With the more I sprinted, the more the bitter, thin, crisp air sored my throat and the more my breath came out in thick white puffs of clouds, even through my handkerchief wrapped around my face. My feet stomped and broke through the snow's untouched white, leaving my boot's heavy prints behind me.

My face was numb by now as the snowflakes that had come down came down with a forceful welcome. It had raged this winter without an end, it seemed, so much so that now I found myself in the forest's ankle-deep snow. All I had to shield myself from the cold that bit and gnarled at me, a thin but long cloak and hood that seemed to fly behind me as I ran. In one hand, I held onto my cloak so that I wouldn't have it lost to the gusts of strong winds that were working against me. In the other hand, I grasped a dagger.

I stopped abruptly, suddenly hearing someone else's quickened and hefty breath next to my own. I took in my surroundings, turning in a complete circle to find a sturdy oak tree to my left, enough to hide a person, which I had concluded that it was doing.

She was close. I could feel it. As I had turned my attention down to notice, the footprints that I had been looking for had ceased behind the tree. It was incredibly foolish of her to try to run away, even as her footprints were clearly visible in the soft, still powdered snow. Her next move was even dumber, as she must have thought I was gone and she turned to keep running, but turned to discover me instead.

He aqua blue eyes were dilated with a sudden terror and she let out a brief scream of fright. She wore a white, royal cloak, as white as the snow it reflected off of. Underneath, her unmistakable Butterfly-styled, royal, light blue gown with a dark blue corset that was tied from the front to the back in a zig-zag formation.

She backed up until she was practically back-hugging the giant, elderly oak that she had hid behind.

"My most humble apology, Princess, but I has't no choice." I said, trying to calm my heart rate and let my breath catch up to me.

"Thee cannot doth this. This is wron-"

"Mine knight, Sir Toffee, hath sent me for thee." I had approached her so close that now, she was pushed up against the oak's trunk and our faces were just inches apart.

"Toffee is a filthy, slimy tyrant, Marco! That gent wanteth me dead so he can savor thy throne for himself!" She shouted into the wind until a gust of a bitter cold came our way and made her tense up and shiver. "I can't send back to mine kingdom. They wilt has't mine headeth for sure." She went on until her voice grew feeble and cracked from emotion.

"I-I has't to beest a loyal squire to Sir Toffee. If't be true I return unsuccessful, I wilt never becometh a worthy knight." I muttered, almost too quietly. I dropped my head down, unable to keep her hypnotic, amazing eyes from staring into me as if she could read me.

"If't be true thee truly loved me-"

Before she could say another word, I removed my handkerchief from my mouth and took her lips and pressed them with my own, sealing a hard kiss. She kissed back and after a few seconds of savoring her cold, yet delicate and tender lips, I pulled away to catch a breath. I looked up at her and couldn't distinguish if her hearts on her cheeks were powdered from the low temperature of the weather or the moment. Her cheeks were blushed with a rose color.

For a while, we stayed still there, unable to move. Our clouds of breath came off on each other until I dared to mumble another sentence. "Thither is no doubt that mine heart only desires thee. Star, I... I love thee... truly I doth." I dropped my head once more before getting the courage to meet her eyes again. "That is wherefore this is so difficult for me to doth."

I kissed her one last time, just to taste her sweet lips again. I had her distracted enough to take my dagger and thrust it into her heart, driving it deeper, just under her breast. She released the kiss, having her air being plunged out of her.

I tried not to watch. She let out a gasp and I couldn't bring myself to see her face, to watch her eyes as they were stuck open in wide shock.

Her dress began to become stained with a dark red and when I gave in and gazed up at Star's face, she had become a pale white as her eyes grew teary and watered. She was crying. I found myself to do the same, immediately regretting my decision.

At that same moment, a glow had taken upon Star, from the center of her chest. It was a light that had blinded me for only a second, yet still I had to shut my eyes tight and look away. With the dagger still impelled in her and my fear of taking the dagger out, I held onto it. Then, after the light, a sort of magic had ricocheted and stretched out beyond the forest. It had gusted harder than the storm, disrupting its wind pattern and shooting outwards like a huge, ascending ring, like a ripple in water.

With my tight grasp on the dagger, Star's eyes had dropped to stare down. Her hands were on top of mine, clutching the dagger. With her lasting strength, she pushed it out and freed the dagger from her chest. With that, she fell forward onto her knees, then fell completely onto the snow, tainting the glistening snow and turning it to a dark red of blood.

She clutched her gut, where the dagger had cut through her, and a chortle escaped her throat. I watched her lay there, laughing through her tears, almost a gurgling laugh. What she had said next had shook me to the core, had made my bones chill more than the chill of the snowy air. It unsettled my stomach, making it twist and churn.

"I may not be her, but that does not excuse you for what you have done." She paused to take in a sharp breath and then continued. "She's watching you, Marco. So, how do you think she will react to see that you have killed her?" Another laugh, this time, much more distorted. "How do you think she would feel after witnessing you take a dagger to her heart? You will never earn back her trust, her love, her loyalty. Trust me, I know because I am just a mirror of her. I feel the same affections, the same memories, and the same betrayal."

Star began to chuckle again, yet this time it was to herself. Though I was standing, I couldn't move. I felt as if I was stuck, almost like I was so still, I was floating just slightly above the ground. It didn't feel real. It was too real to ever feel real. All I could do was keep shaking my head in denial. My knees buckled under me, plummeting me down as I surrendered the bloodied dagger to the ground.

