Star vs The Forces of Evil
Earthni Sweet Symphony
Disclaimer: Star vs The Forces of Evil was created by Daron Nefcy and is owned by Disney. I own no part of Star vs.
Episode 7: Camping Conundrum (Part 2)
Episode Summary: The discovery of potential corruption & pollution in their camping area motivates Star to push towards a solution for the ongoing monster-mewman-Earth conflict.
Original Release Date: December 3, 2021
After everyone had a chance to allow the information just presented to them to sink it, they all elected to return to their campsite, inviting the group of monsters and mewmans they ran into to join them for a decent meal. While the group was fed some mighty tasty meat courtesy of the adults, Miles sought to keep everyone else entertained, resorting to doing what can only be described as an adorable toddler dance in front of them while incomprehensibly babbling his own little tune to his loyal audience consisting of Janna, Tom, Star, Marco, Chloe, & Jackie, plus Mariposa & Meteora. He was rewarded for his adorable effort with a round of applause, and they were rewarded for their applause with uncontrollable laughter from the boy.
"Look at this cutie!" Star couldn't help but gush over her beloved brother. She picked him up & kissed him all over. "Who's an adorable little baby? You are!"
Miles held up the little pinecone he was still holding onto at Star's face. "This is Bob! Say hi!"
She couldn't get over his pure innocence. Such a smile he had on his face as he awaited her approval. "Hi Bob." And so she indulged. "You are so good, sweetie. You try so hard."
"Clearly he takes after his big sister." Marco playfully teased.
"I wanted to help the peoples in the trees. They looked sad."
"I know, hon." Star gently kissed his forehead and continued reaping the rewards of his contagious laughter. Her attention soon turned to their unexpected guests, all of whom were not wasting a single moment chowing down on their prepared meals. "So how long have you all lived out in these parts?"
One of the monsters sighed & put his plate to the side. "A few weeks."
"Where were you before this?"
"We was all just shuffling about in town. They had some, like, emergency huts or something scattered around the town for us folks from Mewni to temporarily stay in."
"...They did?" The way Star rebuffed their answer - combined with the confused looks from her family - gave away the game that something was definitely amiss. "Okay I know I've not been paying attention that much because of...well, reasons, but I do not recall seeing any sort of tents just scattered around town that would house stray mewmans or monsters. Like, seriously, I spent a lot of the past ten months traversing Echo Creek, and I don't remember any of this."
"That would the thing, they were always being moved around. Like, once a week or something."
Star was not afraid to show her contempt towards the mayor at this point. "Is that so?"
"It's almost like they were afraid of us."
"Well, maybe not all of you. I've seen some of our people lead fulfilling lives and actually living in regular homes. And the entire point of my family being a part of the mayor's political team on a shadow council was to help accelerate the process of getting everyone a home. It was supposed to be quick & seamless."
"Which is the complete antithesis of politics at large." Janna remarked, and who could say she was wrong?
"Yeah, I probably should've been more skeptical while we were hashing the plan out. And now it almost feels like they just...gave up trying to help."
"They probably did." She reached out and took Miles out of Star's hands to give herself a moment of playtime with the adorable tyke. "See, politicians will never admit it, but more often than not they base their policies and actions off of public outrage. When we were just starting out in this whole cleaving stuff, this was a pretty hot button topic out and about. It pretty much got on everyone's nerves for a different reason."
Star's raised eyebrows gave away just how baffled she was at this revelation. "Is that right? I...don't remember it being that much of a source of anger, but then again I've been all but disconnected from politics for the last year. I guess I jut let it slip by me?"
"Well we were also kinda working overtime to make sure nobody pestered you about these problems." Marco reminded her. "You were supposed to be resting. Your folks tried to take care of it."
"And you know how I feel about that, but that's neither here nor there anymore. Anyways, now I want back in the game, and I have every intention of making sure we fix what the centuries of monarchy rule broke. And I'm not going to let anything stop me."
"But how would we even fix this?" Marco couldn't help but ask in a frenzy. "Government corruption ain't exactly anything new. And it's not like we'd even have the power to tell him to stop doing this."
"And we really don't have any wherewithal that we'd need to just, you know, go into town and ask for a new place to live or anything." One of the other monsters said. "We...don't really have anything on us. That was...the whole point of that initiative."
