Sorry for the delay, you guys! I had hoped to get this chapter out by December 2nd, but God of War Ragnarok took a little longer to finish than I thought. But it was worth it, though! Now, while you enjoy the chapter, I have some stuff that needs to be taken care of…

After seeing Cloudy's odd behavior, Comet initially tried to think nothing of it. He was still in a bad mood because Marcia had interrupted him while he was focused on the crucial process of overhauling the Shooting Star, and he just wanted to focus on what he wanted to do. Yet, in the back of his mind, he kept thinking about how Cloudy was acting...weird. He'd never come out looking the color of barf. Nor had he ever acted so passive-aggressive towards him.

The more Comet thought about it, the more worried he got, and the less he could concentrate on his beloved ship. Realizing that this nagging worry wouldn't disappear, Comet knew he had to do something about it. And, just like when he was dealing with some sort of weird, magical problem beyond even his amazingness, he went to the expert.

Pulling his family's Spell Book out from under his bed, Comet turned the pages until he found Glossaryck.

"Hey, Glossaryck, I had something that I needed to ask you, so-HOLY WARNICORN SHIT! What in Skye's name happened to you!?"

Comet's outburst was well warranted, considering the state he found his teacher in once he opened the Book. Half of the little blue man's face was covered in this strange, pink goop, he had an ice pack nestled against the other half, and worst of all, he had this terrible black eye. It looked like Glossaryck got hit by a freight train, and that freight train was carrying confetti and icing.

"Ohhhhh...it hurts," Glossaryck moaned in pain, clearly out of it. For a moment, Comet reconsidered bothering him. However, Glossaryck then acknowledged his student and tried to adopt a formal tone with him...to little success.

"Oh, hello, Comet. How can I help you today?"

"Forget about helping me? Are you alright?" Comet worriedly asked his mentor.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine, child. I...just had an accident while trying to use magic on my, ow, face. And this is what happened."

Comet made a mental note to himself: never use magic on his face again. EVER.

"Did you, um, need something from me?" Glossaryck asked through the pain. Again, Comet was tempted to raid the medicine cabinet and get him something, but he was getting off-track.

"Oh, yeah," Comet said as he got back on track. "Glossaryck, I think something might be wrong with my Wand again, and it's not doing what it's supposed to be."

"Oh. What's wrong with it?"

"I don't know. I was fixing my ship when Marcia came in and told me to take out the trash. But since I was busy, I summoned Cloudy to do it for me, but he's acting differently than he usually does. He's green and looking like he wants to throw up everywhere, and he's acting all sassy towards, and I don't know why!" After finishing his explanation, Comet held out his Wand so Glossaryck could look at it. "I think something might be wrong with my Wand, Glossaryck."

Glossaryck looked at the Wand as best he could while dealing with the pain, and finally, he said, "Are you sure it's the Wand that's the problem here? Maybe something's just wrong with you?"

Comet narrowed his eyes as he looked at Glossaryck, a swell of anger rising inside him. "And just what's that supposed to mean?" he asked in a very accusatory tone.

"I don't know, Comet. There's something wrong with everyone, really. I mean, just look at me. I'm a being that's so old I lost count of my age, and I have thousands of years of experience with magic. And yet I managed to do this-" he gestured to the mess that was his face, "-to myself."

"So, you don't know, do you?" Comet frowned. It looked like he was on his own for this one.

Screw this. I'm just going to go back to working on the Star. And get some medicine for Glossaryck.

Before Comet could do anything, though, a familiar voice called out for him from the hallway.

"Comet! I need you, now!"

"Uh oh." Comet didn't need a crystal ball to know that whatever was happening couldn't be good.

"Sorry, Glossaryck, but I'm going to have to take a rain check on this. Talk to you later!" Comet said as he rushed to close the Spell Book.

"It hurts everywhere!" Glossaryck moaned in pain as the little man returned to the house within the Book of Spells. With that done, Comet ran to see why Marcia was calling him.

"Marcia, did you need something?" Comet asked as he appeared in front of his roommate at the top of the steps.

