Welcome back!
"Well, if it isn't the two traitorous Queens of Mewni!" Omnitraxus spat out in disgust. "What are you doing here?! How dare you taint this moment with your presence?!"
"You act as if what happened to mother was my fault," Eclipsa responded coolly.
Moon simply stood by in silence, shocked at the revelation. Omnitraxus was Eclipsa's grandfather? That would mean he was a distant great-grandfather of hers as well. No one had ever made any mention of this to her before. She had many questions, but it was clear now was not the right time.
"You spit in the face of everything she sacrificed herself for and yet you still have the nerve to show your face around here?!"
Eclipsa narrowed her eyes. "You mean everything you sacrificed her for."
"Letting you run wild was a mistake. Fortunately, it's one I can still fix." Without warning, Omnitraxus came charging towards the two Butterflys.
The two women split, taking off in opposite directions.
"I'm glad your mother was never able to see what became of you." Omnitraxus grew in size, sweeping the area with his arm as he spun around, knocking both women to the ground. "You were always an ungrateful child. I should have never let Rhombulus freeze you that night. I should have just finished you off myself!"
Morphing into their butterfly forms, the Queens took to the sky, narrowly avoiding Omnitraxus' fist as it came smashing into the ground.
Diving back down and into the forest, Moon's eyes and hands began to glow. Using her magic, she uprooted several nearby trees and sent them hurtling towards Omnitraxus.
The immortal being only scoffed as his body became intangible, allowing the trees to pass through without harm.
Taking advantage of his distracted state, Eclipsa flew behind Omnitraxus and struck him with a blast of her dark magic, knocking him to the ground. "And what would you have told mother then?" she taunted in a sarcastically sweet tone as she floated above him. "How is she? Do you still speak to her? Is she still happy to see you?"
"Silence!" Omnitraxus unleashed his own blast of cosmic energy, doing his best to maneuver the beam towards Eclipsa as she flew around him in erratic patterns.
With Omnitraxus' back to her, Moon followed Eclipsa's lead, striking him with a beam of magic from behind.
Eclipsa attacked from the front, guiding her own beam until it met Moon's, connecting the two streams of magic into one.
The two Queens began circling Omnitraxus, using their combined magic to restrain him.
Spinning in the opposite direction as the women, Omnitraxus unwound the ribbon of magic tying him down, sending the two royals flying through the air. He continued spinning, forcing the air around him to whirl into a vortex.
The Queens were unable to steady themselves in the air, being pulled in every direction from the force of the swirling winds.
"Tell me, is she still screaming?!" Eclipsa continued taunting, flapping her wings forcefully against the wind current to stabilize herself. "Does she still cry for death? Is her soul still tortured, knowing her beloved father has left her to suffer for all eternity, too selfish to actually let her find peace?"
Omnitraxus lashed out in anger, breaking his vortex as he lept towards Eclipsa.
Eclipsa shoved Moon to the side moments before Omnitraxus grabbed her and forcefully slammed her into the wall of a nearby terrace.
Reeling his arm back, Omnitraxus swung his fist towards Eclipsa. His attack never met its target as Moon flew by at break-neck speed, slicing clean through his arm with her sword.
Eclipsa quickly freed herself when Omnitraxus pulled away, roaring in pain. It was a good move on Moon's part, but one she knew would only be temporary. Her grandfather's form was only metaphysical, able to change and retract at will. He would be able to regenerate the limb just as quickly as he had lost it.
Omnitraxus quickly regained his bearings and charged towards Eclipsa once more. "Does it bother you; knowing you took her murderer's son for your lover?"
Eclipsa zig-zagged through the air, flying in random patterns and directions in an attempt to confuse and disorient the master of space-time. "Globgor was nothing like his father!"
"He fought alongside him in the war!"
"He was forced to, just like how you forced mother onto the battlefield! Not a day went by that Globgor did not regret his actions; never a day he wasn't haunted by what he had done! He learned from his mistakes and tried to fix what his father had done! He and I tried so hard to mend the relations between the Monsters and the Mewmans, but you just couldn't have that, could you?!"
"You're just as naive now as you were then. You have no idea the destruction and chaos that would befall Mewni if magic fell into the hands of Monsters!" Omnitraxus tucked his arms around himself as his physical form began changing shape. His features disappeared as his body became an amorphous blob, retracting and expanding repeatedly. With each retraction, he seemed to get smaller and more defined, morphing into a perfectly spherical shape.