"How selfish of you, really." Her voice broke through with another distorted and hysterical fit into laughter, but this time, she began breaking away, dispersing like a dandelion. Her body tore itself apart into magical particles, flying upwards and away until they were nothing but like the rest of the snowflakes around me.

Before I knew it, the forest began to be blown away too, sucked out of existence, almost like a black hole. That's when I heard a female robotic voice echo throughout the dying world. "Simulation complete."

...

The scene gave away and soon I found myself in an empty room, a gigantic room.

It was all a hoax, a terrible hoax.

I left the room through the exit room and followed the hallway down to another door, which led to a control room. Here, a lizard man stood by the control panel. Sir Toffee, in his usual knight attire, had been watching me, monitoring me from a wide window that saw straight into the room I had exited out from.

"Well done, Marco." He said with a sinister smirk that rose on his face. "Thee shalt maketh a fine knight, don't thee bethink?"

Another voice broke out, a protest. "This is all thy fault! Thee madeth Marco this way! I'll killeth thee, I swear it!"

It was Star. The real Star. She was wearing the same dress I had seen her in before. She squirmed on the floor behind Toffee. Heavy chains bound her wrists, which were kept behind her back, as well as her ankles. They jingled and caused a commotion as she put up a struggle to break free from them.

I saw Toffee's face clench in fury and he spun around and snatched the chain of a metal cuff around her neck, forcing her to meet his maddened eyes. "I suggest thee keepeth thy mouth shut if thee wish to liveth. Thee little brat!" He snapped back in her face until she had turned away from the spit that had hit her.

Star retaliated by swinging her legs until she had built up the strength to kick Toffee in the stomach, causing him to yelp out in a brief pain. He lifted her up, suspending her in midair, then threw her. She hit the wall behind her with a brute thud and fell back to the floor. She cried out through her enraged sobs to protest more, this time, it was to me.

"Marco... please telleth me t isn't true."

"T isn't..." My voice was frail, almost broken. "I mean, I didn't-"

Before I could even comprehend words to say, Toffee had let out a deep laugh in disbelief. "Thee musn't hark to her. The lady is keeping thee from reaching thy full potential, mine dear squire."

"No! He speaketh lies, Marco!"

I stared hard at the ground for a moment or two, then nodded. "Fine. I wilt join thee. Under one condition."

"Name thy price." He stated.

"I wanteth thee to alloweth the Princess free."

To this, Toffee had snickered deep in his throat and turned to face me, his eyes hardened and narrowed. "Has't thee already forgotten so easily? I cannot allow the Princess free. That lady's royal family tree hath been tainted."

I dropped my head, feeling my fists grow tighter in balls of frustration. I sighed deeply and briefly and looked back up. "Well, by the future knight of Mewni, I hereby decree. I purpose a dual, a real trial. One that thee can't refuse. Just thee and me. If thee winneth, thee receiveth the Princess."

He stopped for a moment, laughed, and then shook his head almost as if in shame and disapproval. "How bold of thee to bargain thy love's life. Tis almost idiotic of thee. And if't be true thee winneth?"

"What more satisfaction could I asketh for other than having thy headeth?"

He chuckled once more to himself as if to let his hot-headedness get to him, as if to question my wits. Then, he spoke again before heading off back to the simulation room. "So beest 't, boy."

Before I followed, I ceased in my tracks and swiveled around to meet her face. Her expression said it all. Star was terrified and I knew it was because I had bet on her life. But what choice did I have? It was my final chance to save her or lose her.

I kneeled down by her side and stared into her eyes, her fearful and struck eyes. At first, I didn't know what to say for sure and hesitated whether to say anything at all or go and leave her be. At last, after my voice struggled to erupt from my throat, I found it and used it.

"Star..." I mumbled, though she continued remaining still and stuck so I went on. "If't be true I doth not maketh t back, I want thee to recall mine bravery and mine fight for thee. I wish deeply I could telleth thee how much love looks with the heart and therefore not with the mind, Star, but I knoweth thee probably won't believeth me now. Thee can despise later but please, ere I may not returneth, grant me one final wish and kiss me farewell."

It caught me by surprise as she thinned the space between us almost instantly, stealing a kiss from my lips. A second later, after the surprise had left me, I returned the kiss. Her kiss was always gentle and sometimes a bit forceful, like it was now, though probably because she was savoring it.

As she pulled away, my heart sunk as I realized that would probably be our last. "Marco," She said, her volume as soft and tender as ever. "I cannot hate thee. I simply cannot. I knoweth how true thy heart is." She placed her gentle palm of her hand and laid it upon my chest as if to gesture to my heart inside. "I very much doth love thee, Marco. Promise me, that at which this is all ov'r, I wilt receiveth to see those eyes again. Thee knoweth I care too much about thee to see thee hurt."

"I-I'll tryeth." My voice came out in gentle whisper, though my word was strong. I was going to fight for her, even if it was with the last breath I took.

"Thee promises?" She said.

"I promise."

...

OKAY FIRST OFF, SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG MY ONE SHOTS ARE NEVER SHORT BUT YOU'VE PROBS REALIZED THAT BY NOW!!

So I started messing around with this neat Shakespearean translator website again and made another one shot with the Shakespearean/medieval feel because that is honestly my favorite thing to write about.

COMMENT WHICH ONE SHOT YOU WOULD LIKE A SEQUEL OF AND I WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN, PEEPS ALSO THANKS FOR READING!!