A/N: Hello readers! First of all, thanks for your patience! I've been quite busy lately and, since English is not my first language, I write very slowly, hoping to avoid grammar mistakes etc. (if you find any, let me know). For some reason, however, the line-spacing is kinda messed up in some points (no idea why). Also, one final note, I actually gave a first name to Star's parents. Update: Originally, Star's father name in this story was "Alton", but as of 9/21/2015, the show's Season 1 Finale revealed that he's called "River", so he we will be addressed as such in the entire FanFic to fit the show's canon a bit more.
Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 4 - Three Days Left
Star Butterfly, the young princess from the magical kingdom Mewni, was well known for her happy-go-lucky personality. She was whimsical, untamable and sometimes acted a bit too goofy.
But she wasn't stupid: she chose to be like this. Star was perfectly capable of being regal, but she also really enjoyed visiting other dimensions, befriending different people from different sides of the Universe, somehow leaving a mark wherever she went.
But her parents –actually, her mother- were not fond of her life-style.
The moment she arrived at the Royal Palace, Star knew what was coming, especially considering why she was called back on Mewni this time. She was just standing there, in silence, as her mother, walking back and forth in front of her and holding an interestingly long scroll (the "scroll of shame", as she nicknamed it), patiently listed, rather nervously, all the "preposterous things" her daughter did in one dimension or another.
"And there was one time, in the Aqua Dimension, where you punched an extremely-rare species of flying shark in the face! I… I don't even know what to say about this!"
The princess cracked a nervous smile as her Mother continued with the shaming.
"Laser puppies, inner tentacle demons, giant moth-monsters…" – the Mother's patience seemed to decrease as she continued to read the scroll. "We sent you on Earth so you could learn to control the wand… to control yourself! Not… this!" – she continued, shaking the embarrassingly long piece of paper.
Star simply stood there, avoiding eye contact, mindlessly inspecting the beautiful tapestries that adorned the vast room around her.
"This one… this one here…" – the Mother was now pointing to a particular entry on that overly long list of mishaps. "Apparently, with your dimensional scissors, while visiting the Floria Kingdom, you opened a portal to a black hole… a black hole, Star…"
The princess now looked directly at her Mother, like she was being framed for something she didn't really do.
"Nobody got hurt! "
"You completely destroyed the royal palace of Floria, Star! We're lucky we're not at war with the Floridians!" – she muttered.
"Opening a black hole was the only way to get rid of those evil life-eating plants that were devouring their entire dimension! King Tulip was not mad! He thanked me and… " – Star explained (or tried to).
"That's not the point, Star…"
Star's Mother, Queen of Mewni, had always been one to follow old rules and ancient traditions. Knowing that her daughter was the complete opposite of that is what made her incessantly nervous about everything, if not mad. She rolled the scroll back up, unimpressed by the princess' explanation; she took a big breath and calmed down.
"Follow me…"
The young princess reluctantly obeyed as she followed the Queen around that enormous room. It was so full of statues, tapestries and other ornaments that it felt like visiting one of those beautiful museums from Earth. The walls were a constellation of paintings, most of them depicting important royals figures of Mewni's long history.
"You see…" – she said, driving her daughter's attention to the majestic room around them. "For centuries, our family has been admired and respected. The Butterfly Dynasty has always stood out for its intelligence, culture, class, elegance… not flaming rainbows…"
Star remained in silence, holding her wand tight.
"In all of these years, your irresponsible actions tarnished our family's name. Our Dynasty slowly became the laughing stock of the known Universe…"
For the first time, the princess felt ashamed by her whimsical behavior. She didn't know that people from other dimensions would make fun of her family because of her.
"I'm sorry, Mother. I had no idea…" – she responded.
"Of course you didn't… and that's the problem…"
The Queen stopped in front of a particular large tapestry and Star did the same.
"But fear not, my irresponsible daughter. Your imminent coronation will restore our family's name and prestige all around the Universe… look!" – the Queen said, inviting her daughter to admire that beautiful piece of tapestry in front of them. "The Dimensional Alignment!"
The ornamental fabric they were both looking at was apparently an artist's rendition of this particular astronomical event, depicted as a vertical series of planet-like circles and, at the bottom of the scene, a relatively small silhouette of domed buildings, probably representing Mewni or any generic kingdom. Despite the very simplistic art-style, Star felt overwhelmed.
