Author's Notes: Greetings, and welcome to my story. This will be my first attempt at a full multi-chapter story, as well as my first time tackling a post-canon scenario. This may or may not be messy, but I have a plan and a theme, so I'll do my best to see it through. I want to tackle what comes after Monster Bash so I can channel my desire for more into something creative. I'll try to move this along and reach some sort of conclusion before we get 3B. I think it would be wise if I did.

I am almost giving a thematic nod to one of my favorite artists, and I hope some of you enjoy it.

Anyhow, I appreciate all of you for reading, and I hope that you enjoy.

Magenta

"Just hear these words and remember again"

The Monster Temple was swarmed with activity following the dangerous night that Star Butterfly and all of her invitees were subject to. Thankfully all of the monsters whom the Royal Guard had apprehended were cleared of suspicion and allowed to go home, but Star was far from pleased. She sat back down to take another sip of hot chocolate, lost in thought. 'I really am in over my head, aren't I? I am the princess of Mewni, but I don't have the power to make anything happen. All of my hard work is going to waste, and now I have this whole business with Miss Heinous being… a Butterfly...'

"STAR!"

"HUH-WHA?" Star's head shot up and looked ahead where she saw her boyfriend still seated, looking at her with a concerned frown on his face.

Tom shrugged and shook his head. "I was asking if you wanted to come back with me to my place and unwind."

Star let out a sigh. "Tom, I appreciate that you're trying to help, but I really have to think about what I'm going to do next. There are going to be a lot of consequences for what happened and I need more information."

Tom rubbed his temple with his thumb and index finger in frustration. He wanted to take her mind off of this travesty of a night, but it was clearly not working. "Star, you did your best. Nobody can fault you for trying, and you didn't actually do anything wrong. Nothing is going to go anywhere, so why don't you just let your folks and the High Commission deal with this. You're only making things worse by fixating on it right now. Just come chill out and have some fun with me, you can always tackle this another time."

Star huffs in annoyance before regaining her composure. "Tom, I just can't do that. This is important to me, and I really don't have a choice. I'm sorry, but not tonight." She looked back down toward the ground and held her arms. She felt Tom wrap his arms around her as he sought to provide some comfort.

"Just try not to overthink things, okay Star? You don't need to put all of this pressure on yourself."

She raised her arms to hug him back, but continued staring at her feet. Tom was trying, and she knew he was, but she was too disoriented and too concerned about everything going on to simply cast it all aside. Star honestly couldn't understand how Tom could expect her to just stop caring and leave her burdens at the door. She just couldn't tear herself from it all now that so much was depending on her. 'I guess I don't need to put so much pressure on myself but… I don't want to see anything else go wrong. I can't afford to be a careless little kid anymore…'

Marco sat back and looked into his cup of hot chocolate, still a bit shaken by the ordeal. He was glad that nobody was hurt, and that all of the hostages were able to go home, but nothing felt right for him. He didn't know what to make of all of this new information he and Star had found out, and that was certainly urking him, but that wasn't the worst part in all of this. He glanced over in Star's direction and saw her arms draped weakly around Tom's back, eyes downcast. That was definitely it. Marco didn't know nearly as much as Star did about all of the craziness going on tonight, but one look at her was all he needed to know how defeated she must have felt right then. Her shoulders slumped and it became apparent just heavy a burden she must have been carrying right then.

Marco stared off into space wearing a pained frown; he swore he could feel his own shoulders starting to sag too. 'Star has got so much on her plate now. How could things have changed so quickly? it just doesn't seem fair.' Marco worried so much about Star these days. She has become reliable, dependable even, and she has moved mountains for her kingdom since she came home. That said, she was still just a happy-go-lucky magic wand-wielding princess at heart, and here she was looking practically broken by something she should never have had to deal with in the first place. He thought about the deep-seated racism that Star sought to subvert, and he thought about how few people were willing to lend a hand. Even her parents were nowhere to be seen tonight, and it frustrated him to no end.

