Ch 20: Birthday party! Yay! Cheer!
"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!" Marco sat at the end of the table, with a few friends he made on his time in Mewni at his side.
"Happy birthday dear Marco…. Happy birthday to you!" Marco blew out the candles and cheered, as did everyone else.
"Woo! Yeah! Alright, everyone gets some cake!" Marco stood up.
"Wait, aren't you gonna get your own slice?"
"Do you not want cake?" Marco said. At that moment, everyone jumped on the chocolate cake.
Marco watched them take pre-sliced pieces off the square cake. They were all so happy, so very carefree. Marco walked up to his room unnoticed by his peers. There, he picked up a dusty chest, opened the windows and crawled out onto the roof.
At this vantage point, he got a good view of the Mewnian countryside. Portals dotted the fields, with people that looked like ants from the roof coming in and out. Marco saw these from his window months ago and when he asked about it he found out the portals were leading into territory occupied by the Mewnians during the oil war. The ants going in were fresh recruits, the ants going out were soldiers too injured to be treated on the front, or worse.
Marco looked at the not so dusty chest now that it sat in the wind for a while. He stared at the front of it, lost in thought of what lied inside. His thoughts were broken when he heard footsteps behind him. By the weight of the steps, he identified who it was.
"Star," Marco said, almost dismissively "why, on god's green earth, are you here?" he didn't turn around to face her.
"I was thinking you needed cheering up!" Star had an armful of puppies "so I brought you these!" Marco had gotten into a pattern. If you couldn't find him embracing the masses or somewhere in the castle, he was up in his sulking roof, the roof in which he sulks.
Marco sighed "Star, I think you should know something."
Oh boy, here we go again, Star thought. Every time he said that he would dish out a lecture about why the war was bad. He spewed out the same reasons, 'Nazis are bad,' 'People get hurt,' 'Civilians get caught in the crossfire' It was exhausting.
"Puppies! Go!" Star unleashed the puppies to pounce on Marco. The puppies did pounce on Marco, and they did too well of a job. Marco was knocked over, which was 10x as worse as normal because they were on a roof. Marco was knocked off, along with his chest.
"OH MY GOSH." Star took out her wand "PICKUPREALLYFASTLIKERIGHTNOW" Marco was pulled back up to the roof along with his chest. He was plopped down on his back.
After taking a few moments, Marco motioned Star to join him in lying down. Star complied.
"So, what is it you want to tell me?" Star said, ready to cast a noise-canceling spell.
Marco opened the chest and took out one of its contents: a picture of his old family. "This was my life before I was forced here. That was my dad, my mom, good little Echo Creek family. Then everything happened. I was spontaneously transported about 50 years into the past, and you, you changed the course of history. That one battle had enough of a butterfly effect to turn the tide of the second world war. As a result, my grandparents were killed, and that should've ended me. I'm still here. I still have memories of my parents that should have never been. I am a dimensional paradox. Then, I had a choice. When I had the option to go to a dimension that mirrored my own, or somewhere else. I chose to go here. You know why? Because I knew, I fucking knew, any other dimension would be fake. Sure I could have gone to a dimension with everyone I know. Their memories the same as mine, but I knew they would not be my legitimate friends, family. Only puzzle pieces from another box perfectly fit. The only real friend I would know of was you. And I knew you liked me, so I used that. I used that to root myself in. Now I feel like I need to avenge myself, avenge my old life. I want to start commanding an army so that I can help end the war quicker by any means possible. Do you understand, Star?" Marco turned his head at Star "Star?"
"Yeah yeah, civilians will get in the crossfire, innocents will be caught, innocents will die," Star said.
"Noise-canceling magic…" Marco wrote a summary of what he said on the back of the photo. He had plenty more photos of them in the chest. He put the photo in Star's hand.