The night was silent and the moons shone softly, their gentle light offering little illumination for the world under its gaze, instead casting a beautiful but slight blue hue to the forest below. The land was peaceful and the Stars littered the dark space above, providing the perfect background for the ethereal beauty that was the Mewnian evening sky. The planet was in slumber and plants littered the land, creating a beautiful habitat for the various creatures that called it home. Its tallest trees high enough to touch the clouds and thick enough to house a family of four, its smallest plants as beautiful as they are fragile. During the day the forest would be alive with colour and energy, a cacophony of sounds acting as a marvellous morning call for the neighbouring kingdom. Now though it rested, the night was still, the forest was calm and the planet rested. All is well…
"STAAAR!" A voice cut through the still like a great sword through flesh, carrying for miles around, hushed though it was. "We're almost there but you need to keep it down in there, no one can know we're here and you never know when someone might be listening."
A lone carriage rocketed down an old dirt path, carving through the forest with incredible speeds. Its driver and lone passenger, Queen and Princess of Mewni, followed the usually hidden path through the forest in great haste. The secret path was now marked by a number magical constructs, waist height pillars with glowing blue diamond at the tip. They needed to get to their destination before it was too late.
"I know mom, I know" the passenger and princess of Mewni, Star Butterfly, huffed in return clearly not taking the warning particularly seriously. Casting one last forlorn back at her magic wand and the projection of her once best-friend and recently crush conjured by the dark magic of the spying spell. She watched him for a moment longer. His head was downcast and his lips pulled into what seemed a permanent frown. His hair and clothing were terribly messy, clearly not having been a priority for a while. What hurt Star the most though despite his terribly appearance, were his eyes.
While his face may have never been expressive as her own, it was his eyes that she always loved the most about him. 'Eyes are the window to the sole' and nowhere was this more true than with Marco Diaz of Earth. No matter what bravado he put up, whatever trick he tried to play or cover he tried to tell his eyes always gave him away. She always loved them, she loved their warmth and their gentle nature. She loved the way they lit up whenever they rested on her, she loved the way they always told her what his mouth could not or would not. His eyes were so vitally important to who he was, always warm and always caring and affectionate, especially to her, regardless of what ever she put them through. But now they were sad and dull and it was she who had broken them.
Once happy and joyful, now they were downtrodden and depressed. What had once been full of life was now entirely vacant of it as if it had never existed in the first place and she had done this to him. By admitting to him that she liked him and leaving his planet perhaps forever immediately afterwards without as much as a word to explain herself she had broken her best friend more than any monster or social insecurity could ever have done. But she knew it was what was best, he couldn't be involved in what she was about to do, for his sake and safety. And when she was done, her kingdom safe and the fight won, then she could go back to Earth, back to Marco. She would make things up with him, get over her feelings and they could go on being best friends. 'Hopefully…'
"Good bye Marco…" With a heavy heart she swiped her hand through the projection and cast away the image of her best friend for perhaps the last time. No longer able to watch his suffering Star reached around her back and grabbed at the red sleeve of a hoodie she had tied around her neck like a cape before leaving, one of Marco's. Taking a fistful of the soft material for comfort she sat in the cramped carriage and allowed the tears to fall from her eyes knowing that in this moment, no one could see her weakness. She always had to be strong, be it for her parents, for her peers or for her people; she had never been able to truly be herself around anyone. There was no one who she trusted enough to see her for who she truly was, except of course for the one she had just left behind.
Tears continued to fall from her eyes for the next hour as she tried to deal with the emotional baggage and pain of leaving behind the happiness of her Earth life, the freedoms and the loves no longer available to her and may never be ever again. The Queen at the front of the warnicorn drawn carriage was guiding it threw the dense brush and trees of the forest as fast as the mewnian warnicorn could take it knowing their time was almost up. The magical beast was already beginning to tire and the carriage was beginning to falter under the speeds. But on she went, pushing down all the motherly fear she held for her daughter with a vengeance knowing that if any of them surfaced she wouldn't be able to get them and the bodies of the Magical High Commission to the Butterfly Sanctuary before the magic died and the path was lost.