The two women drifted cautiously in the air, unsure of what the inter-dimensional being was up to.
Suddenly, Omnitraxus' form imploded, flooding the entire area with his cosmic magic.
Everything around Moon seemed to distort wildly. She could see crystal fragments, all reflecting the different timelines, passing by as the area around her rapidly changed. The flora seemed to shift around, constantly growing and shrinking as if passing through several periods of time all at once. Looking to Eclipsa, she found the green-haired woman's distance constantly changing, appearing close-by then far off mere seconds later. "Eclipsa!"
"Just follow my voice, Moon!" The Queen of Darkness called back, trying to gather her bearings as Omnitraxus continued warping the reality around them.
"That's easier said than done!" Moon replied, having heard Eclipsa's voice coming from every direction. She had no idea where the woman was in relation to her. She was flying blind.
Flapping her wings vigorously once more, Eclipsa tried to blow away the cloud of distortion. The force of her winds kicked up a dust storm which she quickly directed towards Omnitraxus, trying her best to blind him if not at the very least provide her and Moon with some cover.
Taking advantage of the fact the flying dust provided him with a veil as well, Omnitraxus pulled his energy back into his usual form and leapt forward. Grabbing Eclipsa, he took to the sky, flying at a blistering speed. "You turn around and run off with the son of your mother's killer. You bear his disgusting half-breed spawn then you have the nerve to blame me for her misfortune. I'm glad she's not here to see this, but no matter. I'm sure your mother would have understood. How something as vile as you could have ever come from someone as beautiful as her I'll never understand. Everything I did for you and you still turned into a wretched villainess."
Omnitraxus suddenly changed directions, sending the two of them into a nose-drie straight for the ground. He would simply splatter and reform, but there was no way Eclipsa would survive such an impact.
"Everything you did for me?!" Eclipsa shrieked, outraged Omnitraxus would paint her miserable childhood with him in such a positive light. "You're the reason she was not there to raise me! You robbed me of my mother! You robbed me of my childhood, my life, my husband, my home, and my children! You threw my daughter into some awful reform school to be raised by an emotionless robot, left my son to rot in the streets, and who knows what misery you put my Festivia through! I lost the chance to raise my children then, but it won't happen again. I won't let you take Star from me!"
Eclipsa's eyes began glowing as her emotions overwhelmed her, allowing her to call upon all her magic as she dipped down.
Filled with a new kind of strength, Eclipsa broke free of Omnitraxus' grasp at the last minute, allowing him to crash directly into the ground without her. Soaring several feet above him, she unleashed an awesome burst of dark magic, breaking his body apart faster than it could reform. "Toffee, now!"
Moon gasped as an eerily familiar high-pitched screeching noise filled the air. A beam of green magic came flying out from underneath her, striking Omnitraxus' amorphous form. Turning sharply, she was shocked to see Toffee standing behind her, his hands glowing as he cast magic wandlessly. "Since when can you…?"
A flash of light caught Moon by surprise. Turning back to Eclipsa, she watched as Omnitraxus' skull fell to the ground, his eyes black and lifeless.
Eclipsa did not hesitate. The moment the skull landed before her feet, she crushed it with a forceful stomp, watching silently as it crumbled into dust and blew away with the wind.
Suddenly, the woman collapsed to the ground and began sobbing. Though Omnitraxus was gone, horrible images of him coming after Star and her other children continued to flash through her mind. All the grief she had felt over the years came flooding back to her as images of Festivia's crying face, desperately calling out to her for help as Omnitraxus took her away, resurfaced in her mind. She could still hear the girl's sobbing voice in her head, recalling how hard she had fought only to fall to the commission.
She knew it was over, that her horrid grandfather could never hurt her or her family again, but she could not stop the tears from flowing.
Though Moon approached and wrapped her arms around the woman in an attempt to comfort her, she had no idea what to do. She had never seen Eclipsa in such a vulnerable state before. She never knew the former Queen had been carrying around such a deep sorrow or that she had such a close familial connection to the Magical High Commission. Now that she thought about it, she realized she knew nothing of Eclipsa's past other than her fleeing the Butterfly Kingdom to be with her Monster husband. "Why don't you go see Star?" she offered, certain the sight of the young girl alive and well would ease Eclipsa's pain.