"Comet, did you take out the trash like I asked?" Judging by the tone in her voice, it was clear that Marcia knew that the boy bailed on his chores. How she knew, though, was the real question.

"Umm...I had Cloudy do it for me?" Comet nervously admitted. He already knew he wouldn't like what he heard next.

"Yeah, about that..." Marcia then gestured for Comet to follow her downstairs to show him what Cloudy had done. When he did, his eyes almost bulged out of their sockets in shock. Instead of taking the trash out like he had asked, Cloudy was flying around the living room, humming and singing to himself like it was nobody's business. To make matters worse, the trash bag started to rip open, releasing its contents onto the ground and furniture.

"Cloudy, what the heck are you doing?" Comet asked, still trying to process how the normally cheerful Cloudy was acting so out of character.

"Tee hee! Oh, hey, Comet! Oh man, I have no idea what's going on here. It must be all the iced tea I had. Wheee!" Cloudy kept floating around the living room, throwing garbage and knocking over furniture while Marcia and Coryn (who had been taking a nap on a perch the Diaz family had bought him) looked on in concern.

"Comet, are you sure that you used the right spell? I've never seen Cloudy act like this," Marcia worriedly asked her friend.

"Krawww," Coryn screeched in agreement as he watched what was happening from his perch.

"I, I think so. I've never seen him like this either," Comet admitted before calling out to Cloudy again. "Cloudy, stop doing this! I asked you to take out the garbage, not trash the living room!"

"I don't knowwww," Cloudy said in a sing-songy voice before knocking over a lamp from a nearby end table, much to Marcia's horror.

"Whoops! Oh, too bad. Hey, do you think that other lamp is up for fun?" Before the two teens could react, Cloudy proceeded to zip over to another lamp, picked it up, and somehow managed to ride it like a horse. "Yee-haw! Giddyup, pardner!"

"He's wrecking my living room! Do something!" Marcia yelled at Comet, prompting him to run into the living room and try to intercept Cloudy.

"Cloudy, put down that lamp this instant and stop acting like this! You're making a huge mess, and not even the fun kind!"

"Ride em', cowboy!" Cloudy refused to listen to what Comet was saying and kept wrecking things like it was nobody's business. At one point, Coryn tried to use one of his moves on the sentient cloud spell, only for the attack to miss. Marcia wasn't happy to see the indent the owl Pokémon left in one of the walls.

"Cloudy, you stop this right now!" Comet yelled as he tried to get his spell's attention. He was becoming very irritated by Cloudy's blatant refusal to listen to him. Even he had enough common sense to know when to rein it in in front of his parents.

"Cloudy, stop this right now, or so help me, you will wish you were never born!" Marcia yelled, not amused by what was going on. Rather than follow Marcia's orders, though, Cloudy decided to start raining on Marcia, leaving her soaked.

"Whoops. There goes the iced tea!" Cloudy chucked before continuing his destructive rampage across the living room. Marcia just stood there, bemoaning how this had happened to her. Again!

"Cloudy, that's enough! Apologize to Marcia and clean this place up right now!"

"Looks like someone's allergic to good vibes today. Tee hee hee!" Cloudy continued to race around the living room, wreaking havoc as he did so. He was tipping over furniture, throwing vases, and framed photos around like it was no tomorrow.

"Cloudy," Comet said through grated teeth. "Don't make me be the bad guy here," he said, his tone a mixture of pleading and frustration.

"Hey, you guys wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world? It goes a little something like this." Cloudy then took in a big breath of air and then:

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

As Cloudy floated there, doing his best Jim Carrey scream from Dumb and Dumber, Comet's patience began to run out. All he wanted to do today was work on his beloved ship, but he kept getting pulled away from it by chores and unruly spells. Pulling out his Wand (now glowing bright green), Comet aimed at Cloudy, cried out, "Sunshine friendship spell!" and fired a blast of light at him. It was supposed to return Cloudy to his normal, lovable self. What Comet didn't expect to happen was for him to miss and almost hit Coryn's perch, much to the Noctowl's fear.

"Tee hee! You missed!" Cloudy mocked him before blowing a raspberry.