Marco hated to see Star without a smile; he loved her smile. He never realized it before, but her genuine smile was something unique about his best friend. Everything about her happiness was so infectious, having her around to brighten the mood could be comparable to carrying a lucky charm. So much positivity, so much light-hearted joy, so much caring innocence... he felt his face beginning to warm up and was stricken with the realization that he was rambling about her in his head again. He knew it wouldn't help anyone to get lost in these thoughts, especially given how powerless he felt to do anything about them. Whatever Tom was saying to her, it clearly wasn't helping, but at least he was trying. Marco sighed and placed his head down, hands on his cheeks.

'I just want to help. If nobody else can, I have to be the one who will'

Star heard herself say goodbye, but she didn't remember how much time had passed before she'd fully recognized that Tom had left. She stared at the space in front of her where he had previously been and felt mixed feelings. Things weren't so complicated just a few hours ago, but now she found herself wishing she'd asked for help. Tom would certainly have helped her think things through, she reasoned. On second thought, though, she wasn't so sure. 'Why was he so uninterested?' He always said when they were younger that she never thought about other people's needs. 'I'm thinking about other people now, but I still can't manage to help anyone. Maybe nothing I do will ever be good enough to help Mewni…'

Star's thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of a warm hand on her shoulder. She straightened herself out and craned her neck in surprise before looking up… 'Marco.' She studied his features for a moment cautiously. He had that worried gleam in his eyes as he looked down at her exhausted face and gave her a sympathetic frown. It felt as though she didn't have to explain herself to him at all. It was like, somehow, he knew exactly what she was feeling right now.

"I'm sorry, Star…"

She spun around completely without getting up and clasped his hand with one of her own gratefully. "You have nothing to apologize for, Marco. It's as Tom said, nobody couldn't have known all of this was going to happen. I just wish I knew what to do now. I tried my best... I really did... but nothing I do is ever good enough."

"You're wrong," Marco replied, clenching her shoulder with a resolute firmness. "It isn't just that you tried, Star. You put your life on the line for every single monster here today. You brought mewmans and monsters together for a party and they actually had fun for a while. More importantly, though, you have shown that you really care. You're making a difference, Star. Tackling a centuries-long racial divide between any two groups is a monumental task. You have to expect that you're going to have bumps in the road, but the fact that you're already thinking about what to do next says that you are up to the task."

His words got through to Star who finally allowed herself to smile at her best friend's genuine encouragement. Somehow, Marco made it seem obvious where before she was full of doubts. That weight around her neck didn't feel quite so heavy now. She reached out her other hand to Marco who quickly grabbed it and helped her to her feet. As his arms were coming back down to his side, Star closed the gap between them and pulled him into a tight hug. "Thanks, Marco. You're totally right. I have to keep doing my best, even if it means working myself silly." A warmth that Star always forgets how much she misses washed over her as Marco raised his arms again to return the hug.

"You are doing your best, Star," Marco affirmed, "Just remember that you don't HAVE to do any of this alone. I may not know anything about Mewni politics, and I may not have a magic wand, but I'll always be here to help however I can."

"Yeah." If anything could make these problems seem less gargantuan than they were, Marco's support definitely did. She wondered what she'd do without him.

"Speaking of which," she said while she pulled away, some vigor finally returning to her, "can you come with me back to that secret room in the monster temple? I want to look around again."

Marco looked around at all of the activity, then over at the barred entrance to the building. "Do you have any idea how we're going to get in and out without alerting anyone?

"Sure." Star responded "Let's just move out of the way, wait a bit for things to die down, and then we can use your dimensional scissors to cut our way in."

"Alright, let's go."

A number of minutes later, after activity had finally died down around the the temple, the duo found themselves cutting a portal into the lower chambers of the building and entering. There would doubtless be a full investigation of the temple, but for now it seemed to have been left unoccupied in favor of securing the area and clearing out all passerbys. The dark corridor remained untouched with evidence of their recent fight still strewn about all over the place. Star and Marco followed the path through the entrance into the apparent bedroom of the infant Meteora and her family.

The room was an utter mess. Books which were once shelved with care lay about the floor, some torn, others singed, and still more lying open and facedown. Dolls, small toys, and even the crib were also damaged in the fight. Star really had tried to avoid destroying what seemed like precious information for her, but there was not much she could have done to stop it. Mina's destructive disregard was frightening, and Tom's own efforts left cracks throughout the cut stone floor. It was a miracle that the room didn't already cave in given the state it was in.

