America was just as confused as the rest of the guests who showed up at her apartment. She recognized kids from her class as well as her own teacher, Ms. Skullnick. America sat among them unaware that Buff Frog was spying on them from outside, along with a floating eyeball with a Mewni coat of arms on it.

The crowd talked among each other until Star appeared and tapped the hilt of her sword on the ground to get their attention. "I assume you all brought your swords."

"What swords?" America asked.

"It said on the invitation you're supposed to bring on a sword." Star explained.

"It does?" America asked as she pulled out a piece of paper. The entire front page was an illustration of Star herself standing in a blue dress on top of a mountain of skulls. She was standing in the moonlight surrounded by purple sparkles extending a sword into the air. The top of the picture had four symbols on it: Star, a crown, a knight's helmet, and a chicken drumstick. "I thought it was just some weird fanart you made of yourself."

"I was a little confused by your invitation." one of America's classmates, Alphonzo, said.

"I'm not confused." Ms. Skullnick said as she pointed at the drumstick picture. "This is clearly a drawing of meat. I came for the meat."

"Star, what's going on?" America asked. "Why is there suddenly a party at our place?"

"Uh, it's the 37th of Grovnok." Star answered getting blank reactions from everyone. "Mewnipendence Day?" Still no answer.

Star groaned frustratingly before leaving the room. She was gone for only a few seconds before returning with a book in her hand. She opened it up to everyone showing pop-up illustrations that went on as she narrated.

"Mewnipendence Day. A long time ago, arrived the first settlers of Mewni. A modest people with noble pursuits: life, liberty, and corn. But the wicked monsters rose up and attacked the innocent Mewmans to resteal Mewni for themselves. So the queen used her magic to turn the simple peasants into a fearsome army. And then there was fighting, fighting, fighting…" She kept repeating that last word as she skimmed over the many pages until she reached the last one. "And the Mewmans won! Ta-da!"

America gave a confused look. "So, what, this day is all about celebrating the founding in Mewni?"

"No, silly. We're celebrating the fact that we won our beautiful land from the evil monsters." Star said. "You'll see once we reenact the Great Monster Massacre. Now, please, split into two teams, monsters and Mewmans."

"Can I be a…" Ms. Skullnick started to ask.

"You're a monster. That's why you were invited."

America got up and looked around as everyone else chose their teams. She was then pulled to Star's side.

"You get to be my general." Star said.

"Oh. Thanks, I guess." America said sounding a little unsure.

"All right then." Star said before looking over at the two teams. "Lookin' pretty good. Now we can begin making costumes, and after that, THE BLOODY BATTLE CAN COMMENCE."

America looked behind Star and noticed the flying eyeball hovering close behind her. "Um, Star, what's that?"

Star turned and smiled. "Oh, it's just the All-Seeing Eye. It follows you around all day."

"I don't like how it's staring at me." America said.

"Don't worry. It's just to remind the monsters that the royal family is always watching." Star said tapping her finger on the eye. "It's not actually watching you, though. That would be weird."


"This is amazing!" Ludo cried out in excitement to Toffee, who was with him as they were watching a screen showing Star tapping on the screen. "She thinks it's the All-Seeing Eye, but it's not!"

"It is the most efficient way to spy on your enemies." Toffee said as he was reading a book.

"I can see her pores." Ludo said getting close to the screen. "What secrets lie within."

Buff Frog returned from his spying mission giving his salute. "Ludo, master."

"Yeah, yeah." Ludo said impatiently mimicking his minion's salute. "Look at this. Thanks to Toffee's new device, we can watch Star wherever she goes. In the kitchen. Bedroom. Even in the bathroom." That fact made both Buff Frog and Toffee uneasy. "Maybe we don't keep the bathroom channel."

"But Ludo, this eye only has one eye." Ludo pleaded. "My face has two. That's twice the number of the eyes."

Ludo cared too little to listen though. "Now that you don't have any spying stuff to do, you should get us some popcorn and milkshakes. I'm pretty sure we're gonna binge-watch this baby all night. You can join us if you want as long as you keep quiet and sit in the back."

Buff Frog then looked at Toffee suspiciously. "I'm curious. How did you get electronic eye?"

"I have my connections." Toffee said glaring back at Buff Frog, who just left the room still suspicious of his coworker's intentions.