Now even more pissed off, Comet aimed once more. "Mega Sunshine friendship spell!" This time, Comet made sure he spread out his attack over a wide enough area that Cloudy couldn't dodge. He didn't notice that, instead of being pink or yellow like it normally was, his spell was a sickly green. However, he saw the immediate results: instead of pacifying him, it made Cloudy angry.

"Hey! That was sooooo rude!"

Very, very angry.

"Oh, crapbaskets."


Spongebob Narrator: Meanwhile...

After confirming his ideas regarding his Wand, Ludo, Rachnera, and Aquila flew back to the Rat's bar in the Forest of Certain Death. Having figured out how his Wand worked, Ludo was eager to give it a test drive. After all, it would do no good to the future ruler of Mewni if his ultimate weapon wouldn't act like he wanted it to.

Besides, he was still angry about how the Rats had treated him before. He wanted them to see the folly of that action before he made them repent for their sins.

As Ludo walked towards the entrance to the bar, he noticed that Rachnera and Aquila followed close behind him.

"No, girls," Ludo said with a shake of his head. "This is going to get ugly. And I need to do this on my own." He couldn't afford to have them get injured in what was to come. As evil as he was, he did care about them. If it weren't for them, he wouldn't have made it after being stranded in the wild by that accursed Prince! The thought of what Comet Dragonfly had done to him made him shake with rage. As if responding to his thoughts, Ludo's Wand began to vibrate violently, sharing his anger.

Ludo then walked into the bar. Or rather, he kicked the door in with his beaked foot.

"I'm back, bitches!"

Whatever the Rats had been doing before, they stopped once they saw that Ludo had returned. Most of them eyed him up. Some snickered at him, remembering the humiliating beatdown he got the last time he'd been there. Regardless, none of them looked at him with any form of respect.

Whatever their feelings, they quickly changed when they saw what Ludo did next. First, he kicked one of the Rats off of his barstool, sending him flying into a nearby wall.

"*Oh shit!*"

"*What the fuck?!*"

Then, Ludo followed it up by shoving two more Rats out of his way and onto the floor. Then, just to be a jerk, he backed up and stepped on them with his muddy feet. Some of the other Rats had stopped laughing and were now boring holes into the back of his head with their eyes, hoping that that would be enough to kill him.

It wasn't enough, though. Eventually, Ludo made his way up to the bar, where Randolph glared at him with one good eye.

"A bowl of your finest mud, my good sir!" Ludo shouted as he sat on one of the bar stools. Without a word, Randolph snapped his fingers and a bowl of the worst mud they had (the kind with the worms in it) and shoved it in front of Ludo. Ludo, who was also banging his silverware onto the table.

"Ahh, the good stuff!" Ludo then threw his silverware away, with the fork embedding itself into the wall. The Avian then proceeded to dump the contents of the bowl onto his face, not caring if any of it got into his beard, on the floor, or on the tables. It was a disgusting sight for everyone to look at.

Once Ludo was finished, he didn't even bother wiping off the mud from his beak. He smiled, said, "all done,"... and then punched Randolph right in the nose. Every Rat in the bar bolted out of their seats as they saw the Rattender collapse into a pile of broken bottles and whiskey.

"Well, that was fun," Ludo said, not caring that he was surrounded by angry rats. Rather, Ludo just jumped onto the bar top and, with a manic smile, told everyone, "Who's next?"

Then the Rats fell upon him.

From outside the bar, Aquila and Rachnera looked inside one of the windows and watched the ensuing bar brawl with worry. Ludo had gotten stronger, and his time in the wild had led him to develop a decent amount of muscle on his tiny body. Now, he was putting it to good use, delivering devastating uppercuts, jabs, kicks, and elbows to the Rats. He was actually kicking some serious ass in there!

This was, of course, a deception. While there was a chance that he could take them all thanks to his improved physique, this was Ludo testing out to see how his new body would handle a fight. His goal remained to get the Rats to piss him off enough for his plan to work.

"Come on, you trash-eating dumpster divers! Is that the best you can do?" Ludo boasted, even as one of the Rats used a mop to knock him into a wall. "I barely felt that! Come on and hit me already! I want you to do it! Come on!" Ludo kept laughing the entire time, even though the Rats kept coming at him.

