The end for Mewni came far more swiftly and far more slowly than anyone watching could have predicted or hoped.
The manipulative influence of Bill Cipher had added too many variables to the kingdom's mounting disorder, causing the web of allies that the dimensional superpower had accumulated to rapidly fray while the monarchy struggled with its own looming questions regarding legitimacy and equality. This approaching doom had no greater portent than the failed Monster Bash.
The empty halls of the grand temple were perfectly, unnaturally still for a moment reality cracked like glass in front of the assembled handful of figured beginning the work of party preparation. As soon as the portal from earth had stabilized, a brunette girl with with brightly colored sunglasses on, a party wand in one hand and a noisemaker in her mouth jumped out. "Let's get this party STARTED!" Mabel Pines declared enthusiastically as she answered her summons, eyes instantly drawn to the boy in the red hoodie of the assembled crowd. "Hey there big boy, anyone ever tell you you got the dashing good looks of a merman but without all the gross fish parts?" She asked Marco Diaz in a flirtatious tone, only to let out a small noise of surprise as someone grabbed her from behind.
Star Butterfly had emerged from a hand cut portal of her own with the perpetually amused looking Janna Ordonia trailing behind, zoning straight in on Mabel to pick her up, carry her a healthy distance away from her boyfriend, point a finger at her with a sharp statement of "No!" and then walked away without another word. Mabel let out a sigh before turning around and coming face to face with her twin brother, Dipper Pines. Her smile instantly grew reluctant and uncertain as he evaluated her from behind a gaze she only now realized she couldn't read.
"H...hey bro-bro... how's it going?"
Whatever her flaws however, Mabel remained a fantastic party planner and her insight proved to be a valuable component of the event's initial, glowing success. The boiling point of the event, where things got their hottest before a cold wind blew across the glowing candle of hope, was doubtlessly the grand dance. Imported earth music and a glittering crystal ball encouraged the diverse variety of bodies present to mix it up and find fresh ways to get down together!
"Just like I planned it!" The female Pines twin thought with a truly satisfied expression on her face and a warm sensation of satisfaction at the frigid atmosphere that had first ruled the celebration melting completely. Star and Marco were getting down under the disco ball, Janna was leading a monster and Mewman boy on either side in a shuffling dance running on its own pop beat, and at the far end of the dance floor, surrounded by a tight circle of curious onlookers...
"Oh my god..." Mabel intoned breathlessly once she pushed her way to the inside of the circle to see what was going on, stunned completely by how effortlessly Dipper and Pacifica were waltzing with each other. Both were wearing conjured up illusionary outfits provided by Star, with Paz wearing a predominantly purple dancing dress with Latin styled curls and lace, while Dipper had a slick, very dark blue tuxedo. They stepped effortlessly around each other, hand gripping hand, completely blind to the amazed crowd watching with glittering (and in one instance, bubbling) eyes.
"They're perfect for each other!" She realized, awestruck by the raw waves of romance her brother and his girlfriend were giving off as they danced together, both obviously suffering from nerves and inexperience but more than flawlessly shoring up the performance through mutual trust and intuitive understanding of the other's movements. Mabel's heart was heavy at this sight, but she knew now more than ever that she was just going to have to carry it. "Dipper always helped me with my stupid crushes, so I owe it to him to help with his true love!"
Despite the growing feeling that this party was the right first step towards averting the conflict the Underworld's dark patron had been brewing with Mewni, a homegrown threat to the ancestral matriarchy was all it took to send it all sideways.
Marco Diaz, now significantly more battle damaged and breathing heavily, dragged his hand against the stone floor he was skidding across on bent knees as a result of a buffed up Mina Loveberry sending him flying with a punch! The magically enhanced super soldier was still barreling down on the human across the now cleared floor of the Monster Temple but was staggered when Dipper came running in from the edge of the battlefield, pulling the pin on one of Stanford Pines' home cooked grenades and throwing it straight at Mina's face. Before the smoke could clear naturally the cloud was parted by Star Butterfly's golden, six armed form hurling herself through the smoke, fists clenched and face wearing a blank expression of unsettling fury.
While the thunderous, thirty seconds long barrage of six armed punches Star threw without hesitation at her former idol wasn't enough keep the enduring super soldier from interrupting it with a choking grab to the neck of the serene princess, the butterfly flew free again when Mabel and Pacifica worked together in the rafters above to cut loose a disco ball from the ceiling and drop it on Mina's head!
Though no lives were lost in the unexpected raid on the temple, and the monsters who did attend were convinced of the sincerity held by the princess of Mewni, internal troubles prevented the royal family from pressing the advantage against the Underworld. At the closed doors trial of the deposed Queen Eclipsa, where the only human permitted attendance was expert consultant Stanford Pines, both the secret history of the dark monarch's child and her covenant with Bill Cipher were exposed, motivating the Magical High Commission to convict Eclipsa, placing her under full dungeon confinement until it could be decided if she would be re-crystalized or if more severe punishment was necessary.
The Kingdom of Mewni, already straining beneath the waves of controversy this decision spread through the royal family, was finally broken by the rage of Meteora.
In return for this, for forcing her to watch all her friends and loved ones float away as horrific looking drained corpses, Star Butterfly broke the long feared headmistress back.
Golden light rippled off the gently fluttering wings of the Butterfly form like waves of water, distorting reality en route to crash against the stone that was the towering mewman/monster hybrid child. Star herself was once again six armed, broad winged, but crackling with an inner purple slime, thick primal fluid falling from her eyes and dripping out of her twisted with hatred mouth. The barbarous cruelty with which Meteora had savored ripping out Marco's soul had made Star give in to the animal within the magic, causing her butterfly form to reach its full potential as the embodiment of the cyclical, fluid nature of organic life.