"What about the Monster Temple?" Star suggested almost instantaneously. Despite using it as her living space throughout her brief tenure as Queen of Mewni following Meteora's defeat, Eclipsa had not spent a day living at the Monster Temple since the Cleaving. Not her, not Globgor, and not Meteora. In fact, the Monster Temple really hadn't been utilized much at all in terms of helping advance the cause of monster slash mewman housing. Sure, there were residents holed up in the temple on occasion - Buff Frog and his children being the longest tenured - and they were receiving assistance in the form of financial aid from the mayor's office, but there have been more than a few instances of wonky behavior on that front over the past year. Originally, it was written off as a batch of coincidences or innocent system failures. But given the events that have transpired over the past few weeks, culminating with the mayor's blowup at Star, and it's forced the group to put things into a different perspective.
"What do you mean?"
"Can't we still use the Monster Temple to house these poor people? At least, you know, temporarily?"
"That's...probably not the wisest idea, Marco." Eclipsa butted in rather somberly.
"Why? Is there a problem with the temple?"
"Not the temple itself..." Moon joined in. "But given the developments we've experienced, knowing now the animosity your town's leadership clearly has for us...for Star...we're not sure it's the best idea to apply for expanded housing within the temple for our people."
"So we're just going to leave them out in the cold to fend for themselves because we're afraid of upsetting him? So how are we going to explain that in terms that don't make us look like selfish, self-centered cowards?"
"It's not about cowering, Marco. It's about having a plan of action."
"We can have one without chickening out. So, what? Are they suddenly going to go after the temple and kick everyone out that's living there even though they have nowhere else to go? Do they even have that authority?"
"They technically don't. However..."
"Why don't I like where this is going to go?"
"It's just that...Buff Frog has acted as our inner feed to life inside the Monster Temple since the Cleaving. He has been our confidant in relaying vital information concerning living conditions and morale within the living space. We take this information into account during our regular status meetings with the council. But more and more in recent weeks, there has been a...malaise to their attitude.
Janna could only raise an eyebrow in Moon's direction. "So...he was your inside source." She said flatly. "Seriously, would it kill any of you to use terms that us Earth people use?"
Moon rolled her eyes at Janna, eliciting a laugh from her demon boyfriend. "We've been leaning on Buff Frog to feed us information about any developments there. And let's just say morale there is not exactly high at the moment."
"Let me guess: that issue where their financial aid mysteriously failed to materialized has cropped up again?"
"On a few instances. And each time it's taken longer for the issue to resolve. We've even had to step in on our own at points to dissolve the problem."
"...I'm assuming you mean behind the mayor's back?" Marco asked, and he was greeted with a nod.
"Yes, it quite appears your leadership has developed an astounding lack of interest in continuing the progress towards mending the bridges between your dimension and ours." River added, all while Miles made his way towards the man and gently tugged his mustache while giggling.
"But there has to be some solution, right?" Marco found himself loudly groaning; clearly the frustration of the entire ordeal was starting to seep in, prompting Star to rub his shoulders to induce relaxation.
"Okay, look, everyone, I hate that all of this is happening, but...obviously we're not going to come up with a solution that can fix all of these issues at once." Star lamented. "I hate saying this, but maybe we should just put this on the back burner for now and just...find a way to enjoy the time that we have out here in the wilderness? I'd hate to let it go to waste." She frustratingly crossed her arms and looked away, a clear sign of distress on her end. Miles & Marco picked up on this instantly and embraced her, giving her the warmth she was seeking but refused to ask for.
"How's about we play a game to take our minds off of this?" Marco suggested. "My parents brought along a volleyball net that's easy to set up."
"Ooh, I like volleyball!" One of the monsters excitedly looked over at the group. "Could we join you?"
"Only if you don't mind getting your butts kicked." Janna bragged. "I'm, like, a pro at volleyball."
"We'll see who the pro is, miss Banana!" Star quipped back, prompting Janna to dig into that little comment she had just made.
"...You don't know my last name, do you?"