Eventually, the sheer number of Rats began to win out. A dozen or so of them managed to dogpile him, pinning him to the ground and preventing him from being able to move. Then, they started to use their claws and teeth to bite and rake at the Avian, who screamed in frustration as he tried to flee. The Rats, though, weren't having any of it, and they dragged him back into the pile. At this point, Randolph had gotten back onto his hind legs. Growling at the Monster that had come in and trashed his bar, he took a half-empty bottle and broke off the top half to use as a makeshift melee weapon.

"*Hold him steady, fellas! Let's see how he likes it when I take his eye!*."

At this point, Rachnera and Aquila forgot what Ludo had told them and ran inside the bar to help their master. At that moment, though, the Wand, which had never left Ludo's hands, began to emit a bright green glow.

"Run."

That was all the spider and eagle needed to hear as they bolted from the bar and reached a safe distance. They did so just in time, too. Moments later, the entire tavern was lit with a menacing, green glow, followed by the sounds of maniacal laughter and the screaming of the Rats inside. The rest would have to be left up to their imagination.

Unknown to bird or arachnid, another being was currently watching them from afar...and it was pleased by what it saw.


How did things end up like this?!

One minute, Comet Dragonfly had worked hard on his ship, the Shooting Star. The next thing he knows, he's dealing with the sentient equivalent of that twister from that old movie with the shrieking green lady that Marcia had shown him.

That wasn't an exaggeration, either. After blasting him with his Wand, Cloudy became enraged. He was so enraged that his body began to expand until it grew too big for the house to handle, forcing him to move outside with Comet, Marcia, and Coryn following. Instead of being the normal pink, fluffy cloud with wings, Cloudy had become a virtual cyclone, hovering above the Diaz house and buffeting the neighborhood with huge gusts of winds. Anything not nailed down started to heave and sway in the gale while a few unfortunate potted plants found themselves tossed into the air.

In other words, it looked like a hurricane decided to park right on top of Avocado Terrace, and Comet, Marcia, and Coryn were in their sights.

"CLOUDY, THIS IS THE LAST TIME!" Comet yelled, struggling to make his voice heard over howling wind and debris. "YOU HAVE TO STOP, NOW! YOU'RE GOING TO DESTROY THE HOUSE!"

"Oh, I'm sorry! I must not have HEARD YOU OVER MY VIBING, YOUR HIGHNESS!" Cloudy yelled back, enraging the Prince even further.

Above, Coryn was doing his best to run damage control, but the Noctowl was fighting a losing battle. There was only so much its attacks could do against the rogue spell, and it took all of its concentration to keep from getting hit by debris.

To make matters worse, Comet started firing off blasts of magic into Cloudy, trying to get him under control, only for the sentient storm cloud to blow them all away. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

As for poor Marcia, there was only so much that she could do. Initially, she tried to get loose items in the backyard into the shed and out of harm's way. But then a tree fell out of the sky and threatened to crush her right as she exited the shed. If it weren't for her years of martial arts training, she might be in one piece.

What is going on?! I've never seen Cloudy act like this. I've never seen any of Comet's spells act like this! As Marcia tried to understand what was causing this chaos, Comet fired off more blasts of magic at Cloudy, one of which almost hit Coryn. Just as she was about to berate her roommate for almost hurting his Pokémon, something about Comet's Wand caught her eye: the crystal in the bell was glowing green. It had never burned green before.

Marcia's mind started to put the pieces together. In some works of fiction, she noticed how magic was sometimes tied to the user's emotions; the stronger the feelings, the more powerful the magic could become. And if the user was undergoing stress or anger, then...

Oh, Dios Mio, Comet's calling on the Dark Side.

With things only getting more and more out of control, Marcia knew she needed to do something, and she needed to do it now. Mustering her courage, she fought against the growing winds and forced her way towards Comet.

"Comet!" Marcia cried out as loud as she could. "You need to stop this!"

"I'm trying, Marcia, but nothing I do seems to be working!"

