In the Nightmare Pits, there was commotion due to the recent arrival of Princess Butterfly, who not only easily dispersed the fog, but also destroyed various houses in her path.
As a response, a crowd had built outside the Noctis Castle.
"People could have died! Princess or not, she needs to come out and answer to the people!"
"Yeah, in the Nightmare pits you can't get away with it just because you're noble!"
"That girl didn't even pay respects to the hero statue of the Great Arberon! I saw her with some weird girly boy!"
The various complaints from people, injured and otherwise, made the guards unsure of what to do, after all, they are not supposed to leave their post unless it's a complete emergency during important meetings.
"We understand your frustration, but we can't do anything right now. Once palace doors open again, we'll immediately pass on your message." The first of the various guards at the entrance responded to the people.
"We see… Makes sense…"
There was a pause and the people discussed the situation among themselves.
A peaceful solution was in sight, and then it wasn't.
"That doesn't make sense! They are playing us! We have to revolt and show them the values of Lord Aberon still live!"
"Off with their heads!"
"The people are the soul of Nightmare pits, we don't need pompous self-serving nobles!"
"""YEAH!"""
"Bring her out!"
"Bring her out!"
"Bring her out!"
The group appeared wearing clothes as masks and began throwing dark brown spheres at the guards.
Of course, not wanting to find out whatever this substance was, they weaved and avoided all attacks, but they soon intensified as more people joined in.
"What is going on here?! What are they throwing at us?"
"As if I would know!"
The rain of these spheres continued, and it began hitting guard after guard, and it packed quite the punch as some chunks were quite heavy.
Soon the guards were going down, but because this attack was particularly powerful, rather due to their lack of familiarity with accessing something like this, a sweet treat was too much for them to resist. They ate the ultra-sweet mess, and quickly fell into a sugar comatose after zooming around extra hyped for a bit before going down.
"Captain! It's chocolate..."
"Cupcak-"
The captain was too overwhelmed by the oversweetened delicacy.
"Invade the castle!"
"Ahhh!"
Having overwhelmed the guards with unusual means, the people made their way in, and justice would be served!
__________________________________________________
At the same time as the trouble brewing outside, inside the castle, in one of the rooms, there were two teens, who were covered in chocolate head-to-toe.
"Arghh! It won't come off my hair!" Star yelled from the bathroom, while engaged in one of the hardest battles of her day, getting her hair to comply.
Meanwhile, in the bedroom proper, Marco reached into his hoodie.
"If you had given me the time to get my things! I would have something… But worry not! I have my emergeny emergency kit! In case I miss the main one!" From there, he pulled out his hand vacuum.
Turning it on, he managed to use it, to get at least most of the chocolate off himself, leaving only the smaller traces and smudges.
Hearing the noise, Star put her head out from the bathroom to look, hair still dripping with chocolate.
"Marco?! You had that the whole time?! Give it to me!" She frowned and extended her arm with disapproval, disappointment, and a tinge of judgment.
"I forgot, ok! I'm not great under pressure, especially the pressure of a deadly area another dimension… It's cool, I'm not panicking." He forced a smile as he tried not to think too much about it, as he hugged his knees.
In the bathroom, it became a lot louder, as Star began using the hand vacuum to help her out, luckily for her, the chocolate had yet to dry out.
"Don't go overthinking! The vacuum is a great help! Typical safe kid. Almost cool!" She commented steering his mind away from his worries.
"Hey! I am cool… Safety is cool! I will have you kn-" Marco got up and was about to reply before being interrupted.
Knock! Knock!
"Who is it?… Didn't they say the meeting would not start for at least another hour?" Marco questioned as he slowly opened the door, but the corridor was empty.
From the dark purple and black room, to the corridor of the same type, there was nothing to be seen except a shadowy and gloomy corridor.
"Who is it?! Is the meeting starting?!" Star inquired from the bathroom.
"Oh it's no on-" Marco turned to the bathroom door to answer, but stopped himself when he felt something off.
There was some sort of pressure on him, thus he looked back at the corridor only to be met with a surprise.
Just standing there, he found two big bright pink orbs observing him.
"Ahh!" He jumped back quickly taking a defensive karate stance.
Upon closer inspection, it became clear to him, those were eyes.
"Who are you?!… I'll warn you now! I know karate." He said become serious before adding. "Up to the yellow belt!"
The eyes observing him were clearly unfazed by his declaration, simply staring at him blankly.
"I warned you! Heya!" Marco charged in and punched where the eyes were located.
The first connected and a shiver was sent down his spine, it was like he had just hit metal.
"Arghh!!! Damn! That hurt… I bet it hurt you too…" Marco had a sour face, and held his hand close, cuddling it with a sour face, holding in tears of pain.
However, the eyes kept looking at him, before picking him up by his arm, and it was as if the shadows had blended into a mantle for this being.
