Chapter Text
Things had been delightfully quiet for nearly two weeks, much to Ludo's delight. After the beating his men had received, they all needed some time to reassess the situation, and just recover in general.
He had been sending Ghillie out on numerous missions of espionage, trying to figure out more about this new player in his plots against Star. What had been troubling him, however, was word of another force brewing over the horizon. Talks of large amounts of troops of all kinds were being gathered, in numbers that dwarfed his own. He had trust in the quality of training he had his monsters going through, but good training can only do so much against vast hordes.
While Ghillie had been invaluable in finding this information out, the identity of the leader was still unknown. Ludo was not happy about the new competition in the villainous department, and was becoming increasingly desperate to get his hands on Star's magic wand. Having such a weapon would certainly even the odds stacked against him. This fact alone made him want it more than ever.
The new mystery boy that Star had begun dating was proving to be too difficult to tie down, seemingly vanishing without a trace after the thorough beating he had delivered. The fact that he could return at any time was proving to be quite... distracting.
To say the least, having so many hiccoughs in his plans had been quite stressful on the little monster lord.
Which was why he was moving his schemes forward much more quickly than he normally would have liked. He didn't have all of his bases covered yet, but as he looked over his plans, there were so few variables that could ruin things that he felt it worth the risk, especially with ever looming threats approaching.
He gnawed on his pencil again, going over the plan one more time, before angrily scrunching it up and tossing it aside. His frustrations had gotten the better of him.
"I can't wait anymore... I must have that wand!" He shouted to the air.
Then, against the wishes of his advisors, he sent the order. It was time to get what he wanted at last.
StarFan13's life couldn't be going any better. In the week since the double date, she and Star had gotten to spend all kinds of time together. They'd even become the talk of the school for a few days, before the ever changing high school gossip mill moved on to something else. It was nice while it lasted, and she had to admit she wouldn't be able to tolerate it if it had gone on much longer, but her fifteen minutes of fame had been fun.
Dating Star required a lot more work than she thought it would, though. She never could have guessed how much more she needed to eat on the regular since she started swinging her hammer around while out on adventures. It had honestly been exhausting at first, but once her body started getting used to it, it went from being fun by proxy of the princess, to just fun all by itself.
Never did she think that taking a weapon with her everywhere would become normal, and yet, she wouldn't leave her house without her warnicorn hammer on her person anymore.
It was funny how fast things changed around her girlfriend.
School had just ended for the week, and as usual, she walked home, while Star and Marco went back to their place. They always went home first, to finish their homework, before meeting up later in the evening for adventures, or just hanging out with their friends. After both she and Star had been late and failed their science homework a few days ago, they made a promise to each other to deal with school first, if only to avoid stressing out about it when they spent time together.
Things had been going so well for her lately, that it was about time for something to come and ruin her day.
The faint scent of sleeping powder was her only warning, a smell she wasn't entirely familiar with. Her eyes started to droop, and slowly she fell into surprisingly gentle arms. Before her consciousness faded, she could swear she'd been caught by a giant bush.
The light that invaded her eyes made her head pound. Her eyes squeezed shut reflexively, a groan escaping her extremely dry throat. A moment later, she realized that something was blowing very warm air at her. It wasn't sweltering, but miserably dry.
She smacked her lips a few times, trying to get a little moisture brewing to ease her discomfort. Slowly, she began to open her eyes.
She was greeted with a splash of water in her face.
Sputtering, her eyes shot wide open. Her glasses had taken the brunt of the water, but were nearly impossible to see through anymore. She shot about, looking for anything close by, only to find her movement was drastically limited.
Her arms were tied to her sides.
"Good, you're awake." Came a horrible little voice that had burned its way into her mind.
"Ludo!?" She called out, turning and catching a glimpse of a green blob nearby.
"That's Lord Ludo to you!"
She shook her head, trying to get the moisture on her glasses to go away. The hot breeze blowing at her was helping. "Where am I?"
"You're in my castle, human! Completely at my mercy!" He said with a bit too much glee, before letting out a maniacal laugh.
StarFan13 grunted and struggle against her bindings, "Just you wait until I get out of this! You'll be sorry!" After all, she had beaten him once before, though he didn't know that.
"I think you'd prefer to not be free, considering what would happen should you break your ropes. Why don't you take a quick look down?"
