King: I've rewritten this more times than most others. Most of the way into one version, I switch it to something else. I scrap that for another. I rewrite the original idea with a different spin. Safe to say, this took a while. Hope you enjoy it all the same, though~
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"WWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Star fell out of the sky with an excited cry. A new world to explore! An adventure! She was more than ready for this! She landed just like the superheroes in the movies she would watch with Marco back on Earth. When she did, she wondered why anyone would ever do something like that ever! Seriously! It was super hard on your knees. Star felt her whole body shake in pain from that. She slowly stood back up and took a few deep breathes, easing her pained knees.
Once her knees stopped aching, she started walking around. This place seemed kind of familiar… She looked around seeing a green, maintained field with a concrete pathway. A few trees dotted the landscape. Wait a second… Star ran off in a direction, finding a sign nearby reading [Echo Creek Park].
Star's eyes widened. She was back in Echo Creek! She ran about to see if it really was the Echo Creek she knew. Sure enough, she saw so many familiar sights from her time on Earth. It was exactly like Echo Creek! Maybe it was Echo Creek! She should go see Janna and StarFan13!
Thinking about the friends she wanted to see, she slowed a bit. She looked around again and noticed something odd. No one else was walking around. In fact, there was no sign of people living in Echo Creek at all. She slowly walked and looked around, truly taking in the area. There was no sign of any violence or anything like that. It just seemed like everyone left.
Star continued to walk through town, getting more and more concerned. There was no one around. No human in sight. It wasn't all quiet, the animals were still around and scurrying about, but the lack of human noise was a little odd to Star. Come to think of it, this place just felt off. Like, familiar, but also kind of weird. She froze at one point and turned on her heel to the side. Off in the distance was the familiar sight of Mewni Castle.
"Okay… So, Echo Creek is in Mewni here. Or… is Mewni on Earth? Weird…" She kept walking on through town. Nothing seemed too out of place for the most part. She just felt like everything was perfectly normal.
As she walked, she saw something strange off to the side of one of the streets. There was a group of strange people walking through town with spears in hand. She couldn't see any of their faces through grey bandana masks with a large pink diamond over their mouths. Whoever they were, they looked mean.
Star decided to duck into a nearby alley to avoid them. She used her wand to jump onto the roof of one of the buildings to get a look at them, though. She had to know what was going on, after all. From her perch, she saw a very odd sight. The group was dragging someone behind them. They were beaten up and tied up so they couldn't escape. Whoever this was, the masked group didn't want them getting away. Star growled and readied her wand for a fight. She jumped down onto one of the masked men and pointed her wand at another one, only for her vision to get blurry. She started to see stars as she tried to attack the masked men, but she was having difficulty standing. Looking down to the man she tackled, she saw she had broken some kind of gas tank. The world started to spin around her and she passed out soon after.
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Star regained consciousness in a dark room, her hands tied down to a chair. Her strength was still beyond her, so she could only struggle weakly. From her seat, she could feel she still had her wand. They likely didn't know what it was if they let her keep it… After a while, she started to look around the room. She was sitting in a large metal room that reminded Star of one of those interrogation rooms in those over-the-top action movies. And… that was it. There was nothing else in the room.
Star jumped a little when she heard a door behind her open. She tied to look behind her, but the chair was tall enough to stop her from seeing it. She tried to struggle again but stopped when a hand fell onto her shoulder. A young woman walked around the chair, and Star's side. She walked with a certain power and a resolve. She was dressed in a suit vest with a matching skirt, frilled shirt, leggings, and dress boots. Her sky-blue hair was tied back into a short ponytail. In fact… she looked kind of familiar…
The young woman turned to Star and leaned down to meet her at eye level. She smirked seeing Star unable to escape the chair, "Hello there, little one."
Okay, that voice and accent clinched it. That was Moon Butterfly! But… the young Moon, as she was on the tapestry (when she fought Toffee). Star had an internal freak out for a moment before gathering herself again in an attempt to get a hold of the situation. "Who are you?" She knew the answer, but had to confirm it.
