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Hold up in her personal study, Queen Moon Butterfly nursed a glass of corn wine. She was faced with a major dilemma: what to do with her daughter, Star. The young princess was undisciplined and unruly to an almost extreme level, and today's events just added to the problem. The Passing of the Wand ceremony a sacred and important event meant to mark the start of a new era and show the queendom its new ruler. Usually, it was a rather stately affair with the pomp and circumstance that it would entail. This particular one, though, was anything but.
Arriving to the event, not only late but atop a feral Warnicorn, Star had made a rather striking impression. That's not even mentioning the fact that her entrance had nearly resulted in the trampling of several visiting nobles and the destruction of a sizable section of the tower wall. Things only got worse from there.
Grabbing at the wand like an over-eager toddler for a favored toy, Star had ignored her warnings almost immediately after they were spoken. The wand wasn't a toy; it was one of the most powerful magical devices in the known universe, capable of channeling an immense amount of magic. Now, in the hands of an over-excited teenager. It went about as well as one could have expected.
Thankfully, there were no deaths, but the town square and market needed to be rebuilt, and several villagers had developed a phobia of rainbows. Despite Star’s issues, Moon truly did love her daughter and wanted what was best for her. At the moment, it looked like she would be forced to temporarily send her away for her own good. The destruction caused had sparked some discontent in several lesser nobles whose business had been hurt or destroyed in the chaos of Star’s first magic lesson with the wand.
If Moon was being honest, she felt that many of the nobles who had their business destroyed by Star deserved it. They were the leading detractors of her rule as queen and had disapproved of her marriage to her husband, River, believing that they or their sons were better suited to be king. She had gotten good at ignoring them over the years, but the issue was the whispering she had heard coming from them about ‘dealing’ with the unruly princess.
It would take time to find and snuff out the potential rebellion before it could happen, something that would be infinitely harder to do with Star causing more destruction. She needed to figure out a good place for Star to learn how to control her magic, which was not only safe but also far away from Mewni. Sadly, one of the few places that fit that bill was somewhere she refused to send her daughter, St. Olga’s School for Wayward Princesses.
Contrary to what her daughter believed, she wasn't blind to the changes in the girls sent off to the school. It honestly scared her as well with how they came back, near lifeless cookie-cutter princesses without any real personality left. No matter how mad Star made her, or how bad her behavior got, she wouldn't do that to her daughter, and that brought us back to her dilemma: where to send Star while she learned her magic and the discontent within the queendom was dealt with.
Taking another deep swig of the sweet alcoholic beverage in her hands, Moon ran everything through her head again, only to be interrupted. “Contemplating what to do with young Star, your Highness?” drawled out the voice of Moon’s closest but also most infuriating advisor, Glossaryck.
Glaring at the tiny blue man, Moon sighed, slumped further into her chair, and brought a hand to her head. “Yes, if you must know, " growled Moon, her hand dropping from her head. Hopefully, this would be one of the few times that the little imp was directly helpful and not his normal infuriatingly vague self.
“That’s what I thought—so, made any decisions yet? Hopefully, you're not thinking about sending her off to that reform school the other royalty seems to love so much.” said Glossaryck, floating down to sit above Moon’s desk.
“No, I haven't. Other than thoroughly crossing off St. Olga’s. I take it you have a suggestion then?” asked Moon, knowing how Glossaryck operated. The imp rarely left the confines of his book without reason. Although that reason was often simply to annoy her, it was still rather up in the air as to why he was here.
“As a matter of fact, I do.” said Glossaryck with a serene smile that worried Moon.
Like most girls her age, Star Butterfly was a rather excitable creature. It was made worse by the fact that unlike most of those other girls, she was, in fact, a magical princess with her own wand to show for it. It was exactly that excitability that got her into her latest bit of trouble.
Her first spell with the Butterfly family wand ended in disaster. She honestly shouldn't have been all that surprised. As much as it seemed like she wasn't paying attention during her mother’s lessons on magic, she did retain quite a bit of the knowledge passed on during them. First and foremost, one's emotional state directly affected the spells cast with the wand, and Star’s emotional state was anything but good when she cast the spell.