"I'm sorry. I'm fine." Eclipsa wiped her tears as she calmed herself. "But, Toffee," she turned to her son, "would you go check on her for me? Just...just make sure she's okay for me, would you?"
"Of course." Drawing the dimensional scissors he borrowed from Meteora, Toffee cut a portal back to earth and disappeared through it.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake beneath the two women. The quake was not particularly strong, but Eclipsa knew the two of them had to act quickly. "Moon, I know you're probably exhausted, but we have one more thing we need to do."
"Shadow warp!" Star stared in awe as the light emitting from her wand changed in color, gradually losing its luster as the usual gold shimmer dimmed into a dark purple.
Looking down, she watched as her shadow began twisting and contorting before a hand suddenly shot up from the floor. She gasped as her shadow completely lifted from the ground, taking on a three-dimensional form that mirrored her own. By the time the shadow settled, she found herself staring at an exact dark replica of herself. Being a shadow, there were no distinctive features she could clearly make-out, but it did have two glowing red eyes exactly where hers would be.
The princess knew this would be the end result of the spell as detailed by Eclipsa in the book, but she still could not help but be surprised. It was eerie, almost frightening, to see the replica; an exact image of her with no thoughts or feelings. Just a mindless clone ready to do her bidding. "Make it...make it go away."
The wand glowed briefly before the clone's form began shifting back into the ground, returning to its place as her shadow.
"What's wrong, Star?" Glossaryck asked. "You got it right. Why the long face?"
"Glossaryck, is this...is this spell evil?"
"Evil?"
"Well, I mean...it is dark magic isn't it?"
"I wouldn't worry about it," Glossaryck responded nonchalantly, waving his hand as if he were waving the actual problem away. "Good, bad, right, wrong….evil: these are just words people come up with to make themselves feel better about all the terrible things they do. I've always subscribed to the theory of just doing whatever you want. You can't make everyone happy, so might as well make yourself happy."
Star frowned slightly as she rubbed her arm, not finding any comfort in her mentor's words.
"Alright, think about it this way," Glossaryck tried once more. "Is your narwhal blast spell evil?"
"No!" she answered quickly, almost offended he would even ask.
"Well, what if you used it to attack the Mewman farmers and steal all their corn. Is the spell evil now?"
"That's not really the spell though, that would be me."
"So stealing is evil?"
"I mean it's bad, but, yeah, I guess."
"What if you stole the corn to feed some starving Monsters? Would it still be evil then? Would it still be 'bad?'"
"Well...I-"
"Now look at your shadow here, Star," Glossaryck continued before she could answer. "Is it evil?"
"No!" It was a part of her, how could Glossaryck think it was evil?
"So it's good then? Even though it's dark magic?"
"...I don't...I don't know." Star was tired of being talked in circles. She just wanted an answer. "You trained my mom."
"Both of them," he interjected with a bemused grin.
"Why did...why did Eclipsa write a chapter of dark spells? Why did she use dark magic? I know she's not evil, but...why?" It never made any sense to Star. If Eclipsa had been taught all her life dark magic was evil, why would she do it?
"Eclipsa was always a curious child, much like yourself. She had a fiery spirit her grandfather couldn't tame after her mother's death, and just like every other teenager in the universe, she was quite rebellious. All you had to do was let slip to her that dark magic was forbidden and she was well on her way. Breaking into the royal archives, hunting down ancient books, practicing magic in secret, you name it. She showed such a promise for magic; it was only natural she was able to develop such a deep understanding and mastery of the forbidden art in such a short time. But to actually answer the real question on your mind: Did Eclipsa ever use her spells for evil?"
Star was silent as her cheeks blushed red, ashamed to admit the truth in Glossaryck's words. She knew Eclipsa was not evil, but there was just so much about her past she did not know. Everyone, including her own mother at one point, had thought the woman evil and her fate well-deserved. She knew none of the ancient stories were true, but she could not deny the question had been burning in the back of her mind for some time.
"Well...just like you, I can't really answer that. You'll have to tell me what 'evil' is before I can tell you if she ever used them for 'evil.'"
Star was disappointed not to say the least, but she knew Glossaryck was right. There was no easy answer.
"But, if it makes you feel any better, I can tell you I've never seen Eclipsa cast a spell she did not have a need to use."
"What are we doing here?" Moon asked as they stepped into the Realm of Time.
"We're going to save my mother. She's the only person who can fix this."
