"Wh-aAAAAA-!" Moon shrieked, running away from the blasts of dark magic speeding towards her.

This was the 4th barrage, but by how exhausted she was, she swore it could have just as easily been the 20th. She created a weak forcesheild to slow down any strays and fell over when the ground ruptured beneath her.

"ECLIPSA, CAN YOU SLOW DOWN?!" she screamed, now on all fours. Eclipsa just grinned as she muttered another spell and waved her umbrella wand in a circular motion, sending off a spell in that same shape. "Nope!"

"Aaaaaeeee!!!!" Moon collapsed and just managed to roll away from the sparks coming from the spell as it burnt into the earth. "You're gonna kill me!"

"I won't if you dip down!" her assailant cackled. "Reach deep inside!!!"

"F-SCREW THAT!!!"

Eclipsa seemed to run out of breath, doubling over from laughing after yelling out another spell. Unfortunately, this didn't stop the magic as it sped towards her tired victim still.

"I REGRET EVERYTHING!"

Moon tried to run, but her ankle twisted oddly beneath her and she landed heavily on her side.

The magic hit her square on, and for a moment, she felt flames overcome her.

Then white filled her vision.

She was barely aware of the now burn-scarred skin knitting itself back together in seconds, as she was panicking as the world around her suddenly seemed washed out and yet somehow also more pronounced.

She heard clapping, and turned to see Eclipsa giggling like an idiot and applauding her.

Moon's cheeks reddened, and her magic stuttered. Remembering why she needed to dip down in the first place, she pulled her sleeves up and tried to focus her magic.

She was suprised by the immediate effectivity, the black snaking down her arms slightly as white seemed to border it, shining as though the sun were beaming through cracks in her skin.

Then the black seemed to resist, pushing back against. Moon groaned as pain roared through her veins, feeling like she had just taken a few electric shocks.

She pushed harder, hissing, before hissing and collapsing, white flickering from her eyes before fully vanishing.

"G-guh..." she muttered, face down.

Eclipsa ran over to her, placing a hand on her back. "Need some help up?"

Moon grinned at her before slowly clambering into a sitting position, sighing. "Well. That was a bust.."

The other woman blinked at her, bewildered, before chuckling and shaking her head. "Not at all. Look at your arm"

Moon looked at her arm, and slumped in dissapointment that the darkness had barely even went a cm up her arm. At the look on her face, Eclipsa just nudged her. "Look at the colour"

Moon checked, and her eyes widened in suprise as she saw that the black had went to purple, and a mid-tone shade at that. It wasn't even that dark.

"You diluted it" Eclipsa explained, grinning. "Nice job"

The acting queen of Mewni gave a suprised and happy gasp, before throwing her arms around Eclipsa. "Ha! I don't suck at control for once!"

Eclipsa began to move into the hug, a flush covering her face, before she realised and pushed the blue haired girl off of her, guilt rising in her chest. Why did she have to be so disgusting? If Moon became led on it would be completely her fault.

Suddenly, a servant approached them, tapping the queen on the shoulder before bowing deeply. "Queen Moon, your political counsel asks that you join them immediately to dicuss the latest monster attack"

"Ah. Right" Moon nodded, before standing up and waving at her normally spade-cheeked partner, though not before snatching back and re-transforming her wand.

As she walked away, Eclipsa slumped completely, eyes tired. While this was fun, she was still yet to enquire about the fate of her family.

She decided to go digging.

Picking up her coat and ignoring that her hair was becoming green and her cheek marks were starting to become visible, she set off with a firm purpose in mind.

---

"THREE HOMES RUINED, 2 LIVES LOST!" Count Malus roared, slamming his fist apon the table they sat at. "WE NEED TO STOP THE TACTICS AND JUST BLAST THOSE FILTHY CREATURES TO THE DEPTHS OF HELL!"

