Chapter Text
Moon hadn’t screamed or cried since her mother’s death. Her tutors had insisted that a Queen should never show such emotions in public, so even now, whilst in the midst of labour, Moon chose to remain silent. Instead, as each contraction sent waves of pain throughout her body, Moon drew in deep, controlled breaths and clutched her husband’s hand for support.
“You're doing great, sweetie!” River reassured her.
“Another push, your Majesty.”
Another contraction hit and, guided by the midwife’s words (or perhaps just instinct), she pushed. Her eyes moved to the open window. From it, distant sounds of celebration drifted in – not for the birth of Moon’s heir, but for Stump Day.
For fear of offending the Stump, no formal celebration for her daughter could take place until tomorrow. Moon didn’t mind — she welcomed the chance for a nap, a hot bath, and a few quiet hours alone with her newborn daughter before presenting her to the public.
“They’re almost out, your majesty! I just need you to give one big final push.”
Hearing this, she took in one final deep breath and pushed.
“And they're out,” Moon slumped back onto the bed. “Try and relax, your majesty, everything looks to be normal.”
“You did so well, Sweetheart.” River gently kissed her sweaty forehead.
“Thank you, darling-” her eyes landed on his swollen, bright red hand, “oh my stump! River, did I do that to you?”
River waved his sore, reddened hand to signal she had nothing to worry about. “I’m fine,” he insisted. “I’ve suffered worse at the family’s arm wrestling match.” Moon sent him a grateful smile, intentionally not commenting on the pain that flickered across his face each time he moved his wrist.
“Good news, your Majesty,” the Head midwife, Sarah, said. “You have a healthy baby boy!”
“. . . what?” Moon quickly corrected herself, “Excuse my manners, can you please repeat that?”
“You have a fine son, Queen Moon”, Sarah repeated.
“But-but-” Moon face flushed with embarrassment, she couldn’t recall the last time she was this uncomposed, it might have been after her mother’s death…
“What the Queen is trying to say,” River began – oh, thank the Stump River is here, what would I do without him? – “Is that we performed the MotherMoon ritual. It's the one where, at five months, the mother lies down under the stars, her stomach exposed to the moonlight and the locket placed on her abdomen. We waited a full thirty minutes, exactly as instructed, she didn’t move an inch, and she hadn’t eaten for two hours prior; we did everything right!”
“-and” Moon continued “once open, the locket showed us an image of a baby girl. The Magic High Council also saw it. So, how can this be? Can the Mother’s Locket get the gender wrong, midwife Sarah?”
Sarah’s expression shifted to a reassuring half-smile – which was somewhat comforting to Moon – before asking, “Would you excuse me for a minute?” She didn’t wait. As she disappeared into the crowd of nurses and midwives, the couple exchanged a worried look.
Taking initiative, River rose and strode towards another midwife. He asked her something. Soon, the young midwife had brought their son, bundled in a blue cloth, over to them. She gave a quick tutorial on how to hold him, then walked out of earshot to give them some privacy.
As Moon held him close, River leaned in. “Hello, my boy.” The baby’s eyelids fluttered open.
“Moon,” River murmured, “he has brown eyes like my nephew Rock.”
“And, Dirhhennia” Moon added.
“Who?”
“My great-great-great-great-great-great-great auntie. She didn’t take the throne. Her mother thought her too lazy and sad, so instead it was passed to her sister Crescent.” Moon brushed a soft curl of brown hair from the baby’s tiny forehead.
“Ah, yes, I remember now, she lived in a tent in the castle's gardens during her sister’s rule,” he signalled to Sky’s curls. “I think he got the brown hair from me; both my nephew and mother have it.”
“He also has the Johanson chin.”
“What shall we name him?” River asked.
“I don’t know”, she admitted, “We didn’t think about a boy’s name.”
“How about Sky?” he suggested.
“Sky?”
“Like Queen Skywynne.”
“Hm,” Moon thought on it, “that sounds like a marvellous idea.”
Then a sharp cry escaped her throat.
River scooped Sky up into his arms just as Sarah reappeared in front of them.
“Good news, Your Majesty”, she announced, “ I already suspected it, but I just double checked with Doctor Lemberg, the locket has never, in written history, been wrong, so congratulations, you're having twins! Your son was probably hidden behind your daughter.”