"...Skywynne? She's alive?" Mewman history as Moon knew it said the Queen of Hours had died on the battlefield some three-hundred fifty years ago.
"She is and we have to act quickly to save her. With Omnitraxus gone, there is no one to maintain the multiverse or the strands of space-time. The dimensions will start colliding and one-by-one, they will all be destroyed."
It struck Moon that the earlier earthquake must have been caused by the dimensional shifting. "What do we need to do?"
Scanning the plains, Eclipsa's eyes quickly fell upon a familiar tear in the time stream. It was clear the rip did not belong. It stood out amongst the crystals, crooked, jagged, and emitting an angry red energy. It was the same one she had found with the all-seeing eye spell as a child; the one she knew her mother was trapped in. Her grandfather had been able to contain the rift's chaos and keep it from ripping the time stream apart, but now that he was gone, everything was moving towards entropy. "We need to go in there. Or, rather...you need to go in there."
"You're not coming?" Moon was surprised. Why would Eclipsa not want to be part of her own mother's rescue?
"I can't. It's...I just can't, but trust me, it will be fine. You won't need me." Eclipsa led the silver-haired woman to the rift.
Gazing at its surface, the two could see brief flashes of the battle raging within.
"The loop resets every five minutes. Next time it restarts, you just pop right in, grab Skywynne and pop back out. It is the midst of a war, so just watch out for any flying arrows and swords. You know, the usual war stuff."
Had it not been for the seriousness of the whole situation, Moon would have laughed at Eclipsa's casual tone. She had to admit, the woman's relaxed demeanor was comforting in a way. The task ahead must have been simple if she was not worried about it in the slightest. "Alright. I'll be back, then."
Though Eclipsa appeared outwardly calm as she watched Moon disappear into the rift, she was panicking on the inside. Grabbing her mother was the easy part, but there were still so many things that could go wrong. Omnitraxus had spent decades trying unsuccessfully to find a way to free her mother. Though he could have simply pulled her into the future, it would have led to a complete collapse of the time stream. Her mother had been fated to die that night and not even her grandfather's awesome powers could change that. Omnitraxus being gone may have finally given her a way to access the time loop, but it did not negate the consequences of doing so. Still, if everything was going to go to hell in a handbasket regardless, they might as well make an attempt to save her mother's life.
At least Glossaryck had seemed hopeful about it when they spoke.
Lying on the grass, Skywynne stared up at the sky, watching the clouds gently pass. She could hear shouting and the clanging of metal meeting metal as her forces and the Monster army fought around her.
"Your majesty! She's down! She's down!"
Skywynne could feel and hear her guards rushing her, panickingly searching her for any wounds and demanding she answer them. She paid them no mind, continuing to stare past them at the sky. She had been through this thousands of times. There was no point in even acknowledging them. As soon as the loop reset, they would be back in their original places with no memory of this incident. She had been looping the same five minutes for what felt like an eternity. She had stopped keeping track of the loops ages ago.
At least they had gone to battle on a nice day. The warm sun against her skin soothed her, even as the sounds of her dying soldiers surrounded her.
"Queen Skywynne!"
She already knew what was coming. From her spot on the grass, she could see a flying spear quickly approaching. Watching in silence as her guards panicked, she refused to move. Just as the projectile was about to strike clean through her head, a flash of light engulfed the field.
Suddenly, she was standing upright once more, sword in hand. It was chaos all around as the Monsters and Mewmans clashed with one another. Her right hand man, her own personal guard, immediately fell beside her, having been struck through the neck by an arrow. She had mourned his death many times in the past, but now she felt nothing. She had grown accustomed to the constant death and destruction.
Her cursed father had trapped her here who knows how long ago. He had begged her to stay in the castle and send her army to fight without her, but she knew she could not do that. What kind of a Queen would ask her people to die willingly in battle while refusing to do the same? Things had not gone according to plan and when the Monster King's spear was about to strike the final blow against her, her father intervened.
"Father!" Skywynne shouted into the sky, ignoring the looks she received from her soldiers. Time seemed to freeze around her as the sky split open, revealing Omnitraxus. "What is the meaning of this?! Why am I in a time loop?!"
"Don't shout at me like that, it was the only way to save you! If I didn't put you in this loop, that spear would have flown clear through your head!"