"What?" She asked, wondering just what he was on about. She looked down, as asked, and thankfully, her glasses were mostly dry by now. Or, maybe not thankfully, as what she saw would have chilled her to the bone, had it not been so hot.
Below her, about thirty feet down, was a bubbling cauldron of some kind of green substance. A fan, the source of the wind from earlier, was blowing away a column of heat rising from the surface. She could feel the warmth rising up, and she knew that if not for the fan, she might be baked alive!
"Do you like it? I mixed a bunch of nasty stuff that I found all over Mewni in there. Oh, and I saw you sweating, so I added the fan. You're welcome!" He added, striking a little pose and feeling quite proud of himself.
"Well, okay, the fan is kinda nic- Wait!" She shook her head, "No! You're a jerk!"
Ludo actually seemed offended. "Well now, there's no need for name calling.
"Of course there is! You have me tied up above a boiling pot of doom! And you kidnapped me!" She cried, struggling to see if she could move her hands.
It soon became apparent, however, that her warnicorn hammer was no longer on her person.
The monster grinned, "Looking for this?" He asked, dangling the horn, the hammer's compact form, in his hand.
"Give that back!"
"Don't take me for some kind of fool. I don't know how you got a hold of a warnicorn's horn, but I'm not letting you have anything sharp or pointy!" He said, pointing the horn like a dagger, "you'll cut yourself loose and try to stab me or something. No no, much too dangerous. Besides, just looking at it gives me a headache for some reason."
StarFan13 looked confused for a moment. Did he not remember her beating him up?
Ludo stowed away the horn before continuing, "Now. Please do sit tight. You might be in for a long wait."
"No! Just you wait! Star is going to notice I'm gone, and she's going to come for me!"
"I should certainly hope so! I mean, that's why I brought you here after all. You're the bait!" He said, a look of glee on his face. "Once she gets here, I'm going to threaten to cut you down, without moving the pot of course. Then she'll give me her wand! It worked for Toffee, so why shouldn't it work for me?"
The girl's eyes widened considerably. Being used against her girlfriend like this was almost sickening to her. A small panic began to well up inside of her chest at the thought that after all this time, after all they'd been through, she might be the one responsible for Star losing her wand.
The monster lord grinned mischievously, "So you see my genius, then?" He let out a villainous laugh, before devolving into a fit of coughs. A moment later, he mumbled "Ack! I think I need to see my voice coach again...
"Ahem, now, human. I have a small question to ask you."
"I'm not telling you anything!"
"Yes, yes, they all say that. Anyway, perhaps you could tell me when you think Star might notice you gone? I have plans to keep you here for a few days, but I want to get an idea of when I should have the men get ready, and if we have time enough for fajita night."
"Days!? I have to go to the bathroom at some point, you know!"
"Oh... well, I hadn't quite thought about that... I suppose if I place some sentries around, we could escort you to the toiletries a few times if need be..." He said, musing to himself as he stroked his chin in thought.
StarFan13's stomach rumbled a little, "And food. I skipped lunch for my date tonight."
"Right! Right, we have some corn, that won't be a problem... wait, date? Oh umm..." He actually felt a little bad about that. "Well... Ah! If I get the wand, how about I set up a nice little apology for you and your... umm..." He fought to find the right word, his knowledge of humans rather limited.
"Star."
"Yes, you and your... Star... Star. Star!? Y-You don't mean..." He asked, seeming to be quite nervous at this point.
"Yes. Star. That Star. We were going on a dinner date tonight."
"B-But... what about that crazy fellow with the hammer? The-the-" He reached into his robes, and pulled out a series of pictures, ones of Star and StarFan13 on their dates.
The ones that had her dressed as a boy.
"That's me in an outfit! And the horn is my hammer! Also, you've been stalking us!?" She asked incredulously.
"Military reconnaissance!" He retorted, "I have to get you down as soon as possible! I apologize for the inconvenience. You'll be brought back to Earth post haste, and hopefully Star won't have noticed!"
Now the hostage was confused, "You're starting to freak me out a bit here. I thought you wanted to use me to get Star's wand?"
"I wanted one of her friends! Not her girlfriend! Ghillie's been watching for me to help pick one of you who she liked, but not enough to go ballistic over it! When Toffee locked Marco in a death box, she blew up my castle! You are much too risky to have here."