"No, not Cloudy!" Marcia shouted once more. "What you're doing! It's making things worse!"

"What?" Comet stopped focusing on Cloudy, who had grown to the point that he could swallow the house and backyard.

"Don't you see? You've been in a bad mood ever since I asked you to do those chores, and that's what's caused all of this!"

"I am not-"

"Comet, I know what being frustrated and angry looks like!" Marcia said, cutting him off. "All those negative emotions are affecting your magic, making it act out like this!" she yelled as she gestured towards the sky.

"I'm telling you, I'm fine, Marcia! I just need to try harder to make Cloudy listen to me!" Before Marcia could stop him, Comet fired off another blast of magic at Cloudy. All it managed to do was poke a hole in the spot above his eyes.

"HEY! YOU POKED MY FLUFFY!" Now enraged, Cloudy stopped blowing everything around, instead opting to suck up all the loose items in the yard. Coryn, bless his little heart, tried to stay aloft, but it was too much for him. He found himself being sucked into the vortex of Cloudy's mouth.

Comet barely managed to keep himself rooted to the ground, but Marcia wasn't so lucky. She found herself being pulled upwards into the sky, forcing her to hang onto Comet for dear life.

"Comet, you need to calm down now! Before it's too late-ahhh!" And then, Marcia found herself being thrown into the air, much to Comet's absolute horror.

"Marcia! Coryn!" At that moment, all of the anger and stress that he'd been feeling all afternoon faded away. In its place came another feeling: that of concern for his friends.

Comet didn't think about what happened next. He didn't have to. All he knew was that his friends were in danger and he had to save them.

"RASPBERRY RIBBON LASSO!"

With his Wand now glowing a healthy pink, two ropes made out of raspberry candy shot out of the bell and latched onto Human and Pokémon, wrapping tightly around their waists. With a mighty heave, Comet then pulled them down safely to the ground before using his magic to ensure their lasso's would stay tethered to it. Then, Comet turned his attention to his errant spell.

Taking a deep breath, Comet willed himself to relax. If what Marcia said was true (which it probably was), then he needed to get a grip on his emotions. Centering his mind, Comet then put everything he had into one last spell.

"SUNSHINE FRIENDSHIP SPELL!"

A massive blast of pink, magical energy burst out of Comet's Wand, hitting Cloudy dead center.

"Oh!" At once, the spell began to take effect. Cloudy began to giggle as the magical blast of pure positivity began to work on him, making him shrink. Soon, Cloudy was back to his normal size and normal, pink color.

Exhausted, Comet almost felt his legs give out. Fortunately, his concern for Marcia and Coryn overrode what fatigue he might have felt, as he ran to their sides.

"Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, thanks to you," Marcia affirmed.

"Kraw," Coryn hooted.

Cloudy began to giggle as he seemed to go back to his normal, cheerful self. "Whoa! What a mess! What happened here?" As Cloudy looked around, he noticed Comet and his friends and floated over to them. "Oh, hey, Comet! Did you need me for something?"

Comet and Marcia gave each other concerned looks. "You don't...remember?" Marcia finally asked.

"Remember what?" Cloudy innocently asked.

"It's nothing, Cloudy," Comet said with a shake of his head. "We just...had a little trouble, but we're good now." Comet then looked down at his Wand and inspected it for a few moments. "At least, I think we are."

It was at that exact moment that Mr. and Mrs. Diaz pulled up to the driveway and made their way to the backyard.

"Kids, we got you ice cream as thanks for cleaning the hou-"

Mr. Diaz stopped mid-sentence when he saw the absolute wreck that his backyard had become. There was debris everywhere, the shed roof was torn off, and it looked like a twister had hit. Which, to be fair, wasn't that far off from what happened.

"Umm..." Comet looked at his host parents in guilt, "I am...60% sure I can explain."


"I am so sorry, you guys!" Comet said as he proceeded to bow his head, ashamed at what had happened. "I almost destroyed your house with my magic! And what's worse, I almost got Marcia hurt in the process!"

After getting inside the house (and seeing that the damage was just as bad), Comet felt great remorse and began to beg for the Diaz family's forgiveness. Fortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Diaz took it all in stride.