Skywynne was silent for a moment. Her father was right. "So what do you plan to do then?" Having grown up under her father's care, she was well acquainted with the space-time stream and all the intricacies it held. She knew he could not simply pull her out of the loop; at least not without dire consequences.
"I don't...I don't know yet," Omnitraxus confessed, having acted quickly and without thought when he saw his daughter's imminent doom approaching. "I'll figure something out. I'll work with Father Time, we'll figure a way to get you out of here."
If it was to save her life, Skywynne knew she could not argue. "Very well."
"Father!" Skywynne shrieked into the void. She had counted two thousand sixteen loops. At five minutes a loop, she had been trapped here a week and could not take it any longer. She could not bear to keep watching her soldiers fall at the wayside. Every moment she spent trapped in battle only made her realize what a mistake she had made. She could have resolved the issues between the Monsters and the Mewmans without unnecessary fighting. Why did she listen to her father and go to war?
The sky turned a deep crimson red as time froze once more.
"How much longer will this take?!" Skywynne shouted at Omnitraxus the moment he appeared.
"I know, I'm sorry. I'm working on it," Omnitraxus responded hesitantly. Things had not been going as smoothly as he had hoped. Father Time had refused to help, well aware of the damage pulling Skywynne out of the isolated loop would cause. He had begged and pleaded with the old man to at least turn back time so he could stop Skywynne from ever going into battle all to no avail. The time-stream was too delicate to toy with just to save one Mewman. He had even gone as far as to seek help from Glossaryck, but the blue man seemed uninterested, only responding in riddles while offering no real help.
"Just get me out of here!"
"I will, dear, I will. Soon. Just give me more time."
One hundred five thousand one hundred twenty. Skywynne had been trapped in the loop for a full year now. She was falling apart, trapped in her father's little bubble with no escape. With no wand and no scissors, she had no physical way of escaping. It did not matter how far she traveled by foot or horseback, the moment the five minute mark hit, she was back on the battlefield, exactly where she had been when her father first cursed her into the loop. She could not even sleep to pass the time away or just rest, as she would be jolted awake with every loop.
Attempts at death provided her no escape either. Any time she was about to be struck, any attempt she made on her own life, simply caused the loop to restart. There was no escape.
The sky turned its usual deep red, signaling the arrival of her father. She had known from the start nothing could be done, but had held onto some sliver of hope that he would be able to find some way to save her. Now, her father's visits only served to remind her of who was keeping her prisoner.
"Hi, sweetie," Omnitraxus cautiously greeted the Queen. She had not been too happy to see him the past few times he had come to check on her and he could not imagine this time would be any different.
"Have you figured it out?" Skywynne demanded, ignoring the pleasantries.
"No...not yet, but-"
"Then kill me."
Omnitraxus was stunned. "Dear, what's-"
"I said kill me!" the desperate woman shrieked. "Put me out of my misery!" She was beginning to lose her mind, living the same five minutes over and over again. She had come to accept the fact there was no escape and if her father did not free her, she would spend an eternity trapped here. She would never age, never see another day, and never see her daughter, Eclipsa, again. She could not bear the idea of a never-ending life spent on the horrid battlefield. There was only one way for her to be freed without destroying the multiverse and that was for her to face her fate and die.
"Skywynne-"
"There is no way to get me out of here, is there?!"
Omnitraxus was silent as he fidgeted with his hands. Though his daughter spoke the truth, it was a truth he did not want to face.
"I've been here a year, just how much longer do you intend to keep me your prisoner?! How much longer must I suffer here in a war you insisted on starting?!"
He knew the only way to free her would be to destroy the loop he created, but doing so would result in her meeting her actual fate. She was his daughter, his beloved child, the light of his life. No matter how much she cried and begged for it, he could not bring himself to actually do it. "You're my daughter. I...I can't."
"So what then?! Do you plan to leave me here forever?!"
"Skywynne-"
"Just kill me!" she cried to the high heavens, already knowing what his answer would be. "Let that spear through my head and end my suffering! I refuse to spend one more minute here! I refuse to spend all of eternity rotting away here! Let me go! Kill me!"
Horrified at his daughter's demand, Omnitraxus fled without a word, leaving her trapped in the loop.
Alone once more in her prison, Skywynne collapsed, burying her face in her hands as she screamed in horror, knowing her father was willingly leaving her here to suffer an eternity.
"Skywynne!"
Said Queen's eyes snapped open. She did not recognize that voice. She knew every single person in this loop, but had never heard that voice before.
