A/N: Writing a song in a fanfic just felt a little too weird, so forgive me for how I did it here. If you don't like it, you can imagine the song. I marked the start and end of where the song would be with lines.
From the distance, she saw green magic shot from the tower and encased the beautiful wishes. And Star.
"Star!?" Asha cried. She jolted her horse's reigns!
Back at the castle, Magnifico looked at Star menacingly. He chuckled. "Surprise."
Star furrowed its brown and tried to butt its way out, darting about the magical prison, but to no avail.
Magnifico slammed the bottom of his staff onto the floor of his study, causing it to rise. The people would see their king, and hear him too. How they would hear him.
The people looked on in horror as Magnifico rose into view.
"Good evening, Rosas!" he shouted, arms spread wide. "Wow, the stars are out tonight! Oh, except for you?" he said, pointing to the indignant entity. "You're trapped now, aren't you? But you see, what can I say?" He turned back to the human crowd. "I really, really don't like being betrayed!"
"It is you who betrays your people!" his queen shouted from below.
"Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. I've had enough of you." He cast a ball of magic. It hurtled towards her and hit her chest. She fell back, only to be caught by two of Asha's friends.
"Your little trick didn't work, Amaya! I still got what I wanted!"
He looked back at his prize, only to see Star trying to push a wish out of the green prison.
"What's this? The wishes aren't yours to free! They're mine!" And with that, he cast a green tendril that grabbed Star and pulled the struggling being into the staff.
"Star!" Asha, who had finally arrived, cried, immediately getting Magnifico's attention.
Asha. Now that was someone he wanted to a personal moment with. He cast another spell, a green hand grabbing her and pulling her up hundreds and hundreds of feet, to him.
When she was mere feet away from has face, the king she had once idolized spoke.
"Well, hello, Asha! So glad you could join us! How's the whole 'taking your wish into your own hands' working out for you?"
She grimaced and struggled.
"Oh wait," he said, looking to the side and tossing her perpendicular to his new gaze. She hit the stone of the platform hard. "I don't actually care." With newly invigorated magic, he cast his image onto every window in the city. "Mirrors, mirrors, who is the handsomest of them all? Me!"
He lovingly placed the crystal of his evil staff in his hands. "Wishes really do come true."
Still full of fight, Asha had gotten up, and tried to pull the staff away from him. "You...don't deserve Star!"
"I told you...I decided!" He pushed her off, then cast magic to pick her up and thrash her one-hundred-eighty degrees, back to the floor.
A hurt and exhausted Asha looked back up, and reached her hand out to the night sky.
"Oooh! No you don't! There will be no wishing on stars ever again!"
The maniacal king cast a swirl of magic. It turned into a swirl of clouds, which soon engulfed the entire sky.
"Infact," he said, looking down on the defeated teen. "There will be no more hope, no more dreams, and no escape! This is the price you pay for ingratitude!"
Through his empty hand he cast something that flowed across the surface of the tower, then downward, that spread in a twisting network to ensare everyone observing.
"No chance to rise up! No chance to tell tales! No one to challenge me, ever again!"
He looked back at Asha. "You...are...nothing!" He cast another spell, throwing her just before the edge, where she could see the crowd of helpless Rosans. The denizens of a the once utopian city tugged against their restraints, but to not avail.
She grimaced, and took in a ragged breath from her well beaten chest. She looked at her people with pain in her eyes and her heart.
Then she remembered the words of the forest creatures.
"We...are...stars..."
She took a deep breath through her bruised chest and shouted. "People of Rosas, you are all stars! I'm begging you to see this as a sign!"
Magnifico cast spell grabbing her, pulling her up, and then dropping her back down in a petty cruelty. "You really need to learn to give up," he said with nothing but a slight, sadistic satisfaction.
She shouted again to her people. "I know if you choose to stand beside me -"
Magnifico cast something more painful, picking her up and wrapping her too tight to breath or speak.
But someone called from below. "-we'll be greater than all his magic combined!" It was Dahlia. That seemed to unnerve Magnifico.
He dropped Asha, ran to the edge, and shouted "Silence!", firing magic at Asha's friend.
A recovered Queen Amaya helped her out of the way, before crying defiantly. "Let us all wish to have something more for us than this!"
"I make this wish!" one voice said. Then another. Then another.
He could see the magic beginning to glow in their chests. Magnifico furiously sent another jolt of dark magic through the slithering network he had formed. The crowd winced and fall to their knees briefly, but returned firm and proud.
The crowd heckled fearlessly, feeling the magic within them growing:
"We've had generations of expectations, wondering why and wondering when!"
"It's time to do or die, sink or swim!"
"We were all confused by your promise for protection!"
The staff began to quiver, and produced a worrying spark as the magic in his people grew more visible. The panic and anger both manifested on Magnifico's face.