The young Moon's smirk faded, "I find it hard to believe you attacked my men, who were carrying a prisoner, and not who they worked for."
Star chuckled nervously, "You'd be surprised…"
Moon raised an eyebrow before her smirk returned. She stood back up and looked down toward Star, "I'm Moon Butterfly…"
I knew it! Star was about to say something, but Moon continued.
"… The Queen of Diamonds and right hand of our High Lord."
Wait. What was that last part?
"I can tell you're confused." Moon leaned back down to Star, "But I think you're just not looking at this right. You're thinking, 'If you're a Queen, can you really serve someone?' and 'Do you really expect me to just sit here while you spout your rhetoric?'" Her grin turned into a wide smile. "The answer to both, of course, is 'yes.' And soon, you'll see how powerful that little word can… be…" Her grin disappeared and she seemed to recognize Star.
Star moved her head back a little, as far as she could in the chair, "Uh… Is something in my teeth, or…?"
"You seem familiar."
"I guess I just have one of those faces." Star tried to pass it off as a joke. This was getting awkward. Getting judged by a teenage version of her mother just feels weird.
"You look an awful lot like my daughter."
This made Star freeze. "Daughter? But you can't be more than 17!"
Moon's grin returned. "I am now. I might not look it, but I've had quite the transformation. I'm actually much older by years. But my body is indeed that of a teenager again."
Star looked at Moon in concern. Something in the back of her mind had to know, "So… this daughter? Where is she now?"
Moon smiled, "She's long gone. Died a few years into her life during a harsh winter."
"Oh… Um… I'm sorry to bring it up."
"Don't be. It was an eye-opening experience."
Okay, awkward just turned creepy.
"Stuck in a loveless marriage, forced to live the lonely life of a ruler when I didn't care for it, I wanted nothing more than to run away. But I always talked myself out of it. I just kept asking myself, 'Can I really just run away?' I would always shake my head and tell myself no. After my daughter died, I started to come to my senses. And I ran." She spoke as though this was the most normal conversation in the world. Like there was nothing weird about saying the death of your own child was a trigger for your own life! Moon leaned a little closer to Star. "I finally told myself, 'yes.' Do you know how liberating that was? To finally say, 'Yes! I will leave! I don't care if the throne rots and all of Mewni burns. I'm gone!'"
Moon paused a moment before continuing, "But I always felt drawn back. I wanted to start over, but I never could the way I was. That's when my Lord found me again. He said to me, 'Do you truly want to start again? To never be drawn to the throne by the will of others?' And do you know what I told him?"
Star was officially scared now. This Moon was beyond creepy and the way she was talking made it worse.
"I told him, 'yes.' Who knew such a little word could have so much power? Next thing I knew, I was young again. I had my second chance. Ever since, I've been teaching the power of 'Yes' to whoever I can. So… will you indulge me a question?"
Star was stunned. She couldn't speak. She didn't know if she could.
Moon's face turned sour. "Well?!"
Star recoiled a little when Moon shouted.
Moon's sour turn angry. "ANSWER ME!" She grabbed at Star's hands, squeezing the young princess's wrists into the hard wood of the chair. When Star's stunned silence was all she was met with, Moon screamed in frustration and knocked Star's chair over to the side. "Fine! I'll have to teach you the hard way!" She left the room in a huff.
Star didn't want to know what she was planning. Thankfully, the push knocked her wand to the ground and in range of her hand. Star destroyed her restraints and started to make a run for it. She ran through the halls, hoping to get out of dodge as fast as she could. When some of the masked men appeared again, she blasted them with magic and ran out of the compound. Once she was outside, she just ran. She ran as fast and as far as she could.
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She finally fell to her knees after running to the opposite side of Echo Creek. That compound was twisted! Hearing her own mother say that stuff?! Even if it was a crazy, other dimension version of Moon, that was just wrong. "None of that was okay! NONE OF THAT WAS…"
Star froze seeing a bright white wolf with aqua-green markings on its face. It was staring at her. It never moved. It just sat there. It was freaking her out. Was it real or was it a decoration? Wait! Was it there before? The wolf tilted its head to the side, showing it was a living creature.
