Chapter Text
The Queen of Hours stood in the empty room, save for her tapestry, beholding her in her glory as a Queen.
Upon the carved onyx laid her poem, and she declared to herself, "May every Queen see this glory the way I am now."
She waited alone for a period of time indescribable, then was suddenly alerted at the sound of clanking metal needles.
Two pairs at work, following after her own.
My children, she thought to herself, as two stones sprung forth from the ground. The first was amethyst carved in the luck of clovers. The second, carved in deathly thunder, was carnelian.
Her son, the Uncalculated, seemed to be defined by his misfortunes. Her daughter, the Monster Carver, however, was manifested by her successes. Such contrasting legacies! The Queen of Hours wondered how she brought up such colorful children.
As the needles stopped, the Monster Carver's tapestry sparkled and began to glow. The Queen of Hours braced herself, as then appeared her daughter, the smell of blood ridding the room of its smell of dusty books.
The Monster Carver was startled, unaccepting of her defeat.
"Solaria," spoke the Queen of Hours, bearing a regal voice that clearly stood well against the forces of time.
The Monster Carver wept, seeing the emptiness in her mother's eyes while her very own began to cloud.
An embrace. A hush of silence. A whimper of regret.
"I have much left behind, Mother!" Exclaimed the Monster Carver. "My darling Eclipsa! My good brother-"
The Queen of Hours silenced her daughter, an alien comfort in her ghostly arms. "Have I not left in a similar manner, Daughter?"
She sighed as she moved her daughter, both facing the tapestries present. "Time's arrow merely marches forward, and so must we."
The Monster Carver gave her mother a look of distraught confusion until she could no longer hold and resigned to tears of ashes.
They talked on, throwing their criticisms at the tapestry work, comparing and contrasting. Time seemed like nothing to them.
The roar of thunder and violin quivers shook the two present, the floor's sudden glow causing them to stand.
The floor projected a violet spade, a haunting glow; the wall space next to the Monster Carver's tapestry turned black. Emerging from the black brick were needles of duskglass, weaving with a dark purple thread. From the ground, an untamed saturnstone geode:
Eclipsa, Queen of Darkness
The Monster Carver's eyes widened at the words, bravely nearing the geode.
"My precious Eclipsa," she touched the saturnstone, which then burst out greenish-grey gas. The Queen of Hours was startled at the sight of this action, pausing in her motions when it had appeared her daughter was not harmed.
As the gas faded, the words on the geode gave a ghastly glow:
Eclipsa, Queen of Mewni
To a Mewman King was wed
But took a Monster for her love
And away from Mewni fled
The Queen of Hours gasped, hearing the words fly out of her daughter's mouth.
"This can't be right," Spat out the Monster Carver, a sense of panic and unfamiliar vulnerability bubbling from within her. "No no no no no, she can't,"
A sob.
"No!" A stomp.
The ground shook back to make her fall. She held her tears.
"The tapestry," Awe and fear were in the voice of the Queen of Hours.
The Monster Carver's clouded eyes gazed at her daughter's tapestry—a menacing portrait of her daughter in the arms of the Prince of Darkness.
The Monster Carver knew that beast, a creature that could change its size. The beast lorded over the monsters that she had sought to purge Mewni of.
And her daughter, her intelligent, beautiful, and powerful daughter, chose this monstrosity over the wonderful Kingdom of Mewni.
What could bring my girl to do this? Was the monster so enticing?
She dared to share her title with the enemy.
The Monster Carver wept again. The Queen of Hours did not know what to do.
The Queen of Hours tried to calm down her daughter once more. The Monster Carver had her love for family. She then began to ponder about her enigma of a granddaughter.
None of them knew how long the Monster Carver wept until the click of needles came again, this time at the other side of the Queen of Hours' tapestry, facing the tapestry of the Uncalculated.
The room began to smell of corn wine and firework smoke as a well-carved slab of cubic zirconia sprouted from the floor.