Setting up the net and thus the playing field was easy pickings for the group. Everyone divided into teams of two - some of the pairs were natural, such as Star & Marco, Jackie & Chloe, Janna & Tom, while some of the other monsters and mewmans formed pairings of their own, mostly mixed teams - and took turns playing. Like Janna had hinted, she was excellent at the game, with her signature spike attack startling opponents left and right. In the meantime, the adults - plus the babies - sat on the sidelines and watched while the kids all had fun and got along with their new acquaintances. Naturally, Miles was cheering the loudest, and for who else but his beloved big sister?
Eventually it came time for Star & Marco to face off against Janna & Tom. It was a friendly match, like all of the other matches were. But naturally, Janna was a bit more competitive than the others. This even included Tom. What this meant was that Star & Marco had to up their game just so they wouldn't get blown out of the water by them. That seemed simple enough, and it was...until...
Marco set Star up for an epic spike, to which Star majestically leaped in the air to perform...only to put way too much power into her spike. She had seemingly channeled all of her pent up anger into that spike, slamming her palm on the ball and firing it right at Tom, inadvertently smacking his face. It took a moment for the act to actually register, but once it did, Star was left in complete shock and angst over her actions. "Tom!" She screamed, dashing over to the other side to console him. Marco & Janna followed suit. "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!"
Fortunately, no real damage had been done to his face as a result. The only thing that was significantly bruised was his ego. "It's...okay. I barely even felt it."
"Dude, you look like you've been hit by a bus." Janna commented. "Twice." Then she turned to Star. "By the way that's our point, game over." And that snarky statement earn Janna an annoyed sneer from Marco.
"I swear I didn't mean it!" Unfortunately, distraught Star was still here to stay. "I don't know what came over me." But quickly, a cooler head prevailed and it enabled Star to think everything through. "Oh wait, no, I do know. My mind's still been stuck on our stupid mayor all day and I just imagined his smug, stupid face on the ball. I want to slap him silly."
"Then slap him, not my boyfriend, dude!" Janna retorted rather annoyed. "His face can only handle so much punishment."
"...What's that supposed to mean, Miss Banana?"
"Are you just calling me that to annoy me? Because it's working."
"Star, I'm fine. It's just a flesh wound." Tom tried to assuage her guilt, and it went about as well as you think it did.
"Yeah, that's totally what a flesh wound is." Marco replied sarcastically, which at least helped make Star laugh a little. "I'm sure she just had the mayor's face imagined on that ball when she smacked it, right?"
There was no getting around it here. "That obvious, huh? Hey, I can't help it that the guy just grates on me lately."
"So throw a ball at his face, not mine." Tom argued.
"Yeah, that's not going to happen." Janna remarked. "Not if we don't want Star to end up in jail again."
An audible gasp arose from Jackie & Chloe, who had not been made aware of this development from yesteryear. "You went to jail?!" Jackie exclaimed.
"Yeah, you know how it goes: destroyed a cop car on a sugar rush, fled the scene, tried to live out by the creek, had to wash cars for community service. You know, the works."
"And I promise you, girl, it would be even worse the 2nd time around if that ever happened again."
"Well it won't. I'm not the same irresponsible little trash bag that decided she didn't need to think about the consequences of her actions. But I still wanna shove something in that clown's face."
"You know, if we really wanted to stick it to him, we could hit him where it hurts."
"Janna, we're not going to let you throw a ball at his face." Marco retorted, clearly misunderstanding where the conversation was going to go."
"Marco, no, she doesn't mean that." And Star was there to correct him...provided she herself was correct. "You don't mean like that, right?"
"Right. No, what I mean is...obviously there's a reason he's deciding to use this specific pool of water as a dumping ground. It's probably money, but...nah, it's gotta be more than that." Janna inexplicably turned to the group of mewmans and monsters they had met. "Does he know you guys all live out here?" Her question was met with a collective shrug. "That's helpful. But...maybe we can use that to our advantage."
"What do you mean?"
"If there's one thing I know for sure about politicians, it's that they're mostly apathetic to the systemic, long-term failings of the society that they supposedly run until one, it's shoved in their face to the point of insanity, and two, it starts affecting their future political aspirations and-or bottom line."
"You mean like this stupid dumping ground or-or the tensions between the Mewni folks and Echo Creek people? You think that he thinks it benefits him to not actually resolve these issues or give them the dedication they deserve? It benefits him in his greater aspirations to leave the people that didn't choose to be brought over into a new dimension that they know little to nothing about to fend for themselves and risk injury or illness or worse?"
