Hello, readers! I've been advised in the past to try and branch out to other fandoms, so that's precisely what I intend to do with this story! Only this time, I'm gonna try to do something a little different. Rather than a new story entirely, I took some inspiration from Cowboy Alchemist (go check out his AWESOME Gravity Falls and Amphibia fics; no, seriously!). I'm gonna do my best to rewrite the whole Star vs. the Forces of Evil series episode by episode. Enjoy, and wish me luck (I think I'm gonna need it)!
Edit as of August 28, 2024: I'm gonna start combining my multi-part chapters into one whole episode, and I'm going to do it gradually.
Star and Bucky Come to Earth
"Where is she? She should've been here an hour ago!" complained a regal-looking woman with blueish hair done up in a style that looked like a heart, bored-looking steely blue eyes, purple diamond-shaped spots on her cheeks, and cherry-red lipstick. She wore a puffy dress in various shades of blue, pale blue gloves that came past her elbows, and a circlet of pearls that secured the crown jewel to her hairdo. On one side of her stood a squat yet heavily muscled man with a long golden beard, blue eyes brighter than those of the woman, a shoulder-padded blue suit that matched the woman's dress, and a tall golden crown with a purple gemstone. On her other side stood a tall, strapping young man with chiseled features, steel-gray hair, steely blue eyes like the woman, and wearing a suit of silver armor over a black jumpsuit. Rather than a crown like the adults, there was a simple golden circlet on his head. In the woman's hand was a golden scepter with a blue heart-shaped gem on the end, and in the armored teenager's hand was a silver trident that had three points on one end and one point on the other.
I suppose I should begin with introductions. My name is Buchanon Butterfly, though I prefer to be called "Bucky." I come from a dimension called Mewni, and I am the firstborn child of its monarchs. The much-too-serious woman with the blue dress is my mother. Queen Moon the Undaunted, they call her, supposedly because she singlehandedly faced an army of the most feared Monsters in the Universe without even breaking a sweat. The short, bearded man standing on her opposite side from me is my father, King River Johannsen.
Me, I'm the gray-haired guy with the trident. My primary goal in life is to keep my family safe from harm. I'm skilled in various forms of combat, and I'm immune to a wide variety of poisons and plague-riddled potions.
The "she" my mother was referring to is my younger sister, Star Butterfly. Today is her coming-of-age ceremony, where she will inherit the Royal Magic Wand (the scepter currently being held by my mother) and be trained in the magic used by every queen before her so that she can one day rule Mewni in our mother's place. Unlike most monarchies that you'd be familiar with, the throne of Mewni passes not to the son, but to the daughter. The only exception to this rule so far has been my too-many-greats-to-count grandfather, Jushtin Butterfly the Uncalculated (so named due to his proficiency with mathematics), known to historians as "the Boy Queen."
I love Star to death, I really do, but she can be a handful sometimes (okay, MOST of the time). She definitely inherited her love of adventure from Dad's side of the family, and that's why she's late to her own ceremony. Her favorite pastime is attempting to train wild Warnicorns (unicorns that, in the past, were specifically bred to be battle steeds).
All of the guests gathered for the ceremony turned to the giant wood-and-iron doors of the throne room as the sound of galloping hooves approached. Two of the royal butlers moved to open the doors, but they burst open on their own as a glossy mint-green Warnicorn covered in scars slammed into them with tremendous force, continuing to gallop through the hall. Hanging onto the Warnicorn and screaming in delight was a young girl with long golden hair, bright blue eyes like King River, a tiara, pink heart-shaped marks on her cheeks, and a frilly blue-and-white dress that matched the clothes of the king and queen. She hopped down from the Warnicorn's back right as it reached the foot of the two thrones. Without her weighing it down, the Warnicorn leaped high up into the air and crashed through the wall just behind the thrones. Queen Moon and King River managed to retain their deadpan expressions, but Bucky groaned and facepalmed.
See what I mean? Plenty of people have gotten hurt because of Star's antics (mostly me, believe it or not), but it's a miracle nobody's gotten killed (yet)!
