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Hmm... Now, this was a bit of an issue. Eclipsa stared down at her arms, turning them this way and that, but their appearance didn't change. Emerald green fur coated them, with a soft white running along the underside. Their shape was different, too. The bones felt lighter, better suited to walking on all fours with the forearms all elongated. That wasn't mentioning the massive dark purple horn jutting down the center of her line of sight. Still, she tried to stay calm.
It wasn't every day one sprouted fur, after all. Though, Eclipsa was sure that wasn't all that had happened. Really, she should've seen it coming sooner. One of those jumpy guards had brought her in a plate of food at a most unusual hour, and it was cookies of all things. They tasted lovely with the pot of tea the guard likewise brought to accompany them. In light of her sudden and inexplicable transformation, however, Eclipsa was forced to wonder. Was it the cookies that had been poisoned, or the tea?
Well, it hardly mattered now. She was, judging by the state of her body, turned into some kind of animal. If she had to guess... Eclipsa scampered over to the tower's window. Yes, scampering really did feel very natural to this new body. And, there! Just as she'd suspected, the image of a squirrelicorn stared back at her. Green and white, with a large dark purple horn. Unlike the strangely vacant eyes of other squirrelicorn she'd seen, her own retained their narrowed shape and intellect. Small victories.
Now, what to do about all this... She could merely wait it out, cross her fingers and hope that the poison either wasn't permanent or that someone would discover her condition in time and reverse it. Or, she could take a more proactive role. Eclipsa caught sight of her own eyes narrowing in the faint glass reflection. Yes, her choice was clear as day. Without any fanfare, Eclipsa took a step back before launching herself at the window. Head lowered, her new horn broke through the glass, and she found herself careening toward the ground.
It was instinct that saved her from smacking face-first into the dirt, a quirk of nature telling her to spread out her arms and legs, create as much drag in the air as possible. When she landed, it wasn't as graceful as she would've liked, but there were no broken bones either. Of course, part of that was because her fall was cushioned by a large, thorny bush. One of the unkempt rose bushes underneath her tower had caught her safely. Not a single thorn pricked her skin.
Eclipsa pulled herself out of the tangle of thorns and leaves, shaking herself off. Step one, complete. Now, to find someone who wouldn't rather see her stuck as a rodent until the end of her days when they learned who she was. Her ears perked up to the sound of humming. That voice... It sounded slightly different with smaller, more sensitive ears, but she recognized it. Eclipsa turned her head toward a door back into the castle, and a few moments later, Star emerged from it.
Oh, she'd do perfectly. Eclipsa didn't claim to be the best at reading people, but she and Star had an amicable relationship, even if it was partly predicated on Star needing a bit more of a gentle guiding hand in her life to balance out her mother's iron grip. Really, when did Moon become so dull? She shook her head. That was beside the point. Slinking her way into the open, Eclipsa crept up on Star, ears alert for the tiniest hint of the Magical High Commission coming to imprison her again.
"Oh," Star looked down and noticed her approach, with how slowly she was walking. "Hey there, little guy. Sorry, I don't have any food for you." Then, in a half-hearted mutter, "And I'm not supposed to feed you anyway, but uh... Nevermind." Eclipsa blinked up at her, tilting her head to the side. Moon forbade feeding the squirrelicorns? What a strange rule to impose. She came up faster now, walking up until she sat right at Star's feet. Here goes nothing...
"Star, it's me," she tried to say, but even to her own ears it sounded like nothing more than chattering. "I've found myself in quite the conundrum, and I'm in need of some aid, if at all possible?" Eclipsa frowned when her words still refused to come out correctly. She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised. Different mouth and all, so naturally she wouldn't be able to speak properly. Still rather disheartening, though. And she'd been so hopeful that it could be solved that easily.
"Huh, usually you guys run from me," Star noted. She squinted at Eclipsa. "...Has Marco been feeding you? I don't think Mom's given him the whole 'vermin' talk yet." Vermin? Squirrelicorns were far from vermin! They could be destructive, yes, but everything on Mewni was destructive. In most cases, they were at least somewhat entertaining, unlike some snobbish characters Eclipsa had known back in her own time.