“Yes, thank you, Sarah”, River snapped. He tried to rock Sky back and forth as he continued, “Anyone with eyes in their head could have told us that she’s in labour, again!”
Having dealt with hundreds of cranky parents over the years, Sarah was unfazed by his outburst. Instead, without looking away from them, she slapped on a fresh pair of gloves and told them, “Compared to your previous twenty-hour labour, this will be relatively quick.”
Some hours later, the Magical High Commission (minus the Queen and Glossaryck) could be found having a dance party. Having stolen a radio from Earth, the four magical beings were dancing to the latest pop music. Rhombulus was an enthusiastic version of the sprinkler. Lekmet swayed his head and tapped his foot to the beat whilst occasionally singing in goat, as Omni and Hekipoo (and her many clones) attempted to create the longest chain for a Mexican wave ever. They made it to about fifty Hekapoo’s cramped into the room, plus Omni, before the last song finished and the radio hosts began chattering about horses or something.
The smiling (sort of) siblings looked between each other in a rare moment of peace.
Then, Omni said the dreaded words.
“Right, back to business.”
Hekapoo and Rhombulus let out dramatic groans.
“Seriously?” Hekapoo exclaimed, “Can’t we celebrate for one day before returning to discussing politics?”
“No, we can’t. Hekapoo. We are not just thinking about politics, but also the safety of the ENTIRE universe.”
“That’s next week's problem!” Rhombulus proclaimed, “For now, let’s eat and party like the other Mewman in celebration of Prince Sky… and what did they name the girl?”
Lekmet bleated.
“Right, Star.”
“Because this is the time to take him! Think about it, half the Kingdom will be drunk, and the other too busy to notice, let alone stop a kidnapping. I say that on the last night of celebrations, Hekapoo should use her interdimensional scissors to enter the nursery, swap Prince Sky out for a transfigured dummy, and once she’s delivered the Prince to a new home, we remove the spell from the dummy, revealing it’s a fake. The whole kingdom panics; fingers are pointed, but without evidence, no one can be convicted. We get away with the crime scot-free!”
“No way, Omni, I’m not doing it!”
“Whose Scot Free?” Rhombulus whispered to Lekmet. Lekmet bleated something about him probably being an Earthling, “right, thanks, Lek." he spoke up, "I agree with Omni.”
“Of course you would!” Hekapoo hissed, “You always do!”
“His plans are simple!” Rhombulus argued.
“They're also successful”, Omni added.
“I’m not doing it” Hekapoo insisted.
“What, why not? You promised Celena-”
“Yeah. I promised to help train the child, not kidnap him. Make Rhombulus do it... or Lekmet...”
“-You’ve got the interdimensional scissors”
“Then I’ll give it to you-”
“You're also the sneakiest.”
“I’m NOT doing it...” She crossed her arms and stood her ground.
“Hekapoo”, Omni began “this must be done. Celena gave us five possible futures for Mewni. In only two of these timelines, Prince Sky is born, and in only one of the five does Magic and Mewni survive, and THAT future requires the Prince to live and train with the wand in secret. Celena gave us very clear orders, and we swore to fulfil them.”
“But-”
“No buts.”
“Haha, butts- ow, don’t smack me, Lukmet.”
Lukmet pulled out a notebook and began scribbling. He then turned the page towards Hekapoo. It read:
We all knew this was coming.
“I know～”
He scribbled again.
Then why are you upset?
“You want me to rip a newborn away from its crib! You can’t expect me to be ok with that.”
“-um, Hekapoo” Rhombulus interrupted “we stole Queen Eclipsa’s baby from her, remember?”
“Shut up, Rhombulus,” she demanded. “These situations are NOT the same.”
“She’s right,” Omni agree, “Prince Sky wasn’t born out of wedlock, or had a father called the Prince of Darkness.”
“Thank you, Omni, Moon isn’t a monsterfuc- wait, don’t take my side, Omni, I’m still mad at you!” Lekmet continued writing.
Is it because you're attached to Moon?
“urgh...” she let out a sigh, “you know me too well. Yes, it's Moon. I’d have to lie to her for YEARS, she’ll hate us when she discovers the truth!”
“It’s for the greater good.”
Let me talk to her, Omni.