The two did not recognize the Queen in the finished tapestry, but they felt drawn to her. The Fun was a striking one—they concluded that this must be the daughter of the Queen of Darkness.
The Monster Carver began to speculate about the fate of her daughter but was interrupted by her mother, who directed her to the tapestry of her brother.
The tapestry sparkled and began to glow, a tall and masculine figure emerging from the tapestry.
The Uncalculated nearly fell as he felt the void-like ground, caught in the ghostly arms of his mother and sister.
He had not seen them in so long, a feeble smirk upon his countenance. His face looked burdened by a perpetual sorrow, and the lifelessness of his eyes made him more pitiful than powerful.
He held his family in an embrace, delirious giggling coming out of him. The women of his life could only wail and form a chorus with his laughter.
"Eclipsa?!" He cried as he suddenly let go of his mother and sister. His beloved niece, a part of his time was given just for her.
"Jushtin-"
"Where is she?" He asked in great volume. His gasp kept the two from replying as he caught the tapestry of the Queen of Darkness.
He neared the embroidered rug, catching slivers of purple glow within the fabric lining.
"I'd be careful with that saturnstone," Said the Monster Carver.
"Oh!" He stopped before almost bumping into the geode. He read the poem and sighed in sadness.
"Why isn't she here?" He asked them, still mesmerized by the glow of the saturnstone.
"Whatever do you mean, Jushtin?" Asked his mother.
"How long has it been?" Asked his sister.
"I've lived a long life. I bet little Tivi is throwing a grand funeral for me," The Uncalculated began to ramble. "The Magical High Commission told me of the terrible things that happened to our darling Eclipsa—lured by the Prince of Darkness, explaining her behaviors and her power over dark magic-"
"Dark magic?" The Queen of Hours was taken aback. "No Queen has ever survived exposure to dark magic, let alone manipulate various kinds of magic at once! There is no way!"
The Uncalculated breathed and faced his mother and sister. "She did it—the MHC said all her spells contained an amount of dark magic, ranging from a drop to excessive amounts. They immediately declared her chapter forbidden."
"Forbidden?" The Monster Carver was trying to process the information.
"I could only wonder what stress her daughter underwent," The Queen of Hours then faced the tapestry of the Fun, and the Uncalculated immediately ran towards it.
"There's Tivi," He remarked, reading her poem to himself.
"What else did they tell you, brother?" Solaria faced him, her voice riddled with a common determination.
"I, well-" He faced them again and leaned on the cubic zirconia slab. "Eclipsa...had been eaten by the monster, alongside her husband Shastican."
The Queen of Hours gasped, wanting to faint if it weren't for the fact that she was an obvious apparition.
"E-eaten?" Anger.
"The five were witness to the event. Solaria, I'm as distraught as-"
He was cut off as the Monster Carver sent a punch towards her daughter's tapestry—the cloth immediately curled itself into her hand and she aggressively tried to pull her hand out.
"Solaria!" Cried her mother and brother.
She growled. "Help me!"
The Uncalculated and the Queen of Hours immediately ran towards the Monster Carver, quickly but gently unwrapping the cloth from her hand. The Monster Carver's hand gleamed purple for a brief second until it immediately faded back to normal.
The Monster Carver was panting, almost choking in the firework smoke, mint cologne, dried blood smell, and dusty books.
"Are you alright, dear?" Asked her mother.
"How can I be alright?! My daughter, mother! My daughter!" She could not talk. She could only feel.
The Uncalculated sighed as he and his sister shared each other's tears.
"They managed to rescue Festivia," He continued to narrate between mild sobs. "Her child with Shastican; the Prince of Darkness was infuriated at the newborn, apparently thinking that Eclipsa had betrayed him."
The Monster Carver curled into a ball on the void floor. The Uncalculated sat next to her to comfort her.
"I pray for that poor Festivia," muttered the Queen of Hours. "Forced to keep a smile amongst the Mewmans."
"Isn't that the job, mother?" The Uncalculated caught his mother at her throat.
"Y-yes, son." And the Queen of Hours wept, sitting next to her children.