Ludo, unaware of the dissention among his employees, kept enjoying the show. "She doesn't even know we're watching her."

"Sometimes your biggest threat is right under your nose." Toffee pointed out.

"My nose is in my beak."

"…Mmm-hmm." Toffee sighed before thinking to himself. "For goodness sake, he's even more of a dimwit than I thought. Well, at least this makes my mission a little easier. Still, that bloated amphibian is getting too close. I may have to get rid of him before he figures out what I'm up to."


Star took everyone to the park and made sure there were no innocent bystanders around as she grew a large forest around her and her team, who were all in costumes. Half of her guests were dressed as monsters while the other half (including America), wore gigantic suits of armor each as big as the trees she conjured.

"That should just about do it." Star said proud of the costumes she made.

America (in her armor) reached down to Star's level by bending over her tall, metal legs with her history book in her hand. "Um, Star, I've been looking through your book, and something seems off."

"What do you mean?" Star asked taking the book.

Star opened up the book to a certain page. One of her pop-up illustrations showed all the Mewmans as gigantic, oversized knights that got bigger than the last, and they all had weapons pointed at the much smaller, more helpless monsters. Star then looked around and saw that the situation she was in was exactly the same; giant knights against defenseless monsters.

"Oh. Wow." Star said in realization. "You're right, America. I can't believe I didn't notice that before." She then turned to the knights and conjured up all sorts of weapons for each of them. "Sharper. Sharper. Stabbier. And you need to be on a Warnicorn." She then turned to the monster team. "And now, for the monsters." She blasted all of their weapons causing them all to disappear into thin air.

"Hey! What do we get?" Ferguson asked wearing a costume that made him look very similar to Buff Frog.

"Hello. You're monsters. Use your claws."

"Star, that's not what I meant." America said sounding impatiently. "It looks to me like the original settlers of Mewni were acting like the bad guys."

"What?!" Star asked loudly. "You take that back!"

"Star, have you even been listening to the story?" America asked. "From what I could tell, the monsters lived on Mewni long before the settlers even arrived. And there wasn't even any sign of them attacking the Mewmans. They just showed up and attacked the monsters with unnecessarily large soldiers enhanced by magic attacking them while they were helpless. I don't know how it sounds to you, but to me, it sounds like the attacks were unprovoked, not to mention unfair."

"Unfair?" Star asked looking at the illustration again. "But… the books always told us that the monsters were the bad guys."

"Who do you think wrote those books?" America asked.

Star stopped to look back at everything and felt uneasy.


Back at Ludo's castle, Buff Frog gathered all the other monsters in the gang for an emergency meeting. Once they all showed up, he addressed them all.

"Comrades, it's beginning. Toffee replaced me with electronic eye."

"Uh, we don't care." the horned bear monster said.

"But you should care!" Buff Frog protested pointing at the very bear. "Pretty soon, Toffee will replace you with electronic ice cream cone…" He then pointed at the little, green demon who also had a horn on his head. "And you with another electronic ice cream come…" He then pointed at the two-headed demon. "And you with… What is it you do exactly?"

"Well, um, there's two of us, so… maybe that's a thing?"

Buff Frog sighed. "Well, that's not even the point. Toffee has been a big mystery ever since he arrived. He shows up out of nowhere, tricks Ludo into hiring him, doesn't share a bit about his history or the weird M on business card, and now, he has technology that's advanced enough to render us obsolete. Where does he get it from?"

"If you want my opinion," Toffee said suddenly popping up behind Buff Frog startling him, "I don't think it's important on the how if it gets us results. After all, everyone loves goblin dogs, but no one wants to know how they're made."

"How are they made?" the giraffe monster asked.

"That's not important." Toffee said as he stepped up directing everyone's attention to the spy screen that Ludo was watching. "For now, let's turn our attention to our new surveillance device. Princess Butterfly is reenacting our favorite holiday, the Great Monster Massacre."

"That is my least favorite holiday." the bear monster said while everyone else frowned in agreement.

"Don't worry. We can take advantage of this opportunity." Toffee pulled out an iron mace. He pressed a button on its handle, and the spiked ball part opened up revealing a small portal. He then took Ludo's remote and slipped it through the portal. As he did so, another portal appeared in front of Ludo returning his remote to his hands. "Why send an army after the wand when it can be hand-delivered? And it's not like she's going to notice a real monster."

