Author's Note: Wanted to try for something a bit more tragic with this one.
The seeds for the conflict begin as Star doesn't learn her lesson. Perhaps, after buff Frog is cast out, she doesn't leave some food for him. She reasons that Monster's are evil, recalling his attempt to steal the wand during the Mewnipendence day fight. A few hours later, though, Marco does notice him sitting in the tree, and does leave him some food.
In literary terms, that is what would be called, 'foreshadowing.'
Marco, slightly disturbed for reasons he's not sure about, decides to do some research himself on Mewman history. It's a bit of a wrench to get Star to agree to take him to the Royal Library, until he frames it as a 'heist' (since she's technically not allowed to jump dimensions at this point in time). Before he can get very far into it, Toffee kidnaps him, and Star storms the castle. This time, there's no alliance between herself and Buff Frog. Instead she blasts away without mercy, wrecking the castle as she goes, Buff Frog follows behind, along with Ludo.
Marco tries to appeal to the Monsters, asking for their side of the story. Some of them seem open, and they rant about how hard they have it. Toffee, however, doesn't give Marco the time of day, and still uses him to force Star to destroy the Wand. Marco cottons to something big happening, and warns Buff Frog and his children to run.
One explosion and reborn Wand later, and Star and Marco are back off home. But before they go, Marco makes a diversion to check up on Buff Frog, something that Star can't understand. After all, Monster's just almost killed Marco, didn't they?
Marco's a bit busier afterwards, and so has less time to obsess over Jackie. His readings of Mewman history paint an interesting picture, both explicitly and implicitly. In between all of this, he baby-sits for Buff-Frog, wanting to help him out. Star doesn't come along to these, but in between everything, their friendship grows. Perhaps it grows faster than in canon. Jackie does not ask Marco to the Prom and when Ludo arrives to steal the book, he and she hold each other without reservation.
Marco uses his monster contacts through Buff Frog to find Ludo's hideout, though of course, he's gone by the time they get there. Intead of 'alternative monsters' they find a group of refugees who've moved in. Star is uncomfortable, but focuses on trying to find the Wand, but Marco tries to help. There's a growing divide in their ways of thinking, though they don't quite realize it yet.
Marco's adventure's to gain Dimensional Scissors cement an adventurous streak (even as he regresses to his appropriate mental age at home, the experiences of the Neverzone are integrated into him) that let's him go into Mewni's wild lands. With directions from Buff Frog, Marco goes amongst the Monsters, hearing their stories, helping fix their homes, fighting some. But he learns what their lives are like. Though perhaps, to be fair, he goes to only the worst off of them, as Buff Frog was mainly connected to those most at odds with Mewmans. Things are cementing in his mind.
The kidnap by Rhombulus, even though Star resolves it, is another knock in Marco's worries about Mewni. If such a person regularly handled policing and prison duty, what was the rest of Mewni like?
But on the other side of things, the concert happens, and as Star and Marco look into each others eyes, their lips are drawn together. For a moment in time, both are happy, both wish to stand by each other's sides. Star believes she has someone who will always support her. Marco believes he can help Star see the truth. In a way, both are wrong, and a little bit right.
When Star leaves in a dramatic flash at the graduation party, Marco follows immediately. He's unimpressed by King River's manner of ruling, and for a time, he is certain that Mewni is run by a selfish and oppressive regime. But then Ludo invades, and eventually Toffee returns, and he's reminded that the Monster's aren't free of blame either.
Thus forms the narrative spine for the next part of the story, as Marco stays in Mewni with Star. Officially as her squire, but unofficially dating.
Interested in Eclipsa's case, and trying to reconcile his views of Monsters and Mewmans, Marco goes on more treks across Mewni, in between his adventures and dates with Star. In these, he learns of communities where Monsters and Mewmans do live with each other. Not all is harmony, but it is life. To be sure, Mewmans overall are better off, but neither does the average Mewman make it their life's goal to make things hard for Monsters.