Star hopped up and down with excitement and tried to grab the Wand out of the queen's hand, only for Bucky to push her back slightly using the shaft of his trident.
"Now, Star, the Wand is a big responsibility..." Moon tried to tell her, only for the speech to fall on deaf ears as Star lunged for the Wand again. This time, the queen held out her arm and braced her palm against Star's forehead, preventing her from repeating the action. "If it falls into the hands of evil forces, the Universe could be destroyed!" Moon warned. Star once again failed to listen and made one final lunge, successfully grabbing the Wand, which shape-shifted to better suit Star's personality just like it did for every princess before her.
Star's version of the Wand was lavender-colored with darker barber-shop-pole stripes on the handle. At the top of the handle, two white butterfly wings stretched out on either side of a wide orb that was flat on one side. In the middle of the flat surface was a shining yellow star-shaped gem.
"Don't worry, Mom. I can handle it!" Star said with a confident smirk. However, not even two hours had passed before disaster struck. Star had cast a spell that was supposed to form a rainbow over the village just outside the castle walls. The spell went awry and the rainbow somehow caught fire, which in turn set the village ablaze. Star nervously withdrew from the scene as the villagers ran around screaming like small children.
"She can't handle it," Moon and River concluded in unison, setting down the binoculars they were watching Star with from one of the castle's windows.
"Dang it, Star! We just rebuilt that village after the big Warnicorn stampede!" Bucky yelled from beside his parents.
...
Star screamed as Bucky, now with his trident strapped to his back, dragged her by the ankles to a waiting carriage loaded with luggage.
"I can be good! Please! Don't send me to St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Royalty!" she cried, to which Bucky rolled his eyes.
"For the last time, Star, you're fourteen years old. Act like it!" he said.
"Yes, stop being so dramatic, sweetheart. We're not sending you there!" River stated.
"Yet," added Moon.
"Instead, we're sending you and Buchanon to train in a safer dimension. A place called Earth," proclaimed River.
"Remind me why I'm going, again?" Bucky asked.
"Earth may be safer than Mewni, son, but it has its own dangers as well. Some of the locals may have malicious intentions," said Moon.
"Manfred, open the portal!" River ordered the Butterfly family's main butler, who took out a pair of intricate silver scissors and snipped open the very fabric of reality, causing an enormous swirling blue vortex to form. The entire royal family boarded the carriage and drove it through the portal, which then shrank before it winked out of existence entirely.
Unbeknownst to the royals or their servants, a frog-like head peeked out of a bush and looked at the place where the portal had previously been. He chuckled maliciously, showing a mouth full of unevenly spaced shark-like fangs, and disappeared back into the bush to report back to his boss.
...
The Butterfly royal carriage arrived at its destination in less than a second, thanks to the portal. Where they ended up was the small suburban community of Echo Creek, California on an unseasonably warm day in early fall. Both teens gazed out the windows, Star with wonder and curiosity, Bucky with disinterest. The carriage cruised down the street for a few minutes before coming to a stop outside a large building labeled "Echo Creek High School."
"Why don't you two get out and look around while your mother and I make accommodations for you at this educational institution?" River suggested. Star squealed in excitement before grabbing Bucky's hand and bolting for the door.
"Be sure to keep her out of trouble, Buchanon!" Moon called after them as Star ran down the street, dragging Bucky behind her.
"I'll try, Mom!" Bucky called back. Star was like an excited puppy that had just been brought home from a shelter, exploring her new environment by stopping in completely random places. She zipped between every tree, shrub, flower, and brightly painted house she saw, and every time she got moving, she nearly pulled poor Bucky's arm out of its socket. Any civilians that they crossed paths with gave them odd looks, undoubtedly because of Star's erratic behavior and the way that both were dressed. Star still wore her frilly princess dress and tiara, and Bucky was still covered in shining silver armor with his trident strapped to his back. Soon, however, Queen Moon called Star on her enchanted compact mirror and told her and Bucky to return to the school.
