Earlier that day…
On Earth, in a rather typical American home with some Latin decorations, and an entire compartment of the house looking like a castle tower protruding out of it, there was a now common level of chaos.
In that same tower was the room of Star Butterfly, princess of the Butterfly Kingdom, who was known for being… unique and very much herself.
Items flew from one end of the room to the other as a teen girl with blond hair, was throwing them out of the way, scavenging through the mess that existed in her closet, and spreading it to the rest of the room, which was still lightly messy.
She was a fifteen-year-old girl with a height of 5' 2" (157 cm). She had fair skin, light blue eyes, and long blonde hair that went down to her knees. Most of the time Star's bangs overlapped her eyes and eyebrows. Her cheeks normally carried rose pink heart emblems on them.
At the time she was wearing a sea green short-sleeved dress with a white collar, white lace on the sleeves and skirt, and a cute pink octopus on the front. She also wears pink and orange stockings, dark magenta boots with a rhino design, and a little yellow star-shaped side bag with a face.
Her physique looked rather average for someone her age, but maybe due to her constant contact with magic or royal training, she packed a lot more strength than one would expect.
(Images here)
"Where are those damn things?! I can never find them when I need them!" She whined with mild frustration.
Items continued to be shoved all over the room in her search.
That was, until a new element entered the equation.
A young man with short brown hair walked up to the open door and leaned on the doorframe.
He was a Mexican-American teenager of medium height with a slender build, tan skin, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a mole on his right cheek. He wore a light gray shirt under a red hoodie, dark gray skinny jeans, and olive and white sneakers.
A 164cm(5'4ft) tall young man with a slightly trained physique.
(Images here)
"Whoa there, any reason for the… extra mess today?" He asked pointing at the now clutter-filled room.
"Oh! Hi Marco!… It's not that b-… Huh…" She waved her hand energetically at him as she noticed him before turning around to actually see the state of her room.
It was as if a washing machine had exploded in there, before it could start working. Various pieces were scattered around, from clean to extremely dirty, it was all lying about throughout the room.
"You were saying?" Marco asked her with a slight teasing smile.
"Urgh! It's all these stupid scissors' fault! If they were under my nightstand where I left them, none of this would have happened." She complained before sighing at the irritation building in her mind.
"Oh yeah… Totally…. Hehe!" Hearing this, the boy stumbled before regaining his footing.
"Marco! What did you do?" Star immediately turned to him, his clumsy inability to hold guilt so obvious, that she picked it up instantly.
"Well… Your room was kinda of messy the other day, so my mom and I gave a helping hand…" He smiled weakly as he revealed.
"Urgh!… Fine! It was nice! I'm not mad! NOT MAD!" She seemed to be telling herself more than him. "Well, where are the scissors, Marco? The scissors!"
"…In the bathroom cabinet," Marco responded.
"Really?… Just that… Don't scare me like that! I thought you threw them away!" Star's mood did a 180, and she happily skipped into the bathroom.
"Ohhhh! No, I learned not to throw other people's things out, when I was like… 4 and lost my uncle's proposal ring! I've never made such a mistake again! I have order and management now!" Marco rambled on.
Only for Star to come back all smiles.
"Not now Marco! We can talk about your uncle's ruined wedding later! I found them! Heeeee! We can go…" Her excitement was palpable until she stopped and realized something. "Wait, I was supposed to be mad! Yeah! I didn't want to meet that guy!"
"Hey! The wedding was beautiful for your information, he made a makeshift ring just for her, it was beautiful… I can only aspire to be that cool." Marco was lost in the memory until he turned to see her all moody. "Wait, wait, wait, where are you going with those? You know Ludo is still trying to catch you with his monster gang, right?"
"I know! I told Mom the same thing! All she said was that I'm royalty, and blah blah blah… responsibilities and family. So, I'm going… Marco, come with me!" Star quickly grabbed hold of his waist as she asked with puppy eyes.
"… I mean, is it dangerous where we're going?" Marco sighs as he knew, he had already fallen for the puppy eyes.
"Marco don't be silly." Star got up and smiled having gotten what she wanted, as she used the scissors to cut through the air, and opened a spiral colorful portal.
"Oh, good… I was worried for a second there, a place you don't want to go to has to be pretty bad. I just need to get my things, you can never be too prepared on a trip like this." Marco sighed in relief and turned around to get his things.
"Everywhere is dangerous, but then again, the Nightmare pits are the most dangerous part of the Butterfly Kingdom, hehehe, it's pretty fun during the summer, the guards go there and always come back missing at least one body part, or dead, but that's like the worst bad result, no dying for us!" Star began rambling as she thought of all the exciting possibilities.
This stopped Marco in his tracks, and he turned around with an expression of pure dread, like the world was falling on him.
"What?! Why would you ever want to go there?! That sounds horrible! No! We need to talk to your mom, she will surely see reason, if we talk it out." He shook his head, as he suggested.
"Tch! That's not even the worst, the area has this curse on it, so it's always night there, kinda… Also, the green fog that gives you a mysterious deadly disease, the really aggressive monsters there, I think the curse makes them go crazy and more evil than usual or something." She was oddly excited about it all. "Oh! And the trees that look like monsters, or were it monsters that look like trees, I never remember this part."
"Close that portal right now! Nothing is a good enough reason to go to a place like that! Give me!" Marco tries to get the scissors from her.