He was just about to bark orders to get StarFan13 released, when his castle started to rumble.
"Oh no."
Star hummed happily as she and Marco made their way back home. It was getting easier for the two of them to spend time together, and just be friends again. It was a welcome change of pace from the months prior, which had them both in misery.
"Excited for tonight, Star?" Marco asked politely.
"You bet'cha! I found this wicked restaurant a few dimensions over that Kelly showed me. I went in for a quick snack and it's so goooood." She replied, grinning wide.
Her face fell a moment as she checked her phone.
Concern etched itself across Marco's face. "What's wrong?" He asked.
"It's StarFan13... She always answers my texts almost immediately, unless I catch her in the middle of something. But it's been almost thirty minutes now since I've heard from her."
Marco frowned. From what he knew of the obsessive girl, this was really strange. "Maybe you should pop over and make sure everything's alright?"
The princess bit her lip, "You think that's going too far?"
The boy shrugged, "What constitutes too far around you is pretty subjective. I always vote on the side of caution though."
"Yeah... Yeah, you're right. This is far from her normal. If I'm not back in five minutes, well..."
She reached into her purse for her dimensional scissors, and cut open a portal to her girlfriend's front door. She leaned in and poked her head through to get a peek.
Ghillie was standing there, sticking a note to the door. He jumped as he heard a gasp from behind him.
"Uhh..." He uttered, before panickedly searching himself for his own scissors to flee the scene.
Star saw red. Blindly reaching, she grabbed Marco's arm and hauled him through the portal she'd made along with the rest of her own body.
"Whoa! Star! What's the mat- Hey!" He cried out as he spotted Ghillie there, having heard a few stories about the monster by now.
Fist and wand were inches away from readiness as the scrambling Ghillie managed to find what he was looking for and opened another rift in reality, this one pointing directly towards Ludo's castle.
However, he wasn't fast enough to stop the two angry teenagers from following him through.
"Uh oh..." He uttered, before running into the doors of the castle, "close the doors! Close the doors!"
Scrambling to obey the monster's commands, the others on the parapets started to pull up the chains that drew up the moat bridge. This did little to stop the encroaching ball of rage that was invading their castle.
Star was furious as she looked at the castle that had something to do with StarFan13's disappearance. She might have been able to logic out that she should have at least read the note Ghillie had been in the process of sticking to the door, but she wasn't entirely in her right mind at the moment. The hearts on her cheeks had a faint glow to them as her magic gathered in her wand. Without incantation, she thrust it forward to let loose a blast of raw magical energy, which blew the raised door to splinters.
Grabbing Marco by the collar, she cast a levitation spell on them both, and jumped with all of her might. The two sailed through the opening in the door. Their feet impacted the stone floors beneath them, clacking out loudly.
"Star? I think you should calm down a bit." Marco said, trying to help.
Instead of replying, the angry princess simply sent out a blast with her hand at an incoming group of monsters, sending them sprawling out in their ambush spot.
The boy sighed, "This is not going to end well."
He followed along, the trail of destruction a little disturbing. Things were blown apart - monsters were beat up - more than usual. Star was on a warpath the likes of which he hadn't seen since Toffee.
"Lord Ludoooo!" A monster cried, grabbing the attention of the teens, as he ran towards a large stone double door. A smaller door embedded within the larger opened up, allowing passage. This proved to be a rather big mistake, as now the princess knew exactly where she was going.
A flick of her wand, and the paltry seals that kept the door closed were blasted aside, throwing the door wide open.
Going in, she had expected to see a scene similar to the time Marco had been taken by Toffee, locked in a magical box that could shrink on command. What she saw instead was StarFan13 running right for her.
"Star!" The brunette shouted, almost leaping into the blonde's arms.
"StarFan13!" Came the reply, as they embraced one another.
The princess grabbed her girlfriend's face, showering her with kisses as the adrenaline continued to cloud her mind, "Are you okay?" She asked, still peppering her face with little kisses.
"Yes I'm- Star. Star!" The human exclaimed, grabbing the other girl by her cheeks and looking into her eyes, "Calm down, Star. You have no idea how much it means to be that you'd do this for me, but there's no need for anyone else to get hurt today, okay?"
"Hurt!? Did he hurt you?" Star asked, looking the other girl over for injuries.