"Those aren't real?!" Ludo asked with his mind blown.

"…Okay." Toffee sighed before turning back to the monster gang. "Now, who would like to bring Ludo his wand."

Most of the other monsters were hesitant, but Buff Frog stepped up. "I will go."

"I thought you might," Toffee said before whispering under his breath, "You fat bag of garbage." He then gave the mace to Buff Frog and sent him on his way.


The reenactment in the park was all set up. Monsters on one side and giant knights on the other. They were all scared of how this would turn out, especially Star, who conjured up a high tower for her to watch the reenactment from. She continued to look through her history book seeing all kinds of unfair tactics her ancestors did to the monsters. She finally noticed how the monsters were attacked in their sleep, chased out of their homes, and burned in the forests they tried to hide in. The more she read, the more she was terrified of what might have happened.

"Hey, Star," America said as she flew up to the tower to join her friend, "Everything's all ready." She finally noticed the hesitation in the princess' eyes. "Is everything okay? You know, it's all right if you just want to call it all off and we can have a Mewnipendence Day dinner."

"No, it's okay." Star said sounding unsure. "It… It'll be fun."

"If you say so." America said. "Just know that if anything goes too far, you can call it all off."

"Thanks, Ames." Star said. "And thank you for going through with this. I know this can't be easy for you."

"It's not," America admitted, "But if you still want to go through with it, you'll have my support. I just want to make sure you know what this holiday means."

Star nodded as America flew back down into her armor. She then stepped up and played the part of the powerful queen in her story.

"Knights of Mewni! Take up your stabby weapons, and drive out the evil monsters!"

With a blast into the air, the knights team began their attack on the others in monster costumes. Everyone in the monster team panicked and ran for their lives, especially Ferguson, who slipped into the foliage behind him to hide. Right as he did so, however, Buff Frog portaled his way into the park. He made his way across the reenactment field, and nobody noticed because they thought he was Ferguson.

As Star watched in horror as she saw her monster-costumed friends being pummeled in a one-sided battle, she was too anxious to realize Buff Frog was scaling up the side of the tower while his gang watched from Toffee's surveillance device.

Buff Frog made it to the wand, which was laid out behind Star without her noticing what was happening. He pulled out the portal mace that Toffee gave him and pressed its button. However, much to his surprise, the mace didn't open. He tried it again many times with the same result. Meanwhile, the watching monsters stared in confusion at Buff Frog not knowing the mace was working… Well, except for Toffee. The way he stared blankly, it showed that he wasn't just confused that his mace wasn't working; he counted on it to fail.

Realizing creating a portal was impossible, Buff Frog went with the old approach and tried to take the wand himself. He reached out to try and grab it, but right before he did, Star turned and noticed him.

"Ferguson?" Star asked thinking it was still her classmate from school.

Before another word could be said, Buff Frog was attacked by a Warnicorn that knocked him up into the air. Buff Frog was sent flying until he landed in the middle of the field. Toffee's spying device was unfortunately there too, so it was crushed by him when it landed.

"FERGUSON!" Star cried out in horror. She ordered the reenactment to be stopped as she rushed down to kneel over who she thought was her human friend. "I AM SO SORRY! AMERICA WAS RIGHT! THIS IS UNFAIR! FERGUSON, ARE YOU OKAY?!"

"I'm fine." Ferguson slowly revealing himself hiding in the tree much to everyone's confusion. "I'm just invisible."

At that moment, Buff Frog woke up and pushed Star away as he got back up. He began to run, but stopped when he realized Star pulled out her wand and aimed it at him. However, as soon as she saw the scared, helpless loon on his face, she lowered her wand and let him run unharmed.

"That was the real frog guy?" America asked slipping out her armor. "He sneaked his way into our reenactment to try and steal Star's wand. I gotta say, this was pretty smart for Ludo."

"Yeah, I guess." Star said with her mind wandering elsewhere. At that moment though, she stopped to noticed the broken remains of the All-Seeing Eye drone and looked over its remains. "Hey, wait a minute. This thing really was a camera."

