A/N: Hello all! Welcome to my fic. Before you begin you should know that I do not own this AU. It was created by thestarfan18 on Tumblr. Check her out! She's amazing at what she does (kick ass fanart.) It was because of her that I had the pleasure of writing this for the general public. Enjoy! Tell me what you think!
(Oh and I also don't own svtfoe)
Halley Lucitor-Butterfly stood 3 feet and 2 inches tall like most four-year-olds. She played with her dolls like most four-year-olds. She was almost in kindergarten like most four-year-olds and she even could already count (sort of). As far as she was concerned, she was special. Her mommy and daddy were the king and queen of Mewni which made her a princess. Halley couldn't even think of a four-year-old who's mommy and daddy were the queen and king. Except maybe two: her brothers James and Philharmonic "Phil" Lucitor-Butterfly. They were triplets, which meant they were born together, her parents explained. That meant that they loved them all equally no matter what, her mother added. Halley was content. Sure she fought with her brothers from time to time but they always made up in the end. She wasn't different. She was loved.
Then Halley turned five.
She, James, and Phil started their first day of kindergarten together. Halley hadn't been more excited that morning. She had picked out her favorite dress and got up the earliest. James and Phil got new suits too because her daddy said that everyone should know who they were and they should "set an example." Halley didn't mind the fussing too much, she was too excited. She was finally going to make friends. Her only company in the past five years had been her brothers, her parents and occasionally other relatives, and the castle staff. She loved them, but they were getting kind of boring. She was basically jumping up and down happily as their mother did a spot check. When she got to Halley she gave her a small smile.
"Halley, I know you're excited but could we watch the rug?" Halley looked down at the scorched rug beneath her feet and laughed nervously. "Sorry Mommy."
Her mother bent down and placed a kiss on her forehead right above her eye and straightened her hair a bit. "Are you excited for school, honey?"
"Uh huh!" She chirped. "I'm gonna make lots of friends today! And then I can have them over and we can play with my dolls!" Something passed over her mother's face that she didn't catch. Star hesitated, "It is your first day. Don't be too upset if things don't work out today. There's always tomorrow and the next day, and the day after that and—"
"Star. You're rambling." Halley's daddy, Tom, interrupted.
"I know. I'm just...nervous. And so sad to see my babies leaving me." She grabbed up the triplets and squeezed them tightly with Tom joining in. All three children squirmed in the grasp of their parents, anxious to get to school. They managed to slip out and ran towards the castle entrance, their parents following not too far behind. Waiting for the triplets out front was the fanciest Mewnian carriage. Star glanced at the carriage skeptically.
"That doesn't seem like too much fun...it looks a little uncomfortable for five year olds don't you think, Tom?"
"Well they are royalty after all. They should be—"
"Setting an example." Everyone chorused.
"Exactly why the royal carriage is best." The King nodded.
"But it's boring, Daddy." James complained.
An idea crossed Star's mind and she grinned up at her husband. His smile instantly dropped, "Star no. No way, the kids are—"
"Going to love it!" She called over an attendant, "Please bring the King's 'special' carriage around to escort the children to school." The attendant nodded and minutes later Tom's iconic skeleton-horse-drawn carriage came and replaced the traditional one. The triplets interest immediately grew.
"Woah! We get to ride that, Mommy?" James asked.
"Of course sweetie. Daddy used to ride in this all the time. So I don't see why you three can't either."
The triplets squealed with delight and ran over to their waiting ride. Tom sighed as he saw his children running off to the not so safe carriage pulled by a dead horse when he remembered something.
"Halley wait!"
Halley looked as her brothers got to explore with out her. Tom lifted Halley into his arms.
"Are you ready for your first day, kiddo?"
"Yes Daddy." Halley said, quite tired of explaining the same thing over and over.
"Well...No matter what happens always be...strong. Okay?"
Halley nodded, not really understanding what her father could mean. Halley gave him a hug before he put her down. Her parents sure did seem a little weird today. But she had no time to think of her crazy parents as she ran off inside the carriage with her brothers. The three were too busy playing inside the surprisingly spacious carriage that they didn't see the almost petrified looks on their parents' faces.
...
When they arrived at Mewni's elementary school. Halley was having second thoughts. The school looked so big to her and there were so many kids there.
"Um guys?" She almost whispered. Her brothers turned around on the path to face her. "I'm not so sure I wanna go anymore."
"Come on Hal, it'll be fun!" Her ever cheerful brother Phil said. His eyes were practically shining.
"Yeah Halley, and besides. Dad says we're royalty and we can't chicken out in front of all of our subjects." James added matter-of-factly.
Halley lowered her ears. "I don't know..."
Her brothers exchanged worried looks. James put out his hand and looked at her expectantly. Phil added his hand to the top and now lavender and crimson gazes were on her. She gave them a small smile and added her hand. It was a gesture of comfort for the three and had gotten them through all of their crusades throughout the years. Phil held her hand as they walked to the building and she was feeling much better.
The triplets were assigned different classrooms as to give them a chance to grow separately, but that didn't stifle Halley's newly restored confidence. She walked into the classroom full of bustling five year olds. Halley took a seat and looked around at her classmates. They were all staring at her. Perhaps they knew who she was. Of course! They wanted to be her friend! There seemed to be some nice kids around. Hopefully she'd be able to make friends with at least ten of them by the end of the day. She smiled happily, the day was going better than she thought.
The teacher quieted the class and they obediently fell silent.
