Author's note: Just a heads up, this is a very long prologue. I also revised so that it'd fit after the first chapter.

Hearts of Darkness

Chapter 2: The Prologue

"Star, I heard that you broke the space-time continuum today, is that true?"

"What..wait..why..pfff, I didn't break anything, it was just a bunch of chicken jokes and awful hats…And how did you even know about it?"

"Omnitraxis told me, he said his first experience with the future Queen of Mewni was…interesting, to say the least."

"He did tell me to get into his guts."

"Well, whatever it was, I just want to remind you that as the heir to the crown, you should…"

"Yes, I've heard this bazillion time before, I have to be polite and disciplined blah blah blah I get it. See you later mom." Star said as she turned off her mirror and covered it behind her curtain.

"You should've listened to your mom for a change, spacetime is kind of a big deal."

"Marco, I make laser shooting puppies and fist made of rainbows. Do this surprise you?"

Suddenly, the ground shook with an oddly familiar sound to accompanied it.

"Wait, that was the sound from the math class."

It was obvious that something was wrong, and the first one she noticed was the lack of sunlight outside the window.

"It was four in the afternoon just now. Is something wrong with spacetime again? Marco, can I borrow your scissors, I have to go back to the Plains of Time, the stupid dimensional timeline went wonky again..."

She didn't know what Marco's answer would be, but she sure didn't expect it to be silence.

"Marco?"

"Oh, Star, I'm in the kitchen, come on you're late for dinner..."

"What! You were right beside me just now. Urgh, stupid timeline, always mess things up"

"Are you okay?" Marco asked as he went through the door "You just disappeared for 2 hours with no explanation, is everything fine?"

"No.." Star said, coming apart at the seams "I have to go and talk with Omnitraxis, I just got warped 2 hours into the future"

"Well that explains your disappearance"

"Wait, you trust me?' She said, mildly surprised by the now should be obvious fact that her best friend believes in supernatural occurrence.

"Seriously Star, that's your question?" Marco remarked as laser puppies chased each other in the background and a clown humanoid wrestled a beanbag monster.

"Yeah, it should be obvious by now..." Star said before she was suddenly interrupted by a frantic scream.

"Was that Mrs Diaz I'm hearing or was it just Kevin being a total baby about losing again?"

"Nah, some gigantic rat probably scared my mother or something. Come on, let's go downstairs, it's dinner time."

Moon has always been a very strict, disciplined and conservative Queen in the eyes of her subject, but beneath it was her insecurities, a woman who lack the care of a mother during childhood and faced a traumatising event at a very young age.

Moon returned to her throne room, thinking about Star. She always wanted the best for her, but it seems that Star doesn't think the same way. Star is now on Earth with no mentor and without her book of spells. Moon intended to bring her back to mewni to personally complete her training, but with fierce opposition from River, whom with his free-thinking spirit, doesn't want to disrupt Star's life on Earth, and bringing Star back would just raise questions from the Commission, as they didn't know that Glossaryck and the Spell Book was stolen. She turned on the Orb of Communication:

"Hello, Omnitraxis."

"Your Majesty, Queen Moon the Undaunted, Empress of Mew..."

"No need for any formal addressing." Moon interrupted "I want to discuss a matter of cosmic importance. Omnitraxis Prime, what is the current situation of the fritz? Have you learned anything new"

"It's currently stagnant, my liege. The situation hasn't gotten any better. Every single one of our outposts is down, the High Commission's power is significantly reduced and the wonderland of red tape that is the Bureaucracy of Magic hasn't been making the situation any better."

"Well then, I want everyone to be on their guards, especially since we haven't figure out the leak causes."

"jlakjsfoijalsidjflaisjoepjapjprjpa"

"Hello? Omni? Can you hear me?"

"jkdfjlj...sorry your Majesty, the communication lines are currently still...slkjdf...very unstable, and it doesn't help that this morning the Princess caused...sfhlskhfk...a disturbance in the fabric of timespace, uh I mean spacetime. Upon further investigation, I have found evidences of rifts, dimensional time rifts scattered randomly across the multiverse, capable of pulling objects and people into their vortexes and transfer them to a different point in time with no conscious of what happened"

"Well, we shall address the matter in the next meeting of the High Commission. I'm going shutting down the coms before the entire system goes down again. Until then, try to gather up more information about who is draining the power of magic in the universe, the disturbance in time and quarantine the areas of the rifts. I don't want anybody to be accidentally sucked into one of them."