Marco looked around as he gathered some of the books up off of the floor, most of which were common Mewnian fairy tails housed across the kingdom. A few others seemed to be novels intended for… light reading by Eclipsa or her husband, while the rest consisted of basic history of the kingdom and its surrounding regions; it was all, thankfully, replaceable.

Star gathered some of the dolls lying around, bringing them to the crib where she could pile them for a better look. The dolls were stylized after many figures of Mewni's lore, queens of antiquity, some princesses, and surprisingly cute monster plushies. They were each stitched together with love, albeit weathered by the hand of time. She took a closer look at two strangely familiar looking dolls; Meteora held these dolls personally not long ago. The one, an orange, bulky monster doll with a head of white, unkempt hair was complemented by what looked like a cute Mewman female with pale skin, a formal, purple dress, and medium-length dark green hair. They each sported the same contented smile, as though they were set pieces meant to be together. It seems surprising that any doll-makers on the planet would have had these made together, but something about it all was too convincing. From the careful stitching, to the expertly crafted features, down to the near-authentic quality of the crown atop the girl's head.

"Wait a minute…" Star froze. She was now positive of the striking resemblance. "This doll looks just like-"

"You're absolutely correct, child."

Star panicked for a moment and raised her wand. "Who's there!?" Marco had already returned to her side and raised his arms defensively. Their hearts were racing with adrenaline. At the end of the room a figure emerged from behind a support beam. The woman wore a stern yet conflicted look as she faced the pair with crossed arms.

"E-Eclipsa?" Marco fumbled.

"What are you doing here?" Star was nervous as she questioned her ancestor. She had some idea of her place in all of this, but she couldn't have known what brought the Queen of Darkness to this place now of all times, nor what she would want with the two of them now that she's found them.

"I felt the magic of this door stir inside of me. I knew someone had opened the it, but I was never expecting to feel that… secondhand after my crystallization." Eclipsa's expression pierced into Star's soul. She knew what she'd have to ask the girl. "Meteora… she was in here, wasn't she?"

Star stiffened, feeling her anxiety rise at the question. She had considered lying to Eclipsa, perhaps telling her that she had opened the door. She decided that it was futile to keep such information from her, though, even if she didn't know what the woman would do with it.

"...Yes, she was here."

The silence in the room was unnerving; the sound of a pin dropping could have easily been heard. There were many implications that came to life from Star's admission and those implications floated around the room, the tension becoming palpable. Eclipsa's face changed to one of subdued shock. This may have been the first time Star had ever seen her surprised, as though she hadn't expected the answer she had received. Despite the evidence staring her in the face, Eclipsa was visibly shaken by this revelation.

"All of these years… and somehow both of us are still alive." Eclipsa's expression changed once again. She seemed sullen and, ever so slightly, guilt-stricken.

"Eclipsa," Star began, "I don't know what your goal is in all of this, but can we talk about this? Maybe I can help you if you help us understand-"

"I can't do that. Not right now." Eclipsa seemed different. Her behavior was unnerving, having none of the playful uppity flair that had been her trademark since they met. Star had no idea what she was thinking, but she couldn't let her guard down. Eclipsa began to levitate. She looked down at the two while raising an arm. The veins were colored in that same sickly dark purple as she waved it meaningfully to her side. A dimensional portal opened close by.

"Eclipsa, wait! Where are you going?"

"I have a lot to do, and right now I need to think. I may not know where my daughter is or what she is thinking, but I know that it can't be good; take heed should you see her again. As for myself…" Eclipsa allowed a weak smile to grace her face, just for a moment, before her stern expression returned. "I have no intention of hurting you or anyone else. We'll meet again soon." The former queen moved through her portal which promptly closed after her, leaving the room quiet once more.

Author's Notes: I haven't decided on a schedule yet, as I don't know how long each chapter is going to take me, but I will probably aim for at least one update a week if not more. It will depend on how long this story needs to be, I suppose.

Please let me know your thoughts, as your feedback is always greatly appreciated.