Unfortunately it was not to be and in an instant their warnicorn gave its last breath before disappearing out of existence with a small pop and a cloud of smoke before the carriage did the same bringing the mother and daughter crashing to the ground and tumbling upon the now unmarked path.
Star groaned while getting up off of the ground, the pain and impact being worse for her than for the Queen because she had not expected it. Dusting what dirt she could off of her dress she looked over at her mother and asked "Mom, what on Mewni what was that?"
"That was the magic leak I've been telling you about for the past hour dear." She responds, gathering the lifeless bodies of the Magical High Commission and securing them with rope ready to be dragged behind them.
"Oh yeah um, that thing we've been talking about. I knew that." She finishes with a smile hoping to come off as convincing but knowing her mother hadn't fallen for it if the slight frown on her face was anything to go by.
"You have been listening, haven't you Star. It's really quite important."
"Of course I have mom, you were talking about the uh, um the-" Star was interrupted by her mother placing a gloved hand over her mouth and forcing her into a crouching position behind a nearby bush.
"Star look, the rats." Star gently pushed off her mother's hand looked at where she was gesturing only to see a group of seven or so chest high rats, their height marking the difference between these rats, capable of intelligence and garden variety rats which worked on more primal instincts. These ones were smaller. "They're likely only scouts, so we should just leave them be and let them report back to Ludo… Star where are you going?" Moon watched in terror as her daughter stood from their hiding place and prepared to blast the foes with her magic wand. Even worse was that as she charged up her first shot the broken Star at the centre of the wand began glowing a sickly green, just like she had seen Toffee's when she and the other now comatose members of the Magic High Commission attempted to fight him at Ludo's mountain top castle.
Quickly pulling down on her daughter's outstretched arms the Queen brought Star back to a crouching position behind their bush. "Mom what are you doing, I can take these guys."
"Star you can't use your magic right now. Toffee will find us if you do."
"Oh that's alright mom, I don't need magic for these guys." Star turned and grabbed a large stick of wood lying beneath a tree and picked it up wielding it like a club before running from their hiding spot and attacking the rat scouts before her mother could do anything to stop her.
"AAARRRRR!" And with a mighty cry Star began beating into the unsuspecting members of Ludo's army taking them down one at a time with a swing of her makeshift weapon. The rats having quickly recovered from the surprise of the Princess and the force of her began fighting back against the mewman princess. Moon stood from behind the bush and yelled to her daughter.
"Star stop this. We need to get out of here immediately I can't believe you would be so foolish to attack these scouts- oof" The rat, having just now seen the Queen turned and leapt up at the older woman successfully knocking her to the ground. They quickly began hacking at the ropes she had wrapped around her waist and attached to each of the three MHC members.
"No, the Magical High Commission! Quickly Star, we cannot lose them."
Grabbing the now severed ropes in their mouths and dashing off into the brush they left the Queen and Princess behind forcing them to chase after them. Eventually they mother and daughter duo lost sight of both the rats and the bodies trailing behind them.
"Star, I cannot believe you. Why on Mewni did you think it would be a good idea to attack scouts, now we've lost them and my magic isn't early strong enough anymore to try and find them."
"But Mo-"
"Enough Star, you've done enough for now. Just stop and let me think of a way I can get them back."