Star never makes any effort to protect Eclipsa, instead it is Marco who defends her, and while he has a harder time of it, he secures her a trial. This however, puts a severe dint in his popularity with the Magical High Commission and Queen Moon. Star is confused, but puts it behind her. She wants to focus on having fun with him.
At the Princess Turdina speech, Marco dispenses with it immediately, feeling that things have gotten out of control with the Princess's utter lack of order and responsibility. He rebukes both Miss Heinous and the Princess's, appealing to them to not simply act selfishly and to become better people, and then walks away, leaving all parties stunned. Heinous is still rejected, but a small part of her now has more interest in Marco than as an object of her hatred.
At Lava Lake Beach, Marco confesses that while he does like Star, he's worried about how little she seems interested in knowing about Monsters. Star tries to assuage things and agrees to go on the visit to the Pidgeon Kingdom that Marco has planned. Her mistake though, is bringing Ponyhead, who proceeds to utterly botch the whole thing. Her anger at Marco's shedding of the 'Princess Turdina' identity has made her spiteful towards him and she privately relishes in sabotaging him, requiring Rich Pidgeon to make excuses for them. Star almost agrees to more trips to see other Monsters, but she ultimately schluffs once more and Marco takes up his lonely trips yet again.
In private, Rich Pidgeon does meet with Marco to commend him for his efforts, confiding that while he and his family are loyal and grateful to the Butterfly's, they wouldn't say no to more awareness of the plight of Monsters.
When Star first travels to the Realm of Magic in her sleep, Marco takes up the Wand to bring her back. But what changes is that this is not a one time event. From then on, Star and Marco secretly share the Wand between them. The Magic within Marco unlocks.
There is no Monster bash. Instead, Marco arrives there as a result of following the trail of the story that Eclipsa has been telling him about her life. Indeed, Marco finds her fascinating, and sees her regularly.
Moon is fond of Marco, but she's grown increasingly suspicious of how he seems to be developing as a person. She's tries to pressure Star to leave him by the wayside, thinking that she could just push Marco back to Earth, but, in a display of teenage contrarianism, Star clings harder for the moment. But even she can feel in her heart that something's coming between Marco and her with the path's they're taking. At times, she almost goes with him, almost opens her eyes, almost goes back to the path her canon counterpart walked (if perhaps a bit too far). But laziness, arrogance, and comfort steer her back to her castle, to her crown, to ignore Marco's entreaties.
And so, at the Monster Temple, when Miss Heinous arrives, she are Marco both discover at the same moment that she is, in fact, Eclipsa's daughter. And when Mina comes to kill her, Marco defends her. This allows Meteora to escape, but Mina is not happy. Perhaps she would've killed Marco, but she remembers back when 'mud sister' turned on her for the sake of the Earth Boy and his world. So she thinks to drag him before Moon and make sure no Earthling ever does so again.
Marco explains what he found, and Moon is reasonable enough to look into it. With Eclipsa and Marco, she rigs the trial to gain a confession out of the Magical High Commission. As the Box of Truth slowly crushes them, Marco's rebuke is far more scathing that Star's, calling them out for centuries of mismanagement, for acting for themselves, for interfering in Mewni selfishly.
And instead, Hekapoo breaks this time, perhaps motivated by her fondness for Marco, she confesses first and gets the ball rolling. Star, meanwhile, is far more broken by the revelation that the royal line she's a part of is not technically the ruling family. Her world, that she had been leaning into for so long, vanishes from under her and her anger at Marco blazes.
Meteora's rampage to discover her origins is still present. But when she arrives, she discovers a school in even worse straits then when Marco cast off the Turdina identity. Spearheaded by Ponyhead, she also finds that they have made Marco an object of ridicule, and tried to party harder to get over what he said. The invasion of the school is a cakewalk, but when she feels the bitterness welling in her heart at seeing her old childhood, she simply unplugs the Saint Olga robot instead of smashing her only parental figure. She also has enough left in her to not destroy her one loyal minion, even as Rasticore leaves her. When Ponyhead attempts to rally the Princess's against her though, Meteora still breaks her horn, but this time partly because of how much Ponyhead railed against Marco.