"Having a coronation ceremony during such a stunning event would bring great honor to the lucky Princess and her family…"
Star was confused by the Queen's sudden interest in this astronomical event.
"It would be… but Mother, the Alignment is also a rare event. Like… very rare. It didn't happen since… when? Centuries? Thousands of years?"
"Yes. And it's just too difficult to predict. Too many factors involved…" – the Mother responded, faking a resigned tone of voice.
After a moment of puzzled silence, the princess let out a soft gasp as she realized what was happening and went cautiously excited rather quickly.
"It's going to happen soon, isn't it?" – she asked, almost whispering.
Her royal parent simply responded with a smirk, to which Star replied with a high-pitched noise and fireworks-like things coming out from her wand. She immediately hugged her Mother, who kinda returned her act of affection (she was nowhere as "huggy" as her daughter). The princess eventually calmed down and took a big breath.
"So… how soon? Weeks? Months?" – she asked.
"Three days, actually…" – the Queen replied, nonchalantly.
"Awesome!"
Realizing what just happened, after a couple of seconds of excitement, Star's smile suddenly turned into a panicked face.
"Three days?!" – she screamed, hands on her cheeks.
The Queen, however, was disturbingly calm as usual.
"Now don't panic, Star. As I said, the Alignment is very unpredictable. Our astronomers did some tremendous calculations and gave me the exact date only a couple of days ago…"
Star was a mixture of emotions. She was excited at the idea of becoming Queen… but in three days? During the rarest of all dimensional events?
"Mother… I'm more than honored by all of this but… don't you think we're going a bit too fast…?" – she asked, trying to sound calmer than she truly was.
"Don't be ridiculous…"
"But… But what if I'm not ready? What if…" – but she was interrupted.
"Star, despite your questionable life-style, you are ready!" – she snapped, annoyed. "You do want to be Queen, right…?" – she asked, narrowing her eyes.
The princess nodded quietly.
"Good!" – she said, unimpressed. "Preparations for your coronation have already begun. In three days, as the Dimensional Alignment lights up the entire sky, people from all Mewni will witness the rise of their new Queen: Star Butterfly!" – she continued, moved by her own words. She took out a tissue and pressed it to her eyes, probably being a bit too dramatic.
But the Queen, despite her usually cold personality, was indeed very proud of her daughter. But most importantly, Star's coronation would hopefully put an end to her way too whimsical and way-ward life style, keeping her on Mewni, finally embracing her royal duties.
"At last! Your time to shine has come, my daughter. There will be a ball in your honor and… " – the Mother stopped, like she just remembered something important. "Speaking of which… I almost forgot… you've been invited to…"
A loud sound of a door opening echoed in the room, interrupting her mid-sentence.
"Am I too late? Where is my beautiful princess?"
Star immediately recognized her Father, and ran into his arms, almost making him lose balance, as he was already overburdened with various animal pelts: the King was coming back from one of his hunting trips –and a very profitable one apparently.
Unlike the Queen, Star's Father never really cared about old traditions or his reputation around the Universe. While he did not really encourage her "crazy" personality, the King always had a huge soft spot for his daughter and as long as Star was happy (and stayed out of trouble), he was happy too.
"So, another successful hunting trip, I presume…" – the Mother said, rather unimpressed.
The King soon felt her wife's annoyed gaze upon him and coughed nervously.
"Yes, my Queen. As you can see…" – he said, as he proudly showed the skins of the slayed monsters on his back. "Even a human-sized Wyvern… crazy, uh?"
As the happy-go-lucky person she was, Star was not really a fan of hunting.
Truth is, neither the King was.
All of those skins and pelts he brought over the years were actually fake, probably some kind of costumes.
Star knew. His wife knew. The whole kingdom was aware that he was pretending to be a great hunter like his ancestors (and other royal figures from other kingdoms). But they all just went on with it, unbeknown to him. After all, the King was a genuinely good person and nobody really wanted to hurt his feelings.
"I ditched my hunting mates as soon as I could. I'm so happy to see you, my sweetheart… you're growing up so fast…" – he said, moved by her daughter's presence.
"Father…" – Star chuckled as she hugged him again. "It's only been a few weeks since my last visit…"
"I know. But this palace seems so empty without my princess…"
Still unimpressed, the Queen coughed to get her daughter's attention. The King smiled at his wife, who completely ignored him in response.