The students that roamed the halls between classes also gave the siblings odd looks, and one even made a rude comment that the Rennaissance Fair had already come and gone. Two boys, a tall skinny one with curly brown hair and glasses named Alfonso and a short, rather rotund one with straight red hair named Ferguson, recognized them as new students and were at least nice enough to ask for their names.
"Buchanon Butterfly, Prince of Mewni," Bucky replied with a smile and a humble bow, but several students in the immediate vicinity laughed.
"Butterfly? What kind of sissy name is that?" mocked a boy in a letterman jacket, which infuriated Bucky. Star got nervous, knowing what her brother was capable of if he got mad enough.
"Come on, Bucky. They're not worth it," she said and ushered him to the place where their parents were waiting with the principal, a portly bespectacled man with thinning brown hair. A Hispanic boy in a red hoodie that looked to be about Star's age was also with them.
"How dare they? The Butterfly name is an honorable lineage!" Bucky seethed.
"I know that, and you know that, but apparently they don't. Just try to stay cool about it," Star told him.
"Buchanon, Star, this is Principal Skeeves. He'll be in charge of your education at this fine institution," River said when the siblings arrived at the meeting point. "Your mother and I have to leave now, so we'll let you get acquainted. We've made arrangements for you to live with this remarkable young lad here, so your luggage will be waiting for you at his dwelling. Keep in touch, both of you!"
"We will, Dad," Bucky said and bent over to hug his much shorter father. However, his relationship with his mother was much tenser, so he only gave her a curt nod. Once the monarchs had departed in their carriage, Principal Skeeves approached Bucky and Star.
"It's wonderful to meet both of you. Unfortunately, I have work to attend to, so I'll leave you in the capable hands of Marco here to give you both a tour. Have fun, but not too much fun!" the stocky man said. Bucky was able to glean the hidden meaning from his words: he was going to be busy admiring and/or spending the gold and jewels Moon and River had undoubtedly bribed him with.
Once Principal Skeeves walked away, the boy spoke up. He sounded nervous, possibly because he was aware that he was in the presence of royalty. "H-hello. I'm Marco Diaz. Y-you must be Prince Buchanon," he said and awkwardly shook Bucky's hand.
"Don't worry, kid, I'm not all uptight like my parents are. Just Bucky is fine," Bucky told him.
"So, uh...what brings royalty to humble old Echo Creek High?" Marco asked.
"Oh, we're not here for anything special. Just so my little sister can train with her powers."
"P-p-powers?" Marco stammered.
"Yeah! I'm a magical princess from another dimension!" Star stated, using the Wand to draw a rainbow in the air above her head. Said rainbow immediately caught fire, causing Bucky to facepalm.
"Again with the flaming rainbow, Star?" he groaned.
"Another dimension? So the Multiverse is real?!" Marco exclaimed with stars in his eyes. Bucky had heard rumors that the inhabitants of Earth were mostly unaware of the existence of the wider Universe and interdimensional travel, and it seemed that those rumors were true. When the tour began, Marco answered Bucky's questions about the school (Bucky was asking because Star wasn't paying attention) and Bucky answered Marco's questions about the Universe (apparently, Humans theorized that there was an infinite number of universes, hence why Marco mistakenly called it the Multiverse). All the while, Marco directed them around puddles, loose floor tiles, and lockers with protruding doors like Star and Bucky were made of fine porcelain that was liable to shatter if he so much as sneezed at them. Bucky was too polite to bring up this perplexing behavior, but one of the sports jocks did that for him.
"Hey, Safe Kid, you kiss any boo-boos yet?" the boy jeered, causing Marco to groan in annoyance.
"I wore a helmet in the shower one time..." he murmured just loud enough for Bucky to hear him.
"Come again?" Bucky asked, and Marco sighed.
"I have no idea what makes people think I'm so safe. I wear a helmet on a floor that tends to get very slippery, and the next thing I know, I'm labelled for life! I try to pass myself off as a misunderstood bad boy, but that doesn't help!"