"I will, my liege"

Sunrise.

A temple revealed itself, through the layers of fog, thinned by the rising sun, surrounded by large ranges of mountains. The temple was carved into one of the mountains, made of grey marbles and cobblestone, resembling the head of a rat.

On the stairs leading up to the temple, a horde of rats was carrying supplies and fixing structures, before a carriage made of rats roam through, with an expected visitor on board. It was Ludo.

Through the alley and corridor of the temple, Ludo's rat-carriage march through the horde of his minions, who bow down to him when he's in sight. Ludo doesn't care, his mind was tunnelled toward the deep dungeon under the temple, where his prisoner was held.

"I, have arrived," Ludo said, jumping off the back of his rats. "Did you keep him up all night?" Bird and Arachnid-as Ludo calls them, replied with a nod. "You haven't fed him, have you?" This time, the reply was a head shake.

"Good!" Filled with joy, Ludo said."Then he must be about to crack. Time to turn on the heat"

To his surprise, the wand disagreed. Ludo reinsured it that he will only use "that" method as his last result. Intimidation is more of his style, not violence...

Slowly walking into the room, trying to be as menacing as possible, after all, the first impression means everything.

"How do you like my monster temple, pretty cool huh?"

Ludo spoke with a sound of pride in his voice, it's not usual that he could be happy with his accommodation since the day Castle Avarius blew up.

"My wand told me where to find it. It's..GAH!" Ludo screamed, filled with surprised as a beam of light shine directly to his eyes suddenly. But he did not expect the source of the light.

Glossaryck was there, chilling on the windowsill half...naked: "Helloooo"

"What are you doing?"

"I was just out for my morning stroll.."

"But then who is in your bed" pointing towards the lump on the far bed, under the covers.

" Oh-oh-oh! Um... Easy...Easy. Don't shoot. It's, uh... It's just my robe." Glossaryck then proceeds to put his robe on.

Ludo, point his head away from Glossaryck, just to point it back again in suspicion: " Girls! Bring me the book!"

"I want you to teach me this..." pointing at the book "...to make me awesome at this!" points at wand "You will not resist! Lower your defense, surrender your will to fight back! Resistance is futile!"

"Uhm, you mind hopping off?" Glossaryck continued as Ludo got off the book "Thank you"

"Okay! Let's get started!"

"Hello everyone"

"Good morning, your Majesty"

"I'm sorry for disrupting your works to bring you here, but the situation is urgent. As you have already known, Omnitraxis has discovered a large rift in the timeline of the universe, creating time vortexes scattered around the universe, warping people and objects to different time period and dimensions. Anyway, back to our matter of discussion. After extensive research upon the time rifts, Omnitraxis have discovered something new. Omnitraxis, what have you learned?"

"Yes, I believed that...the disturbance in the flow of time in the universe, previously thought to be the work of Princess Star Butterfly, might have a much different origin...than we think. I couldn't determine the exact location of ground-zero, but I can trace it...back to the Prohibitus Ignotum region, base on the fact that we've received many reports of missing personnel and people claimed to have been warped into the past..."

"Then why wait? Send a team to the region to investigate immediately! I volunteer to lead the expedition." Rhombulus eagerly said. "If we can't resolve the fritz then we should at least take care of this one."

"Uhm, about that, Rhombulus. I've also received accounts of gravity being turned off, by a...mysterious magical force, which our scholars on Flendor described as unimaginable. The Mysterious force is also disabling magic and wrecking havoc upon the dimensions within the sector that we currently have a presence on. I think it's safe to assume that we've found the source of the fritz"

"Great! Then why don't we travel there and end both of the problems, once and for all!"

"No, we can't, dum-dum" Hekapoo interrupted "It's called Prohibitus Ignotum for a reason. It is forbidden to enter the dimension, as you can only enter, but not leave it."

But until an expedition can be sent to the suspected area to confirmed our supposition, we can't take it for granted. But keep in mind, we might be dealing with something that's much larger the aftereffects of a Princess messing around.

Nightfall on Mewni. The sun sets behind the sharp mountain range and from the horizon, the twin moon of Romulus and Remus rose, accompanied by Mewni's sister planet Rhea, named after a goddess describe by Queen Cosmica the Explorer to the people of Mewni after her adventure to another dimension, the first Mewman to do so. The twin moons shine a silver ray of light through a little opening in the ceiling.

