"So what do you want to tell me, Scott?" Star asked, while hugging the extremely fluffy pillow on the sofa.
"Well…does this seem like your castle?"
"Not really…where are we?"
"We are in one of my old residences, one from three hundred years ago to be more precise. It is completely off the grid for anyone and it's protected by an ancient magical barrier. It cannot be spied on, seen and you can't enter it through portals. We, however are the only ones who can come and go at will. Oh, if you're thinking of bringing someone in, you won't be able to…"
"Ooookay," Star said a bit creeped out. "And why did you do all of this?"
"Because as we speak, Toffee is watching every corner of the world, thanks to him absorbing Omnitraxus' power and I can't risk anything at the moment."
"Well, thanks for all, but don't you think that this is a bit…overdoing it?"
For a second, Scott rethought his plan. Maybe she was right, but that faint voice disappeared as he realized that what he was doing was the better way. The new awakened evil was not going to give them any chance to make mistakes, so whatever measure could be taken, had to be taken…
"No… I am sorry if this displeases you, but I can't afford taking any risks. Also, I must speed up your training. You have the morning off, but after lunch we will start. Feel free to roam the corridors of the castle, but…"
"But don't go in that dark room on the end of the furthest hallway, I know the instructions. I have lived in a castle for most of my life…"Star said tired of, seemingly hearing this ruse over and over again.
"That is…my room, you know? I wanted to tell you that you can't leave the castle for the first couple of days, until Toffee cools down. I'll leave you to explore. If you need anything, I'll be in the aforementioned living quarters." With that, Scott opened a portal and vanished through it.
Star didn't know what to do until the afternoon. She decided to do what her friend told her and wander around the many rooms of the castle, but first, she went to the balcony so she could admire the astonishing view… Scott had truly lived in a beautiful place, set where the sky meets the land. The mountain range in the distance, harbored a forest which exulted with life and joy. Inside the woods, a clearing let her view the beautiful crystal clear water of the heart-shaped lake. As her eyes took in the amazing landscape, more and more was uncovered in the foreground of nature's stage. The castle's courtyard was a maze of hedges, each exit and entrance leading to all sorts of flowers…she recognized orchids, lilies, roses of all colors, tulips…She couldn't help herself anymore. With a carefully power-balanced blast, aimed at her feet, she was propelled into the air, then with another blast she slowed her descent, as she landed in the middle of the green labyrinth. She didn't notice that the square shaped walls were themselves covered with marigold, buttercups and cherry blossoms, which added to their beauty.
As she was busy losing herself in her 'prison' she suddenly heard an extremely familiar sound, which made her jump with joy. It was the known neigh that only a warnicorn can emit. Without thinking twice, she repeated her launch procedure and was soon standing in front of a never-ending stable. The unicorns were arranged in a weird order, chromatic wise. The first few were black as a raven's feathers, then the next few were white as the moon. The remaining were, in order, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and last in line were the pink ones. There was also an empty stable, but she didn't notice it at a glance.
Star didn't have the greatest attention span when she was excited. Therefore the yiffs and barks of the great variety of puppies from the enclosure nearby attracted her as a magnet does to iron. The small Chihuahuas, the massive Saint Bernards, the playful Retrievers and the delightful poodles were all ganging up on her, suffocating her with an avalanche of cuteness. After a while, she decided she had enough dog drool on her face and waved goodbye to the cute little critters and resumed her adventure in her new home.
There wasn't anything else to be seen in the yard apart from all of the cute animals, so she headed inside. Thankfully, the hallways were mapped and labeled, each room bearing a neat little sign, so that Star could know at all times where she was. The ground floor even had a little chart, resembling those in a mall, and on it there was a small note, Scott's signature move…
"Remove this after you read it, Star. This is so you don't ever get lost, because this place is really big… Have a nice trip, and thank you for choosing Scott's castle."
"Typical…" she exclaimed with a smile on her face. "Then…let's check out…" she tried to decide where to go, by sliding her finger across the map. "The Glitter Depot…? Oooh, that sounds cool, let's check that out!" she said conjuring a little cloud, to serve as her trusty mount during her time inside. The Glitter Depot was nothing short of what its name made it to be. Enormous shelves filled with glorious amounts of glitter, glitter glue and other glittery related stuff. Needless to say that she was reflecting all light when she exited on her shiny cloud.
"Oki, what's next?" She said consulting the map….
She had about ten minutes before she had to go to the kitchen to find the source of that godlike smell. She was a princess, but nonetheless she had never experienced such a culinary related pleasure…and she didn't even taste it. It looked like Scott had some talents she was unaware of…She was studying the map, when she noticed something rather peculiar. There was an immense and poignant label that she didn't see before. The Glitter Depot, the Kitten Rack, the Rainbow Shelter, they were all part of "Star's stuff." There was another rather large group labeled "Scott's things." She thought it'd be great to find out what was in that corner of the castle.