"That's typically how it goes for politicians." Marco interluded, agreeing with Janna's point. "But that does bring up a question: What does he have to gain from it? I mean, I don't really see the mayor as some kind of psychopath that gets off on seeing people hurt. He just struck me as a guy that was...well, very overwhelmed by what's been happening and looking for some kind of answers. Not that it really excuses lashing out at Star for having a breakdown and deciding she needed to rest-"
"Oh no, dude, don't do that. Anyone that goes after anyone for putting their mental health like Star chose to do deserves to go on a permanent shit list. Even if he's not, like, totally evil or whatnot, he's still a problem child. And we'd all be better off if someone else was in charge."
"You really think Buff Frog has a chance against him?"
"Buff Frog's running to usurp that twerp?" One of the wayward monsters exclaimed, almost in a delirious joy. Buff Frog was an immensely popular figure in monster circles, and he was even gaining favor with mewman circles in recent months, long before he had even decided he wanted to run for the position. At this point, most of those who had migrated from Mewni to Earthni had an understanding of Earth's "democracy," if one can even call it that. As word of mouth spread, more of them were fed the information that Buff Frog could potentially be leading the charge on the merge soon enough, a prospect that excited most of the monsters and even some of the mewmans.
"Election's later this year. We're gonna start ramping up his campaign pretty soon. Hopefully we'll beat this guy back and knock him down a few pegs. There's no way Buff Frog would stand for what this guy's trying to do to..." Janna's voice gradually trailed off; she noticed Marco's face becoming increasingly destressed, as if a realization was setting in. It was. "Yo, dude, what up?"
"I just realized something." And Marco frantically took out his phone, derped around for a moment, then showed off his screen. "That body of water is Echo Creek's MainLine Centralized Lake!" Despite him saying it in a way that assumed everyone understood what he was talking about, he quickly realized that not everyone shared his niche knowledge of Echo Creek.
"Can you explain that to us like we're five?" Jackie asked, eliciting a laugh from Star.
"Long story short, Echo Creek's been using this lake as a reservoir for some of the town's oldest and endangered fishes & sea creatures." He flipped the page on his phone to a picture of what appeared to be a super old, scaly fish. "Look, it's Echo Creek's oldest living fish, the Shortracker Rockfish. These babies can live up to 150 years! And Echo Creek's known for having more of these in their ecosystem than any town in the state."
"Shortracker..." Once more the wheels were feverishly turning in the head of the former magical princess; her head sharply turned to where the adults were congregating. "MOM!" And she temporarily stepped out of the circle to confront her mother, a thought supposedly having frantically popped into her head. Before anyone else in the circle could continue the conversation, she returned with both her mother and Eclipsa. "Marco! Guys!" She arrived panting rather hard. "It's worse than we thought. That body of water isn't just a safe haven for Echo Creek's fish, but Mewni's aquatic animals too!"
"You're joking." Pretty much all of Janna's suspensions of disbelief had vanished at this point, as did everyone else's.
"No, I'm afraid it's true." Moon confirmed. "When Star and Marco were away on their break, we worked with their form of government to help facilitate a move of all of Mewni's most vulnerable and elderly aquatic animals to what we all believed was a safe haven. We didn't even realize this was that very body of water until now."
"Those City Hall suits assured us all that our own would be cared for in the same way that their own endangered aquatic friends were cared for. Clearly that hasn't been the case." The growing contempt for the Echo Creek Mayor was evident in Eclipsa's voice.
"That's assuming that they only started dumping waste after you made your arrangement." Janna pointed out.
"Who's to say they haven't been pulling this crap since the beginning?" Jackie added.
"Never trust a government official. If their lips are moving, they are lying." Chloe also threw in.
"Technically we're government officials also..." Moon was quick to point out to them.
"I am aware." But Chloe didn't budge, slightly throwing her and Eclipsa off of their game.
"So what the heck do we even do about any of this?" Star asked, her face scrunched up in frustration. "On top of them using the lake as a dumping ground, they're interfering with these groups of our own people that have been using these woods as living grounds for a long time, and they probably used that water as drinking or bathing water. Not to mention these poor souls have to resort to sleeping out here because he obviously doesn't care about getting them into safe homes."