"Do not worry so much about it, Comet," Rafael told the boy. "No one got hurt in the end, and the house is still standing. In fact, the damage doesn't look as bad as you would think."

"It's not?" Comet asked in concern.

"No, sweetie. We should be able to get the place cleaned up in about a day," Mr. Diaz reassured him.

"Dad's right, Comet," Marcia said as she rolled up her sleeves. "Nothing a little elbow grease can't fix." Marcia paused for a second before adding, "Besides, at least now we know your Wand can be affected by your emotional state. It's better we learn it now rather than when we're fighting for our lives."

Hearing Marcia's logic, Comet couldn't help but agree. The revelation that his magic could be corrupted by his anger and frustration had been a shock to the young prince. However, had this happened while they were fighting against a horde of wild beasts or criminals, there's a good chance they might not have made it out in one piece.

You know what, I think I could use a break from magic for a while. Motioning for Coryn to come to him, Comet bent down and then held out his Wand. "Coryn, do me a favor and put this in my room. I think I need a breather from it for the rest of the day." The Pokémon dutifully obeyed before flying upstairs. Comet then reached for the nearest broom and got to work.

"Marcia, next time you ask me to do chores, I'll just shut up and do them," Comet told his best friend as the Prince and family began to get to work cleaning the house. Sure enough, it took them the better part of the day to get the house back in order, but they managed to pull it off.

As for Coryn, he kept watch over the Wand for the rest of the day, just like Comet had asked him. Yet the Noctowl couldn't help but be concerned about the events that had transpired. He had only existed for a few months or so, but he knew enough to understand that what happened with the Wand wasn't normal. At one point, out of curiosity, he had pecked at it with his beak, only to recoil when he saw the broken star crystal glow green before returning to its normal gold.

Whatever had happened on this afternoon, it would not be the end of things.


By the time Ludo was finished, the entire bar lay in ruins. Stools and tables were upturned or shattered into hundreds of wooden fragments. The Rat patrons were lying on the ground, groaning and clutching at their stomachs or looking at the blackened and singed spots on their bodies, the result of being blasted by Ludo's malevolent magic.

As for Randolph the bartender, he had the misfortune of facing down the endpoint of Ludo's new Wand, the tiny Avian glaring down at him with a fierceness that belonged to someone four times his size.

"Now...serve me some porridge." Ludo wasn't asking Randolph; he was commanding him. Already cowed by what had happened, Randolph quickly got to his paws and rushed to what was left of the kitchen, praying that they still had some food left.

"As for the rest of you," Ludo then turned to the remaining Rats, who now wished that they could run away and hide somewhere. "Congratulations. You will be the first members of my new army. As of today, you will all have the privelege of serving under Ludo Avarius, the next King of the Monsters. And someday very soon, the ruler of all of Mewni!"

Seeing that Ludo wasn't going to give them the option of refusing, all of the Rats got on their paws and knees and knelt before Ludo, swearing their fealty to him as their new master, prompting the tiny Monster to break out in a fit of maniacal laughter. On this day, he had taken the first step to retake everything he had lost. And once he had, he would make every Mewman pay, starting with Comet Dragonfly.

Little did he, the Rats, or the giant spider and eagle outside of the bar know, but everything that had happened was being watched. Hidden in the rubble of the bar, out of sight of everyone present, was a tiny drone no bigger than a coin. It had used the chaos of the fighting to sneak inside and observe everything that had happened. Its only goal was to transmit it back to its masters.


"And there you have it. He has learned how to use the Wand, as we said he would."

"Indeed. The little one is progressing faster than we had anticipated. Now he has the makings of a new army and a powerful weapon to go along with it."

"The Avian's growth is still within acceptable parameters, comrades. Rest assured, there is nothing to worry about from him."

"Are you so certain? What if he learns how to assert even greater control over that accursed Wand? If that were to happen before we are ready, then all of this-"

"As I stated before, the subject's growth still remains within controllable levels. We need only continue to monitor his progress and intervene at the appointed time."