"Hey! Don't hurt Marco or I'll shoot! I have-…. It's you!!!" Star kicked the door open having finished getting herself rid of most of the chocolate with only tiny bits here, and there remaining, as she pointed her wand at the intruder with both hands.
There was a pause, as Relious came out of the shadow with a smile as he winked at her, the young heir of the nightmare pits stood before them.
(Here they are… Seeing them like this is weird, like watching the show all over again… No, even more personal… The way I see he characters, to me they look real, in a more anime way, but still real, way different from the show's art style but considering the Nightmare pits exist at all, I don't think this is the original canon timeline or world…) A lot of feelings flooded him at once, this was a series he really enjoyed in his past life, and now he was here, really here, a part of it himself.
It was impossible for him, who truly loved the fictional stories he interacted with not to end up in such a state, no matter how hard he tried to make himself for his goals, the project fiction quests, or the environment of the nightmare pits, deep down, he was still him, a guy who loved fictional stories way too much.
The silence combined with the nostalgic smile that was on him might as well be an evil smile, confirmed it in Star's mind, she had to stop him now, before it was too late.
So she jumped onto the bed and pointed her wand at his head.
"Stop! Don't you dare kill Marco!! Or I'll never ever ever ever ever ever EVER! Forgive you! EVER!"
Relious' eyes met hers for the first time in years, and she felt it again, that little spark in her that had been itching ever since that day.
"Whoa! Star! I'm right here, I'm sure we can talk it out! Your aim isn't great you know that right?!" Marco caught up in the middle of it tried to free his arm, but the grip was way too strong for him.
Reignited as a strong blush appeared on her face, but her wand still began shining with an aura of pink light.
(Hehehehe! My unique gifts are powerful, even now she's like this. It's honestly scary, she's still holding the wand determined with sight killing intent, if I kill Marco right now, my Unique Gifts can't save me… It's a gut feeling, not that I would kill a bro for no reason. I'm not a Chinese protagonist…) He sighed internally.
"Hahahah! Come on, Star, don't be unreasonable." Relious said.
"Drop him now!" She yelled as she charged up ready to blast.
(Yup, she will 100% kill me.) He let go of her friend.
"Finally! My arm… and hand. What are you made of dude? Rock?!" Marco could finally let out the breath he was subconsciously holding, as he checked his arm, and hand.
"I don't just kill people anymore, I have a strike system now. 3 strikes and you're dead, but no dying before that, to honor my dad." Relious crossed his arms, then turned to the red hoodie boy. "Oh, I'm made of meat, bone, tendons, and stuff."
"Bastard! You scared me! Look what you almost made me do." Star still had the wand pointed and to the left side there was a charge-up meter, that had 3 green bars, 3 yellow bars, and 4 red bars, this time it only got to the second yellow bar before it started going down.
As she complained she jumped off the bed, onto him, and started hitting him, but there was no real power behind any of the attacks.
"You can have to leave my ban, and work out an alliance, no? Is this your idea of that?" Relious asked her with a raised eyebrow.
"Hmph! That's later! Right now you need to pay for making me worry! I was going to cry for you jerk!" Star let the words slip, and immediately got off him, and covered her own mouth.
"Ah? So, you do care?" He asked with a smirk.
"Super Fluff-" In an instant she pulled out the wand and started casting.
"Ok, ok, I get it. I won't say anything." Relious lifted his arms in surrender.
"Star! Are you here this is diplomatic. Also isn't he the guy you hate?… I guess I did my part! Punched him!…" Marco who had used his emergency emergency kit to patch his arm with bandages commented.
"Yeah! The meeting! Royal stuff! Let's go!" Star ran off quicker than she would even when excited.
This left the boys alone.
"I was just going to punch you back, lightly," Relious said as he began walking after her.
"Hey! Wait, what happened between you two?! She's actually… weirder than usual if that's even possible." Marco asked with a smile.
"Oh, that's a whole story, but to keep it simple. We were playing around as kids, and I 'assaulted' her, so I got banned from the Butterfly Palace." He responded bluntly, not bothering to explain much.
"Dude! What the hell?!… You didn't actually do that, did you… I she would not be like this… I hope not… tell me not." Marco frowned and his worry for Star was palpable in the air.
"Believe it or not. I didn't. Just don't go trying to convince anyone otherwise, leave the dead horse alive, and let us solve the matter today, their way." Relious went out of the room.
"Wow... Strong, crazy muscular, and falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit! He's like an action hero! With the shadows and all… I think there was like a bat guy with dead parents…
"Whatever! Maybe he'll teach me their cool Mewni martial arts! Jackie would totally notice me then!" Marco had a whole epiphany and ran after them, once he noticed he was all alone in the dark castle.
Finally, after generations of the feud between the Butterfly and the Noctis, everything now hung in the hands of teenagers… The future was surely uncertain.