“You can’t talk-”
Rhombulus smacked his frozen snake-hand across Omni's face in an attempt to silence him, unintentionally sending him flying backwards, causing him to collide with the wall.
“Oh, sorry”, Rhombulus said, “I was just trying to stop you from talking.”
Lekmet bleated.
“Yeah, I do forget my own strength.”
Hekapoo, we aren’t killing Prince Sky, we're simply relocating him for a couple of years.
“Yes, but-” she waited for him to scribble his response.
But what? You feeling bad about lying isn’t more important than saving magic. If we don’t have him, millions will die either at Toffee’s hands or as a result of magic's destruction. If magic is destroyed, hundreds of Mewman living in the Underworld will burn to death because they are no longer protected by magic. With your death, there will be no travel between dimensions, which means the citizens of the Butterfly Kingdom will have nowhere to flee when the Septarians storm the castle gates. How many mewmans will be massacred? How many children will be orphaned, enslaved or murdered if Toffee wins?
“I don’t know…”
I don’t know either, because when Magic dies, we die with it.
Also, if it upsets you that much, don’t consider it lying; instead, think of it as not telling her the entire truth. So if she says, ‘Do you know where my baby is?’, just say ‘I don’t know’ because once you drop him off, you won’t know where he is, he could be in the house, on a walk, or at what those humans call a ‘shopping centre.’
“That logic is stupid-” Lekmet sent Rhombulus a light glare “- stupidly alright!”
“And what if she asks me, ‘Did you kidnap my baby?’”
Lekmet snorted.
Well, she won’t. She trusts you too much.
Hekapoo frowned. Lekmet hesitated, but then added.
Your thinking in the present, Hekapoo, if we want to see Moon’s granddaughter on the throne of Mewni, we must think about the future.
Hekapoo sucked in a deep breath and, in a single breath, said “fine-I’ll-do-it.”
She hated to admit it, but they were right. If she didn’t want Moon to be the last magical Queen of Mewni, she needed to do this.
“Even if I hate the idea of lying to Moon. I’ll do it. WILL do it.”
“That’s the spirit!” Rhombulus exclaimed, smacking one of his frozen snake-hairs against her back.
“Will do it, IF you stop doing that!” she exclaimed, shivering, “Your snake-thingies are cold!”
At three days old, the twins participated in a royal photoshoot.
“These photos will be seen across Mewni,” the lead journalist excitedly told the Queen, “these photos will define your citizens' understanding of the children! These aren’t just photos; these are statements. So we’ve assigned Diane, our best of the best, to take the photos. Don’t worry, she’s fantastic with children.”
Just as he finished saying that, Diane could be heard practically begging the Princess to “look over here!”
Whilst standing out of shot, River encouraged his daughter to “smile for the camera!”
You’d think that because Star couldn’t crawl (or even move her head), she’d be easy to photograph, yet Diane found that no toy or silly face King consort River made stopped the baby from crying.
“Just one or two photos of you smiling (or, hey, even just with a neutral expression) is all I need. Can you do that for?”
In response, Princess Star wailed.
Diane let out a silent sigh. She HATED working with children for reasons like this.
Her eyes fluttered to the corner of the room, where the Queen was beginning to wrap up her conversation with the journalist. Above the Queen's head sat a clock that told her she had spent way too much time trying to photograph the crying Princess. She’d have to come back tomorrow to retake Princess Star’s photos.
She declared, “We’re moving onto the Prince”, causing the King to gather the crying Princess up into his arms. He began to whisper calming words into her ear as he swiftly departed from the throne room, the royal nannies trailing behind him as they all made their way to the nursery.
As her crew fixed the lighting and changed the lenses, she heard the sound of the Queen’s heels approaching her. She turned around, watching her staff offer polite curtsies and bows to the Queen before offering one herself.
With a sheepish expression, Queen Moon said, “I’m sorry about her; she was fine before you arrived. She’s just very …”
“Unpredictable?” Diane offered.
“Yes, you could say that.”
“All babies are, your Majesty.”
“Do you have children?”
“No, but I have enough nieces and nephews to understand that every child is unique, and that uniqueness makes them unpredictable”, Diane continued “My sister has a daughter; when she was a toddler, she was loud – like burst a eardrum loud – during the day, but at night she slept soundly. When she had her son, she expected he’d be the same.”
“And he wasn’t?”
