"So, Queen, who is the next queen after Sywynne, if you have time and all?" Marco said nervously.

"I have all the time for my subjects, especially my daughter's friend, Marco." Moon chuckled. "But this is gonna be strange for you when I told you the story of the 13th Queen of Mewni."

Moon pointed the tapestry of the 13th queen. A girl with pink hair and eyes, with red crosses on her cheeks, wearing a humble nurse outfit and handing out soups among the plebeians. In her left hand, a small golden scepter wrapped in a snake. At the top, the cross shining and a pink crystal in the shape of a heart.

The pedestal rose and glowed.

Soupina The Strange
With hunger and disease
The Strange Queen has ended,
Through the soups and spells
She always defended

"Wait, why Soupina's title 'The Strange'? Marco asked. "Is she a stranger or something?"

"You see, Marco…" Moon sat calmly on a chair. "Ever since she was a child, Soupina's behaviour and personality had already made both the court and the servants of the castle wonder if the princess was 'mentally' normal. You know, everybody thinks she's crazy, but Skywynne only said she was peculiar. But then, she found Soupina was talking to a tree in the garden. That's not all. That's not exactly how people described her as 'The Strange'. Soupina has always been a lover of soup, and her father was the one who named her. Her father, who had been the Royal Chef before becoming King, tried to teach her the secrets of gastronomy, but she was only interested in soup. She even learned the mewnian demotic alphabet through an alphabet soup rather than the ordinary literacy classes. Soupina also won a balloon and named it 'Baloo=Balow'. When the balloon was blown away 5 days later, Soupina waved to the balloon and said: 'Baloo-Balee, Baloo-Balow; I let you go, I let you'. My mother also thought me that when I couldn't let go of something, and I always felt better afterwards."

Marco laughed a little. "Now, that's quite… strange. Not you when you tried to let go of something, but was Soupina when she did all of those things when she was a child, and, yeah, it's hard to let go."

"I know." Moon giggled. "Those things about Soupina, almost reminded me of Star, but she's not like Soupina. Anyway, when Soupina got her magic wand, Soupina's magical training proved limited in the beginning. She did nothing with her spells other than soup. The only thing that varied was their flavour. Next months, few children of the servants gossiping and mocking her, calling her 'Soupina the Strange.'"

"So, that's how she got her title?"

"Not yet. They didn't label her that yet. That's the time Glossaryck taught her to dip down."

"Oh. You mean that power that Star used without her wand?"

"Kind of. Yes. Soupina showed great difficulty in understanding dip down, so she 'literally' dip down, as in…," Moon covered her mouth, trying not to laugh hard. "She dipedp herself in the soup."

Marco snickered, and covered his mouth as well. "What? She's quite strange and a little crazier than Star. She never would've done that!"

"Yes! I know that. That's the time Skywynne showed the mewnisters to prove to them that Soupina was 'normal, but they saw what happened. Minutes later, after cleaning herself, Soupina overheard the mewnisters talking to her parents about her 'unpreparedness and inability' and 'even the wand is as strange as herself.' This made Soupina sad and embarrassed, and feared she would be replaced by her younger sister. Do you still remember Crescenta The Eager's story?"

"Yeah. Star told me. Dirhhennia was supposed to be queen, but she was unprepared, so Crescenta was the queen that time."

"Yes. Then comes the fateful year. During the spring, about 600 commoners died as a result of a mysterious illness. When the investigation proved unsuccessful and the epidemic spread even more, the gates of the castle were closed and its access restricted. Soupina's life suffered a turnaround weeks later, when she witnessed a servant's daughter faint in her presence with a disease or illness. All Soupina thought to do was conjure a bowl of soup. When the news that the girl had been miraculously cured came 3 days later, Soupina thought that her soup healed her."

Well, for me, the wand is contained with magic, and if Soupina created the soup with her wand, then the soup was contained with magic." Marco said.

"Hmm, very smart of you , Marco. You studied." The queen winked.

"No exactly, Queen."

"So, anyway, Soupina cured many people with her magic soup. She even called the disease, Red Death. Not only in the kingdom of Mewni, but also somewhere that people have disease, including the Red Death. When she returned to the castle for dinner, Soupina learned that her mother, Queen Skywynne and her little sister, Princess Nebula, had contracted Red Death and were kept in solitary confinement for medical advice. Soupina took care of them, and were cured in three days by her soup diet."