"So, as I was going to say…" – the Mother took out an envelope and handed it to Star. "You've been officially invited by King Tulip to the Grand Ball of the Floria Kingdom. It's Prince Cloro's birthday tomorrow and they both would really appreciate your presence. You should go, considering that you destroyed their palace…"
The princess inspected the invitation, marked with the Florian royal seal, written in a perfect and rather fancy-looking handwriting.
"You might not be a Queen yet, but consider this your first real assignment as Mewni's future sovereign. On Floria, you're not just Star Butterfly, but the personification of our Kingdom…"
"But no pressure…" – the princess added, sarcastically.
Star however soon realized how important this invitation was and happily accepted it –not that she had any choice anyway, not while her Mother was around. She actually really enjoys regal events like these, even though they tend to be a bit too boring for her sometimes.
"Be sure to wear your best dress tomorrow. Be calm, polite, be a real princess for once. And… who knows… maybe Prince Cloro might even dance with you…" – the Queen said, with a romantic smirk.
"Actually… this invitation says I can bring one person with me… I'll just ask Marco to join me…" – Star quickly responded.
"Whatever... bring the Earthling with you. As long as you don't… wait, what was it…" – the Mother once again took out the "scroll of shame" and started looking for something on it. "As long as you don't summon a herd of aggressive unicorns, you'll be fine…"
Star laughed, remembering that crazy incident. "Don't worry, mom! That trick only works here on Mewni. If I whistle loud enough, all the wild unicorns I tamed will rush here. It's pretty cool actually: want to see?"
As Star took a big breath, two loud "NO!" echoed in the room. She noticed her parents' panicked faces and chuckled.
"Just… be yourself… but not too much…" – the Mother said, with a nervous smile.
The princess bowed sarcastically in response, much to her Mother's annoyance (and the King's amusement). The Queen then signaled to one of their servants to come in.
"Manfred, please. Would you please escort our daughter back to the Earth Dimension?"
"Aw… don't worry! I'll just use my own scissors…"
As Star literally started to cut a portion of reality in front of her, she noticed her Mother's nervous expression. "Don't worry, no black holes this time!".
She then hugged her parents one last time before rushing into the portal she opened.
"We love you, sweetheart! Have fun on Floria!"
And as his daughter disappeared in a flash of light, the King sighed, already missing his little princess. He then patiently handed the pelts of the slayed monsters to Manfred, who would then put them on display in a more appropriate trophy room.
The Queen, impassive as usual, gave a rather suspicious look to her husband. As Manfred left the room and the two were finally alone, she started to talk.
"I know you're lying, River…" – her words felt like a thunder in the empty room.
The King knew this day was coming eventually, but he simply chuckled and tried to walk away, avoiding eye contact. But the Queen was stubborn enough to insist.
"And I'm not talking about your fake trophy room…"
"What are you talking about then, Nova?" – he replied, still avoiding eye contact but with an equally serious tone of voice.
"I'm talking about this!" – she snapped as she pointed the tapestry depicting the Dimensional Alignment. "I know what are you really doing, River…".
The woman calmed down and walked towards her husband.
"Since we've known about the Alignment, you've been… hunting more often than usual… almost every day…" – she sighed, worried, and put one hand on his shoulder. "What are you really hunting for, River…?".
He remained silent and quickly glanced at the tapestry looming over them.
"It's just a legend, dear…" – her voiced softened.
"I know. But The Shadows are not…"
The King continued admiring the ornamental fabric in front of him with a rather worried look on his face.
"That society… that group of criminals… have been hiding, waiting for the Dimensional Alignment for centuries…"
"The Forbidden Dimension is a legend, River. It's no more than a fairytale!" – she said, cautiously articulating her words.
"Yes, it is. But The Shadows believe it's real. They would do anything to make it real. And that makes them dangerous… unpredictable… they must be plotting something big…" – his voice cracked in a mixture of anger and fear. "And I don't want my only daughter to be exposed to such a danger! Not on her coronation day! Not on any day…" – his determined voice echoed across the vast empty room. The King then noticed his wife's worried look on him. "Sorry… I… I'm just really tired... I need to sleep…" – he then added.
The Queen tried to mutter some encouraging words as her husband left the room, but she just remained silent. She instead gave to that beautiful tapestry one final look.
And, thinking of her husband's words, she immediately felt a shiver running down her spine.
End of Chapter 4