The Queen began pacing back and forth trying to think of any way to follow the beasts or where they might have gone. Despite a lack of footprints or trails of any kind she continued searching. Moon kept pacing up and down the small clearing trying to think of anything they could do to help themselves; they had lost their carriage, their path and the Magical High Commission all within an hour. How could their scenario possibly get any – No she refused to think like that knowing that doing so would just be jinxing themselves into a more terribly situation later. What could she do, what could she do, what could she-
"It's this way mom, follow me." Moon looked up in surprise at her daughter only to see her already confidently walking ahead through the forests trees and bushes. Seeing no reason to argue she followed suit, walking at an equal pace only a foot or two behind. She stopped when Star stopped and walked when she walked and so the two walked at a moderate pace for the better part of a half hour before reaching a small clearing centred around a massive tree far bigger than any of the surrounding flora. And at the very top of the tree were the three remaining members of the MHC.
"Did your father teach you that Star, how to track I mean?"
"No. Dad's family only hunt for eating so they never learnt how to hunt for animals to small to leave tracks. The rats were too small so there weren't any foot prints or anything. What I did was what I learnt while I was on Earth 'sniff' Marco taught it to me."
Satisfied with her answer but feeling slightly guilty at her daughters saddened ton Moon walked ahead to the base of the tree and as she got closer she began to get a better view of the thing. Its trunk was massive and covered in vines and at the top among the leaves and branches were skeletons, be it bones ribs or skulls the tree had clearly been the final resting place for plenty monster animal or mewman alike.
Star caught up with her mother, the both of them standing at the base of the behemoth, before she leaned towards her, tilted her little head and looked at her with her big eyes and heart shaped cheek marks before saying with a singsong voice just filled with excitement, "Well I guess we're going up."
"Ughh, fine," and with that Moon pulled apart a hole in the vines at the bottom and walked through the makeshift entrance into the hollow insides. As she walked she occasionally had to pull her arms or legs away from the walls and the grabby vines that resided there.
"Never listens to her mother…" the Queen grumbled beneath her breath just loud enough for her daughter to hear.
And so the two began climbing the tree daughter following mother as the got closer and closer to the top.
"Ugh, come on mom, what's the big deal?"
"The big deal is your recklessness has put us in harm's way."
The Queen let out a small grunt as she lifted herself up the tree and past a decomposed corpse that had gotten stuck in the trees vines, though this one was wearing an oddly large but torn purple hat, almost like a fedora.
"It's just a little danger." Star argued back against her mother, her tone showing just as much annoyance as the Queens. When Star reached the heat wearing skeleton she stopped , put the hat on her head and whispered "I've been in way worse than this." She nudges the skeletons ribs knocking off its lower jaw. "You know what I'm talking about."
"Hmmmff, hmmmff." Star jumped up to the next branch only to find her mother being held against the tree trunk almost entirely covered in vines and struggling to get free.
"Huh, mom!." She jumped to where she was being held and grabbed at the vines holding her down. With a great heave she pulled them off of the tree and freed her mother from their grasp.
With eyes full of concern she leant down and helped her mother up into a standing position. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine Star, now let's just get the Magical High Commission and get out of here."
The two continued on up the tree thankfully without incident and reached the top where the MHC members were being securely held down by the tree. It took about five minutes but eventually the duo managed to free them from their bindings before sitting for a moment and just taking a rest.
It was when Moon looked out upon the horizon that she noticed the faintest of blue glows up ahead. Not quite believing her own luck, the Queen climbed further up the tree ignoring all of her daughters arguably justified questions. It was only once she had reached the top that she saw in the distance what was easily the best thing she'd seen all day. It was unmistakable in its elegance and beauty, even from afar she could tell it apart from any other body of water. It was the Butterfly Sanctuary.
Knowing that the lake was only a little further ahead eased Moons nerves a great deal. The largest of her problems had been dealt with. She knew where they were going and she had the MHC now all that they had to do was get there. Star, who had followed her mother up the tree gazed in wonder at the sight before them and recognized its significance.
"Is that where we're going?"
"Yes Star, that's where we need to go."