"No! Marco! I am going on a diphomatic trip! It's important!" Star pushes him off, just barely.
Falling to the ground, the boy groans before he actually hears what she was saying.
"Oh, so actually royal stuff? Damn…" Marco doesn't even try to get up and just gives up.
"Yeah! I actually have to talk to my cousin! Hmph! I won't forgive him, even if he begs…" She smiled thinking of the idea, then stopped herself. "Well, maybe if he really means it, no! Don't do it Star! Stay strong!"
"What happened between you two?" Marco let his curiosity win.
"Oh, he was snooping around, and I caught him, then it happened, and he got banned from the butterfly palace. That was like years ago anyway. I'm still mad though." Star said as she started pulling him towards the portal.
"Whoa! Getting banned's intense… What did he do? Did he hurt you?! I'll punch him in his face if he did! Heya!" Marco took a martial stance from his karate lessons.
"None of your business, Diaz, none of your business," Star said as she pushed him into the portal and followed.
"You're the one who started talking about it! At least explain." Marco insisted as they crossed to the other side.
"Well, he did hurt me… Bu-" Star sighed as she was beginning to explain.
"Ha! I knew it! I'll punch him in the face for sure." Marco declared.
Just as the world around them went from a room, to the open field of a night, green fumes hung low as the trees seemed to move at their presence in the distance.
"That's cute of you, Marco, but you can't handle him at all, you'll die if you try he's ruthless and all strong, and his abs are so defined, he's taller than you, and Hehehehe!" Star started laughing to herself thinking about what she was going to say next.
"Urgh… You hate this guy, right? He hurt you?" Marco narrowed his eyes not even sure what he could say to that.
"Ahem! Of course! We're here on royal business and I'm still mad at him! Welcome to the Nightmare Pits!" Star shook her head off the thoughts and presented the area around them.
"This place is… Different… People really live here, like even the ground looks dead… and it smells like farts…" Marco got his first look around and it was worse than he expected.
"Enough looking! Now hold your breath, and let's go in!" She began pushing Marco towards the green fog, and then pulled out a child toy looking sort of hand mirror, like a magical girl's weapon of choice, it was her wand.
The wand was light purple with white wings attached to the grip. The bell of the wand has a blue circle with a gold star and pink hearts surrounding the crystal star inside. There was a yellow crown on the tip of the wand, a blue butterfly between the bell and grip, and a yellow tip with a blue heart at the end of the grip.
"Wait! Star! I don't want to get sick!" Marco covered his face with his red hoodie and held his breath.
Not bothering to explain anything at all, Star pointed her wand at the fog and cast a spell.
"Bacon Kitty Hawaiian Nightmare!" As her chant takes place, the wand lights up and in an instant, it shoots a blast of three-eyed kittens, bacon, and pineapples.
All of it conjured from nothing.
Blowing through the fog, the blast goes on to reach the residential area, and destroy several houses, which now had gaping holes in them or no upper part.
Not only that, everything that had been found in its path was pierced from the supposed trees, to monsters, and the rest.
"Oops!" Star hid behind Marco, covering her face with her blond hair. "Huh! Marco! We have to check if everyone is ok! Or run before the guards come… Hmm, check first, run later!"
"Ohhh! That's pretty bad… I don't think you killed anyone… Probably… Wait?! This won't start a war, right?!" Marco turned to her as soon as the possibility crossed his mind.
"Whaaaaaaat….. Noooooo?… probably." She's loud about the first parts, then whispers the rest out.
"We have to go check on them now, then!" Marco grabbed her hand and started to run in.
It wasn't long before an obstacle found itself in their path.
"Oh f*ck!…" Marco stopped and backstepped immediately, as the ground began to tremble.
Out of the fog a singular arm appeared, towering even the trees, appeared, almost slamming them both into mush.
The crater it left on the ground from this singular action seemed as deep as a person as the hand began to lift, and as wide as five people.
While Star looked at the gigantic dark figure, as if it was rotting out this very moment, this very moment as a putrid stench filled the air, and chunks of the Goliath's arm fell to the ground, causing further tremors.
"Star! Magic! Now!" Marco shook her out of it.
Without even thinking, Star lifted her wand, and cast a spell.
As the massive hand once again prepared to, fall on them.
"Super Sparkly Escape Caramel Smoothie!" This caused a propulsion blast of caramel smoothie to send them flying as Marco held on to her for dear life.
"Aaaah! Star! The landing!" He yelled as they were headed into the rumble of the half-destroyed houses.
"Giant Fluffy Chocolate Cupcake Landing!" Star pushed the wand to light up again.
This caused them to fall into a giant fluffy cupcake that destroy all that was left of the houses she had damaged before.
After that, they slowly crawled out now covered in chocolate.
"Why did you make chocolate filled?…" Marco complained as he ripped a hole in the wrapping and escaped.
"It's good! I couldn't help it! The scary hand looked cool, so I got distracted." Star responded as she too was covered.
Not wasting another second, they both make their way from the outer area of the city to the Noctis castle.
It was a very makeshift structure with different materials all over, and clearly post-patch work, of questionable integrity.
"This place looks abandoned… Why didn't we just portal here?" Marco slumped as soon as he was inside.
"Marco, it's obviously impolite to just portal into someone else's house, duh! Let's go in now!" She dragged him in deeper.
They were soon received by guards, as the meeting that brought on this situation was approaching, the guests were busy removing chocolate from… Everwhere.