Today was the best day of Ludo's life. He learned a new magic spell, which he was starting to overused. For the first time in his life, he has some guidance in his path, and he seems to have found a father figure in Glossaryck, and for once, someone is actually proud of him.

There was more to be learned. Ludo was excited about this new life, he dreamed that he would learn new spell every day, and become the most powerful being in the entire universe. His ambitions kept him awake, and so was the wand.

"Are you still awake? I can't sleep either! I'm too excited to sleep! Today was wonderful!"

But the wand seems to know something that he doesn't.

"Why would you say that? Glossaryck is proud of me. He said I was better than Star! What do you mean, he showed her something hidden? Don't be silly! We just started. I'm sure we'll get to it soon."

The wand continued its low humming, but Ludo didn't believe it. At least, that was what he thought, as inside him a seed of doubt was being planted. He kept denying to himself, trying to protect the image of Glossaryck in his mind.

"He kept it from me on purpose? No, no, no, no. He'd never lie to me!"

In suspicion, Ludo hopped off his bed and sprinted towards the book of spells, where Glossaryck was lying and eating pudding:

"Didn't we just do bedtime?"

"Glossaryck. I know this is crazy, but my wand told me...It's my... my wand, he told me there's a chapter in this book that you've shown Star that you haven't shown me. But that's crazy, right?" Ludo diffused

"No, it's true," Glossaryck answered

"What?! Why didn't you show me?!" Ludo lashed out

"You know, you didn't ask."

"Well, I want to see it!" Ludo reinstate his desire

"You want to see it. You want to see... Well, you know, I don't know. It's really advanced. Um, you know, dark stuff."

"Did you show it to Star?"

"Um, technically, I didn't show her, but, uh, she has seen it."

"Show me!"

Glossaryck turned the book to the secret chapter. It's locked by a skull with 6 cyan glowing chain. Ludo, enthused by the idea of learning dark magic in advance, jumped eagerly. He wanted to become the most powerful being in the universe, but he also wants Glossaryck's pride and attention. But was it worth it?

"Are you truly sure? It could taint you."

"Oh, I got plenty of taints already. Now unlock it!" Ludo stated, not yet realising what's to come.

"As you wish" Glossaryck uses a key on his left hallux to unlock Eclipsa's chapter. The skull-shaped lock's jaw lowers, then the whole lock flies off the page. Ludo turns the first page into the chapter.

"H...mm! I thought there'd be more pict—"A burst of black smoke drags Ludo into the air " Aah! Ohhh!"

Ludo floats at the centre of a black magical void. His wand's faceplate glows green. Ludo opens his eyes to reveal swirling pools of green energy, and he smiles.

"Hello, Glossaryck."

The embodiment of the wand manifested Ludo. "It" approaches Glossaryck with it's menacing, manipulative voice. It was obvious that Glossaryck and he have met before.

"Hello... Toffee."

"Time to give it up, old man. You'll never get him on your side."

"But I don't have a side."

"You don't do you"

"Excellent"

The sun rose over the Los Angeles suburban area, and within the neighbourhood of countless similar houses, lies the Diaz household, a seemingly normal family until you realise there's a freaking medieval tower on the roof of their house, well two to be exact.

"Good Morning, Star"

"(yawn) Oh, hey, Mom...Mom?!"

"Hello-"

She closed the curtain immediately before she can speak anything. From the other side of the mirror, Moon can only hear flashes of rainbow and screams of puppies through the curtains. Star pulled back the curtains, this time, in her rainbow dress instead of her nightgown, with a little flash of fire on her hair, that was extinguished quickly by Star's hand "What a pleasant surprise" She laughed nervously "Why are you calling me, I haven't even done anything...yet"

"Oh, no, I'm just making sure that you are all okay on Earth, now that you've lost Glossaryck and the Book of Spells."

"I'm fine, mom..."

"Are you sure?" Moon asked

"Totally!" Star answered while Moon looked at her with suspicion, and Star clearly recognised it. "No, I'm actually pretty messed up". Star admitted "You know, I think I'm the first princess to lose everything, which is kind of impressive. I lost the Spellbook, I've basically lost our entire family history, and how am I supposed to know where to go or who I am if I don't have a history? I will just be remembered in history as an ordinary, dull perfect little princess with perfect little lives, and that's not me!" Star said as she sat down on her chair in despair.