"To be fair, you've been herding us around obstacles for the last ten minutes," Bucky pointed out.
"Yeah, but you guys are royalty! Your parents specifically told me to keep you safe!" Marco protested, and Bucky laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Marco, I appreciate that you feel obligated like that. But honestly, Star and I have been through a lot worse than wet floors and loose tiles. One time, I was bedridden for nearly a week because someone poisoned our cornbread," Bucky told him. "So yeah, we can take care of ourselves. No offense, but all we need you to do is put a roof over our heads." Marco sighed again.
"Okay, fine. But is it too much to ask for just one dangerous situation to spice up my life a little?"
"Okay!" Star said gleefully. She zapped a butterfly that flew in front of them with the Wand, turning it into a monster the size of a horse with blue-and-black butterfly wings, matted white fur, and a mouth filled with crooked yellow teeth. The monster roared, and Marco screamed like a little girl. It tried to fly away, only for Bucky to skewer it with his trident before it could get very far. Star chuckled nervously when Bucky glared at her.
"Why do you have to do things like that?" he demanded.
"What? He asked for a dangerous situation, so I gave him one!" Bucky sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Let's just...talk about this later. What's next on the agenda, Marco?" he asked while retrieving his trident from the monster's carcass.
"School's about to let out for the weekend, so let's take the bus back to my place. Well, technically our place," Marco replied.
"What's a bus?" Star asked.
...
"So how do these things work? Are the horses invisible, or what?" Star asked regarding the large yellow vehicles. Bucky was also curious as to how Human machinery worked.
"I'm not sure exactly how they work, but I have a general idea," Marco replied. "Right in the front is a big machine called an engine. You burn a type of liquid fuel called gasoline, or gas for short, to run the engine, which activates a whole bunch of moving parts. Those parts all work together to make the wheels spin, and that makes the bus move."
"Interesting. We don't have anything like that on Mewni," said Bucky. "Mostly because poor Tessa the Techno-Mage keeps getting her blueprints rejected." The resident inventor of Butterfly Village kept coming up with ideas for incredible labor-saving devices to make life a little easier, but she was continually shot down by either Queen Moon or the Magical High Commission, the semi-immortal governing body responsible for affairs concerning the use and application of magic.
Star, Bucky, and Marco all boarded the bus and began the ride to the Diaz residence.
"So, you got new tenants, huh, Diaz? Must come from somewhere eccentric if they're dressed like that," came a gruff yet feminine voice from the seat behind them. Marco groaned and Bucky and Star each turned. Sitting behind them was a girl with skin slightly darker than Marco's, stringy shoulder-length black hair under an olive beanie, a blue jacket, and a mustard-yellow skirt. "Wassup, homies? Name's Janna. How 'bout yours?" Star and Bucky introduced themselves, Star much more enthusiastically, and asked how she knew Marco. "Diaz and I live down the street from each other. His parents host foreign exchange students all the time, so there's almost always a new face in the neighborhood. They're super nice and let me come and go as I please."
"No they don't! You let yourself in and out by continually stealing my house keys!" Marco called her out on the blatant lie.
"Hey, I'm just trying to teach you not to leave them in such obvious and predictable places, man," Janna replied with a shrug.
"They're always in my hoodie pocket!" Marco yelled.
"Like I said: predictable. By the way, I saw that little magic trick you did earlier. I've been known to dabble in the Dark Arts myself, so ring me up sometime and we'll hang out." Janna and Star exchanged contact information, and Bucky couldn't help but feel like the strange girl would be a bad influence on his sister.
...
Far, far away, in the darkest corner of Mewni, lay the domain of the Monsters. The Monsters were the first race to cultivate Mewni and provide it with civilization. Then came the Mewman settlers, led by Titania Butterfly, who later became Mewni's first queen. At first, the Mewmans were content to settle the land that the Monsters hadn't, but then the political leaders among them got greedy. To them, the Monsters were on the side of the fence with the greener grass. Against Titania's advice, small marauding bands were formed and began sacking the smaller Monster villages. The Mewmans then moved into the dwellings that the Monsters had vacated, taking the land for themselves and turning any captured Monsters into slaves. Little by little, the Monsters were forced to retreat until all but a small corner of their former homeland was occupied by the Mewmans.