“Not at all. He was a perfect angel during the day, but screeched all night. Thankfully, he grew out of it…”
The King stepped through the doorway, the Prince in his arms. To Diane's relief, Prince Sky looked at all the setup with as much curiosity as a three-day-old could muster rather than with fear or confusion. The King refused a staff member who offered to place the Prince on the throne, instead sitting the Prince on the golden chair himself and fluffing the red royal pillow to assure his comfort and back support.
“He’s a very protective father,” Diane remarked.
“He is,” the Queen happily agreed.
Then the King came to stand beside the Queen.
Sky proved to be an easier subject than Star.
Within ten minutes, Diane had captured three fantastic photos of him. The first had him in a loose white shirt and red overalls, and the second had him in a tiny knight outfit. He was smiling in these. The third had his little fingers reaching out towards a little stuffed dog. He wasn’t smiling, but instead had a look of contemplation (or perhaps annoyance) that he couldn’t reach the toy.
“These are perfect!” Diane exclaimed.
She heard the Queen let out a sigh of relief.
“Marvellous!” the King exclaimed and approached his smiling, yet very sleepy, son, "you’ve done so well!”
“Would you like a photo with the Prince, your majesty?” The King looked surprised.
The Queen coughed, then said, “But our official family photo shoot isn’t till tomorrow.”
“We don’t need to publish it. It could just be for your personal collection.”
The Queen thought about the idea.
“Honey?” the King called, uncertainty laced in his voice.
She smiled, “I see no problem with it.”
The King beamed.
So, Diane took some photos of the (now) sleeping Prince sitting on the King’s knee, a faint trace of a smile still on the boy’s face.
That night, as the royal couple slept and the nannies changed shifts, Hekapoo easily swapped out the Prince for a transfigured baby doll and teleported into the HCC building without alerting a soul.
Within ten minutes, she had also swiped the Magic Wand from the bedside table of Queen Moon and, together with her brothers, had cleaved half of it, turning it into its own separate, second wand.
Once done, Hekapoo put it back right on the bedside table and, just as planned, mini sparks escaped the sceptre as it came to terms with having only half its power. Moon was jolted awake at the sound, and her sleepy eyes widened in alarm as she discovered the state of her family heirloom.
“River, River!” the King snapped awake. “Did you hear anything?” she asked, her fingers tracing where half the heart was now missing.
“No, no sweetie, what’s- the wand! What happened!”
“I don’t know, half my heart is gone… the children!”
River lept from the bed and flew down the corridor in his blue pyjamas. Despite the lack of light in the hallway, River made it to the nursery in record-breaking time based on his muscle memory alone. He slammed open the nursery door and found a wet nurse holding a sleeping Star whilst the other staff stood around Sky’s crib in silence.
“What’s happened?” he screeched, causing Star to wake up and start crying.
He ran to the crib, expecting to see… well, he really wasn’t sure what he expected to see.
Inside the crib, he found a straw doll where his son should have been.
With fire in his eyes, he demands, “Search this castle. NOW.” The nannies began to scurry out of the room. He stopped one and told her, “Go to the Magical High Commission building. I want Hekapoo to stop ALL interdimensional travel. I will find the person, monster, NO, the thing that took my son, I will get him back and make whoever took him wish they were never born.”
But River was too late.
Hekapoo had already dropped Prince Sky off at the home of the Diazs, a young couple on Earth who had recently miscarried their second child and who saw Sky’s arrival in their empty nursery as a sign from the universe that they were destined to be parents.
Moon’s heart sank as the nurses fled the room. She stumbled in to find her husband holding her daughter, her son nowhere in sight. As the nurse tried to explain what happened, Moon only heard bits and pieces: “was still there”, “then”, “straw doll”, but it only took her looking into her furious and teary husband’s eyes to know what had happened; someone had taken their son.
Moon hadn’t screamed or cried since her mother’s death, not even at her children’s births, but that night, she dropped to her knees and let out a piercing screech of agony that could be heard across the Kingdom.
Then she sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed alongside her weeping husband. Together, they held their little Star, praying their Sky would someday return to them.
As Butterflies wept, the Diazs smiled.
The young couple made a promise that they’d raise the baby with the weird wand as if he were their own, and the first step, they thought, to doing that was to give him a proper name. It took them some time, but eventually they decided on a name.