"It was?" America asked looking through the pieces. "I thought you said it was just a symbol. How… Wait." She picked up a small, square component with a stylized metal M branded on it. "Does this mean anything to Mewni?"

Star looked at the M in confusion. "No. That's not Mewni's style at all." She then noticed something else. "But whatever it is, it's making your arm shake."

"What?" America asked before she noticed her right arm trembling. She dropped the piece of metal she was holding and grabbed it tightly. That's when she felt her breath getting heavy and her heart beating at an above-average pace. "What is this?"

"I don't know." Star said looking over at everyone else, who just stood in confusion. "But maybe a nice corn dinner will calm your nerves."

"Yeah. Maybe." America said unsurely.


"What a disgrace!" Ludo shouted as he repeated the footage where Buff Frog was attacked by the Warnicorn. Buff Frog watched in shame. "This is what you get when you hire people from the swamp! Not only did you divert from the plan and try to prove yourself by taking the wand yourself, but you also destroyed our spy device!"

"I'm telling you!" Buff Frog said pulling out his mace. "This thing, it didn't work!"

Toffee took the mace and pressed the button, and like before, it opened up its portal. "It works fine for me."

"He sabotaged it!" Buff Frog accused pointing his finger at Toffee. "Ludo, don't you see? This man is plotting against us! He's got all this equipment, all these resources, and he's never told us where he got them!"

"I rescued you from a life in the swamp." Ludo scolded his top spy. "I took you in. I gave you pants. And this is what you do to repay… Wait a minute. Where are your pants?!" Buff Frog couldn't come up with an answer to that. "Oh, get real! You've brought shame on this house! Now, go to your room!" He forced Buff Frog to leave while he buried his face in his hands in frustration.

"I don't know what do with that one. I mean, should I take away his milkshake privileges or something?"

"Seriously?" Toffee asked. "This was idiot-proof. I think you know what you have to do."

Ludo put on a hesitant face as he realized what Toffee was talking about.

Very soon after, Ludo ordered his monsters to throw Buff Frog out of his castle. Buff Frog yelled heartbroken as the gates were shut and locked behind him. All the while, Ludo and Toffee watched from above.

"Well, that was pretty hardcore." Ludo said.

"You did what had to be done." Toffee said.


"Are you sure about this, Star?" America asked following Star up to her room. "Everyone's waiting for the dinner to start."

"I need to find out, Ames." Star said. "Don't worry. The corn's already cooking. We've got plenty of time."

"Yeah, but to get answers from… him?" America asked seeing her friend reach under her bed. "You know, the last time I tried to reach him for answers, he was less than useless."

"He's the only one who would've lived long enough to know what happened. I can't rest easy until I hear the truth." Star pulled out her spellbook and opened it up. "Glossaryk! You there? I need to speak to you." She flipped through the pages until she found Glossaryk, who was sitting in a miniature table eating a plate of food.

"Oh. Star, it's you. Happy Mewnipendence Day." Glossaryk said. "And America, good to see you too. Have you ready to answer what really happened yet?"

"No." America replied in annoyance.

"Well, then, I guess there's nothing for me to tell you. Good night." Glossaryk tried to close the book, but Star stopped it from slamming shut.

"Glossaryk, wait! I need to talk to you!"

"Oh, this is a Star problem?" Glossaryk asked putting his dinner away. "Well, by all means, m'lady, ask away?"

"Right…" Star said nervously, "Well, we were reenacting the Great Monster Massacre today, and America pointed out that it seemed like… maybe… the original settlers of Mewni might possibly be the bad guys. I've always known the monsters to be the bad guys. So… who really was the bad guy?"

Glossaryk gave Star a curious look. "Asking tough questions already, huh? Someone's maturing faster than expected."

"Please. I just need to know." Star said. "You had to be there, right? You know what happened."

"Well, I do, but… Well, there's some details that are omitted by the High Commission, and they've been around almost as long as I have."

"So then, it's true." Star realized sadly. "The Mewmans really were bad guys."

"Now, who said that?" Glossaryk asked. "The Mewmans weren't evil. They were just scared of the monsters. Fear can make people do some pretty regrettable stuff."

"Really?" Star asked with a glimmer of hope. "So Mewmans are good after all?"

"Look. There's some stuff that even I'm not allowed to tell you about the past, but the truth is, it doesn't matter. The past is just that, the past. What should matter to you is the now. You're the future queen of Mewni. What happens next is up to you."