"No!" he said. "No! No! Stop!"
He slammed his staff against the ground. Another wave of dark magic crossed the city, this time like a noxious cloud. But when the smoke cleared, everyone was unphased, and on their feet, chests glowing like stars.
"I make this wish to have something more for us than this!" a voice shouted below.
The other voices joined in a chant, "I make this wish to have something more for us than this!"
The staff was now clearly out of control, shaking, pulling away from Magnifico, its magic turning yellow, until Star popped out.
"I make this wish, to have something more than this!" the crowd continued to chant in unison, gold light growing.
The green began to drain from his staff, then from his eyes. He fell down to his knees, as if exhausted.
By the power within themselves, the common people had outdone the sorcerer king!
Star zoomed over to Asha. Its face glowed with joy, literally and metaphorically. It gave her a high five with his stubby appendage.
Suddenly something else caught their attention.
The green prison the Wishes had been held in was vanishing, being eaten up like paper in a fire. When the last bit vanished, the wishes suddenly fell towards the ground, all in unison. To their abject horror, they each shattered on impact, leaving behind nothing but a smoky residue.
The pair stood in stunned silence. Below she heard thousands cry out in grief, feeling what her mother had felt when Magnifico crushed her wish.
Then she looked back at Magnifico. Fire in his eyes he raised his hands to cast. Asha put her hands up in a defensive posture, wincing as she braced for whatever was coming.
But nothing came.
She opened her eyes, moved her hands.
He tried to cast again, but to no avail.
His magic was all gone.
He looked down, almost deflated. "I...am...nothing."
Here they were, on top of Rosas, but nothing to show for it but a disempowered king and the residue of broken dreams.
She and Star looked at each other with sad faces. Finally, they made a silent agreement. They walked towards the king, who looked up at them. His demeanor no longer bore anger, only defeat and despair.
She stopped in front of him. He looked up. He spoke. "I only wanted to protect the kingdom, to make sure everyone here was safe, and -"
He looked back down.
" - now its all gone."
Asha was silent for a moment.
"Your Highness," Asha said, taking a deep bow and looking at the floor herself. "I'm sorry."
She looked back up to see Magnifico's eyes widened. As she rose, they both looked on one another with sad, glass eyes. "Come on," she said, beckoning.
She walked over to the edge, King Magnifico and Star in tail. Her chest, already bruised from the previous horror, was clenched with dread, but she had no second thoughts about confronting the masses.
"People of Rosas...I am sorry."
Gasps and murmurs swept through the crowd.
"We owe our king an apology."
Again, a curious rumbling below. "When I came to King Magnifico's vault, I thought I saw a world that could be so much more. I thought I could make it so much more. And in a way I was right. Now we see we have magic in ourselves. But raw power isn't enough."
"King Magnifico spent decades learning his craft. He poured his heart and soul into his studies. We can never know if he was truly making the right to decisions, but at least he understood the decisions he was making. I didn't."
The crowd murmured again, and many of those below looked down in despair.
"Rosas wasn't perfect, but people all over the world wanted to be here." Her voice grew quieter and she continued, "And now we have nothing. I...I destroyed paradise."
Magnifico put a hand her shoulder, making her jump. "No, Asha," he said softly.
He stepped forwards.
"People of Rosas, when I saw the magic of this Star, even with its beauty and the joy it brought you all, I saw a threat, based on nothing but that it was magic other than my own. I panicked, and in a greedy attempt to hold onto power, I turned to forbidden secrets. Foul sorcery. I swore to protect Rosas from all monsters, and instead, I became the greatest monster of all."
The crowd again responded with a bout of incredulous noises.
He turned to Asha.
"Asha, you've shown me why magic should not be in the hands of only one man. Even I wasn't beyond corruption."
They stared into each other's eyes, brown into blue. Magnifico smiled weakly.
Then something happened. Star darted above Magnifico's head. He looked up to see magical essence sprinkling down on him. First he was surprised, then his surprised look melted and he smiled contently, like an imprisoned man basking in the sun for the first time in a decade.
When Star was done, it darted back to Asha. Magnifico experimentally decided to summon something, and when flowers spawned upon his hands, and laughed with glee at his success.
The crowd below cheered.
"Star," he said. The entity flew close and got an affection poke in the belly. "You are welcome in my kingdom any time."
The little entity zoomed over and hugged his chin.
"Hahaha! Oh, okay, that's quite enough." Star detached going back to Asha's side. Magnifico looked into Asha's brown eyes again.
"Asha, you are pardoned for all crimes against the state of the Rosas."
She put her hands on her chest. "Really, how could you forgive me, I..."
"Because you forgave me..."
Magnifico turned back to his people.
"From this day forward, magic is authorized for all citizens of Rosas! Just be careful!"
He turned back to Asha, beaming with an odd sort of pride.