"Wow, not only she cured her people, she also cured her family."

"That's the soon-to-be-queen's job too. But Soupina wasn't happy less than a day anymore when she received the news that her fiancé, Persian, was sick and died. She didn't have the chance to cure him, but she still stayed friends with another boy, Osmond, who was going to be her king later on. Soupina turned her focus to the epidemic when the number of cases reduced again. Upon investigating, Soupina discovered that the origin of the disease came from a plague that had settled in the fields of corn. With less corn being harvested in the autumn and winter, the disease spread less during these seasons, returning more strongly. So, she focused on her magical studies, intent on making her soups more powerful. She discovered the way best known by chance when she nursed a child who had contracted several infections in her arm while trying to summon a demon with blood sacrifice. Soupina simply shouted for the 'arm to return to normal' in High Mewnian: 'Returnio Armius Normalrino'. Soupina not only performed for the first time spell that didn't manifest as soup, but also discovered that when pronounced in High Mewnian, spells are performed more powerful."

When Moon mentioned about that healing spell, Marco suddenly remembered that Star used that spell on his arm when it was turned into a monster arm who controlled him. He clenched and looked at his arm, flashing a memory of the monster arm, and blinked.

"Umm, Marco…" Moon noticed the human was suddenly silent. "Are you okay?"

Marco snapped out of it, and shook his head. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Please, continue."

"Alright." Moon continued again. "Soupina realized that she wouldn't be able to eradicate the Red Death before autumn came. She was looking for solution when Glossaryck, himself, made a playful comment, which she took seriously and resulted in the idea, which to many, was the most 'ridiculous and nonsensical' of all time. The next day, Soupina summoned a huge cauldron into the castle garden and prepared the largest pot of magical soup in the history. For Soupina's idea to work out right, she would need to dip down. Repeating what had embarrassed her mother years ago, the princess plunged into the cauldron, and then, emerged in her mewberty form, at will, magically raising all the soup from the cauldron to the clouds. Minutes after Soupina returned to normal, the magic soup began to fall from the sky, bathing the kingdom in the event that would become known as 'The Soup Rain of 291', which officially marked the eradication of Red Death and the end of the Great Plague."

"Wow! That was… amazing! It's like Soupina cured the whole kingdom with raining soup!"

"Exactly! When she became queen, Soupina's reign was marked by the improvement in mewnian quality of life, which despite having reduced its population to more than half due to Red Death, experienced an increase in life expectancy and fewer deaths due to lack of sanitation. Soupina was and is until today, the queen who was most seen in public by commoners. She helped several neighboring kingdoms that faced endemics. Upon return from one of the incursions, Soupina eventually found a monster mother and her son in need of help. Soupina got out of the carriage to look after the child who had been poisoned by a spider bite. Soupina's soup couldn't solve the problem, and it manifested itself giving life to the serpent that adorned her wand. The little gold snake simply crept up to the child monster's body and drained all the venom from his veins, saving the monster son. The 'Golden Serpent Poison Drain' spell is the only one in the spell book that doesn't use snakes as an attack."

"Wait, wait, wait, you mean, the golden snake from her wand came to life, and drained the venom from a monster child's vain? Now, that's interesting… and strange."

"For me, it's strange, because we don't have that kind of thing on our wands."

"I know, queen."

"After Soupina died, people of Mewni mourned for more than 40 days. Soupina The Strange is the queen most loved by the people in the history of the Butterfly Kingdom." Moon announced the last moment of Soupina.

"Wow. It's true though. Soupina saved many people from the disease with her soup, making her a hero." Marco said. "Many people loved a person who saved their lives. And, man, with all that soup story made me hungry. Is it okay to have soup for a midnight snack?"

The queen was quite confuse about the word 'midnight snack'. "Umm, midnight snack?"

"Oh, it's just eating food in the middle of the night if you're hungry." The human explained.

"Oh, of course!" Moon laughed. "Why don't you come with me in the diner to eat some soup? I'll tell the chef to cook you some corn soup."

"That would be great, Queen. Thanks, but, after eating, would you continue to tell me the next queen's story?"

"Not a problem, Marco. We'll return here after meal."

Moon guided Marco out of the tapestry room as Marco followed and walked outside first, and Moon switched off the light before closing the door.