"We should scare them." Jackie piped up with an idea.
"What do you mean?"
"Even the most corrupt governments don't actually want their constituents or their ecosystems to die out. They just want them to think that they're capable of going to those depths. They'll never go all the way, but just far enough to scare people into irrationality."
"But...if we can make them think they've crossed the point of no return, maybe we can get them to reverse course, stop killing those fishes, and help out these poor saps that don't have anywhere to go." Janna finished her thought for her. "Jackie, Jackie, Jackie...and here I thought you didn't have a bad bone in your body."
"If you think she can't be bad, then you do not know her that well." Chloe came to Jackie's defense.
"Then let's see what you've got." Janna challenged her.
"My pleasure. What's the plan?"
And so the plan was set: Janna and Star would dive into the water to find just one of the fishes that were supposedly stored in the lake, play up the severity of the damage the sewage was doing to it - even if that particular fish was in good shape - and hope it would startle the mayor and the crew he had into abandoning their plan. It wasn't much of a plan, but for such a constrained time period, it would have to do for now. Janna & Star wasted no time at all diving into the water - out of earshot from the mayor and his crew - and paddling all around, hopeful to find something to use.
But it was the fact that it took time to even find a glimpse of a single fish that raised alarms inside Star's head. As her eyes scanned the depths of the ocean, she found herself becoming frantic, fearing that the damage had already been done. But at last, her eyes set on a nearby old fish. It looked to be in relatively good shape. Still, the plan had to go forward. Star handed the fish to Janna - as she had feared that if she showed her face out there with the mayor still in the vicinity, it would spell trouble for her and the others. But Janna's face was not one the mayor was overly familiar with - and watched as she swam up towards the surface, ready to play the part.
"OH NO!" Janna yelled, garnering everyone's attention. "This poor fish! It's dying! It's in terrible shape!"
Unsurprisingly, the ploy was working. What was surprising, however, was what one of the mayor's helpers said after the fact. "Boss, you said you got rid of all the fishes."
And incredibly, it was just loud enough for everyone else - including the still-submerged Star - to hear. "What?" Janna said through gritted teeth.
"WHAT!?" Yelled Star, who came up from just behind Janna to stay out of sight from the mayor. As could be deciphered, this was a development that none of Team Butterfly were anticipating, and it threw an exceptionally long curveball into their plans and predictions.
"Well obviously I missed one! Shoot, we'll have to clean this up. Quick." He leaned towards the water, prepared to shout towards Janna. "Hey you!" And his shouting prompted Star to quickly dunk herself back into the water to remain unseen. "Bring that poor creature over here, I'll see to it that it gets taken care of."
"Yeah, sure you will, buddy." Janna whispered under her breath before swimming over towards him. She carefully handed the fish over, both to ensure the fish didn't receive harm and to subtly put a mini camera into one of his cufflinks. To the mayor's credit, he took it from her as gently as he could've, not displaying any outwardly contempt for it.
"Thank you, that'll be all. You can go now."
Janna hesitated, her own contempt for the mayor started to outwardly show. "Uh, sure...buddy..." But she eventually relented & swam away, reaching the spot in the lake where Star was submerged, allowing her to come up for air without the mayor noticing. Of course, this was after Star had to remain submerged for more than a full minute, so inevitably there were some heavy pants taken.
"Did I hear them right?" Star seethed. "They "got rid of" all of Echo Creek AND Mewni's most precious older sea creatures?! Got rid of!?"
"Okay, before you go all ape on us, that doesn't automatically mean what you think it does."
"Well, who says it like that unless they mean exactly what I think it means!?"
"Then we'll just have to find out in due time, won't we?"
"What do you mean "in due time?!" Star was so furious that she wasn't thinking remotely clearly at the moment. "Janna, we don't have any time to just sit on our butts and wait around and assume that he's playing nice with our-you put a tracker on him, didn't you?" There was the lightbulb.
"Duh. Don't you know me?" The shock of the ordeal left Star significantly agitated, having to take several deep breaths before her temper settled. "Come on, kid. Let's get back." The two swam back to shore and met up with the others.
Upon explaining what exactly had happened, the lot of the adults also shared Star's theory in assuming the worst. "Those poor creatures don't stand a chance. Assuming they're even still alive." Eclipsa lamented.
