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Don't-
Her name is Moon.
Don't do it.
She is a princess. Queen-in-training, per say.
Don-
There is a war.
Don't stare.
There is blood.
Nooooooooooo
She's facing the brains behind the operation-
Whyyyyyyyyyy
And he doesn't look pleased-
You stared! Moon! Why!? Whyyyyyyy
In the slightest.
Why does he have to have such nice pectoral muscles- and...nipples!?
"Paint a portrait."
"...What?"
"That way you can keep the image to stare at for eternity." He smirks and it's then (not during the battle, or when she saw him knock out five footmen in a row) that she decides he is skillfully dangerous.
He's a monster.
But if you just stare at him from the neck down and ignore the hands and tail he almost looks human and-
NO. That weakens her resolve; thinking of a monster in the same regard as a mewman. She has caught herself doing so in the past. Thinking those thoughts, feeling pity, sympathy, questioning, wondering, and thoughts of "what if's". Dangerous territory no mewman should cross, let alone the future queen of Mewni.
"While you continue to have your little internal spat, I'll take the liberty of starting this-" one clawed hand, constrained under metal cuffs, moves slightly to the side in a restrained wave to motion at the surroundings "whatever or wherever this is by asking...What is the point in all this?"
Honestly, she had no idea either.
The room was dark. The world around them was monochrome and the room was reminiscent of a study except the furniture was smaller, the room was smaller, and the windows were smaller and rectangle with some sort of thinly-sliced rectangular slabs of wood that were woven in string that made the greyish light that projected into the room have irregular shadows attached to them. He sat in the middle of the room with his wrists, forearms, and ankles strapped to a wooden chair. Oh, and there was that weird instrument she couldn't recognize that seemed to function without the need of a songstrel.
"Hello?"
She stifled (he noted) from her spot atop of a wooden desk as her head turned from the view of the instrument to regard him once more. She resumed her stance of raising her wand with both hands, firmly holding the handle, and pointing it at him as she had in the battlefield.
One minute amidst the battle she was gazing at him and channeling a spell, spoke it, and somehow ended up in this odd dimension with him strapped to a chair. That was all she knew and she didn't think it the best strategic maneuver to share that lack of knowledge with her current adversary regardless of his lack of current mobility. She didn't want to appear any more childish and ignorant than her young age made her out to seem.
"I desire...to interrogate." It was a half-truth. Deep inside, before the duel, right when her parents had consent to discuss the parchment that had been placed near their doorstep that spoke of a declaration that could not be ignored. Since that time she had questioned why. After over a century of peace, why now, during her time? Why was this happening? What were the motives?
"Well?" He asked.
"Well?" She parroted.
He had looked unamused since the beginning but now he looked a bit impatient along with...skepticism? Then there was that long, purposely drawn out sigh.
"Aren't you going to ask questions? Or do you really just not know what you're doing?" To this her mouth opens in a small 'o'. He takes it as a sign to continue. "Why Mewni insist on enlisting teenagers to inherit powerful magic and command over the royal army is a tactic beyond my understanding. I can see the need for experience but..." Again with the hand gesture. "This? Really now."
It grates her. It grates her nerves so much that he's just....just...
So condescending.
She hates him for it but admires- acknowledges it too. He's confident and he knows what he's doing...
Unlike me.
She hates thinking it- admitting it, even if it's only to the voices in her head.
Gulping her mixed emotions down she suppresses the urge to take a deep breath.
"You know what? Mr..."
"Toffee. Just Toffee."
"Toffee. I don't have to answer that. In fact-" She takes the deep breath after all. She needs it. "You are correct. I don't know what I'm doing..."
To that she looks down, both for being unable to meet his gaze due to an intense momentary build-up of shame and vulnerability, but also to steel herself for what she will say next. As she raises her head up once more to regard him, she knows that this is a long shot; a gut feeling. Princesses don't follow their guts. But she's not in Mewni and no one but Toffee was around to possibly see her fail.
"But the same could be said to you."
"Excuse me?"
"You're leading a revolution, correct?" She doesn't give him the chance to respond. "Yet you don't see how you will fail."
Moon feels no fear as she releases her right hand from the wand and lets her left drag it down to her side. She jumps off of the wooden desk and takes a step forward to stand a foot away from him.
"You seem to underestimate me because of my age. You've made that much clear. Because you see something in me that is weak. Well, you are correct. I have weaknesses. I am mewman, after all."
Moon doesn't know if it's her, the her that she is outwardly trying to portray or the her that he sees inside that makes the skepticism he wore for so long wash away. Toffee is genuinely looking at her, genuinely regarding Moon in a way she saw as that of an equal. The way she was trying to regard him. She would have offered a smile were she not suppressing it to showcase the stern face required for this moment.
"But do not underestimate me. I may be young but I am a royal. I have just as much determination as you do to end this battle. Toffee, I want to propose something-" There's a glare. "Stop the fight. Take your remaining monsters and flee. Regroup. Wait for me to become queen and let us meet again. Let us speak. It won't be easy. I might not understand you and you might not understand me but...let's try."
The glare doesn't leave even as Toffee says "I accept." and that, like the magic incantation or a pair of dimensional scissors, rips them from the scene to their previous spots on the battlefield. Time moves on and Moon only takes a second to let it pass as she whistles for Lil Chauncey to come to her. When she is mounted on his back and taken in a rush of hooves and baa's to the middle of the carnage to call the battle off- that is when she sees her mistake.
Toffee accepted the terms...but Moon never mentioned that he had to leave her army be. That hits her when an arrow flies and hits Lil Chauncey straight in the chest. Her prized pet jumps off the cliff and something in her snaps. Her wand is back in both hands, once more locked on ripped pectorals with nipples and the rainbow in her resonates a spell that has her seeing red.
That's when it hits Toffee.
Moon is undaunted.