Sky Butterfly was now Marco Diaz.
Notes:
Hi Everyone,
It’s been about five years since I last posted a SVTFOE X OTGW X Gravity Falls fanfiction, but I’m happy to say I’m back! For the last twelve months or so, the idea of Marco as a Prince of Mewni kept returning to me, but I finally managed to work up enough energy after all my essays and exams to type it up on my keyboard.
This might be controversial, but I wholeheartedly believe that SVTFOE season four should have explored the Queens of Mewni who wrote in the book of Spells. I wanted to know if Celena and Marco were somehow connected by their cheek marks! Yes, I understand the cheek marks aren't identical, but they are the closest designs we see in the show. Even if they aren’t related, why is it that only Marco and Star's cheeks glow in the Realm of Magic? Janna and Tom are often exposed to magic, yet they don't have glowy cheekmarks? Even if you say 'Well, yeah, it's because of the blood moon ball, Star and Marco are connected.' How do you explain Eclipsa's father’s portrait telling Marco to go to the Blood Moon? It smells of a set-up to me... perhaps Marco has some royal blood in him?
As much as I'd LOVE to answer all these questions, I can't find a canonical answer. Does anyone have any thoughts?
Anyway, Wirt and Dipper will be introduced soon—Dipper around chapter 3 or 4, and Wirt around chapter 5 or 6. If you're from one of those two fandoms, don't worry, I'll try and explain SVTFOE lore in the story, so you're not left confused.
I haven't written for these characters in a LONG time, so I hope you can forgive any inconsistencies in their voices. Also, SVTFOE and Gravity Falls are extremely canon-divergent, whereas OTGW is set post the Unknown experience.
I appreciate all writing feedback and would love to read your thoughts in the comments!
Chapter Text
It took Hekapoo four years to finally work up the courage to visit the little Prince. She had meant to visit him sooner, really she had, but the thought of seeing Sky living as the son of someone other than Moon and River sent her floating to the nearest tavern to drink her guilt away.
The couple had responded better than she would have thought to Sky’s kidnapping; they weren’t happy, but they seemed content. They still loved each other, and Star, and they continued to rule over Mewni just as efficiently as before.
The couple had channelled their pain into policy and, over the last four years, had brutally cracked down on crimes against children. Just recently, they had decreed that all search and rescue efforts for missing children (and yes, that did include the spawn of those filthy monsters) would be fully funded by the royal treasury. They also increased the jail sentence for abduction by 5 years.
Rombulus once commented that they seem ‘over it’, in reference to Sky’s disappearance, but Hekapoo disagreed.
River crying at the sight of the sky doesn’t seem ‘over it’, the way Moon’s diamond cheekmarks glowed with sadness whenever she witnessed a mother hugging her son doesn’t make her seem like she’s ‘over it’, the quiet moments where the couple would ask one another ‘do you think Sky would have liked that?’, ‘would Sky have behaved like that?’, ‘would he have been friends with…’ doesn’t scream their ‘over it’-
She needed a drink.
But… she should at least look at the state of Sky’s new home. She didn’t want him living in filth (speaking of filth, she’d need to check to see if Mina Loveberry was living in the bins around here) or in a dangerous area. They needed him alive for this plan to work after all.
Turning herself invisible, she finally got a close look at the front yard that belonged to Rafael and Angie Diaz. The house was two-storey, with white bricks and a red-tiled roof. The front yard had yellow grass (for some reason), an orange tree and several small cacti. It wasn’t grand enough to be lived in by a member of the Mewni royal family, but for the circumstances, it was good enough.
She peered into every room, mentally noting how tidy and cosy the rooms looked from the outside.
When she reached where she thought the nursery had been, she felt a lump grow in her throat. It had been converted into a gym.
Had they abandoned the Prince with someone else? Have they killed him! Should I confront them? Torture them for information? No, I need to tell Omni about this! I’ll KILL them if they’ve- oh.
Two windows along, she spotted a stuffed bear sitting against the window. When she got closer, she spotted a photo of Sky, at about two years old, hanging high up on the wall. Below it were three shelves crammed with children’s books, and to its right was an open closet filled with clothes and toys. On the opposite side of the room, sat a child-sized bed with red sheets.