"But nothing is adding up!" River exclaimed in a bout of frustration that was shared amongst most everyone in the group. "First, their assistance in helping us solve the monster/mewman housing crisis declines. Then they decide to attack our little treasure for taking care of herself. Now the reservoir that we all chose together to house the eldest of our sea creatures so they could live out their final years in as peaceful a place as possible is being polluted with ungodly levels of garbage and the creatures have been evacuated anyway! Somebody make that make sense!"
"He's never quite been fond of us, but I never took him for this much of a clown." Moon sighed, cupping her eyebrows. "Makes me happy that Buff Frog has decided to go through with the campaign after all. We need a better, more qualified voice to serve everyone. But in the meantime, we still have to stay out of his ire. There's no telling what consequences could await us if we play our cards wrong. For now, we just keep our heads down, do our part, and try to muddle through until we reach the Ceremony of Choice."
"...It's called an election! I'm not going to tell you again." Janna yelled out in frustration.
"And what do we do about these poor blokes?" Star asked, once again turning the conversation back over to the group of mewmans and monsters. "We could still stand to help them in some way. I doubt they really like having to camp out here all the time away from everyone else in town."
"Actually it's not that bad." One of them objected. "It's rather quiet, we have fresh food out in the woods, and the sunsets are always incredible to look at. It could be worse."
"What about all that stuff you said about not being able to find housing for yourselves in town? Don't you want to be included? Don't you want to feel like you fit in?"
"Oh sure, of course. But...we don't want to cause any more trouble than there's already out there. And besides, there's plenty of time later on to get out of here and have a permanent home. You don't have to worry about us."
She sighed, turning to her loved ones once more. "Okay, sure, great, but...still, how can we help you?" At that moment, a light bulb went off in her head, recalling something that Globgor had mentioned the other day. "Wait...didn't Globgor mention something about bringing along some wood and some tools f-" Not even a second later, she looked over - as did everyon else - to discover that Globgor had departed from the group and returned with a tool belt & several blocks of wood in his arms.
"Shall I get started?" Was his response, which garnered chuckles from everyone, with the exception of Star.
"I guess there goes my work-play balance..." Star lamented; her quest to prove to herself that she could properly learn to relax without overwhelming herself with political work was already thrown to the wolves, and now it appeared the desire to make such an effort was all pointless.
"Nothing to worry about. I can handle this."
"Not on your own, you're not. I vehemently refuse. I don't care if you're trying to protect me-"
"Excuse me!" Politely yelled the munchkin Miles. Ever with a goofy smile on his face, he was motivated to join in the task. "Can I help?"
"Would you like to be my little helper?" Globgor was happy to indulge the boy's innocence. In response, he rapidly nodded his head & giggled.
"Well, if he's in, then I guess I am, too." She sighed, her eyes taking her to her boyfriend, who was clearly concerned about everything. "What? I'm not gonna let him get hurt. And hey, more hands means it gets done faster."
"True. Alright, if you're in, I'm in."
They were hardly the only ones. Everyone - even the mewmans and monsters - pitched in to help Globgor construct several huts spread out around the area. These huts varied in sizes - all to accommodate those that were staying with one another or related or whatnot - but were all big enough to provide sufficient comfort room to maneuver around. The designs of the actual huts weren't complex, but given that the material was heavy, near everyone had to pitch in to lug the wood around, hold it in place while Globgor, River, and Rafael helped hammer the nails in their places. The teens even threw their weight into the mix when one of the men had to stop for a breath. Even the three babies - Mariposa, Meteora, and Miles - pitched in to help. But while none of the three were allowed to touch any of the material or even try to carry it anywhere, they contributed by either providing water to the folks when they were thirsty, or by loudly cheering whenever a hut was completed. And just for the cherry on top, Miles christened every hut with a gold star sticker right on the door. Because what else is an adorable young child that can't do much else supposed to do?
The only problem was that they only had the foundation of the huts in place. They were still missing essentially things, such as running water and the ability to cook meals like humans out in civilization did. But this little fact was of little consequence to the group of stragglers, who were all touched by the effort everyone had exerted to help them out. "And we're done!" Globgor triumphantly yelled as the last hut was finished - and thus the last gold sticker was christened - and everyone took a moment to admire all the hard work. There were several huts scattered throughout the area, all to allow each of the stragglers to have their own personal space.