"There there Star, but not all Princesses, and Queens are fluffy and perfect. We too have issues and mistakes we have to deal with in our lives." Moon tried to console her.

"But did you lose your spellbook, and broke the wand?" Star questioned. "Well, I didn't, but I'd be lying if I say I didn't mess up in some fashion."

"Ahh, so you did star-ed things up. Tell me about it!" Star's mood completely turned 180 degrees. "Well, it was-"

"YOUR MAJESTY!" One of the royal guards interrupted. His armour was torn apart, his body full of scratches and cuts. "His majesty, King Butterfly...!"

"What happened to him?" Moon urgently asked. "Yeah, what happened to dad?"

"We were hunting in the Forest of Certain Death before,...before a sudden shake shattered the ground, accompanied with a buzzing noise. Then, a large green vortex spawned right behind us. Before I can make sense of the situation, the King was gone..."

"Get Omnitraxis on the line, NOW!" Moon scold her guards, who urgently ran out of the room to perform their duty. "I'll see you later Star-"

"Wait, can I help anything? Dad is gone and I can't just be sitting around doing nothing..." Star asked, looking worried

"Star, this is a serious matter. Just sit tight and wait for my news later." Moon said, with breaths of urgency, before turning off the mirror.

"Rebel princess doesn't sit tight."

"Rebel princess does things her own way..."

Moon raced to the Crystalline Dimension, where the Magic High Commission HQ is located. Hekapoo was there, along with Rhombulus, and Lekmet.

"We've heard about the news" Hekapoo opened "We're very sorry for your loss"

"He's not dead yet, we just...do not know where he is" Rhombulus corrected.

"But how are we going to find him, there are infinite dimensions with infinite timelines. It's going to be harder than finding a needle in a haystack."

"I believed I have the evidence necessary to, if not figuring out where he is, at least who took him away," Omnitraxis said, passing right through the door in his physical but ghostlike form.

"What do you mean? Are you implying that River was kidnapped?"

"That is correct, and by none other than your old adversary, your majesty," Omnitraxis said, with a piece of half burned paper in his hand. It was a pitch black card, with only one single word on it:

"Toffee"

Why do you have to be in a hurry Star? I get it that it's a stressful situation, but would it kill you to just slow down for a second? You're going kinda overboard.

Why don't you try some breathing exercise?"

"I don't have time to breath" Star replied, in a deep dark voice.

"Well, ain't that familiar. Didn't your mom told you to sit tight and wait for her news?"

"I'm a strong, independent warrior princess! I don't "sit tight"

"Well, what are you going to do? You don't know where your father is and you have no way to find him."

"Nope, but I know someone who does. And he owes me a favour. Can I borrow your scissors?"

"Sure, where are we going anyway?"

"The Crystal Cavern."

"That doesn't help"

"It's Rhombulus's home in the Crystalline Dimension, okay. Now, are you coming or not?"

"Who's Rhombulus woah-"

"Less questioning, more walking. Come on!"

Star pulled Marco through the diamond-shaped portal. On the other side of the portal, there was a large cavern made of clear quartz. Chills ran up Marco's spine from the cold mist surrounded the cavern. "Star, do you know where we're going?"

"Totally totally totally"

Star and Marco walked along the cavern, leading up to a large room, On the 2 sides of the room, there is a large forest of crystal speleothems, with large creatures trapped inside like amber.

"Ahh, Princess Butterfly. What brings you here? Let me guess, hmm, it's your father isn't it."

"Time-out guy, I want you to bring me to one of those time rift vortex thingies"

"Uh, I'm sorry princess, but by decree of Queen Butterfly, you must not take place in the investigation of your father's disappearance"

"Well, I, Star the Underestimated hereby decree: Bring me to the vortex"

"Um, do I have a say in this" Marco raised his hand "No." Star rejected...

"But I don't know where it is. You should go ask Omni for these things."

"Uhm, hello, that giant hole on your ceiling?"

"sigh Fine. Follow me."