When the distortion wave struck Meteora, her remaining confidence (which had already turned mostly into confusion when Star's flesh and blood body split open like a cocoon so the Apex Butterfly could emerge) turned into blind panic as the moment of victory, which had been drawing unstoppably closer and closer since she had learned the truth of her past, abruptly began to get further and further away! It wasn't her victory that was changing, however. It was Meteora.
Star's bottomless reserves of magic were being channeled through the Apex Butterfly and guided by her own raw feelings of hatred for the rampaging monster that had so brutally wounded her beloved Marco, working in concert to weave the worst fate possible for the legitimate heir. Her massive, power crackling form shrank smaller and smaller as the lost butterfly was mummified back up into her cocoon in a stark violation of the natural order, forced to relive every second of her miserable life being played in reverse before her very eyes.
Souls began to return to their bodies, the last to be stolen returning to life first, senses thankfully still dazed enough to prevent them from observing the complete, painful process of Meteora shivering and shrinking to a smaller and smaller form, screaming in agony all the way as she was forced to feel every ounce of magic and second of memory being ripped out of her, until there was nothing but a crying baby left in her place.
"It would be so easy..." Star's conscious thoughts began to consider, returning in patches now that the danger had passed and the golden light was beginning to fade. "...To simply turn that rock right next to her into a very hungry, very venomous scorpion." When she blinked however, glowing patterns replaced by naturally blue eyes on Star's face, the horror of what she was considering doing to a helpless, crying baby broke through the haze of magic and the transformed state ended in a blink... dropping her to the ground with a small grunt of pain, though it didn't come from Star.
Marco didn't mind his girlfriend landing on top of him however. He was just happy to have his soul back in his body and Star in his arms. The other boy from earth proved less fortunate however, as before Dipper could locate the revived Pacifica Northwest, he caught sight of the storm upon the horizon.
The ground had split open in great, carefully prepared fissures as the Lucitors made the snap decision to begin their invasion early. The final conquest of Mewni, an interdimensional superpower founded, forged and sustained via magic driven conflict, was accomplished in a matter of hours. Meteora's one woman blitz had broken the kingdom's defenses before its allies could arrive, and when the royal houses of Spiderbite, Ponyhead, Seafolk finally got the complete picture of what was occurring they were more interested in cutting deals with the Lucitors than resisting them. Some even welcomed the change in regime, blind to the dark will that guided it and agreeing with the demonic declaration that Mewman purists had ruled the dimension for too long.
Clouds of spear carrying, winged shock troops blacked out the sky while monster radicals with earth produced firearms and explosive devices served as the first wave, while towering, human shape by faceless colossi studded with broken pieces of glittering gemstones ripped what stone fortifications were left right out of their foundations.
The evacuation was a frantic thing, only prevented from turning into a slaughter at the hooves and blades of demonic cavalry riding skeletal steeds by the quick thinking of the humans from earth, who shuffled as many people into portals as possible before the freshly revived Hekapoo was forced to seal the dimension of Mewni entirely. It was a sudden, unspoken and harsh decision which she made alone, trapping the other survivors of the battle within the new empire of the Lucitors but preventing the hellknights from completing their rout, slicing many of them apart in the dimension cut or leaving them floating between worlds as the doors sealed.
Most of the refugees spilled into the Mystery Shack basement through the human built portal, while others were scattered about topside through hastily cut scissor rends in reality. Everyone was simply wandering the tourist attraction in a daze regardless of how they got there, oblivious to the initially impressed but soon freaked out tour group that were sent running for their cars by the lone hellknight to pierce the breach, writhing and melted as a result of partially fusing with his mount in the teleportation collision.
When Dipper emerged from the basement into the cloud patched sunlight of a new, uncertain day, he was resting in a stance of mutual support with his twin sister, Mabel needing him to stay on her feet after all that as much as he needed her. The sheer horror of knowing Bill was free, alive in the multiverse with an empire at his command was not erased by the site waiting for him outside the Shack, but the insurmountable wall of opposition didn't seem so tall and sturdy when he took in who else had survived.
Eclipsa was sitting on the porch, completely uninterested in the Magical High Commission members who would occasionally pause their bickering to glare at her as she gently coo'd and calmed her swaddled up daughter, the first and only thing she had cared about retrieving when the dungeon cell she'd been locked up in for the final battle exploded. Star and Marco were embracing on their knees in the dirt, both freely crying tears of relief at the other being safe and sound. Janna was still on her feat, poking the melted remains of the pursuing hellknight with an expression of genuine curiosity, rare fear and a dawning sensation of genuine motivation.
Stanley Pines had joined Soos in crowd management, bustling off the last crowd of tourists the Mystery Shack would host for some time with theatrical aplomb and a minimum of lingering questions. His twin brother Stanford was thoroughly applying fresh wards and other magic defenses to the impromptu refugee camp, while Pacifica Northwest looked up from bandaging a wound on a mewman knight to give Dipper a pained but ultimately relieved smile.
Finally, Dipper looked over at Mabel. "Bill Cipher might have sent us all to hell Mabel, but he made a mistake when he sent us all down together! We're gonna take it all back, everything he's stolen from the multiverse!"
With a faint glimmer of hope glowing in her previously downcast eyes, Mabel looked over at Dipper. "Together?" She asked apprehensively, hoping the hug she felt coming wouldn't be so awkward this time.
"Together."
Author's Notes
This is just a little section I was abruptly motivated to write in order to put a little better written cap on abrupt end of this series, and get across a few ideas the description of canceled plans didn't quite get across. I hope this proved enjoyable to read but would still advise against raising your hopes in anticipation of a third full story, unless of course other writers end up making use of this AU.