"I...don't know what to say." One of them piped up, nearly teary-eyed. "Thank you. Thank you all. I'm...so sorry we took so much time out of your busy schedule."
"It's not a problem." Star happily spouted back. "We were happy to do this. We're not going to just leave anybody behind. Not with this second chance the universe has given us. We want Earthni to be better than what Mewni was, and the only way that's ever going to happen is if we all treat each other better."
"And should you ever decide you wish to rejoin us out there in the town, please don't hesitate to come find us." Moon added. Miles stepped forward to garner everyone's attention.
"And now you can go swimming!" Was his contribution, which more than earned a hearty laugh from everyone, as well as a proud hug from his big sister.
"You were so helpful out there." She said. "You and Meteora and Mariposa were so encouraging! We're really proud of you."
"I helped!"
She ruffled his hair and hugged him again. "Yes you did. We all did."
"Are you sure you're all going to be alright out here?" Eclipsa asked the stragglers.
"Yes, we'll all be fine. We've made it this long out here; surely it'll be easier going forward."
"Oh, and please tell Buff Frog he has our votes." Another one of them said proudly, which only served to beam up Star's face.
"We will."
"So does this mean we're all getting out of here now or what?" Janna asked; the "excitement" of the last couple of days had exasperated her and depleted her of any excitement for camping she may have once had. Sadly, she wasn't the only one who felt this way.
"Yeah, we might as well head back." Jackie lamented. "We have that humungous history test we gotta take on Monday." Of course she, Janna, and Chloe served as ar reminder that, unlike Marco and Star, they still had schoolwork to complete.
"You poor saps." Marco teased, shaking his head as if he was trying to rub it in.
"Watch it there, dude, or I will dunk your face in that water."
"Ewwww, do you know what that water has come into contact with?" Star yelled; once Janna and Marco started laughing, she took it as a sign to let her guard down slightly. "Alright, everyone. Load yourselves up. We're going home." And so everyone began to make their way towards the RV and the carriage. However, Miles, lagging behind everyone already, stopped in his tracks for a moment; the gears in his head were turning, which Star took immediate notice of. "Miles? Come on, we're going home."
He reached into his pocket and once more pulled out the tiny pinecone he had been carrying with him. He turned to the stragglers and proceeded to dash over to them, holding up the pinecone to them. "Here!" He yelled out so innocently to them. "You can have Bob. He likes you."
They all looked at each other, highly confused, for a brief moment. But upon seeing Star silently nod their way, they took it as a cue to accept the gesture. "Thank you, little guy." One of them said calmly, taking the pinecone from Miles and patting his head. "Go on. Go back to your mother."
Mother? Star caught wind of that remark and let out a laugh. "No, I'm his sister, not his mother! Sillies." Nevertheless, Miles did just that; he hustled back to Star and launched himself into her wide open arms, embracing her as tightly as his stubby arms could. When they were done, she put him down on the ground, only to watch him start running towards the RV, where everyone not a part of the Butterfly family was riding the way back home. "Miles, honey, wait. You're gonna see them again. We're all going to the same-" It didn't matter to Miles. He wanted to say his goodbyes to his sister's friends and let them know how much they meant to him. He gave each and every one of them a tight embrace. He started with Janna and ended with Marco, whom was second most important to Miles because of how much Marco loved her. "Aren't you the sweetest?"
"They all have squishy cheeks!" He blurted out, specifically pointing out Marco and Jackie for this comment, which only further lifted Star's mood.
"You're such a silly."
And that was that. It was time for everyone to enter their respective vehicles and begin the trek back into town. While the trip wasn't exaclty what any of them had hoped for, everyone felt like more had been accomplished than they reasonably could have expected. But River, in particular, was bummed over his failed hunting prospects, having not only failed in his little opportunity to actually hunt, but also having failed to convert young Miles into a hunter as well.
"Oh, don't fret, River. You'll have many other opportunities with our pride and joy." Moon reassured him. "He has many a years ahead of him." She pointed him over to the young lad, who was busy hugging the bajeebers out of Star.