And so the two began the long and exhausting task of taking the heavy and comatose bodies of the MHC down the tree and through the forest. Slowly but surely, inch by inch the two dragged their companions behind them as they navigated their way towards the Butterfly Sanctuary. Even as their muscles began to burn, as the oxygen left their lungs and as their legs begged them to give up and rest, the mother and daughter continued on, knowing the fate of their entire nation relied on their success, not just here but in the week's maybe even months to come.
It was hours later when the two arrived at the hiding place of the Sanctuary, their bodies screaming in agony, but still they stood knowing they needed to stay strong, if not for themselves then for each other. An alligator, the only creature in sight walked up to the Queen.
Trying to lighten the mood Star joked to her mother, "So mom, is that like the little Sanctuary guardian or something?"
"No Star, it's the Gatekeeper." With that the Queen fell to her knees and began communicating with the creature, asking for entrance to her families most sacred place.
"Wait what? Mom, are you being serious?"
A bright orb of light flew up from the centre of the lake and flew over to Queen Moon and came to a rest just in front of her face, as if it was testing her or something. Her mother Stared straight into the light not blinking or even reacting in any way even once. When the orb glowed a bright blue with an odd purple tint and moved over to Star she realized that it was a test, likely to check whether they were really Butterfly's.
As it Stared at her she felt her very soul being pulled at, an odd but not entirely uncomfortable feeling that the orb must have been using to make its test. The pull grew until it spread from in her chest to her stomach, arms, legs and then finally into the head until the feeling had encompassed her entire being. It seemed to take forever but eventually the orb pulled back and glowed both pink and green, though the green patches seemed larger than the pink ones.
The whole process left Star feeling more tired than she already was and she felt her eyes getting heavy. Regardless though of how she felt the orb flew back into the centre of the lake and let of what seemed like a massive explosion under water. The next thing Star knew a beautiful building was rising from the depths as well as a rock pathway from the water's edge to what was obviously the Sanctuary's entrance.
"Come on Star, we have work to do."
The two walked across the rocks and into the building.
Star looked around in awe at the intricate engravings on the stone walls of the place seing various depictions of Queens and battles but noticed that a majority of the engravings and t=statues were of one person in particular. "Whoa, look at all the Glossaryk's"
"Yes Star, the Queens of Mewni have been coming here for generations." With that she pushed aside the large wooden doors at the end of the long rock corridor that lead from the outside to the main room at the centre of the Sanctuary. As the doors parted and Star got a better look into the room what she saw amazed her. If she was impressed before, her mind had blown up now.
The inside of the building was made of white brick circular walls and tall marble support columns. The room was like a more peaceful and perfect version of the forest outside. There was a warm light coming from the ceiling though no matter where she looked Star couldn't find the source. The ground was covered in a soft dark green grass, across the room were various different species of trees from the Bleeding Oak and Iron Wood Tree's to peaceful Umbers and Birch. There were different species of flowers and bushes spread throughout the room with magnificent stained glass windows along the walls. There was the occasional normal glass window and the roof was the same, a great glass dome that provided a stunning view of the night sky and Mewni's constellations.
The most breath taking thing in the room though was the famous Butterfly Magical Well and the waterfall that fed into it. The waterfall was a stone depiction of Glossaryk with his mouth open spewing water into the pool below, at the centre of which was a large spire. The thing was made from dark brown bricks and had moss covering the sides. It was clear no one had been here for a while. Along the side of the spire were a set of stairs circling the thing leading to the top where there was a small platform which had what looked like a hatch in the middle.
Satr watched speechless as her mother walked to the base of a tree and opened what must have been a secret hatch in the trunk revealing a large bronze wheel which she began to turn with small struggle, it was clearly rusting from lack of use. No one had been for a while indeed.
Stars attention was drawn to the pool once more when as her mother turned the wheel she saw three huge pink and white roses rise from beneath the water with their petals closed. When her mother had finished turning the wheel as far as it could go the flowers petals slowly fell open, all except one which must have gotten stuck.
"Why can't it just go right for once" she heard her mom mutter beneath her breath. "Alright, let's get the Commission into their pods so we can revive them."