Star jumped back and fell toward the ground. She nervously waved to the wolf, "Um… Hi?"
The wolf then shot its head skyward and let out a howl.
What the heck is that about?
Star watched as a young woman with short seafoam-green hair walked out from a nearby store. She was dressed in something similar to the hunting garb used by humans on Earth, leaf-based camouflage with a few splotches of orange. Her coat was open, showing her tan tank top underneath the coat. After what happened, Star could easily tell this was Kelly. Even with her usual rounded glasses being replaced with a slimmer, more sporty pair. On her back was a hunting bow and a quiver of arrows.
Kelly walked over and petted the head of the wolf, walking toward Star. She stared at Star for a moment in silence for a while before kneeling down to meet her eyes. The silence continued until Star leaned away and Kelly sighed. She stood back up and helped Star to her feet.
Star was a little surprised, but felt this was a good sign. "Thanks. I…"
Kelly pushed her hand away and said, "Run."
This caught Star off guard. "What?"
"You are weak. But there is a strength within you that I want to test. So, run. Run far and fast. If you survive the night, I'll have to accept your strength."
Star was stunned. What on Mewni is wrong with this place?!
Kelly raised an eyebrow before snapping her fingers. The wolf behind her seemed to spring to life and growled at Star. It moved toward Star slowly.
Star knew enough from her hunting trips with her father not to run with a predator staring you down. It would just make things worse. Star moved slowly backward. She moved her hand toward her wand. When the wolf started to charge her, she pulled her wand and used it jump away and onto a pink cloud. She used the cloud to escape the situation.
As she left, the cloud was hit by two arrows. If not for the semi-solid form of a magic cloud, Star would likely have been hit by one or both of the arrows. Star took deep breathes to calm her nerves again. This world was insane! Her thoughts were interrupted when her cloud lurched. "Woah! You okay there?"
The cloud was breathing heavily. "I just feel… tired…"
"No! No! NO!" The cloud popped and Star fell out of the sky. She shifted to her Butterfly Form and floated down to the ground. Once on the ground again, she returned to her normal form and was breathing heavily. She looked around to find herself in another section of town.
"Well hello there."
Star jumped and spun around, holding her wand at the ready to attack.
Standing behind her was the familiar visage of Janna, who placed her hands up when Star pointed her wand. This Janna was dressed in a ragged black dress that reached down to her knees. She was barefoot and without her hat, letting her hair fall down her shoulders. "On edge, aren't we?"
Star was ragged and done with this place! "Okay… What's your issue?"
Janna tilted her head, "Issue?"
"Yeah! I've only met two people so far and they've all been weird!"
"Oh? How so?"
"One said her daughter dying was a good thing for her and the other tried to kill me with a wolf!"
"Is that right?" Janna smiled, "Did you ever stop to think you're the odd one here?"
Star froze a moment. Technically, she wasn't wrong. Star was from another dimension, which likely had different rules and outlooks. Is that just how this place is?! She shook her head to clear her mind and returned her attention to Janna. "Doesn't mean they get to try to kill me!"
Janna seemed to be… concerned. For her. "That's terrible!"
"It…" Star took a couple of deep breaths and her wand started to lower, "It is…"
Janna grabbed Star's hands, "Let's get you somewhere safe, and something to help you relax."
Star could almost feel tears welling up. This was the first person here that didn't seem crazy! Maybe she could get help with finding the shard after all! Then she started to see the stars from before. The same stars from when she broke that canister. "What's…?"
Janna tilted her head innocently, her smile remaining. "Is something wrong?"
"I… There's stars everywhere…"
"Oh? You can see them?"
Wait… what?
Janna placed a finger on Star's lips, "Shh… It's okay. Nothing can hurt you here."
Star shook her head, forcing the stars away and started to run off again. Or at least, she tried. Her steps were heavy and it hard to stay conscious.