Hekapoo was relieved she wouldn’t have to torture anyone, and the room was fine. It wasn’t as good as the bedroom River had designed and maintained in case the Prince ever returned, but it was probably better than how a peasant child lived.
Eventually, she reached the kitchen – she had come here last because she knew it was occupied – where she saw a very pregnant Angie, who was singing: “Tiene cabeza y tiene cola, y hace muu.” (It has a head and a tail, and it goes moo)
Then Hekapoo heard a little voice go “moo.”
Her heart fluttered. She peered in through the kitchen window and saw a little chocolate-haired boy stomping around like a cow.
The music came to an end:
“More singing, Mummy?”
“Not now, darling”, his mummy told him, “it’s time for dinner.”
“Yeah!” he cheered.
“And tonight’s dinner is very special.”
“Really, mummy?”
She hummed.
Marco waddled over to his seat and, using all his strength, pulled the chair away from the table and climbed up onto it. He sat patiently at the table, kicking his legs back and forth as his mummy pulled three steaming plates from the oven and placed them on the table. She pushed his seat in for him before making her way to her own.
“Hello, my lovely family!” his daddy exclaimed, as his tall, bulky frame burst through the door.
“Hi, daddy,” he came over to a giggling Marco and plonked a kiss on his cheek before walking around the table towards Marco’s mummy, whom he passionately kissed.
“Eww,” Marco giggled.
“When you find someone, Marco, you’ll want to kiss them all the time as well.”
“No, I won’t.”
“Yes, you will.”
“No, I won’t.”
“Ah ah ah, yes you will!”
“Boys,” mummy interrupted, “no fighting at the dinner table.”
“Sorry,” they said in unison.
His mummy and daddy took their seats.
“Now, Marco” his mummy said “I want to introduce you to a very special meal,” Marco looked down at his plate, “these are NACHOS.”
“Na-chos”, Marco repeated.
He took a hot corn chip covered in salsa, meat and cheese.
“Careful, Marco”, his Daddy told him “it could burn your mouth if you don’t blow on it.”
Marco took a deep breath in and, like the big bad wolf, blew the steam off the chip, then he bit into it.
His parents smiled as Marco’s eyes widened in delight, and a small smile formed on his face. Between chews, he exclaimed.
“I love na-chos”
Sitting in the MHC kitchen, Hekapoo told Lekmet, “I couldn’t do it” he turned towards her, cocking an eyebrow, “I’m billions of years old, and yet I couldn’t face a four-year-old.”
Lekmet walked around the counter to pat her back with his hooves.
“He was so happy with that other family, it was as if he were their son.”
On a piece of paper, Lekmet scribbled: Because he IS their son.
“HE’S ADOPTED!”
So what? He’s their son and they are his parents.
“I couldn’t even see if he still has the wand”, she continued “perhaps they’ve tossed it! Humans don’t understand the importance of a tool like the magic wand; it could be in the trash for all we know…”
They have the wand. I’ve checked.
Hekapoo eyed him suspiciously, “and why have you visited him?”
To check up on him.
“And how often do you do that?”
To check up on him. A couple of times a month, he thinks I’m an imaginary friend.
“Why?” he looked at her as if she’d grown a second head, and he then scribbled fiercely.
BECAUSE HE’S A FOUR-YEAR-OLD with a MAGIC WAND, the only heir to hold the wand at that age was Jushtin, and he was being supervised by Skywynne; if we’re not watching him, then what’s stopping him from blowing something up?
“I hadn’t thought of it that way… but he’s not that powerful, right?”
He’s actually really powerful – just as Celena predicted – he’s already conjured chocolate ice cream in a cone.
“So we need to start training him soon.”
ye
“But I can’t face him-”
Yes, I understand it's
“I can’t face Sky,” He bleated.
“What?”
LET ME FINISH.
“Oh,” she said, “soorrryyy.”
Don’t give me attitude.
“Fine. I’ll let you finish.”
Yes, I understand it’s hard to look at Prince Sky, but don’t think of him as Sky; think of him as Marco, Marco Diaz. Don’t think about him being a Prince, but rather remember he’s a boy prophesied to save Mewni, and the only way for him to do that is for you to train him. That’s how I do it.
“You know what, Lekmet, that isn’t too bad an idea, I might try it.”