"I'm fine! I'm fine. Just warm, and a little hungry. I'm okay. Alright?" She asked, stroking her girlfriend's cheek to try and calm her down a bit.
"You're fine... You're fine. Okay." The princess replied, visibly beginning to calm down, the strain of her rampage starting to catch up to her a little bit.
"Once Ludo realized what he'd done," StarFan13 snickered, "you should have seen his face. He was downright terrified when he found out you were dating me, and not some random Earth boy with a hammer."
"What? I- Oh." Star pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, "Really? Really!"
"Yes, really. He knew you'd level his castle, so he let me go."
"I wasn't going to-"
StarFan13 silenced her with a finger, "You were going to level his castle. I could see it on your face."
The princess slumped a little, realizing that her girlfriend was right. Maybe she should take some anger management classes. Or at least find a way to stay calm under pressure.
"Is it safe to come out now?" Came a meek voice from deeper in the room.
The human girl frowned and gave a rather rude gesture towards the voice, though only the other human in the room understood the significance. Ludo instead interpreted it as a pass to leave his hiding place.
Star's frown returned almost immediately, hand gripping her wand tightly, but the monster lord spoke first, "Wait! Don't! I'm... s-sorry!" He said, the words coming off with a little bit of revulsion for having said them, "Look, I'm still trying to find my identity as a villain over here. I thought a kidnapping might work, but I clearly see now that it doesn't. I-I promise that I won't try something like this again! And! And tell her!" He added, pointing towards StarFan13.
Said girl rolled her eyes and said, "He's also offered to foot the bill for our next THREE dates."
"Three!? I-" He shut up as two still angry girls glared at him, "Ah... yes, three. Of course."
Star sighed, "Alright... Let's get out of here then. Maybe we can still salvage the evening." She then turned to Marco, "Sorry for dragging you along with this. I kind of went on auto-pilot for a little bit there."
The boy simply shrugged, "It's okay, Star. I understand. I was pretty into the whole rescue thing for a bit there too. I'm just glad everything worked out for the better this time around."
Of course he had to say it.
"Lord Ludo!" A monster shouted into the room, his limbs flailing about, "they're coming!"
The monster lord sighed and facepalmed, "Yes, I know. They're right here."
"Not them, the other ones!"
"What!?" Ludo shouted, which got everyone's attention. "Are you certain?"
"I saw it! On the horizon! An army of them. All with the red spade banners."
Star's blood went cold.
"Send everyone to their posts! Get the construction crew repairing the damage to the outer walls first. Load up the parapets with everything we have!" Ludo barked, his focus returning with the new danger that he felt he could handle.
"Did... did he say, 'red spade'?"
This got the monster's attention, "Yes, you know something?"
"That... that's Eclipsa."
"Who?"
"I-I don't know much about her. Only what my mom told me. She was a Queen of Mewni who was supposed to be locked up and away in the Crystal Dimension forever. Mom said that she might be able to get out one day but... I didn't think..." Star uttered, a bit of terror filling her voice.
Ludo's jaw dropped slightly at what was said. He didn't know who he was dealing with. His face then screwed up in thought. A moment later, he sighed, "This seems to be as much of your problem as it is mine. I'm not a fool. I know I won't be able to stop her. Not on my own. What chances do you think you have on your own?" He asked.
Star didn't really have an answer to that.
"We have a few hours, at best, before they get here. It may be in both of our best interests if we put aside our differences, call in everyone we know, and... eugh. Work together."
The princess felt a hand get placed on either of her shoulders. Looking quickly, she saw that it was both StarFan13 and Marco on either side of her.
"I may still be pretty new to this adventuring and saving Mewni business, but I know you can do this, Star. I'm with you on this." Said StarFan13.
"Me too. It looks like it's time to save Mewni again."
Star smiled, "You guys..." She took a deep breath, "Yeah. Yeah, we got this."
She grabbed her scissors. "We need to find help. You said we have a few hours, Ludo?"
"Considering how far away I can see from the lookout tower, if they're on foot, then yes." He replied.
Things may be different now, in ways she couldn't possibly imagine. Her crush had become her best friend again. Her biggest fan had become someone so much more special to her than either of them had thought could happen. Her one time foe had grown as first a villain, and now an ally through desperation. An all new villain approached from the horizon.
Another chapter in the life of Star Butterfly, Princess of Mewni.
And she was ready for it.