Janna walked behind her and placed a hand on Star's shoulder, "Calm yourself little one. You've no reason to fear. Let the Magic overtake you."
Star took deep, heavy breaths. This just made it worse. She coughed and her body felt wrong. She shook her head and she shifted into her Butterfly Form to fly away. She didn't see the look on Janna's face as she left. Her focus was on escaping. She lost consciousness soon after.
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She didn't know when she fell asleep, but waking up under a blanket and with a pillow under her head was the strangest thing in this world to the point where it had to be a dream. The only reason she didn't think the world was a dream was that she woke up on a couch. She sat up and looked around. The room was fairly simple: a couch, a coffee table, a lamp… Normal Earth stuff, just with a Mewnian twist. As she tried to stand, someone walked in. Star discretely made for her wand, only to find it being placed on the table in front of her.
She watched as the young man that had her wand sat down opposite her. His pale-purple skin, three eyes, and demon horns gave away that it was Tom Lucitor. What surprised Star was that Tom was dressed in a military-like uniform with a bandana with the Mewman flag symbol; recolored red, white, and blue. He placed a bottle of water in front of her. "Best I could find without the Cult's Magic stuff in it."
Star had been through three weird things at this point, why not a fourth?
Tom stood back up and sighed. "I don't blame you. This place has gone to hell and a handbasket since the cultists made their mark."
Star looked between the water and Tom, "What cult?"
"They call themselves the 4 Suits of Judgement. Hard not to see them walking around. Ragged clothes, bandanas with card suits on them…"
"Okay… I think I ran into a few of them."
"Right. And from what our lookouts have told me, you've met their generals as well."
"Generals?"
"When the cult took over, they divided the city into three. The northern section is ruled by Kelly, the west by Moon, and the southeast by Janna. All three are leaders in the cult under their Lord. The generals are all called Queens: Kelly is Clubs, Moon is Diamonds, and Janna is Hearts."
Star thought for a moment, "What about Spades?" She opened the bottle of water, it was previously sealed, so that gave her reassurance that they weren't tampered with.
"That's their Lord. Their King of Spades, Marco Diaz."
Star coughed as the shock came up when she was drinking. "What?!"
Tom raised an eyebrow, "You know him?"
"I…" Star paused a moment, "Kind of." Star told Tom about her mission, about the portal, and about the shard.
Tom was silent a moment before nodding. "Okay… I've heard of stranger things…" Tom thought for a moment.
"I know it sounds crazy, but it's true!"
"I believe you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, bright golden gem shard. "It would explain this thing."
To Star, the shard felt like it was something she always knew. It reminded her of home. "That's it!"
As she reached for it, Tom held her back. "Hold up. I'm not going to just hand this over yet."
Star thought for a moment. "Okay. So, I just need to complete a quest, right? Easy! What do I need to do?"
"Leave."
This surprised Star. "What?"
"Leave. Go back through your portal with this shard."
"Okay… so, why? Don't you need help?! I could help take down this cult! I could…"
"Get caught and have your wand taken away!" Tom's shouting wasn't angry. It was genuine concern. "They've seen you. They know you have actual magic now. If they get their hands on that…"
"I'm not about to lose my wand!"
"You don't have to! If they catch you, you'll get taken to one of the Queens and they'll start to mess with you! They'll crawl into your mind one way or another! If they catch you again, there's only two ways out! Either dead or you become one of them! You'll stop caring about anything you ever knew before and throw in with the cult, truly believing Marco is some kind of god." Tom was starting to cry as he spoke. He wiped away the tears and looked back to Star. "For your sake and ours… go home. Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone."
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Star looked toward her portal with shard in hand. She turned back to the city, hearing the sounds of fighting. She wanted to help them. She wanted to help bring down this cult and those crazy, twisted versions of people she knew. But could she really? They were so crazy to her, that she just froze up before. Could she raise her hands against people she called her friends, even in this mad version? Can she stand to see Marco and not lock up like with the other three? Star's grip on her wand tightened. Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone… Star entered her portal and returned home to Mewni.