Sitting up, Skywynne was surprised to find a silver-haired woman standing above her. She had no idea who the woman was, but she must have been a Butterfly considering the marking she bore on her cheeks. "Who are you? How did you get here?"
"There's no time for explanation. I'm here to get you out." Moon grabbed Skywynne's wrist, pulling her up off the ground. She kept her eyes focused on the opening in the distance as she ran with the older woman in tow.
"Watch out!" Skywynne quickly pulled her arm back, jerking the mysterious stranger into a sudden halt just as a javelin went flying past.
Turning to the source, Moon found herself staring straight at Globgor. She had seen the Monster countless times in Eclipsa's tapestry, but she never truly appreciated his great size and fearsome appearance until now. She covered her ears as he gave a deafening roar before jumping back into battle. This must have been why Eclipsa did not want to venture into the loop. She would have never left.
Brushing the momentary fright away, Moon returned her attention to the open rift and sprinted towards it. Jumping through with Skywynne close behind, she landed in a jumbled heap on the other side as she lost her footing. Quickly picking herself up, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Skywynne on the floor beside her, having made it through the opening as well. She had been successful in her mission.
Getting her bearings, Skywynne found herself in the Plains of Time. She was out. She was free.
Sobbing, Skywynne threw herself atop Moon as she embraced the woman. "Thank you! Thank you!"
Hearing footsteps behind her, Moon turned her head to see Eclipsa approaching.
Eclipsa had tears of her own running down her face as she knelt down beside the two women. She had not seen her mother in three hundred fifty years; not since she was five. She had been waiting for this moment for so long, but now that it was finally time, she was having doubts. Would her mother even recognize her? Would she accept her? Would she accept her children? Her mother knew nothing of her life. She was so terrified at the prospect of being rejected, she found herself frozen, unable to speak.
Skywynne glanced at the crying woman, almost gasping. She easily recognized the spade cheek marks and striking turquoise hair. "...Eclipsa?"
Said woman nodded silently as her tears continued flowing.
"My baby!" Skywynne released Moon and threw herself at Eclipsa. More sobs escaped her lips as grief and joy overwhelmed her. She had never thought she would ever see her daughter again.
The ground suddenly began shaking once more, the tremors much stronger than the previous quake. Behind the group of royals, the entire sky slowly changed to a deep red color, matching that of the now-closed rift. The clocks littering the landscape began spinning wildly, unable to settle on any specific time as lightning flashed in the distance.
Eclipsa drew her dimensional scissors. "We have to get out of here."
"How long was I in that loop?" Skywynne asked as she settled down in the bed, the exhaustion finally catching up with her.
"A little over three-hundred fifty years." Eclipsa seated herself on the edge of the bed beside her mother. She had brought her to the cottage and taken her up to her shared room to rest and get reacquainted while the others remained downstairs.
Skywynne was silent as she processed this information. "How are you still alive?"
"Rhombulus froze me. I was trapped in a crystal for over three hundred years."
"Why?" Skywynne felt her heart break at the news. How could Rhombulus have done such a thing to her daughter?
"Well…I fell in love with a Monster." Eclipsa decided not to dance around the issue. She was going to be direct, honest, and simply hope for the best. "I had his child. I refuse to remain married to the vile man Omnitraxus picked out for me and for that they locked me away."
"...I have grandchildren?" Skywynne asked softly in delight.
"Yes. Four, but...one is no longer with us and…two of them are Monsters." Eclipsa hated to make such a distinction, but she needed her mother to understand. She needed to gauge the woman's reaction before she exposed her children to her. She hoped for the best, but still had to prepare for the worst. Her mother was both raised by Omnitraxus and extremely skilled in magic. Who knew what sort of lies and poison her grandfather had filled her mother's head with. She had to be sure her children would not be harmed if they were to meet Skywynne.
"Eclipsa, I don't care," Skywynne said firmly, taking the woman's face into her hands as if she were a young child. "I want to see them. I don't care if they are Monsters or Mewmans. I've spent the past three-hundred fifty years stuck in a warzone, thinking I would never see my baby-girl again. Every moment I was trapped, the only thing running through my head was the endless ways I could have peacefully ended this conflict and saved not only myself, but my fellow soldiers. I listened to my father and asked them to follow me into war, to die for me, and all over what? Nothing. The Monsters just wanted the same things we did. There was no reason we could not co-exist. I don't care if my grandchildren are Monsters, half-Monsters, or Mewman. Bring them to me, I want to meet them."