Instead, she heads for Earth, wanting to solve the mystery of why Marco defended her in the Monster Temple. Meanwhile, a Mewni without a Star to go to bat for Monsters is searching for her without ceasing. Marco tries, but is rebuffed. He tries to reason with Star, but she doesn't want to alke to him. She knows, in her heart that it isn't his fault, but she can't face it at the moment. Rejected on all sides, Marco goes home for some recharge time.
Instead, he finds Meteora waiting for him, and both have a long talk. Metora confesses she doesn't know what to do anymore, Marco expresses similar thoughts. Common ground is found, even some jokes made and Meteora finds herself enjoying Marco's company to her surprise. Over the next few days, Meteora simply lives life, enjoying things on Earth with Marco. If he feels a bit self-conscious about hanging out with an older woman, it's washed away by the satisfaction of seeing how much joy she has at just living for once.
It comes crashing down as, a few days later, The Commission blasts in. Rhombulus tries to crystalize them immediately, but Meteora defends them with the magic she and Marco had been practicing with. A battle ensues, with Meteora attempting to flee with Marco. They get as far as the park before the Commission once more runs them down, and it turns into a proper battle. Hekapoo tries to get Marco to stand down, but he has no faith in their claims of justice so he stands his ground.
A few minutes and a tone of property damage later, Moon and Eclipsa arrive. They had been looking for Meteora themselves, and the Commission had acted without approval. At least, that's what Eclipsa says, but she changes her tune when Moon magically binds handcuffs to both Meteora and Marco.
Meteora is charged on the spot with endangerment of Royalty for what she did to the Princess's. Marco is charged with high treason for harboring her. Both protest, but Moon advises them to be silent and await their trials. They arrive back to Butterfly castle and there waiting is Star alongside Ponyhead and Tom. Marco appeals to her, and though she looks conflicted, ultimately, anger wins out, along with Ponyhead's screaming about Marco's 'evilness' for spending time with Meteora after she broke the horse's horn. Tom, perhaps hoping to win Star's heart if Marco is out of the picture in a moment of weakness, says nothing as well.
Surrounded on all sides, and out of options, betrayed by those he had been trying to help, by the girl he loved, Marco does something he's never been able to do before.
He dips down.
The resulting Magical Explosion levels part of the castle and knocks out several of the commission and breaks the bonds on Marco and Meteora. From there, it is a mad dash to escape. Moon recovers first and attacks them outright, dashing any last hope of a peaceful resolution. In response, she faces a Meteora that has the ability and rage to tap both her Monster and her Mewman half's and while Moon might've won an outright duel, Marco and Eclipsa are both unwilling to let her destroy either their new friend or their daughter respectively. And so Moon is blasted by Meteroa's eye beams and retreats to the realm of Magic, with Star coming in just in time to witness this.
For a moment, she wavers yet again. Marco appeals to her, asking her to come away with him and she starts to reach out to take his hand, but then Ponyhead butts in, Tom on her heels. And once again, Star fails the test and instead attacks.
Marco faces Ponyhead and Tom, Meteora faces Meteora and Eclipsa, with the Commission one by one waking up to join. Tom and Ponyhead initially believe that Marco will be an easy mark, but are quickly disillusioned of that thought. Years in the Neverzone, plus time training with the Wand and treks across Mewni have turned Marco into a formidable fighter and he runs rings around Ponyhead, knocking her out quickly and contemptuously. Tom fights him more evenly, and even reluctantly. While never are best friends, Tom is no killer and feels internally guilty for his plan to try and get together with Star in the aftermath.
The battle turns as Eclipsa, to block one of Star's strikes against her daughter, seizes the Wand and manages to rip it from her hands. And so the Queen of Darkness reemerges, and in the ensuing fight, she drives her enemies back and paves the way for the trio to escape.
In the aftermath, they take refuge within the Monster Village where Buff Frog lives, unable to figure out what to do next. Star, meanwhile, takes a journey to the Realm of Magic to find her mother, but falls prey to its memory depletion. It is only when Marco, unable to help himself, uses the All-Seeing eye to try and find what she's doing. Upon seeing her predicament, he calls out to her and manages to reawaken her long enough so that she and Moon get out.