Looking behind her at the bodies of the HCM she prepared herself to pick up their bodies one last time. With a great heave her mother and her carried Omnitraxus Prime, Hekapoo and Rhombulus into each of their pods where a light would shine on them from the ceiling once they were properly in place.
"Alright now Star, I'm going to open the well spring. Stand clear from the water's edge."
Star watched as her mom turned a second wheel unleashing a mighty creaking sound from the well springs spire. Four holes opened from the tower and long clay poles extended from them. Each pole was hollowed out to allow the magic wells water to flow through them but now instead of the pure liquid flowing through them the magic came out a sickly dark green and moved slowly, more like slime than anything else.
"Umm, mom is it meant to look like that?"
Moon looked up at the spire expecting the light blue waters to flow from the well, instead seeing this sickly display of magical corruption.
"No Star, it's not. Quickly we must stop it before it touches the pool below. Help me turn the wheel Star."
Star raced over towards her mother and immediately began turning the wheel with all her might, not knowing the exact consequence of the dark gloop meeting with the waters below but understanding that it was dire. The two watched the poles rise, angling upwards towards the roof before sliding back into place, the holes in the spire fixing themselves as the bricks too moved back into their original position. Moon and Star breathed a deep sigh of relief as they saw that not a drop had landed in the beautiful waters below.
"This isn't good, this isn't good, this isn't good…" Moon began pacing back and forward throughout the room, repeating herself all the while. She was terrified of what the dark liquid represented for her magic and what it meant for her family, namely her daughter. Star however was forced to sit back and just watch in confusion and slight fear, seeing her normally composed and eloquent mother reduced to a wreck. Her usually pristine hair were messy and her clothes torn and damaged in places. Most frightening of all was watching her mother, for the first time in Stars relatively short life, not have any idea what to do. This alone was enough to terrify the girl, though Star knew that to get through this whole mess she'd have to be strong, strong enough for both of them.
"Mom," she began speaking softly trying to get her mothers attention without startling her in any way, "what are we going to do now?"
Her mother stopped her pacing with her back facing Star, who waited for an answer but got none.
"Mom, what are we going to do now?"
Moon still didn't answer her daughter to wrapped up in all the problems they had found themselves in, struggling to find any appropriate course of action but knowing that whatever happened she had to put her daughters needs first.
"MOM! What are we going to do?" Finally shocked out of her internal misery and back into the real world, Moon turned to face her red face daughter. Star was glad that her shouting had managed to get the attention of her mother, though felt slightly guilty at yelling sat her. She watched as her mom turned around and gasped when she saw the final straw break for the Queen of Mewni, Moon the Flawless, Moon the Undaunted.
She was crying. She was crying hard.
It broke her heart to see her mother like that and the usually headstrong and confident girl found herself for once not knowing what to do either. She'd never seen her mother cry before, heck she barely saw her smile, let alone full on tears.
"I don't know Star, I thought I knew but I don't. If the well had of worked I could have brought the back Hekapoo, Omnitraxus and Rhombulus so we could fight back against Toffee but it can't and neither can we!"
"But what about Lekmet, he can do it himself. All we have to do is wait for him to get her-"
"He's not coming Star."
"But you said that he'd meet us her-"
"He's not coming Star."
"But he has to mom, he's the Chancellor. He must know how important this is to-"
"Lekmet is dead Star! Lekmet is dead and Toffee killed him. Toffee murdered him in cold blood after draining him of his magic. So no, he's not coming."
Moon fell to the floor and brought her knees up to her chest as she cried, trying desperately to deal with the pain of both what had happened and what she'd do next. She just sat there for a moment ignoring her daughters pained look at Lekmet's death and questioning glances and allowed herself to feel all that she had been holding back. The pain, the anguish and the despair all of it came to the surface and none of them pleasant. Moon just sat and wept into her arms for upwards of ten minutes, all the while trying to bring herself back to reality, trying to convince her protesting body to carry on with what she had to do now.