“Smiley face” Marco shrieked, “smiley face, smiley face, SMILEY FACE!”
Ten bright yellow emoji-heads smiled down at him from the ceiling. Each one was as big as a basketball, as thin as a sticker and looked exactly like the emojis his mum spammed his dad’s phone with. He grinned proudly at them.
Climbing onto his bed, he placed a hand on his hip and used the other to jab the wand at them.
“You're not allowed to be sad em-o-ji’s unless I tell you so! Got it?”
They all rolled side to side in agreement.
“Good. Now teach me how to fly!”
An amused voice from behind him commented, “They can’t help you with that…”
Marco spun around and froze at the sight of a pure white skinned and red-haired-
“MONSTER!” he screamed.
The monster blinked, shocked at his reaction, just as Marco missed his footing and went stumbling off the bed, hitting the carpet with a heavy ‘thump.’ He looked up, catching sight of all the smiley faces’ expressions flickering from happy to angry. He watched in horror as they flew towards the intruder, exploding one by one in its face. The creature let out a series of ouches, complaining briefly about her nails, before the final explosion caused her to tumble backwards off the roof.
When Marco finally clambered to his feet, all his emojis had crumbled into sad piles of sand.
“Oh…”
He knelt, trying to pick up a sandpile to put it back together, only for it to slip through his fingers.
“Goodbye, smiley face…” he told the pile. Moving on to the next one, he said, “Goodbye smiley face...” He repeated this for the other eight.
“Thanks for protecting me”, his lip quivered.
“Aw, don’t be sad,” said the ‘monster’, who was now climbing back in through the window as if she hadn’t been blown up ten times.
“AHHH! MUMMY! DAD-”
“I’ve soundproofed the room”, she said, flicking dirt off her dress without looking at him “so screaming is useless unless you want to lose your voice.”
Trembling, Marco asked her, “What- what do you want from me?”
She shut the window behind her and grinned.
“To teach you!”
“To… teach me?” he clutched his wand so tight his knuckles turned red.
“Yep,” she signalled at the wand with black bat wings and a half-shattered gem, “you need to learn how to use that thing before you accidentally explode someone. Again.”
“Oh…” he winced. “...sorry?”
“Oh, kid, I’m not upset”, she said with a wide smile.
“You’re not?”
“Absolutely not, that was incredible”, Marco’s eyes twinkled at the praise “I haven’t seen a four-year-old perform magic like that – ever.”
“REALLY!”
“Yeah. I’m Hekapoo, by the way.”
“Heek-a-poo”, he repeated carefully, “I’m Marco.”
“Well, Marco, if you’d let me help you, I could teach you a lot of spells.”
“Why would I need to learn spells?” he asked innocently, “when I can just do this – Smiley face!”
An eleventh smiley face flew out of the wand and quickly got up in Hekapoo’s face.
Shooing it away, Hekapoo asked, “But, don’t you want to make your own spells?”
“But I already can! I made the smiley face spell!” he cheerfully told her.
Hekapoo paused, pondering how she’d explain magic to him without shattering his little mind.
“Well, yes, you made that thing” she said, eyeing the smile, “but that spell relies on your emotions.”
“Why is that bad?”
“Because if you're happy, the smiley face is happy, if you're sad, the smiley face could kill someone!” Marco gasped, “So you can’t always be reliant on emotion-based spells. You need to know non-emotion-based spells like… Like … the light sword spell-”
“Are those like lightsabers from Star Wars?!”
“... sure.”
“I WANNA LEARN THAT!” he exclaimed.
Notes:
Hey guys,
Thanks for reading. Sorry if Marco’s voice isn't the most accurate for a four-year-old; I genuinely don't know how to write from a toddler’s perspective.
Anyway, I appreciate all writing feedback, and I LOVE to read your comments.
Here’s the chapter question: Do you like nachos?
PensigeEnder on Chapter 1 Thu 11 Dec 2025 08:21AM UTC
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Fanfiction13Penny on Chapter 1 Thu 11 Dec 2025 08:38AM UTC
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diamox0 on Chapter 1 Sat 13 Dec 2025 09:34PM UTC
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Fanfiction13Penny on Chapter 1 Mon 15 Dec 2025 03:29AM UTC
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Nova (Guest) on Chapter 1 Mon 15 Dec 2025 08:59PM UTC
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