And so begins the final part of the story, as Moon and the Commision declare Marco, Eclipsa, and Meteora enemies of Mewni and set out to find them. In her heart, Star doesn't like this, doesn't like that Marco will more than likely be executed without a trial, doesn't like how she's in over her head because she refused Marco's invitation to learn more, and hates how she knows she clinging to her anger at Marco for pulling the rug out from under her family.
Meanwhile, Eclipsa and Meteora find that Monsters are flocking to them. The old stories give them a mystique that grants them a solid base of support. Perhaps a new Queen could give the Monster's revenge. But Marco speaks up. A year or two ago, he might've gone along with it, but now he has traveled across Mewni, seen much. He knows that they cannot simply throw the Mewmans down to become the oppressors. They cannot become the new Toffee.
He is contested, and has to fight several times to put down those who want nothing less than the complete extermination of Mewmans and Magic, but Meteora and Eclipsa support him. And so, Marco emerges as the leader of the new movement. At first, it merely starts as a way to unite the disparate Monster peoples, to find strength in unity and to provide for each other. For a year, they work at it, building bonds and soothing egos. Monsters, who had been divided by tribe and by rivalries manage to put them aside. Their greatest victory is managing to bring Septarsis aboard. But then Moon unleashes her armies.
Angered by the lack of progress, she declares war to anyone who would keep the fugitives from her. She is shocked when house Pidgeon declares for the new Kingdom, but she hadn't been paying attention to how invasive her efforts to find them had been, how much she was alienating the moderate kingdoms.
This declaration sets off a domino effect, but Marco gives her a way out. He sends an ultimatum for Moon to acknowledge the independence of the Monster Confederacy and agree to a demilitarized zone between them. Star argues for it, if only because she's getting tired. But Moon, unable to disassociate from the last time the Monster's got organized under Toffee, declares war.
The first target is the Village where Buff Frog lived, and they barely evacuate before the Mewman army burns it to the ground. Star sees the nursery, where she'd seen Marco looking after the Buff Babies, go up in ash and smoke, and feels a blackness in her heart that she can't or doesn't want to explain.
It gets worse as Tom flirts with her and she misses Marco all the more. In a funk, she goes back to Echo Creek to check on things, and is cornered by Mr and Mrs Diaz. They are out of their minds with worry and Star wilts under their fear and impassioned questions. Realizing that Marco hasn't contacted them to keep them as safe as possible, she dodges questions as she can and leaves soon after.
Returning to Mewnis, she finds that something close her is gone. Glossaryck has taken the book and left for Metora and Eclipsa, but more for Marco. His education in Magic grows in leaps and bounds as he and the others try to organize up resistance.
The first great battle comes in an siege of a mountain fortress that Monster Refugees has been fleeing into. The Mewman army that had penetrated deep into Monster territory had been razing crops and clapping both Monster and Monster-sympathetic Mewmans in irons. Upon reaching the fortress, Marco stood with the defenders, and so the assault begain. The Royal Army was met by a mixed army that had been brought together from across Mewni. Frog-men, Septarians, Pidgeons and many other kinds of Monsters, even Mewmans who are disgusted with the wanton destruction.
Progress is slow, for the fortress was made to withstand even Mewman magic, but eventually they force the gates open and pour in. In the first courtyard, Marco meets Star and the two duel for the first time. Anger blazes on both sides, for the conflict, for all the suffering, for the fact that their love has degraded this far. But as the fight drags on, as she and Marco match blow for blow, her rage begins to diminish while Marco's blazes the hotter. He asks her if this is what she wants, for if she follows the path of her mother, this is the sort of thing she will be forced to partake in to keep her enemies in line.