Needless to say, the stronger members of the race were filled with a righteous fury. Slowly, over many, many generations, the animosity between the two races grew until it erupted into a full-scale war, in which the Mewmans were victorious. Most Monsters gave up hope that their homeland would ever be reclaimed, but a select few were still plotting to overthrow their usurpers. One of them was Ludo Avarius, whose ancestors were once counted among the Monster nobility.
Ludo was of very short stature, only three feet if you stretched him, and greatly resembled a vulture, with scaly gray-green skin, a short, hooked beak, and odd patches of greasy black feathers all over his body. He wore tattered black robes that were too long for his body, and the skull of a horned crocodilian beast rested on his head like a crown. He currently sat brooding on a throne several sizes too big for him in the Great Hall of an abandoned castle that was abandoned no longer.
Behind him, a sickly green portal opened and the frog-like Monster that had spied on the Royal Carriage stepped through. He pounded his broad chest and croaked loudly in salutation.
"Ludo, master, I have news," he said in a thick Russian accent. "King and Queen have sent Butterfly children to Earth dimension...alone." Ludo smiled maliciously and swiveled the throne to face his henchman.
"Excellent work, Buff Frog. Without the royal guards with them, the Wand is ours for the taking! Soon, the Wand will be mine! Then Mewni! Then...the entire Universe!" Ludo cackled madly, then hopped down from his throne. "Prepare our forces! Tonight, we go to Earth and take the Wand for ourselves!" The various Monsters scattered around the hall roared in approval before rushing to the armory.
...
Marco's house was a modest two-story villa on the edge of town. The beige stucco with brown trim was accented by a small forest of cacti on either side of the walkway, and there were colorful flowers in planters on the windowsills.
"Okay, just to warn you guys, my parents can be a little...eccentric. Like Janna said, they've hosted exchange students from all over the world, and they love having company over. They'll make sure you guys have a good time while you're here," Marco told them while flipping through his keys to unlock the front door. Bucky seriously doubted that Marco's parents could be any more eccentric than his own sister. Marco found the right key, and the door swung open. "¡Mamá! ¡Papá! ¡Ya llegué a casa! And I brought the new exchange students!" he called. A woman slightly shorter than Marco with long, curly dark-brown hair, fair skin, and a colorful loose-fitting dress walked into the living room and broke into a wide smile.
"Hello, there! I'm Angela Diaz, Marco's mom," she introduced herself and shook Bucky and Star's hands. "Excuse me while I call my husband. Hey, Raphael! The new exchange students are here!" the woman called in the direction of the kitchen.
"Already? But the welcome cake is still in the oven!" a masculine voice with a moderate Mexican accent called back.
"We can finish the cake while they're getting settled, now come out here and say hi!" When he walked into the living room, Raphael Diaz revealed himself to be a tall, chiseled, muscular man with bronze skin and short but wavy black hair. His colorful button-up shirt was undone just enough to reveal a patch of curly black chest hair, and his facial features were accentuated by a thin black mustache and a small goatee.
"Hola, mis amigos. Please, make yourselves at home!" Raphael greeted and gestured toward the couch and armchairs.
"If it's alright with you, Mr. Diaz, I think I'll help Marco with our luggage," Bucky said, noticing the many boxes and cases that were piled at the foot of the stairs. The Diaz parents gave their consent as Marco flashed him a relieved smile.
...
"Ugh! How can your clothes weigh this much?" Marco grunted while struggling to drag a trunk up the stairs.
"Oh, Star and I don't have a whole lot in terms of clothes. That trunk is full of weapons," Bucky replied, carrying a similar trunk on his left shoulder with a suitcase in his right hand.
"Weapons?! What for?!" Marco asked, dropping the trunk in shock.
