to purge the dark magic out of her-"

"Oh, for pie's sake!" River sat up straighter, brow furrowed. A rare display of anger from the normally jovial king. "There is nothing wrong with our shooting star. Quite frankly, I think this entire conversation is ridiculous - you're all jumping to conclusions based on hair color of all things!"

"Hair color that the evil queen had," Rhombulus helpfully pointed out.

"Neither of you have turquoise hair and light purple eyes," Omnitraxus added. "Not these shades."

River looked exasperated, another rarity for him. "I have a cousin who looks like my great-great-aunt," he said. "And may I remind you that one of Moonpie's baby pictures shows her with purple hair?"

"River is right - genetics are tricky things sometimes. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere down the line there was a baby born with my eyes. Star just happens to look like this, there is no sinister reason for it."

In her mother's lap, Star babbled happily, stretching her fat little arms out towards her audience.

The Magic High Commission took a step back.

"You're afraid of a baby," Moon finished, her tone tinged with exasperation and sadness. "You're being ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with Star, she isn't going to turn out like her."

"With all due respect, Your Majesty...you don't know that," Hekapoo said.

"And neither do you," River said coldly.

Star, finally sensing the atmosphere in the room, looked at her father in distress, her happy babbles turning into whimpers. She reached up, chubby hands grabbing at thin air until River took her form her mother's lap and onto his. Star promptly grabbed a fistful of his beard and shoved it into her mouth.

"The only danger she poses is to someone's hair," Moon said. "You're all panicking over nothing. This meeting is over."

"But-"

"This. Meeting. Is. Over."

Star grew up blissfully unaware of the Magic High Commission's fears. If she noticed how hard they were on her, how cool and distant they acted in comparison to her parents, she said nothing.

She heard many a muffled argument on the other side of heavy doors, usually after she'd had some adventure or other - like the warnicorn incident. But she thought it to be the usual kind of thing. A bunch of 'a princess should act like this,' and whatnot. Nothing out of the ordinary.

(The first time she ventured close to the monsters' forest, she'd been caught by a passing guard. The muffled argument that followed was the loudest she'd ever heard.)

But she thought nothing of it. She could be a handful, she knew that, even if she didn't want to change that just yet. Enjoy her youth and freedom while she could.

Then came the day she got the wand. And her attempts at spells had gone wrong. And she had to be sent elsewhere, to some far-away place called Earth.

That was bothersome enough, but there was something else tugging at the back of her mind, even as she smiled at her new friend and host family, even as she cheerfully introduced herself and played with Earth's neat inventions.

Before she'd been told she was going to earth, there had been yet another argument. But this time she could actually make out some of what they were saying.

An on the magic High Commission's end, there had been a lot of "WE TOLD YOU, WE WARNED YOU," and "EXACTLY LIKE HER."