The duel drags on, but Marco gains the upper hand. But before it can conclude properly, reinforcements arrive, lead by Meteora, Eclipsa and, to everyone's surprise, Globgor. Having freed her husband, Eclipsa and her daughter had rallied support and ambushed the Royal Army, as planned. The Royal Army manages to retreat, but not without taking heavy losses. Star herself barely escapes, mostly because Moon literally drags her out.
Things calm for a bit afterwards as the Royals lick their wounds. But then, months later, Star appears and turns herself in. She reports that Moon is planning something big, something to turn back the tide of the war and finally put a finish to Marco and his rebels. She only has to say two words for Eclipsa and Globgor to take her seriously.
Solarian Warriors.
Star had been inducted into Moon's new desperate plan to end the war quickly and decisively. At first Star had been on board, but as Moon and Mina increasingly spoke of slaughtering the Monsters, of how they would put Marco and his compatriots to death, she'd found she couldn't deny her conciseness any more. And so, in the dead of night, she'd snuck away with the help of Hekapoo and turned herself in.
She offers them the location of the forges where they were rebuilding the Solarian Armors and, after some verifying, they agree to a strike. Utilizing the now open portals, they sneak a large amount of Monsters in and, under Star's direction (while keeping her in handcuffs and under watch) they set about destroying the Solarian Armor. They are discovered partway through and what was originally a stealth mission turns into a pitched battle as both sides keep calling in more and more troops. But the Mewman losses tell against them and they are greatly disheartened as Star breaks free and joins the Monster's side against them.
The final battle for Mewni breaks the back of the Royal's army completely, and eventually Moon calls the army off. Hating it, but forced to it, she offers terms of peace. From a position of power, Marco makes bigger demands now. The Commission is abolished and forbidden from holding power in Mewni again. Rhombulus and Omnitraxus will ignore this until Glossaryck, tired of their antics, forces them to leave, Hekapoo takes it with some relief, happy to wash her hands of the headaches that come with her old job. Much of the Royal Mewni Kingdom is forced to demilitarize, it's not quite a rump state now, but it is severely reduce in size and her armies are constrained. Marco is generous and prevents Monsters from carrying weapons in the demilitarize zones as well, but he also extracts a heavy tribute payment for damages.
Star is untethered amidst all this. She vanishes after the battle, and it is only in his first trip home in years that Marco finds her. Near catatonic, she had arrived on his parent's doorstep and had stayed there since. She did whatever chores they liked, never complaining, but never using Magic either. She simply doesn't want to deal with the world anymore, with what she did, with what she refused to do until it was almost too late.
While busy making sure the transition of power is smooth, as well as with preventing the Monsters from taking vengeance that will only start the race war over again, Marco comes home as often as possible. He has enough kindness left to tell Moon that Star is safe, but not where she is.
It takes months before Star starts to talk again, and even then its a few words at a time. Marco's own complicated feelings for her slowly fall back to pity. It's during a picnic that Marco says three words.
"I forgive you."
Three words that finally unblock a well in Star, and, for the first time in she couldn't remember how long, she cries.
They talk, they cry, they yell. Bit by bit, they begin to piece their relationship back together. Marco talks about how much her siding with her mother and the commission over him hurt, she talks about the pressure to conform to he rmother's will. He talks about his trips across Mewni, she talks about how sorry she is for refusing to listen to him.
They venture forth, Star going with him on his trips to bring peace to Mewni. She helps stop Monster and Mewman alike from killing their opposite for simple hatred. She sees the things she didn't want to before. Neither Mewman nor Monster is perfect, and peace can only come when the hatred is let go and the forgiveness can begin.
One day, a year later, while Marco is working with Kelly and herself to defeat a group of Mewman rebels, she feels the stirring of jealousy at Kelly and Marco's rapport. A month later, Marco feels a similar stirring during a diplomatic mission to Moon where Tom tries to put forth all the reasons they should get back together. Moon as well tries to get Star to stay in the kingdom, but she flatly refuses to come back before she's good and ready. Moon and Tom both question if Star and Marco are dating again. And when they return to the Diaz household, Marco and Star spend all night talking it over. Both are afraid, mortally so. They tried once already to love, but failed. They come to no true conclusion, but both want to try desperately.