"We may be siblings, but Star's gonna be the one to inherit the throne, so I'm more of a bodyguard than a prince."
"Okay, I guess that makes sense. What's the age gap between you and her, anyway?"
"Three and a half years. I'm seventeen, she just turned fourteen," Bucky said.
"Wait, shouldn't you get the throne since you're older?" Marco asked.
"Ordinarily, yes, but the monarchy of Mewni is matriarchal. The throne passes from mother to daughter instead of father to son," Bucky explained. There were only four rooms upstairs: Marco's room, the guest room, the bathroom, and the attic. Marco apologized for the arrangement and offered to have Bucky share a room with him. "Oh, don't worry, Marco. Star and I share a room back home, so we're used to it. It's one of the sacrifices that comes with being her bodyguard. And yes, we have a system set up so that we respect each other's privacy." Once all the luggage had been relocated, the two young men walked back down the stairs, where Star was laughing animatedly with Marco's parents.
"Bucky, your sister is delightful! It's been such a long time since this house has had so much upbeat, lively energy! Don't you agree, Marco?" Angie asked.
"We could've gotten the same amount of energy from a litter of puppies, Mom," stated Marco, who by that point had nearly been driven insane by Star's antics (as Bucky had anticipated).
Star gasped and screamed, "I LOVE PUPPIES!" She waved the Wand and conjured eight of the most adorable short-haired puppies any of them had ever seen. Well, they were slightly less adorable when scarlet laser beams started flying from their eyeballs, knocking down objects around the room but thankfully not strong enough to burn things. Star chuckled nervously when Bucky and Marco both glared at her. "Sorry. Still getting used to this thing."
"Maybe you should come see our new room," Bucky growled.
"Okay. Come on, puppies!"
...
"Well, what do you think?" Marco asked as Star stared at her and Bucky's room with a thoughtful expression.
"It's great and all, but it's missing something. Something that says home away from home," the girl said in scrutiny. Her face brightened as she was struck by an idea. "Ooh, I know! SPARKLE GLITTER BOMB EXPAND!" The face of the Wand flashed brightly, and Bucky and Marco covered their faces as a loud thunderclap echoed through the house. When the glittery dust cleared, jutting from the side of the house where the guest bedroom used to be was one of the towers straight from Butterfly Castle. Specifically, the tower that was Star and Bucky's shared bedroom. "There! Why live away from home when you can bring home with you?"
Marco gave an impressed whistle as he gazed around at the bedroom. There were two levels separated by a spiral staircase right in the center. The top section, which was clearly visible because the floor was shaped like a semi-circle and only took up half of the tower, was obviously Star's, with a large four-poster canopy bed with bright pink sheets, a selection of giant stuffed animals (none of which even remotely resembled Earth's wildlife), a couple of bean-bag chairs, and lots of girly-girl decorations.
The bottom level was Bucky's. It was as drastically different from Star's level as night was from day. While Star appeared to have every comfort imaginable, Bucky kept his part of the room dangerously close to the bare minimum. His bed, if you could call it that, was a military-esque cot slightly bigger than Bucky's large frame, consisting of a piece of canvas stretched across a collapsible wooden frame as well as a single pillow and one thick wool blanket. In place of decorations, Bucky had weapons. LOTS of weapons. One wall was covered in swords and axes of every shape and size, there was a bundle of spears in a barrel in the corner (does a cylindrical tower have corners?), and there was a bare wooden mannequin that would otherwise be holding Bucky's armor. Each level had its own ensuite bathroom and a privacy screen.
"Boy, I wish I had a room like this," Marco stated.
"You do? Where?" Star asked enthusiastically. Marco showed her and Bucky his room, which was a typical upper-working-class teenage boy's bedroom. A little bland, all things considered, but cozy at the same time.
"Alright, Marco, get ready to have your mind blown! MYSTIC ROOM SUCK TRANSFORM!" Star yelled.
The funny thing about magic? Unless you choose your words very carefully and specify exactly what you want a spell to do, disastrous things are bound to happen.