Eclipsa rushed down the stairs, tears of happiness streaking down her face. "Everyone, come up! Come meet your grandmother!"
Toffee and Meteora followed their mother up the stairs at a more reasonable pace, leaving Moon and Star alone in the living room.
"Go meet her," Moon encouraged, giving Star a quick kiss on the top of her head before standing up from the couch herself.
"You're not coming?" Star asked.
"No, I'm afraid I need to be going, dear."
Star frowned at the news. This was the first time she had seen her mother since she had dropped her off with Tom and Marco weeks ago. She did not want to see her leave so soon. "Will you stay just a little longer? Don't you want to see Skywynne? She's your grandma too."
Moon chuckled. "I suppose she is, but I'm afraid I can't. Perhaps another time." She leaned over and gave the girl a hug. "Goodnight, Star. I love you."
"Love you too." Star followed her mother to the door and stood by, watching her disappear into the forest. Finally closing the door, she made her way up the stairs and stepped into her bedroom.
"There you are, Star. Come say hello!" Eclipsa encouraged.
Star found herself suddenly feeling shy in Skywynne's presence. She had read through the former Queen's chapter and knew of the many powerful spells she authored. Mewman history remembered the Queen of Hours fondly as a brave and powerful ruler. "Hi," she greeted softly.
"Oh my goodness, come here!" Skywynne squealed. She wrapped Star into a hug the moment the girl was within reach. "She has our cheeks!" she cried in delight, giving the blonde girl's face a gentle, playful pinch. Turning her attention back to her daughter, she asked, "Where is that other woman? The one with the diamonds on her face."
"She said she had to go." Star answered.
"Oh, nonsense," Eclipsa protested even though Moon was not in the room to hear. "She's family, she should be here. Toffee, would you be a dear and fetch her, please? I can't imagine she's gotten very far."
"Certainly." Making his way downstairs, Toffee sprinted through the forest, catching up with the Mewman woman in a matter of minutes. "Moon!"
"Toffee!" Moon gasped, startled by his bellowing voice. She had not been expecting anyone to follow her.
"Sorry to startle you, but mother insists you return to meet Skywynne."
"I really can't, but please send my apologies."
"Very well." Just as he was about to leave, Toffee stopped. Where was Moon going? He realized he had no idea where she had been staying this entire time. There was no way she was staying anywhere in the Butterfly Kingdom with a bounty on her head, so where had she been spending her nights? "Wait, Moon. Where are you going?"
"To an old friend. I've been staying with him ever since...well, you know."
He did not need her to finish to know she was talking about being usurped. "I see. Safe travels, then."
"Thank you."
Closing the door silently behind her, Moon did her best to keep quiet and not wake any of the home's residents as she slowly crept upstairs.
"Queen Moon!"
Said woman suddenly found herself on the ground as she was tackled by a hoard of tadpoles, all clamoring over her, trying to be the first to welcome her. Chuckling, she placed a hand on the head of each child as she greeted them. "Hello, Katrina, Boris, Alexi, Anastasia, Dimitri, Anya, Igor, Mikhail, Leo, Irina, Nadia, Sergei."
The teen tadpoles burst into laughter, elated she could easily match their names to their faces when so few aside from their father could.
"Babushkas, is late. You're supposed to be in beds." Buff Frog helped Moon to her feet as the tadpoles all scrambled to their rooms, wishing the Queen a goodnight on their way up. "Did all go well, Queen Moon? I save you plate in case you are hungry."
"I think it's going to be alright. Thank you."
"Oh look," Eclipsa remarked sweetly at the sight of Tom and Marco asleep in the living room. "Your friends stayed up waiting for you." She could see a covered plate on the kitchen table, no doubt left out for Star. "Are you hungry, dear?"
"No, but...can I ask you a question?"
"Of course."
"Why do you use dark magic?" Star asked directly.
Eclipsa gave her daughter a soft smile, kneeling down to her level. "What makes you ask that?"
Taking a deep breath, Star held up her wand. "Shadow warp." She kept her eyes glued to the floor, watching as her shadow rose from the ground once more.