That part was pretty strange…It had no windows, so it was pretty dark. She resorted to the flashlight function of her wand in order to light her way. The labels were pretty clear and bland, a set apart from the puns he employed to cleverly name her things. She stopped in front of the library, a small door, about her height, but she had to bend over a bit to enter the room. Little was her awe when she found one of the biggest libraries she had ever been in, fitting in what was seemingly a minuscule place. The bookshelves were stretching as high as the ceiling and filled with all sorts of books, ranging from heavy to light, from thick to thin and from old to shiny new. She had a few minutes to spare, so why not spend it doing something completely tedious and boring. In the middle of the imposing and condescending maze of knowledge there lied a small table, a petite lamp on top of it providing the only light in an otherwise dark place. A book was open there, its title barely readable. She could only make out something resembling the word "history", but the book was ancient… Its pages were nicely preserved, though, the writing was clearer and the language used was surprisingly modern. It was handwritten…Star gasped as she realized what that was. It was Scott's book…
For a short while she wondered whether she should read it or not. In the end, curiosity greatly outweighed her care for his privacy, so she began her foreboding voyage inside the book…The first pages gave away what that piece of art stood for. It was an auto-biography and judging by the amount of detail he gave in it, she could be sure that it was…the truth and nothing but the truth. She skipped through a small preface that he wrote, the only peculiar thing she noticed being a weird set of words, etched on the corner of the age-old pages. She tried reading them:
"Koob eht ni nwod og. That's an odd phrase, what does it do…"
It wasn't long until she found out. After the last bit of the spell was spoken, the book started shaking wildly, its pages flipping rapidly. The noise fell like thunder on the utter silence of the otherwise quiet library. Scared, Star tried closing it and run away, but the covers were stiff as if they were glued to the table. She tried to leave the room, but as soon as she got up, a purple tendril, created by Scott's enigmatic memorandum, grabbed hold of her leg, making her trip. Three more spawned and took control of her other free limbs, and slowly but surely started pulling her inside the book. Slowly was an understatement, as in less than ten seconds she was already inside…The book was now resting closed on the small coffee table, the isolated chamber returning to its lugubrious calm.
Star was knocked cold by the experience and awoke to find herself lying down on a long, yet narrow corridor, sprouting doors every twenty or so feet. The doors were simple, yet different, following the same pattern as the stables outside, the only exception being that white came before black…She didn't know where she was, or why she got sucked in the book, but she was determined to find out, and what better way of doing so, apart from exploring? Star just touched the chalk white door's handle and it vanished, melting before her very eyes as the door burned in an instant. The hallway around her turned black, swallowing her and throwing her up into an infinite void…As sudden as colors faded from her world, they reappeared, painting the scenery of a forest. It wasn't very different from those back in Mewni, but what set apart this rather mundane landscape were the small houses just outside it.
There was a small village on the edge of the woods. At first glance, it seemed deserted, but as Star walked closer, she could hear the usual ruckus of a settlement. Merchants crying, women yelling, kids screaming, the cacophony of sounds reminded her of the times she spent strolling down the streets of her hometown. It was a truly melancholic experience… The people there didn't seem to notice her, she was nothing but a mere spectator to the show they put on. It was weird at first, but it somehow made sense, even though she didn't have any clue why.
A bigger cottage stood out from the rest. It rested calmly on a small hill at the end of what surely was the main…path of the village. It had an imposing chimney, continuously smoking despite the warm weather outside. Two flags were flailing in the soft breeze, bearing the same markings, probably the symbol of their settlement. It was a lion's head, two eagle's wings sprouting from behind its luxurious mane, all on a reddish background. From outside it didn't seem very imposing, though. It was as big as Marco's house, but, compared to the others, it was a giant between a horde of dwarves.
She decided to enter, without knocking. Not that it made any difference, no one was home, and even if they were, she was unseen. The interior looked rather simple, not much furniture to be seen. There was no living room, rather the entrance lead into a small hallway at the end of which she could see the dining area, given the size of the table she spotted through the narrow doorframe. On each side, there were two doors, two of them leading to what appeared to be bedrooms, one to a small kitchen, where the fireplace was emanating a healthy warmth and the last being some sort of office, where a desk filled with all sorts of papers rested comfortably in a corner surrounded by two shelves filled with ancient looking registers. She didn't even notice the small plume and the ink jar.