She had been trying to cheer herself up after breaking up with her now ex-boyfriend, Tom Lucitor. It had been a long time coming, if she was being truthful. After all, the demon prince was far from a good boyfriend with his anger issues and hypocrisy. For a demon who claimed to hate those who break promises, he sure broke a lot of them. This latest one being the worst, in her opinion
He had promised her he would be there for the Passing of the Wand ceremony, something that he knew was very important to her. However, he never showed up. Now, she didn't want to jump to conclusions about why he wasn't there. After all, he was the prince of the underworld, and it wasn't all that unlikely that he simply had something come up that he needed to deal with—but that wasn't the case.
Calling him up to see what was going on, she learned that he had ditched the ceremony for a concert, spouting some excuse that the event was too dull for him. As you can imagine, she wasn't too happy about that, especially when he started getting angry at her for questioning why he didn't show up when he promised he would. That was the final straw in their relationship; she broke up with him right then and there.
Understandably upset at what had just happened, she decided to go on a walk to try to clear her head for a bit. Wandering through town, her mind kept replaying everything in her head; she had genuinely cared for Tom, and his betrayal, even as small as it was, hurt. Finally getting fed up with the constant repetition of her breakup playing in her head, she turns to the wand for a distraction.
Rainbows were one of her favorite things; they always cheered her up. Deciding that would be her first spell, she focused and guided the magic. Picturing what she wanted in her mind, a nice, peaceful rainbow, she let the magic flow, not noticing the anger and sadness built up in her creeping in as well. Her emotions, tainting the spell, caused what was supposed to be a harmless light show to turn into a disaster that lit the town square on fire.
Thankfully, the bucket knights had been in the area and had gotten the fire out quickly before anyone got hurt. Many of the shops had been destroyed, though, and although no one had been hurt, plenty of people were shaken by the whole thing. Feeling the start of tears pricking at her eyes, Star wipes them away and rushes back to the castle before anyone sees her cry.
Laying in bed, she ponders what's going to happen. As much as she’d like to deny it, she knows that she’s not too well-liked amongst the nobility of the Butterfly Queendom. Most of her extended family on her mother’s side see her as far too wild, far too much like her father to be accepted. The only way she could see they would like her less would be if she were part monster.
Hopefully, her mother would listen when they had the inevitable talk about what happened with the town square, and she wouldn't be sent off to St. Olga’s. Her great aunt Etheria would definitely push for her to go there. Thankfully, her mother didn't have a great opinion of Etheria, so her opinion likely wouldn't be counted in that regard. The important vote would be her father, King River Butterfly, formerly Johansen.
Despite his rather free-spirited view on things, Star knew her father wasn't one to let her just get away with things like that, no matter what most people may think. His upbringing as the younger brother of the current Barbarian King, Brik Johansen, just gave him a rather different way of dealing with discipline was all. Burning down the town square, even by accident, was something that he would see her disciplined for; the only question was how.
Listening to Glosaryck’s idea, Moon found herself agreeing with the Imp, no matter how much it irked her too. This ‘Earth’ dimension sounded like the perfect place to send Star. A safe place, out of the way, and easy for Star to blend in? It ticked all the boxes that Moon had. The only question, though, was why Glosaryck was so helpful in this; it went against everything that she had learned about him in her many years of knowing him.
“This ‘Earth’ sounds like exactly the place I was looking for,” said Moon, eyeing Glossaryck. But what's the catch? It is rare for you to be this helpful, Glossaryck. Usually, getting any information like this out of you is like pulling teeth.”
Flashing her a grin, the little Imp chuckles. “Yes, yes, you’d be right; I’m not one to just hand out things like this. I prefer you to learn what I have to teach yourself, but in this case,
you’re
not the one I'm teaching now, am I? With the way things are going here in Mewni, well, I can't teach a corpse now, can I.”
Blinking, Moon didn't know what to say. She knew that Glossaryck knew more than he let on about what went down in the queendom, but for him to know something that she herself only learned a few scant hours ago? Well, it brought up questions. Questions that she didn't know if she wanted the answers to.
“You are correct in that regard.” sighed Moon; she was tired before the start of this conversation, and dealing with Glossaryck just added to the whole thing. “Do you have any more information for me? I would like to be as informed as possible before I make any decisions.”
If possible, and much to Moon’s horror, Glossaryck’s grin got even larger. With a flourish and a flick of his wrist, he summoned an annoyingly thick packet. “Of course, my queen! Here you go! Now remember, you only have until morning to get through this and make your decision.”
