"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
A seven-year-old girl sat up in her bed, tears gushing from her eyes and a look of pure terror on her face.
"MAMA!"
Her bedroom door opened, revealing a lavender haired woman in a pink and blue nightgown.
"Moon?" She rushed over to her daughter's side and sat on her bed, taking the crying girl in her arms. "Baby, are you okay?"
"M-monsters!" Moon choked, dampening her mother's gown with her tears as she hugged her. "They came in through the window and said they were gonna eat me!"
"Sweetie, there are no monsters here," Comet replied. "You just had a bad dream." She patted her daughter on the back. "There, there."
Several knights appeared at the door, swords drawn. "Your highness, is everything alright? We heard the princess screaming"
"It's alright, Captain. Moon just had another nightmare," their queen replied, waving them off. "As you were." They departed and she focused on her daughter, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Sweetie, are you still worrying about the war?"
Moon nodded and her mother sighed. "You shouldn't be worrying about that. Do you remember what I told you was going to happen?"
"That your food was going to make all the monsters turn good and we would all live in harmony together?" Moon asked.
"Exactly," Comet replied. "Remember that banquet last week? The one with the green monster with pointy ears who ate all of my cakes?" Her daughter nodded again, smiling a bit at the funny memory. "That was Archduke Baldwin, the leader of all the monsters. Once I get him on my side, we can begin work on ending the war."
"Well, your food is really, really good," Moon said, still a bit unsure. "D-do you really think the monsters will be able to be our friends?"
"Yes," Comet said. "In the meantime, I don't want you worrying about the war. By the time you take the throne, it'll all just be an old memory."
Moon smiled, but it dimmed as something else came to her mind. "Mama, what if...? What if the war does end and I become queen, but I'm still scared? I mean, you were all brave and cool when you-"
Comet laughed a little. "I still got scared, sweetie. It's perfectly normal, especially for people who have big jobs like us. We just have to be brave and confident in ourselves."
"But what if I don't know what to do?" Moon asked.
Comet put a hand on her daugher's cheek. "I'll be there to help you, honey. I'll always be there when you need me."
The little diamonds on Moon's cheeks began to glow, giving her face a warm, pink-tinted color. Sniffling, she wrapped her arms around her mother and hugged her tightly. "I love you, Mama."
"And I love you, Moonpie," Comet replied. "Do you want me to sing you back to sleep?"
Moon nodded and lay down.
"Over, under, around and through," Comet gently tucked her daughter in. "Grab the little Mewni rabbit and pull him through."
Moon giggled, her little eyes closing. Comet leaned in and placed a kiss on her forehead.
"Pinch it and fold it and tie it in a bow.
Like two little bunny ears made of dough..."
"NO! I BEAT YOU! GET BACK! GET BAAAAAAACK!"
A seventeen-year-old girl shot up from her bed, eyes gushing like waterfalls.
"MAMA!"
No one came. For a moment, Moon just sat there, her heart pounding, her breaths like little gasps, the image of that nine-fingered lizard reaching for her etched into her brain, begging for her mother to come through the door and help her.
And then she remembered.
"Your highness?" The door did open, revealing Lady Whosits and the other guards. "We heard you scream. Is everything alright?"
At the sight of company, Moon automatically supressed her fear and put on a calm, stoic face. "It's alright," she said, her voice now calm and regal, "I simply had a bad dream. Nothing to worry about."
Her kinghts sheathed their swords. "Well, thank goodness," Lady Whosits said. "We wouldn't want anything to interfere with your schedule tomorrow."
"You meet with the Magic Commission at sunrise," Kyle reminded her, "then you have your visits to the Lucitor, Pigeon, and Waterfolk kingdoms, the christening of the SS Wandraker, the signing of the Mud Treaty-"
"Yes, I know," Moon replied bluntly. "Now please."
The knights left and Moon fell back onto her bed, feeling her stoic mask melt off her like hot candle wax.
She couldn't be weak, couldn't be scared, couldn't be crying for her mother anymore. She wasn't a child anymore, she was a woman, queen to the entire Butterfly Kingdom. She was Moon the Undaunted, the one who'd brought down Toffee and scattered his army, crushed the monster hierarchy, and ended the monster-Mewman War.
And yet, much like a broken mirror, she found herself cracking, distorting into an unidentifiable mass of shapes and colors. A broken heep of glass on the floor.
Tears in her eyes, Moon looked on over to a painting of her as a child, on the lap of her late mother.
She'd promised to always be there if she got scared...and yet, here Moon was, scared and afraid and unsure...and alone.
"O-o-over and under, wherever you roam,"
the queen of Mewni cried as she drifted off back to sleep,
"S-sweet little Mewni rabbit, h-hop back home."
THE END
I know I said I'd be getting back to Four Girls and A Baby, but with my brother's surgery coming up, I've been writing these heavier fics as a sort of coping mechanism. I will get back to the fun fics soon.