Taking in one last deep breath, the Queen of Mewni rose to her feet, posture perfect and face masked with indifference, or at least as much as she could muster.
"Star, as the situation stands we cannot defeat Toffee. Even if we had the entirety of the Magic High Commission, our chances would be slim. Now they border line zero. And so I have decided that we must lay low until the situation changes. Unfortunately," 'Goodbye River' "this means we cannot return to the castle. We must stay here were we are safe."
Moon watched as her daughters face went through an array of emotions namely sadness over Lekmet's death, confusion about her mother's pessimism and finally great anger at the plan she had devised.
"What do you mean 'We can't go back to the castle?' What about daddy ha can't rule on his own. We have to go back and help him. We need to go back and help our people, we can't just abandon them. We have to help. We can go back tonight and warn them. Then we can start making a plan to stop Toffee and then we can-"
"Star we are not going back. We must stay here."
"No mom, we can't stay here were we are no use to anybody. We are going to leave right now and either go home to help daddy or find Toffee himself and kill him before he can hurt anyone else."
Star had walked right up to her mother during her rant and held her wand tightly in her right hand.
"You can't go after him Star. You are not strong enough to defeat him alone. You need help."
"No mom, I don't. I've defeated him before and I can to it again. I will do it again."
Star's wand began to glow with the ambient magic of her daughter, her emotions having a direct influence over the form it took and her daughter's magic was green, just like it had been when she went to take out the rats earlier.
"Star be careful. If you cast any spell Toffee will find us here. He'll come for us and then we won't be safe."
"Good, it'll save my the walk. Super Homing Flare Blas- Ough"
Stars spell was interrupted at the last second by her mother who had tackled her to the ground.
"Star don't summon him, it's not safe."
"I can handle myself mom, Marco was the safe one not me."
"It doesn't matter, you're not ready."
Moon began to wrap her daughter up in her arms refusing to let go. Any was she could protect Star she would, even if it meant restraining her like this, if only for a while.
"Dammit mom, let go of me."
"No Star you don't understand-"
With a might shove star overpowered her mother and pushed her arms off of her before standing to face her as Moon lay on the ground.
"You're right mom, I don't understand. What I don't understand is how you can be like this, especially now when Mewni needs you more than ever. Toffee is going to attack and take over our kingdom, the one we are charged with protecting. They are going to kill papa and our armies, enslave our men and women and destroy our home. This is the best case scenario as well, I won't even mention worst case, but here you are suggesting we hide, avoiding this fight, our fight, until it all blows over. No, I won't do it and you can't make me. You used to be the Undaunted mom, why aren't you now." Moon opened her mouth to respond but her daughter barely raised a finger for silence and continued talking.
"Our people need us more than ever, they can't stop Toffee or his armies, but we can High Commission or not we must go, we must try. It's our duty. It's your duty mom, but if you want to cower here, be my guest but I'm going to kill toffee. I ignored him once and he ended up almost killing someone I… someone I love. So I will not be a coward today mom, I will fight him, alone if I have to and when I'm done I am going back to Earth because you don't get to destroy my life like that then tell me you want me to hide. You made me reveal my feelings for Marco, feelings I had tried so hard to hide and now he may never forgive me. I may not have just lost my love but my best friend because of you. So I won't hide, you can't make me."
With that Star wiped away the tears she hadn't realised had built upon her cheeks, tightened Marco's jumper around her neck and began walking to the corridor entrance intent on leaving and taking out Toffee.
"Very well Star, go do what you need to. But before you decide what that is, let me tell you a story." Star stopped in her tracks though didn't turn to face her mom.
"Please Star, just one story, it's very important and when it's done, you can do what you need to do."
And so with that Star reluctantly walked back to her mother who began telling her the story of a Young Queen, a dark spell and an immortal lizard.