Case in point, because Star included the word suck in her spell, a black hole formed smack-dab in the middle of the floor and swallowed all of Marco's belongings. It would have taken Marco and Bucky too, but Bucky grabbed the back of Marco's hoodie and stabbed his trident into the floor just outside the doorway. With a second zap of the Wand, the black hole closed. Marco took a moment or two to regain his bearings, then screamed his head off about the wording of the spell. Ignoring Bucky frantically mouthing no several times, Star attempted to apologize by creating a miniature sun over Marco's head. However, Marco's foul mood turned the sun into a rain cloud.
"That does it! If you two are moving in, then I'm moving out!" the soaking wet boy yelled. He attempted to climb out the window, but his wet hands slipped on the sill and he plummeted twenty feet to the ground with a startled yelp.
Star stuck her head out the window and called, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, this cactus broke my fall!" Marco called back sarcastically.
"Need any help?"
"No! Leave me alone!" With that, Marco stood and ran off. Star was about to climb out the window herself, only for Bucky to yank her backwards.
"Oh, no you don't! You've done enough damage for one day. Come find us when you're done fixing his room," he told her. She knew better than to argue when he used that tone of voice with her, so she sighed dejectedly and let him jump out the window himself. He did multiple somersaults in midair before landing gracefully in a crouch on the far side of the cactus patch.
...
It didn't take long for Bucky to find Marco, as the rain cloud over his head left a distinct trail that was easy to follow. When he caught up to the Hispanic boy, Marco was sitting on the curb outside a gas station called Stop-N-Slurp with a dejected look on his face. Marco saw Bucky coming and stood up to leave, but Bucky held out his arm to stop him.
"Hold still," Bucky said, pulling the trident off of his back. Marco flinched, expecting to be impaled or beheaded, but all Bucky did was swing his weapon through the rain cloud, causing it to dissipate.
"Thanks," Marco mumbled and sat back down. Bucky sat down beside him, his armor making a dull clank on the concrete.
"Marco, I'm sorry that we got off on the wrong foot..." Bucky began, and Marco scoffed.
"Understatement of the year."
"...but there's a few things you need to understand about my sister. Star can be annoyingly goofy and makes lots and lots of mistakes, but she means well. All she wants to do is have fun and make people happy, and she has strange ways of trying to accomplish that. The thing is, neither of us wanted to come to Earth in the first place, but Star almost burned down a village after casting her very first spell. Our parents sent her here under the assumption that she wouldn't cause as much collateral damage as she learns to control her magic. Me, I'm only along for the ride because I'm one of the most skilled warriors in Mewni, so Mom and Dad need me to keep Star out of trouble. Both of us can survive just fine in the wild if we absolutely have to, but we'd rather have a consistent place to stay. Would you be willing to give us a second chance?"
Before Marco could answer, the two were joined by Star sitting on Marco's other side with an apologetic expression.
"Marco, I'm sorry for wrecking your room. I got it back to the way it was, so can you forgive me?" she asked with sad puppy-dog eyes. Marco rolled his eyes and smiled.
"Okay, I'm convinced. C'mon, let's go..." Marco paused and paled, his eyes widening in fear. "Uh, g-g-guys?" he said, pointing behind the siblings. Approaching them was an all-too-familiar vulture-like Monster, Ludo.
"Hello, Butterflies!" the miniscule Monster greeted with a wave. Bucky and Star both frowned and stood, Bucky keeping himself between the Monster and the two younger teens.
"How did you find us, Ludo?" Bucky growled.
"Never mind that! Surrender the Wand, or I will have to take it by force!" Ludo cried. It was then that Marco burst out laughing, the other three staring at him quizzically.
"Oh yeah? You and what army, little guy?" the Hispanic teen challenged, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye. Ludo started to growl in anger at the reference to his height (or lack thereof), but stopped and smirked.
"Why, this one, of course!" he said matter-of-factly and snapped his fingers. A dozen other Monsters charged from their hiding place on the far side of the gas station and rallied behind their boss.