Suddenly she could hear something familiar. A voice she had heard many a times before, but that sounded…altered, more childish than it used to be. It was accompanied by another one, that of a girl. The innocence in their tones was delightful to hear…Heading for a window, she couldn't believe her eyes. Outside, under an enormous oak tree, that she had missed from outside the house, stood what appeared to be Scott, dressed in a loose fitting shirt, a leather vest and a pair of brown trousers, wearing boots fit for hiking on the roughest mountains. He seemed younger, even though he was as tall as ever and his face was a mirror image of what she last saw. Alas this wasn't what shocked Star. Rather, that he was hugging a petite girl who was looking back at him with glimmering brown eyes, filled with love.
His friend was a bit shorter than Star who was in turn about two inches shorter than Scott. Her hair was brown, but a fairly light shade of brown, to compliment her extremely red cheeks, turning crimson as blood was rushing in them…She wore a long white dress, and a little white marigold behind her ear and overall…there was something special about her. Just looking at her gave you the impression she was the embodiment of raw happiness. It was exhilarating the amount of expressivity she had. Star was dumbfounded to see how…warm Scott was.
Even though he grew kinder after he had reunited with his other selves, he was still distant, not leaving behind his coldness. When she hugged him, or when he hugged her, Star could feel how he was…absent, lost in thought. The gesture still had its weight, but it wasn't the same as when Marco did it, setting aside the obvious difference. But now, before her very eyes, he was…happy, as she just realized she had never seen him before. The only ounce of joy in him was covered by the overwhelming cynicism he stood for. Calm and calculated, accurate like a metronome and precise, never a man of emotion…he was melting in the arms of his lover…
Her view was obscured by an enormous white cloud, blocking the sun. Strangely enough, the cloud had the same color as the door, she entered through… All of a sudden, the shadows grew in size and contrast, becoming darker and darker, limiting Star's field of view further and further. The two lovers were fading away, followed by the house, the road, the forest she walked out of. Soon she was surrounded by the same nothingness this whole world spawned from. And again, the colors rushed back in her world, revealing that she was now standing again, in the very same hallway.
The young princess was shook by this experience, but her joyful, childlike curiosity peeked. She touched the handle on the cosmic black door, and the show repeated again. She was now in the same woods…but the village changed.
An unsettling calm reigned over the land. There were no screams, no cries, not any sort of noise indicating that anyone was living here still…Faint wails were brought by the wind from a faraway land, providing much needed tension to the already crushing atmosphere of the settlement. The houses were in ruins. Only the big house on top of the hill still stood, but it was severely damaged. The windows were broken, the walls shattered and the roof was burning. Overall, it looked like the king of the hill was no better than its loyal servants… Star followed the same steps she made in the other world. The bedrooms were ravaged. The kitchen's chimney was now spread throughout the entire hallway. The papers were desperately clinging to the wooden sticks, the only remnants of what once was a desk… The dining table was broken in two… Rushing to a window, Star saw Scott outside, bent over, eerily silent. He stood in front of four graves, the tombstones of which were chipped. Whereas he was the expression of joy, he now radiated sorrow and pain. She approached him, laying down on the ground a few feet in front of him…He was changed.
His eyes weren't the green she got accustomed to. They were gray, same as his pupils… He was wearing his usual attire, not the old-timey one… He wasn't the stone she had taken him for. Even though he was as cold as when she first met him, he wasn't emotionless. Just looking at him sent shivers down her spine…For a second she thought that a tear fell from his eyes, but that was just the rain, falling down…Star wasn't a keen observer and missed the fact that he was, in fact…crying.
As soon as the first drop hit his head, Scott rose to his feet. With a long, sinuous and heavy movement he spawned two flowers on every grave. Then conjuring a portal he vanished in thin air…Star got up and started reading the eulogies engraved on the tombstones…
"Wikus, beloved father and chieftain of our village. May the Gods have mercy on his late, brave soul."
"Jaina, proud mother and kind wife of our leader. May the Heavens' Angels welcome her as one of them."
"Scoti, son of the greatest pair of leaders to have ever reign over us. May his wandering soul find peace, wherever it had settled."