Suddenly, Star was reaching down and scratching the top of her head. Eclipsa tried not to melt, but the pressure of her fingernails against her scalp and the novel sensation of fingers brushing through her fur made it difficult not to. She chittered some gibberish as she leaned into the head scratches. Eclipsa had been sure she knew their value, but this whole experience was adding an entirely new perspective to it. Star chuckled somewhere up above her - Eclipsa couldn't see, her eyes being closed and all.
"You know, you're really calm. And you seem to like head scratches," she remarked. "Are you someone's pet?" Those massive fingers pulled away, and Eclipsa wasn't ashamed to admit that her initial reaction was disappointment strong enough to warrant whatever the rodent equivalent of a whine was. She looked back up to Star, who was staring at her searchingly, biting her lip. Then, she brought her hand back down, but this time, scratched Eclipsa's cheek before slipping under her chin.
When she pulled away the second time, she shook herself out of her stupor and took the opportunity presented to her. With a leap, she latched onto Star's retreating arm, gripping it like the trunk of a tree as she climbed up. Her coordination felt distinctly off, but Eclipsa found a suitable perch on Star's shoulder. From that vantage point, the world righted itself. Being back around her own actual height was quite the relief. How was it that her Globgor could shrink and grow, and barely bat an eye? Questions for later.
"I'll... take that as a yes!" Star went along with her easily enough. She pet Eclipsa some more, one finger tracing the light spiral indent that ran down her horn. "Since Marco's being boring and practicing karate, what do you say we go on our own little adventure? I'll bring peanuts!" Eclipsa had many questions - peanuts? Kar...ate? - but she knew one thing for sure. Star was offering to let her run around freely for the first time since... Well, since she broke out of that horrid crystal before being promptly re-captured.
There was no way she was going to let that chance go.
The afternoon that followed could best be described as chaotic. It wasn't very fun to be tiny, or talked down to, or not have access to her magic through the wand, but Star's presence more than made up for those minor hiccups. They ran rampant through the streets around Butterfly Castle. At first, Star attempted to locate Eclipsa's 'owner' to return her to them. But then there was a scuffle over a pie of all things, and one thing lead to another... Eclipsa might've impaled someone in the butt, but that was neither here nor there.
After that, there were no holds barred. The pie thief was tracked down as he tried to make his grand escape, dodging narwhal blasts all the while. Eclipsa might've been impressed if he didn't manage to do it entirely by accident. She wasn't sure she'd ever met someone quite so prone to tripping as he, and she didn't think she'd like to again. Regardless, Star had to sick her laser beam-shooting puppies on him, along with a spider in a top hat, and that at least concluded the chase.
From there, he tried to plead his innocence, claiming that he was only stealing the pie back from the original thief. Eclipsa wasn't impressed with his excuses, but she wasn't about to pass up a chance to mentally torment some poor souls who just so happened to fall into her lap. She and Star sleuthed out the true culprit; the thief's own daughter who tried to steal the pie away to have it all to herself. Star had some strong words for the both of them, and by then the sun was starting to go down, and the two of them returned to the castle.
"All day, and not a single lead on getting you back home," Star sighed, flopping facedown onto her bed. Eclipsa sat on a chair nearby, watching her dramatics. "Ugh, I'm really not looking forward to dessert tonight. I swear, if I see one more pie today, I'm gonna lose it!" Eclipsa chuckled. Her voice in this form no longer grated on her, though it was still rather irritating not to be able to talk. So much banter she could've been participating in, but alas.
Star flipped onto her back, taking in a deep breath. Eclipsa had spied it a few times throughout the day, but she looked tired. Those midnight escapades were really taking it out of her. Earlier, when she was all bright and cheery, it was easy to overlook, but she had circles under her eyes that were just noticeable, and every so often she'd blink really hard, like she was trying to keep herself awake. It was likely thanks to the buffoonery of the pie incident that she hadn't already found herself napping.