"Marco, never ask that question anywhere in the Universe. Trust me, it never ends well," Bucky advised while getting into a battle stance. The first Monster to attack was bipedal and covered in short brown fur. His somewhat humanoid face was framed by a pair of antlers and a thick light-brown beard. This was Beard Deer, Ludo's second-in-command. Before Bucky could meet the attack, Marco surprised everyone when he toppled Beard Deer with a flying kick to the gut, followed by a crane kick to the jaw. Seeing their dazed compatriot lying prone on the ground made the other Monsters freeze in their tracks.
"You know how to fight?" Star asked.
"Heck yeah! I've been studying karate and ninjutsu for the last five years! Those are two types of martial arts that we have here on Earth," Marco replied. The rest of the Monsters attacked while Ludo chewed out Buff Frog about the flaws in his surveillance. Not wanting to injure the Monsters any more than he had to, Bucky mostly used his trident like a bludgeon in addition to his fists and feet, while Marco delivered a flurry of blows to sensitive pressure points.
"Hey! Leave some for me!" Star cried when she noticed that most of the Monsters were preoccupied with the boys. Her Wand lit up with magic, and she fired off numerous spells that produced either large aquatic mammals, surprisingly solid (and painful) constructs of multicolored light, or sugary confections. Soon all of the monsters had suffered the same fate as Beard Deer.
Ludo could hardly believe his eyes. He had expected this to be like taking candy from a baby, so he was nowhere near prepared for the fighting prowess displayed by Marco and the Butterfly siblings. One thing was certain: Star and Bucky were definitely not the soft, sheltered nobility he and his horde were used to encountering.
"Had enough, Ludo? Or are ya thirsty for more?" Star asked, pointing the Wand at Ludo with a smirk.
"I think we've had enough for tonight. RETREAT!" Ludo shouted, using his own Dimensional Scissors to open a portal back to his castle. The Monsters slowly limped and crawled through the portal while Ludo lectured them on what pathetic fighters they were.
"He'll be back, won't he?" Marco asked Bucky, and Bucky sighed.
"Unfortunately. Ludo's been after the Wand for years. The first time Star and I saw him two years ago, he and his henchmen broke into our castle to try and steal it," the elder Butterfly explained.
"Oh well. At least I get to have my daily allowance of danger now," Marco said with a shrug. "Now come on; Dad's making fajitas for dinner, and Mom will strangle me if we're late!"
...
Back in the Diaz household, they had just finished dinner with a delicious sheet cake decorated with aliens and flying saucers and the words WELCOME TO EARTH in big glittery letters. Marco had to explain to his parents that Star and Bucky were from another dimension and not outer space, to which they sheepishly apologized.
Now, Star and Bucky were getting ready to go to sleep, Star in a baby-blue nightgown with a pink crescent moon on the front, and Bucky in black drawstring pants and a black tank top that showed off his powerful chest muscles.
"Are you absolutely certain you don't want me to poof you a new bed?" Star asked for the third time. She loved her big brother and hated to see him sleeping on something that looked like it would hurt his back eventually. She'd wanted to give him a new bed for a while, and now that she had magic, she thought it was time that he got one.
"Star, just drop it! You have your sleeping preferences, I have mine!" Bucky stated in annoyance.
"Fine. Goodnight, Bucky," Star said and gave her brother a hug.
"Goodnight, Star," Bucky replied, returning the hug and giving Star a kiss on the forehead. Star climbed up the stairs to her part of the room and turned off the enchanted crystals that provided illumination, bathing the room in moonlight from the tower's single window. Bucky made sure she wasn't watching, then pulled out a paper photograph and kissed it. "Goodnight, Belle," he whispered, then set the photograph on his bedside table before laying down on his cot.
The photograph depicted a younger Star in a photo booth with a younger Bucky and a second teen. She was a girl with long steel-gray hair, bright blue eyes like Star, and teal-colored cheek marks shaped like scallop shells. In her hand was a trident very similar to the one present Bucky possessed, only with the prongs branching off from a circular teal gemstone.