That statement made Star smile a bit.

"Wow." America said surprised. "I didn't expect you to actually give good advice… or any advice at all."

"Well, it is my job." Glossaryk said. "Oh, by the way… What really happened?"

"AAH! FORGET IT!" America shouted in frustration. She then stomped out of the word cursing under her breath in Spanish while Star giggled feeling better than how she did before.


Toffee walked on outside with his laptop in hand. He looked around and saw no one leaving him ready to open up his briefcase and showing his laptop inside. He turned in on and heard the voice of the woman he spoke with before.

"Hello, Toffee. Status report."

"I'm one step closer to taking command of Ludo's operation." Toffee said. "The plan's going off sooner than expected."

"Excellent. Now…"

"Hold on." Toffee interrupted glancing backwards. He looked back as a figure stepped out of the figure. "Well, well, well. If it isn't the In-Betweener. I was wondering when you'd come after me."

"You were expecting me, huh?" In-Betweener asked. "Then you know what I've come for."

"Yes." Toffee answered. "You're here to apprehend me and prevent me from going through with my plan. I must say, this seems a little below your pay grade for you, herald to Order and Chaos."

"Your actions affect the balance of the Multiverse." In-Betweener said. He then pulled out the large projectile launcher with the blue liquid attached to it, the one that he bought from Quest Buy before. "I'm simply doing what I need to do."

"Well, if that's true, then why don't you destroy me?" Toffee asked. "It'd be much easier that way."

"I thought the same thing," In-Betweener said, "But Master Order and Lord Chaos have ordered me not to. They said it would be better for the balance if you are taken in alive."

"Did they?" Toffee asked. "Well, then, they're going to be very angry when they learn that you're not going to do anything to me."

"Give me one good reason why." In-Betweener dared.

"Certainly." Toffee typed on his laptop until an image appeared on his screen, an image that the then turned to show his attacker.

Once the In-Betweener saw the image on the laptop, he gasped quietly and lowered his weapon. "No. That's impossible. How do you even know about them?"

"My benefactors have quite the inside knowledge." Toffee said. "And if anything happens to me… Well, I'm sure you can guess what they'll do."

The In-Betweener grimaced at Toffee's threat, even though he was forced to lower his gun. Just then, he heard an insistent whisper in his ears.

"What?" the In-Betweener asked. "My lord and master, you can't be serious. You heard what he said about…" He gasped again. "How can you say that? Of course, they matter."

"Trouble with management?" Toffee asked smugly.

The In-Betweener glared at the lizard monster. "This isn't over." He turned around and walked back into the swamps.

"On that, we agree." Toffee said before switching his laptop back to his call. "Sorry about the interruption, Oubliette."

"Who was it?"

Toffee looked back at the forest where the In-Betweener left. "No one of consequence."


After their talk with Glossaryk, Star and America joined the rest of the humans in their corn dinner. Although they went through a battle that was psychologically scarring, they looked back and laughed making Star smile.

"You know what, Ames. Maybe Glossaryk was right." Star said.

"He is?" America asked.

"Sure. The past doesn't really matter. I mean, look around." Star gestured around to her guests. "Just earlier, everyone at this table was trying to pummel each other and nearly got themselves killed over a silly reenactment. But now, they're here laughing and talking like what happened earlier didn't matter. So I shouldn't get so bent out of shape because of what my scared ancestors did when they first met monsters. Let's just keep on living now and try to make the future better."

"That's the spirit." America said as she held out a glass to her. "Happy Mewnipendence Day, Star."

"Happy Mewnipendence Day, Ames." Star said clicking her own glass onto America's.

Star was about to take her first bite of corn when she glanced outside. She stopped when she noticed Buff Frog sitting on the tree branch just outside of her window. She saw how sad he was and realized a good way to start making a better future.

Buff Frog didn't know where else to go, so he just sat on that tree branch heartbroken after being kicked out. Just then, he spotted a plate of corn left on the windowsill for him. He also spotted a glance of Star's shadow stepping away from it indicating that Star had left it for him.

Buff Frog smiled softly at the kind gesture. Despite being adversaries for a while, he was glad to know she was a good enough person to help him when he needed it.