"As insolent as always" Duchess Bonum sneered, pushing horn rimmed glasses up her nose. "Don't be an animal. We'll have the lot of them dead soon enough, however, it shall need strategy. As weak as those rot are, we will lose hundreds of great men if we just leap in"

As the two argued, the other members at the table began to join in, and soon it devolved into a shouting match. Moon gripped her head, feeling a migraine coming on.

"Stop."

Her head pulsed.

"Be quiet!"

They kept shouting.

The darkness on her arms seemed to thrum.

"SHUT UP!"

They all turned to face her, visibly stunned. She inhaled and glared. "What we NEED is a strategy and a way to eliminate the lizards! They are our biggest threats as of now, and with no current way to wipe them out-!"

Duchess Bonum raised a brow. "With all due respect, your majesty, hadn't you already uncovered our solution when you ended their general?"

Moon bit her lip, though her gaze stayed defiant. "I don't know how often i can do that - certainly not enough so to stop hundreds of septarians. Look." she pulled up her arms, careful to show her outer arm so they wouldn't see the scratches. She heard gasps. "This is what happened to me when i used the spell that destroyed General Toffee. My magic, while not unstable, has began to fluctuate when i spell cast. It's easy to control, but it's very worrying. Using the spell again could render me incapable"

There was a breif silence.

Count Malus rolled his eyes. "It sounds to me that the Queen is simply giving up"

After a shocked second, a few of the others began to snicker beneath their breath. Moon's face turned pink. "W-wha- How DARE you?". For just a second, her eyes flashed a brilliant green.

"I think this meeting is over, though i shall schedule one tomorrow" the rude Count said with a mocking smile. "Good day, your gracious majesty"

As the others muttered in affirmation and left, Moon's hands curled into tight balls, and she felt the darkness thrum again, though it didn't seem to be darkening or spreading.

She hardly noticed that she was feverishly raking her nails over her hands until her servant pried them apart in a way that was *oh so reminiscent of Eclipsa...*

She nodded to the girl and left, breathing still coming out heavily as she reached her room.

Left with pent up anger and no outlet, her movements began to become erratic.

"What do they know?!" she snarled, pacing. "GIVING UP?! I could DIE and that insolent... S-S-SPERG is just- AGH!" she tugged at her hair, the derogatory term coming off her tongue like acid. Even just forcing it out made her feel disgusted with herself.

She felt herself shaking as she remembered the servants touch, and how just the fact that it resembled Eclipsa's caused her to calm down.

"Wh-what's wrong with me??" she whimpered. She shouldn't feel this strongly. Eclipsa was older. And a girl. And RELATED to her! She felt pathetic and disgusted with herself, scratching her skin mindlessly.

'But still...'

She swallowed as she remembered Eclipsa's smile. Her teasing comments. The way she felt against her.

Moon couldn't hold back the sobs as cold washed over her body, the scared Queen unable to speak through the tears.

"I-i'm disgusting..."

The purple darkened slightly.

---

Breaking into the archives had been easy.

Well.

The actual way to get in wasn't technically easy. Eclipsa just had experience breaking into her own house.

It's... A long story.

She looked along the shelves, waving to a few of the machines. Her diguise had completely faded now, her poofy shamrock curls and argyle purple eyes clear as day, as were her red spades. She pulled the hood of her cloak down, reveling in the moment of being back in here after so long.

She climbed the ladder, hands trembling slightly in anticipation. Swinging it around, she arrived at where she knew her scroll to be, and pulled it off of the shelf.

Eyes scanning the parchment, her face landed on the latest addition, complete with a badly edited section.

"And so the daughter of King Shastican II and Queen Eclipsa was known as... Festivia..?" Eclipsa read out bewildered. "Festivia? Who on mewni is that? Did they change Meteora's name? Or..." she swallowed. "Did they... Replace her"

The last two words she spoke felt cold and toxic as they rolled off of her tongue.

"I need to ask Moon about this" she decided, tucking the scroll into her hood and climbing down the ladder, only to slip slightly and fall heavily on her side.

....onto a trap tile.

"Crap."

Alarms sounded deafeningly as she sprinted.