Setting the packet down on Moon’s desk, he hightailed it out of her office, leaving her alone. Sending one final glare at the retreating form of the annoying little man, Moon took a second to take a deep breath. He was right; she sadly didn't have the luxury of time to just sit and read this at her leisure. Opening her desk and pulling out a few objects, she grimaced at her next set of actions.
One of the little-known perks of being the queen of Mewni and essentially the head of the magical high council was access to a secure office space far outside the ability of your average person to reach. While normally, its use was meant more for the storage and use of sensitive documents and items that, for whatever reason, needed total confidentiality, it had other uses as well. Mainly a side effect of its location dimension X-103.
It was exactly that side effect, a natural time dilation, that Moon was even considering going there in the first place. It would giver the time she needed to fully read the information she was given. Typically, she tried to avoid stepping foot in the entire dimension for several reasons, not the last being the headache she always got when returning, but mostly due to a part of the time dilation itself. Upon entering for the first time, a separate Temporal Template was created just for the dimension, a Temporal Template that was unaffected by the flow of time outside Dimension X-103.
Ripping open the rift with her scissors and stepping through the portal, she was met with the result of said differing Temporal Templates. Shrinking a good foot in height and feeling her clothes swap to a style she hasn't worn in almost twenty years, Moon shivers a bit at the changes. She was back in her sixteen-year-old body, giving credence to how much she hated being here and how little time she spent in the dimension after her first visit.
This was the primary reason she hated coming here; all it did was remind her of one of the most difficult portions of her life. It made her reflect on past actions and how she could have done things differently. It wasn't something she enjoyed, and she couldn't waste time doing it, especially now.
Pushing the thoughts, the what-ifs, and what could have been out of her mind, she started on what brought her here. The unreasonably large packet sitting in her hands. Opening it, she was hit in the face with the sheer density of the information contained inside. It seemed that Glossaryck had given her a complete dossier on the dimension, history, language, geography, the works. The imp had put a lot of work into this, and that worried her.
Reading through, she was decided. Star would be going to Earth. It checked all her boxes, a safe, out-of-the-way place where Star could learn to use her magic without outside interference. The only hangup she had, luckily enough, had already been solved. Earth was much larger than Mewni, orders of magnitude so, and had many different cultures and peoples. Enough that she would have been hard-pressed to learn enough about them to choose a location to send Star. Glossaryck, on the other hand, had no such issues and had already picked out the ideal location, even down to the city and school.
The only thing left to do was memorize the backstory that Glossaryck had created and inform Star and River of what was going to happen. She truly wished that she didn't have to send her daughter away like this, but it was sadly the only way to protect her while she cleaned house.
Pacing her room like a caged animal, Star was catastrophizing. She’d expected to be called to her mother’s study for a talk about yesterday’s events, but she hadn't heard a peep. This was odd, as her mother usually got these kinds of conversations done and over with as soon as possible, but it was going on three, and she hadn't seen her mother at all.
Pulling at her hair in frustration, she throws herself on her bed. She could only think of why it was taking so long for her mom to get around to the talk because she was setting something up. Had she finally decided to listen to Great Aunt Etheria? Was she going to send her to St. Olga’s? The suspense was killing her.
Just as she was about to start, another round of pacing and hair-pulling, a knock at her door brought her out of her own thoughts. “Star, Sweetie,” came her mother’s voice from the other side of the door, “Can I come in?”
Her mother was coming to
her
for this talk. This had never happened before. Every other time her mother had to scold her or needed to talk about her behavior, it was done in her study. She had no idea what to think. Was this a good thing? A bad thing? She didn't know.
Once again, getting lost in her own thoughts, she was brought back by her mother, who called out from behind the door again. “Star?” she questioned, giving another light knock. Snapping out of her stupor, Star rushed to open the door, tripping on pretty much every item between her bed and door.
Partially cracking the door open, she was met with her mother's stern face, which softened slightly as their eyes met. Quickly looking down, Star pushes the door open the rest of the way, letting Moon in. Making her way back to her bed, she slumps down, waiting for the inevitable. She’s being sent off to St. Olga’s, she sure of it.