Moon "the Undaunted", Queen of the Butterfly kingdom, Empress of Mewni. Those are the titles she has bared throughout the years, titles that she couldn't quite live comfortable with. A woman in her 30s, scarred by the unfortunate events of her past, struggle to keep her kingdom apart but only by living not as what she is. To her Mewman subjects, she seems like a staunch fearless, but an emotionless leader who led the kingdom through the dark ages and the war with the Septarians, but under the cover of a Queen, is a calm, caring mother who only wants the best for her daughter, just like every mother ever.

Moon Butterfly starred at her tapestry, wondering where has the time gone. She was a young, adventurous Queen, who dared to venture out into the stars, traverse the dimensions, face the strongest monster and still have time to have fun with her best friend, Princess Pony Head, sister of King Pony Head. But all fun have to come to an end. As the shadow menace loomed over the Kingdom, Moon has to focus on defending her people, and through time she has been indulged in more state affair with almost no time left for her personal hobbies. Looking at the silk sewed tapestry, she admires the beauty of her own younger self, an energetic tireless Moon Butterfly. She looked at the stone-carved golden writings on the pillar:

"The immortal monster will long be haunted

By the darkest spell of Moon

The Undaunted"

"After all these years, my old friend" He was a former enemy of her, but so much was tied up that after all these years he seems to be much more of a distant memory, an old friend just for old time sake. Thoughts ran through her mind as she looked at the painting depicting her, cursing Toffee with her darkest spell. Her mortal or rather "immortal" enemy is back, and this time he has a much larger advantage, as the power of magic in the universe is dwindling, her daughter has a broken wand, and Toffee has King Butterfly as a hostage.

But why did he left a name card? He's a cunning manipulative villain, surely he wouldn't do such a thing that could reveal the identity of the kidnapper to the world. Unless he did it on purpose. But so much was clogging Moon's mind at the time, she thought about the future, about the worse that could happen in a confrontation with her former adversary. What if she gets injured, or worse. Star isn't ready to become Queen, and she has bluntly refused to do so multiple times in the past. The entirety of Mewni would be at stake. She has no other choice.

"Manfred," Moon said as she left the Grandma room.

"Yes, Your Highness" He bowed.

"Prepare the carriage. Destination: Echo Creek, Earth."

"Are you sure Princess?" Rhombulus ask, uncertain of the situation. "He's right, Star. You must think this through" Marco added

"I've made up my mind, and I'm not going back until we found my father."

"At least you have to inform your mother first, someone has to fill her in. She's going nuts if she finds out you're gone"

"NO! Uhm, I mean, we can't let Queen Butterfly know about this. If we're doing this, we must do it in secret. Otherwise, I'd be in timeout for like a bazillion year."

"It's not worth it risking someone's life just so that you can avoid a punishment!" Marco chastised. "You have to tell-"

"Marco!" Star interrupted "Marco, my father just went missing, and I can't help but feeling responsible for it. Please, my mother won't let me go if you tell her about it. I made the mess, and now I have to be the one who cleans it up. I have to go, whether with or without you, just please don't tell my mother."

"Star..." he pled "I'm coming with you."

"Thanks, Marco" She looked at him, filled with awe.

"Well, someone has to keep you company, it could be a long trip."

"Oh! Wait, before I go" Star turned back "Rhombulus, I want you to keep this, it's your proudest achievement and just in case..." She said as she hands out the Evil Twin Jack crystal to Rhombulus.

"Nah, you can have it, Princess. Besides, someone will have something to remember about me for one." He winked

"Thank you, Rhombulus."

"You're Welcome. Oh, and take care of the princess, tall goblin guy."

"I'm pretty sure she can stand on her own well enough without me," Marco commented as he and Star walk to the vortex.

"Welp, this is it. One jump, no turning back. Are you ready?" Marco asked, with a bit of uncertainty personally within him.

"Absolutely. You?"

"Eh, couldn't be worse than the usual dimensional hopping. I mean, I spent 16 years in a fire demon's dimension after all."

"Here we go" The last words that Rhombulus heard from Star as she and Marco entered the portal, which was followed quickly by an explosion that knocked him off the roof of his cave. But before hand, right when Star walked into the portal, she can hear a small, endearing farewell:

"Good luck, Star"

To be continued

Author's note: Just establishing plot points here and there, and yes, I'm aware of my lazy naming convention. Even the title of this is borrowed from a 118 years old book. Shoutout to DevianArt user jgss0109 for making the cover art that was used for this fanfiction.

Update: Merged chapter 1 and 2 for reading convenience as both of them were prologues and there's no need to split it up into 2.