"It matters little in the grand scheme of things, really. Now that he can use his little toy, he will begin to build a new army. Soon, Monsters and all those who despise the filthy Mewmans will begin to flock to Ludo, the Monster who can use magic, the one thing that has kept us from wiping them out like the vermin they are."

"It's ironic, isn't it? For our plans to succeed, we must rely on our greatest enemy. But all of that will be worth it in the end. In the meantime, we will continue to observe the Avian's progress. When the time comes, we will reveal ourselves to him, as planned."

"And what of the Prince? He could become a problem. From what our spies have told us, his magic is getting stronger. And if he were to learn of what we have planned-"

"You worry too much. This is why we chose Ludo to be our pawn. He will be the smokescreen that we will use to cover our tracks. As for what we need in the Earth Dimension, those same spies are already working on finding it. And when they do, we will seize it right out from under the Prince's nose."

"Agreed. Soon, all of our plans will come to fruition. At long last..."

"Glory to Septarsis."

"GLORY TO SEPTARSIS!"

OOHHHH, SNAP!

*In Jay's Workspace, RJ "Jay" Writing Ink is currently cosplay as Kratos from the God of War franchise. Wielding the titular character's Leviathan Axe in one hand and his Keyblade in another, he finishes putting the finishing touches on his creation: a massive ice sculpture carved into the familiar form of Batman. Underneath the sculpture, Jay places a plaque that reads "RIP, Kevin Conroy, 11/30/55-11/10/22. The greatest Batman of all."*

Jay: I had meant to get this chapter out much sooner, you know. I wanted to say something in honor of Kevin Conroy. I actually got to meet him once at New York Comic Con. Got him to autograph my copy of Batman: Arkham Knight and everything. Was devastated about his passing.

At any rate, guys, I wanted to say that I'm sorry. I should've let you guys know that the chapter was taking longer to right, but I didn't. I was too busy with God of War: Ragnarok. The game was just so damn good, though that's no excuse. I'm sorry, guys.

I could go into a long speech about how it's hard for me to focus on writing this story at times due to burnout, but I'm not going to. I still want to see this thing to the end, no matter how long it takes, and that's what I'm going to do. But, with the holidays now upon us, I've decided to put the story on break until after the New Year. If I'm diligent, I should have the next chapter ready to go by January 6th. For real, this time!

I mean it. Star might have ended three years ago, but I love the show and the concept too much to leave it by the wayside. Speaking of which, anyone remembers KPRS4Ever, the artist and author of the story "When Two Worlds Collide?" Well, she's in a bit of financial trouble right now. She's got bills to pay, not making enough money on her job to do so. And that's where you all come in. She's looking for donations to help her stay afloat, and she's accepting money for commissions. Trust me, it is worth the money to get some of her artwork. Go on either her Twitter or Instagram of the same name to learn more details. Don't let a young and talented writer go broke during the holidays.

Now, time for

READERS REVIEWS

LockAndKey989-Thanks. Sorry it took so long.

Pedro Alonso Buby Huayanay Zamudio-Glad you liked the story so far!

NightAroma-If I had gotten this done earlier, I would've been able to name all the horror references for you. And yes, the Shooting Star will play a role in the future. And the explanation for Comet's nature can be summed up as the feeling you get when you're doing something you want, and someone interrupts you.

95-Well, you are right. The whole Halloween story is based on that MLP episode "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" And yes, you are right about all the references you got, except for the shark. I don't remember where I got that from.

Ted Glass-Glad you liked it, Ted. Sorry I didn't finish more before now.

Mlpbrony fan15-Sorry it took so long, my fellow brony.

The Wandering Hippie-Yeah, for some reason, I like exposition. People might not like it, but it works wonders in literature. Also, did you ever get around to naming the references?

Julayla-How what feels? I forget.

NightAroma-Violence. It's like a universal language, sadly.

Guest-Can't wait to see the fanarts.

You know what to do: fave and follow this story, and follow me on Twitter (JZ-Gaming), Insta (RJ Writing Ink), and YouTube (Jungoguy) And please help out KPRS4Ever

See you guys next year. Happy holidays, regardless of what you celebrate! Next year, Comet's going to meet someone very special...and crazy.