"You know," Star said. She had turned to face Eclipsa while she was caught up in her own thoughts, a contemplative expression overtaking her face. "You're really smart. Like, people smart. Scary smart." Oh? Was she putting together the pieces at long last? Eclipsa perked up. "So, I gotta know. Are you actually a squirrelicorn? Or not?" Had her rodent body been capable of it, Eclipsa may've found herself squeeing in delight. Yes, they were getting there!
She shook her head clearly and deliberately. Star blinked, sitting up with impressive speed as her eyes widened and stayed locked onto Eclipsa. So close... Come on, keep guessing! She tried to convey this message by gesturing with her hands. Star's eyes flicked down to the motion, recognizing it as something that animals, by and large, didn't do. Not without a heaping of training and a good deal of natural intelligence, something squirrelicorns weren't always known for.
"O-okay, I'm gonna pretend not to be super freaked out right now," Star stammered. "So, if you're not a squirrelicorn, what are you?" Eclipsa deadpanned, crossing her arms with an unamused chitter. If it were as simple as telling, she'd have done that hours ago, saved Star the trouble of the pie fiasco. "Right, you can't talk. Umm... Are you... a shapeshifter?" Eclipsa shook her head. "Some nightmare creature that looks like a squirrelicorn so it doesn't break my brain?" What? "A person turned into a squirrelicorn?"
Eclipsa let out an excited chatter, which caught Star's attention. She'd finally landed on the truth! But Eclipsa knew that much wouldn't be enough information to accurately describe how potentially disastrous her situation was. She glanced around. On a nearby table - Star's room was, put simply, a mess, but she meant it in the best way possible - there was one of those gel pens Star had told her about. She leapt from the chair and scampered over to the table, climbing atop it.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Star's question went unanswered. Eclipsa was far too busy uncapping the pen. Luckily for her, there was a notebook sitting right next to it. She pulled it open, flipping through the pages until she found a blank one. On it, she took the pen and began drawing two familiar shapes. Eclipsa had known them her whole life; those spades on her cheeks followed her from birth, all the way through the hundreds of years she spent in that crystal. They stayed with her, all the way until now. Or maybe they were just hiding under her fur.
It didn't take long to draw them out. Far from Eclipsa's finest work, needing to move the pen with nearly her whole body, but the spades were recognizable. Star glanced down at the page she'd just scribbled on. Eclipsa tilted her head to the side. Hmm, perhaps calling them recognizable was generous. Star didn't seem to understand what she was supposed to be looking at, leaning in with squinted eyes to get a better look.
"Are those... mushrooms?" she asked. Eclipsa sighed, running a hand down her face. So close, and yet so far. "Wait, wait, wait. Hold the phone!" Oh? Star picked up the notebook, turning it and examining it from every possible angle. "Are these... Eclipsa's cheek thingies? But that would make you..." She trailed off as her eyes fell back onto Eclipsa. All at once, Star dropped the notebook, abandoning it in favor of throwing an accusatory finger Eclipsa's way. "Eclipsa?!"
Yes, yes it was her! Eclipsa nodded vigorously, pointing from the now-discarded notebook on the ground and her own face. Star gaped at her, eyes bigger than Eclipsa had ever seen them. Was it really so shocking? Did Star find it so unbelievable that the squirrelcorn she'd spent a mildly infuriating afternoon with was actually Eclipsa all along? Or could she not wrap her mind around the idea of Eclipsa becoming a squirrelicorn in the first place?
At last, she became capable of forming words again, squeaking out, "Mom's gonna kill me...!" Eclipsa breathed a sigh of relief. With Moon and Star on the case, there was a very low chance of her getting thrown into a cell, a crystal, or out into the wilderness to be exposed to the elements. That last option was becoming a real possibility, considering her current state didn't seem to have a time limit. Oh well, now she could rest easy knowing that she'd have a few people on her side should things go south.