It comes to a head when their diplomatic mission to the Ponyhead kingdom is interrupted by Ponyhead trying to shame Marco through a hijacked Reflectifcorp signal. In response, utterly sickened by Ponyhead and by how Marco has been treated by the kingdom at large, Star pulls Marco close and kisses him on camera. For a moment, terror rises in her that she just destroyed any chance to rekindle her love with him, but then his arms snake around her and she melts into his embrace.
The road from there is not easy. For Marco is not well loved in the Royal Kingdom and Moon wants Star to have nothing to do with him. Star tells her some things she never would've dared to say before meeting Marco. But the long and short of it is that if she can't be a Princess anymore by being with Marco, then that's perfectly fine with her.
In the end, Star does stay on as Princess and she joins Marco's long efforts to bring true peace to Mewni. It's not easy, and quite dangerous at many points. The Monster Confederacy elects its leaders, and Eclipsa serves several terms before retiring to spend Meteora's last few years together. In absence of her sucking the life out of Princess's, Meteora grows old quickly. Before she dies, she does get to see Eclipsa give birth to another child, Plutonia. As a nanny, Meteora gifts them the robot man from the academy, who had stuck beside them through it all. He is heartbroken that 'Miss Heinous' is dying, but swears to spend the rest of his own days looking after her new sister. Meteora dies happier than she ever thought she could be, surrounded by her family and her friends, Marco and Star both. As she dies, even the spirit of Solaria appears, and contrary to their expectation, she looks upon her grandchild with both regret and love.
Monsters and Mewmans grow more used to each other. Marco and Star's tireless efforts help things along, but their reign upon the Royal Throne is troubled, not least of which by rogue nobles who try to either assassinate them or break away, refusing to stay in the kingdom if Marco is King. It is no easy thing, but Star and Marco press on. Through the pain and hardship, they find joy in each other, and fulfillment in their duties and efforts.
When their daughter, Nova Diaz is born, there is rejoicing by both kingdoms. But before a month has passed, Marco and Star have to deal with a plot to steal her away and raise her to hate monsters and to reconquer Mewni for those stuck in the old ways. It is this which rouses Moon, who had maintained an angry distance from both of them for years, to finally return to fight.
When they find Nova again, thankfully quickly with Star's mother's help, Moon's heart, hard as stone, finally softens again when she sees her granddaughter. She understands Solaria for a moment, why she could love Meteora even when they departed so drastically from what she wanted. And so she tried to heal the gap between them, for her granddaughter's sake.
It never fully heals, but eventually Moon settles into being a doting grandmother, and they all learn not to speak of the past, of the hurts that lie there. Moon, interestingly enough, spends more time on Earth than on Mewni, as Nova is often brought there to socialize and grow up without immense pressure on herself.
Through all this hard work and life, through all the hardships they endure, fruit is borne. By the Time Nova receives the a Wand (a new one that Glossaryck birthed for a new line of royalty), Monsters and Mewman's get along much better than ever. It wasn't perfect, but things have come a long way.
And as Marco and Star stand to watch their little girl show off for her brothers and sisters, they cannot help but look at each other and think over all that happened to bring them there.
For a moment there is pain, as they recall the heartbreak and hardship that they inflicted on each other. But then there is joy for all that they loved about each other, of the bond that drew them back together, for the relationship that had been borne of that shared experience.
It was a long and painful road, but in the end, Marco and Star's love endured. And they loved each other till the end of their days.
Author's Note: Wanted to try for something a bit more tragic with this one.
So, I didn't go quite as dark as I could've with this one, as Star did eventually come around in the end. Not sure if I'll ever do one where they stay utter enemies in the end. But who knows.
I also feel like the show ultimately didn't stick the landing of the Mewman Monster conflict, not that I had high hopes it ultimately would. One reason is that the show's worldbuilding isn't good/concrete enough to make it work well enough in my opinion. I mean, I don't think we ever got a world map for Mewni, or for that matter, whether or not Mewni is the name of the overall dimension or the kingdom.