"Aurora, courageous maiden whose name shall forever be remembered. May the honor of her innocence never be forgotten. Let her love eternally shine through…"
The last words were chipped away. Star didn't know what to believe…But she had no time to spare in this world. A black mist descended on the empty hill, engulfing the princess. The colors faded and reappeared, leaving her in the middle of the same empty hallway. There were so many doors left and she didn't know where to start…The next color was red, but she could've swear what would happen…She went past the red door, then the orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet…but instead of seeing pink…she saw the same string of doors she had skipped through. Curious, she touched the handle of one, but instead of the colors fading away, they all came to life. She was assaulted by a cacophony of rainbows, confusing her, draining her powers…She fainted…
Star woke up inside a familiar place. She had seen this room before. It was the effigy of her family history from inside her wand. But, now it was different…She felt weaker than before, but still found the power to go ahead and read the plate in front of one of her ancestors…As soon as she touched the engravings, her mind was flooded by images of her family…
They were the same happenings the writing described, only that Scott was narrating them…
She woke up again in the same hallway, but it seemed that it wasn't as narrow as before. What is more, the doors behind her disappeared, the only one remaining was a gray door, in front of her. Having regained her powers, she rose to her feet and started walking towards her last apparent stop. With every step… the door seemed to gain a pink hue. It was a very bright cyclamen the second the doorknob melted and the ruse repeated…
Instead of going in a familiar place, an unknown chamber spawned near her. It had the same pattern as the library she first entered back in the castle, but the bookshelves were missing and the desk was right near a window… She could hear a door creak behind her and, turning around, she saw Scott entering the office. He passed straight through her and sat down, the same book that sucked her in spawning on the table in front of him. Conjuring a plume, he started writing. Star wanted to leave the room and explore the surroundings of this strangely out of context world, but she stopped when she heard her name.
"Star Butterfly."
Scott's lips were not moving, but his voice echoed inside the room.
"There is little to be said about her. She is crude, reckless and insane. Princess Butterfly is one of the worst in the royal line, given her extremely diverse array of foremothers. It's a miracle she hadn't been sent to St. Olga's School for Wayward Princesses. It would have been an excellent teacher for her. She had been instead exiled to my home dimension, in the custody of an apparently regular earthling, Marco Diaz. I don't see the reason why Queen Moon had chosen that, yet, but I am glad that for once she had decided to follow my advice. I will have to observe the new princess closely. She is the first one so far that has broken the pattern I had set. That's something considering that my system was right for the past forty two generations. Back on track, I don't see how this will fall into our plans. Star Butterfly is not smart, not determined, lacks discipline and has no desire to overcome her obvious flaws…"
Star had her heart broken…Hearing her friend criticize her with no restraint made her realize his true opinion on her. She also knew that what he said was continuously true… Indeed, she knew she was extremely reckless, fast to judge and never followed even the easiest instructions. She was careless, carefree and extremely bad at understanding the voracity of the world. And to top it all off, she had no will to change anything. She was bound to remain as imperfect as she knew she was and do nothing about it, for reasons unknown to her. Crushed, she walked towards the exit, hoping that the pink gizmo that would get her out of here, would magically appear. She stopped however, after hearing Scott's further thoughts…
"But, that's not what worries me. She is in fact, the closest to being the perfect princess so far. She had risen from the filth and muck of her predecessors and created a new standard. She made her own spells, she has a new wand… she had brought new additions to the family, to replace the outdated old ones. Her new way of approaching the duties of a princess are the exact breath of fresh air the forces of good needed. Despite her aforementioned flaws she is the best the Butterfly family had produced. Finally, someone can restore the balance after Queen Eclipsa destroyed it….I've got to say, though, this girl amazes me…I had lived through forty two generations of princesses and queens and never had I met someone who so closely resembles…Aurora. Star is like the reincarnation of the one I lost in order to serve the purpose I was chosen for. She is as kind, selfless and pure as she was. She is as dauntless and tenacious as her. She has the same problems as her, fearing her emotions, letting them control and consume her…"
Scott's voice stopped suddenly. Star spotted him rubbing his eyes and coughing, after which he started again.
"I am glad that my service ends with Star Butterfly, the proudest of them all, for she will be the last one of her family. She will forever be remembered as Star the Joyful and, as her ancestors before her, her name will be eternally carved in the book of life…Before I met this princess, I had many…many mishaps. I continuously begged my leaders for the sweet embrace of death. I groveled before them, asking them time and time again to revoke my immortality. It became so mundane to take care of the royal line, that I couldn't find any point to it at all. It wasn't fun to begin with, but it progressively got worse…I was close to my breaking point, having fallen in my apathy…But seeing her doing her 'thing', had brought sense back to my life. It took me a while to distance myself from the depression I had succumbed to, and it didn't help that I split myself at the order of my leaders, but in the end… I finally enjoy doing my job, for the first time in a millennium… Thank you, Star Butterfly. Thank you for making me forget the pain of…"
Star felt grabbed out of the picture, as Scott rapidly faded away in the mist she saw behind the black door. She woke up inside the library she got sucked in the book from. Scott's heavy hand was resting on her shoulder.
"Why did you do that, Star?" he asked, visibly saddened. "Why did you ignore the warning I put on the book?" he continued pointing to a label on the book, reading: "DO NOT READ, STAR!"
"You know what you did? Do you have any idea…"
His question was broke off, by her hug… She whispered:
"Thank you…"
But as soon as she touched him, he disappeared into thin air, leaving behind a note:
"No training for today…"