Moon, watching her daughter, lets out a tired sigh, worried about how hard she was taking everything. She hadn't even started on the conversation about the day’s previous events, and Star was already as subdued as she’d ever seen her. Grabbing the high-backed chair Star kept at her vanity, Moon sat down and worked up the strength she needed to start the talk.
“Star, Sweetie,” started Moon, trying to keep her voice soft, “I’m not mad at you, but do you know why I’m having this talk with you?” She asked, looking directly at her daughter.
“The fire? I didn't mean to, I swear!” cried Star, frantic as she tried to explain herself to her mother, “I just wanted to summon a simple rainbow, but my emotions slipped in. Tom and I had just broken up, and I wanted something to cheer me up. Everything just got out of hand.”
That certainly explained some things to Moon. She had honestly thought that her daughter had gotten over-excited when casting her first spell, which had gotten out of hand. To hear that it was caused by the emotional distress of breaking up with her boyfriend certainly put a different spin on things. The fact that the spell didn't cause more damage in that case spoke volumes about Star’s aptitude for magic if she was being honest.
She could remember her first spells after her mother’s death. While not the same, strong negative emotions had played havoc on her magic for months, turning even the simplest of spells into destructive forces. That Star could control her magic well enough to get close to her desired outcome while battling the emotions of a breakup was astounding.
Coughing slightly to clear her throat, Moon continued with what she started after that shock. “Yes, the fire Star. I know you didn't intend to cause it, but it still happened. Magic is no toy; it's a powerful and potentially dangerous force. You can’t go around casting spells willy-nilly without reason like that.”
“But—” Star tried to argue. She knew her mother was right: Magic shouldn't be treated like a toy, and it shouldn't be used for just anything. But she also knew that she had to start somewhere, and she thought that something simple that also helped out was a good place to start.
Cutting off her daughter before she could argue, Moon moved on to the next part of the conversion. The hard part,t in her opinion. “No buts, Star, magic isn't a toy.” Stated Moon, giving Star a slight glare.
“While no one got hurt in the fire, quite a few shops and businesses were destroyed. The owners are understandably angry and want you punished. I understand that it was an accident and how easy it is for magic to go wrong, especially when you are first learning and emotions are high, but they have the right to be angry at you.” explained Moon, scotching a bit closer to Star.
“Now, I hate to do this, but your father and I have been talking, and we’ve decided it's best to send you away for a little while. Give you somewhere safe you can learn magic while spinning it to the villagers that it's a punishment to appease them.” finished Moon, pulling Star into a hug.
This was it, Star's worst nightmare, her parents were sending her to St. Olga’s. Where else would they send her? It was the only place she knew of that dealt with the kinds of things she needed to learn outside of Mewni. A place specially designed to take difficult princesses like her and turn them into perfect cookie-cutter young ladies. It scared her.
“Y-you're sending me to St. Olga’s?” she questioned, voice small and hollow. Hoping, praying that she was wrong, that her parents wouldn't do that to her. That they didn't hate her enough to send her away to get everything that made her, her sucked out.
Sucking in a breath, Moon’s eyes widened as she curses herself. She knew how much the very idea of St. Olga’s terrified Star; of course, she would think she was being sent there when told she was being sent away. Pulling Star tighter into her, Moon reassured her daughter. “No, No, my little starshine, we’re
not
sending you to St. Olga’s.”
“Then where?” asked Star, confused. She wasn’t getting sent to St. Olga’s? Then, just where were her parents sending her?
“Earth, it's a safe, out-of-the-way dimension that Glossaryck helped us choose,” said Moon, leaning back slightly and giving a flick of her wrist to summon a stack of brochures and packets she had picked up earlier. “It’s what took me so long to have this chat with you. Your father and I were getting everything set up.”
Moon continued handing the packets to Star, “It will just be for a few months, a year at the most. You’ll be taking magic lessons from Glossaryck and attending a local ‘high school’, a place of learning for children your age.”
“The only caveat is there is no inherent magic in the dimension, so you’ll have to do your best to hide your magic from the locals.”
Star didn't know what to think. She was being sent away for a
year
? Had the fire angered people so much that her punishment would last a year! And what about the fact that she had to hide her magic? How was she supposed to learn if she had to do so in private? The only saving grace so far was the fact that it wasn't St. Olga’s.
Looking up at her mother, she asked her most burning question, “When do I leave?”