"I know, Moon Pie. I know." River sighed. "But he was so eager to learn from the master. And the master was so eager to impress."
"But you stopped hunting for a reason, didn't you?" Eclipsa pointed out. It was true; following the mock trial from several months prior that nearly set River up for a painful stint in prison, River vowed to cease his hunting ways until tensions had died down. Unfortunately, in the process, he also forgot some of his skills and forwent some of his primal instincts.
"That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it."
But before the conversation could go any further, Star felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. She checked and discovered it was a video call from Janna. "Janna?"
"Girl, you have to see this." The screen quickly changed from a video of Janna to another video entirely. Star - as well as the rest of the Butterfly family - would quickly realize that it was a video from the tracker Janna had cleverly planted on the mayor earlier that day. The video in question saw the mayor - from first person perspective - entering a room with fish tanks lined up all the way around the walls. These fish tanks were meant to hold the fish that were stored in the big body of water from the woods, which was originally intended to hold both Echo Creek and Mewni's oldest beings. But now, they were all lined up in these fish tanks. And the fish tanks weren't exactly in good shape, either. Most were just extremely old and fragile, while others were showing signs of mold and moss building up around and within, threatening the fish's lives.
"Do you have all of them now?" Came a voice, which would soon be revealed to be the voice of one of the workers the mayor had with him earlier.
"We better." The mayor snapped back. "I've just about had enough of all of this."
"What do you mean?"
"This little scheme they've been pulling - whatever it is - it's quite clever, isn't it? All that talk about a multi-dimensional merge, then you have these idiots in costumes running around trying to scare my constituents, just so they can pull off some far-fetched coup?"
Talk about a bombshell. Needless to say, it left the Butterfly family speechless. Minus Miles, who innocently didn't have a clue.
"Is that what's been happening?"
"Doesn't it make sense, fool? Taking the girl out of the picture for all that time? She was probably working behind the scenes planning the whole thing? I've never seen any of the adults around here until just last year. Isn't that just a little bit suspicious to you? Sure, they have records and all but it all feels way too on the nose. Something's amiss!"
The stunned silence that permeated the family was quickly replaced with an aura of confusion. "I don't understand. Does he think the whole Cleaving is just one gigantic hoax?" Eclipsa asked.
"Seems like it." Janna said, returning her face to the call temporarily. "Not sure how or why he got that idea, but he's committed to it. And he thinks all of these fish are just part of it."
"You know, of all the times we could've used Glossaryck, this feels like one where we really could've used him." Star sighed. "So does this mean all that stuff about resenting me for taking a break from politics was all crap?"
"I'm not sure. It's hard to tell with this guy. It's possible he's just in the middle of a slow-burning meltdown and all of this is just compounding the damage."
"Well, even if that is the case, we all need to be on our guard." Moon postured. "It's more imperative than ever that we are on top of things and we can help propel Buff Frog to upend him as the next mayor. I trust him to run for the good of everyone more than this little twit."
"I guess there goes my goals of proving I could balance work and play going forward. It was nice while it lasted, I suppose." Again, Star sighed.
"Sweetheart, this doesn't change anything." Moon brought her daughter in for a hug, to which Miles gleefully tried to insert himself in, to nobody's objection. "We still have your back. We are not going to let you hit that rock bottom that you did last year. Not again."
"And if they don't, we sure as hell will make sure you don't." Janna spouted out, furthering solidifying to the former princess that they were hellbent on not going backwards with their progress.
"Thank you, guys. All of you." She finally relented and wrapped her own arms around her loved ones. "Let's go home."
End of Episode 7!
So, a couple of things. First, this is the first time since I started this universe that I failed to update during a calendar month. Though I do have an excuse: I participated in NaNiWriMo where your challenge is to write 50,000 words in a month for a novel. I failed. But I had a lot of fun doing it and I'm not stopping on my novel idea either. But that meant this had to take a back seat for the month. Now with the challenge technically over I can stress less over it and put more creative focus back into this and my other projects.
Secondly, I'm still not completely sold on where I want to take the mayor character. I don't see him as necessarily evil, but since I'm running with the election idea I'm gonna have to use him more. And obvious the Butterflies aren't quite fond of him either. So that'll be fun to unravel.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed this. Next chapter will surely be better. And remember, please read & review!