"Is this what you and Glossaryck were up to today?" Eclipsa was both amused and delighted to see Star master one of her spells. She had always planned to teach the girl herself and was excited to see she already had an interest in her chapter. She admired her daughter's handiwork until the spell released, causing the shadow to slide back to the floor once more.
"Yeah, but...if everyone told you dark magic was bad, why did you use it? Didn't it scare you?"
Eclipsa perfectly understood Star's worries, having gone through the same thing herself when she was the girl's age. She had felt rather guilty and wrong the first time she used dark magic, hearing her grandfather's words ringing through her ears the entire time. It was only natural for Star to feel the same, having spent her first childhood growing up with the same warnings and misconceptions. "I admit dark magic can be used to frightening results, but I've seen many people with 'good' magic do horrible things as well. I suppose I was not bothered by it because it's not the magic you should fear, but the wielder instead."
"What did you use it for?"
"Well, I may have engaged in some torment and psychological torture in my youth, but it was all well-deserved, rest assured," she jokingly teased. Though she knew what the girl was really asking her, Eclipsa did not feel upset in the slightest. She knew these were only fears plaguing the girl's mind, planted by others, that simply needed to be cleared away. "Evil is...a difficult concept. I'm sure Glossaryck talked you in circles today, didn't he?"
The young girl silently nodded her head.
"It's easy to see the worst in others. It's easy to hand out labels and pass judgement, but truth of the matter is: we're all just victims of our circumstances, some in and some beyond our control. That does not excuse anyone's actions, but it at least gives you an understanding of why someone may have acted the way they did." Eclipsa took Star's face into her hands and brought it close to hers, comfortingly touching her forehead with her daughter's. "But I promise you, I never used my spells for anything evil, regardless of what the Magical High Commission or Mewman history may say."
Star could not help but smile a bit. Why she ever doubted Eclipsa, she did not know. She threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around her mother. "I love you."
"I love you too, dear." The former Queen gave the princess a peck on the cheek. "Goodnight."
After watching Eclipsa disappear back into the portal, Star made her way over to the couch. Careful not to wake Tom or Marco, she turned the television off and nestled herself between the two. Grabbing a blanket off the floor, she covered herself and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep.
"Glossaryck!" Skywynne happily cried out when her old mentor suddenly appeared in the room. She had no idea where he came from, but she did not care. It was nice to see a friendly, familiar face.
"I've missed you, my dear. How are you feeling?" he asked with a smile on his face.
"Like I can sleep for an eternity." Skywynne laid herself back down on the bed. She was looking forward to her first night of uninterrupted sleep.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to hold off on that for just a little longer. There's something important I need to discuss with you."
Skywynne steadied herself as the ground began shaking quite forcefully.
"About that, actually." Glossaryck motioned to the glass of water on the nightstand beside Skywynne, watching as it teetered over the edge before falling and shattering. "I'm sure Eclipsa told you of what became of your father."
"...she did." Skywynne had been rather torn about it. She had been horrified to learn of what Omnitraxus had done to her daughter, grandchildren, and the kingdom after her disappearance, not to mention the fact he had served as her jailer for the past three centuries. But, at the same time, he was her father. She had many fond memories from a childhood spent with him. She held no resentment against Eclipsa for her father's death, but she still could not help but mourn his loss.
"With your father gone, there is no one left to oversee the multiverse. Pulling you from the time loop created a disturbance in the space-time stream that, if not addressed, will pull this and all other timelines apart."
"You want me to try and fix the tear in the space-time continuum?"
"I need you to do a little more than that. As I'm sure you're aware, 'fixing' is not really something we can do. We can only maintain the rift your father created in an attempt to stabilize the time-stream. In short, I need you to take your father's place as overseer of all space-time. As Omnitraxus' only child, you alone hold the power to bend space-time to your will. Otherwise, we can all kiss life, the universe, and everything goodbye."
"You don't leave me much of a choice, do you?" Skywynne chuckled as she climbed out of the bed. She could sleep later. For now, she needed to save the universe as she knew it.
Following Glossaryck through a portal he created, she found herself standing in the Plains of Time once more. The place had continued to fall apart after her rescue and she could see the various dimensions colliding with one another.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath as she entered her butterfly form, calling all her magic to her. Using her power to halt the rapid shifting of dimensions around her, she began the long and arduous task of restoring the time-stream.
I researched and read every article on Wikipedia I could find about space-time and still have no clue what any of it means. Let's all just pretend like I know what I'm doing.
Review please!