"Welcome all! My name is Mrs. Florence and I will be your teacher for the year. Before we get started today we have the honor of having the daughter of our very own King and Queen of Mewni in our class. Halley, would you mind standing up for the class?"
Halley stood and put on her best smile. She expected there to be gasps of awe and everyone rejoicing that they had a real life princess in their class but the room was silent.
Mrs Florence seemed to take notice and cleared her throat, "Um, Halley why don't you introduce yourself?"
"Sure! My name is Halley Lucitor Butterfly and I'm five. I have two brothers and a mom and a dad. We live in the castle cause my mom and dad are the queen and king so that makes me and my brothers royal too."
This time she did get a reaction. But they were whispers along with the stares. She caught, "That's the princess?" The comment puzzled her. Had no one ever heard of her?
"Thank you, Halley." Her teacher smiled at her. "Now for today's lesson..."
...
The class had been assigned small activities for the hour and they were simple enough but Halley couldn't concentrate. She kept trying to figure out why people were staring at her. Were they in shock? Maybe they didn't know how to act around princesses. Halley nodded to herself. She would just have to show them that she was like anybody else.
Mrs. Florence gave them free time for half an hour. Halley watched as the kids migrated towards their friend groups. She saw a group of girls sitting together coloring and decided to say hi. She walked over confidently and tapped one on the shoulder. The girl looked up and flinched.
Halley took no notice, "Hi I'm Halley! Can I color with you?"
The girls all shrank away to do something else, leaving Halley more frustrated than confused. She was just a princess. Why were they making such a big fuss? She sat down and decided to brainstorm.
At recess she found her brothers and they sat together under a tree.
"How's school?" She asked them.
"Really fun so far. I've made a couple of friends," Phil answered.
James rolled his eyes, "You can't just make friends with anyone, Phil! We're royalty!"
Their brother didn't seem to mind, "They're fun though."
James ignored him and turned to Halley, "What about you?"
"Um...I..." She trailed.
"It's okay," James said. "All the kids are probably just nervous cause you're the princess."
Halley nodded, not entirely convinced, "Yeah..."
"You'll probably make friends soon Halley. Don't worry." Phil added.
Recess came and went and Halley found herself all alone again for snack time. Maybe she wasn't trying hard enough. Or, Halley thought, there was a test she had to go through to make friends and everyone was waiting for her to figure it out! That's it! There was probably a secret password or something. She just had to figure out what it was.
For the rest of the day, Halley sat and tried to think of what the password could be. Were they giving her clues? She didn't think so. By the end of the day she had no remote idea as to what it could be.
The bell rang and all the students grabbed their backpacks and headed home. Halley walked out silently, contemplating on what her next move should be.
"Halley," Mrs Florence interrupted her train of thought. "Hold on just a moment."
Her teacher came and bent down in front of her.
"How was your day?"
"Oh, it was fine."
"I'm glad to hear!" Mrs. Florence said happily. Then her expression changed, "Halley, if you ever have a problem here you can always come to me okay?"
"Kay..."
"How are the kids, Halley? Are they friendly enough?"
"Well I dunno. I haven't made any friends yet." She shrugged. "But it's okay. I understand."
"Oh... I see." Mrs Florence suddenly looked sad and Halley didn't know why.
"Well uh, I gotta go. My brothers are waiting."
She nodded, "See you tomorrow Halley."
Halley waved happily goodbye. Mrs. Florence was sure acting weird. And it didn't get better when she went home. Her mom and dad were acting the same way. Was she missing something? Did she not pass the test as quickly as her brothers? From the sound of it, Phil and James both had made a few friends. Rather than asking for the answer from her brothers— she was her mother's daughter after all— she decided to figure it out herself.
...
The next day, Halley went to school eager for another shot at making friends. Mrs. Florence introduced them into a weekly routine of sharing circle. Halley sat down beside a blonde haired girl with hazel eyes. As soon as Halley sat down, the girl moved as far as she could away from her. Halley frowned as she stared at the girl. The girl leaned over to her friend and whispered something that had both girls staring back at the princess. Halley looked away after what she had picked up.
"...just look at her. Gross."
She told her mom that she shouldn't have worn this dress today. So for the entire day Halley skulked around, making a mental note that she had to only wear the prettiest and best dresses she had. As Halley watched the others play during free time, she wondered, Maybe... I'm just ugly... Everyone was always staring at her. She shook her sadness away. From now on she'd wear only the absolute best to convince her classmates that she wasn't ugly.
"Halley?" The princess looked up at her teacher, a book in hand. "I was going to start a book for a small group to read later on. Could I read it to you? I want to see if anyone would like it."
"Sure!" Halley smiled. She loved books. Her parents would try to read her one every chance they got. Mrs. Florence smiled kindly and sat at her table to read.
...
It was Halley's turn at sharing circle the next day which meant she was the center of attention for at least five minutes. She had just so happened to pick her very best dress. It was a short dress that came to her knees allowing her tail to hang down. Her mother had done her hair into a ponytail and placed her favorite flower clip on top. For sharing circle she brought her plush doll of Grandma Mellie. She adored her grandmother. The two shared a connection that neither of her brothers had with her and that made Halley feel special. So when it was Halley's turn to present she proudly stood, her tail whisking behind her. The class started to talk but she wasn't listening. She was so excited.
"Class!" Mrs. Florence silenced Halley's classmates. She looked to Halley to start.
"This," she held up her doll, "Is my Grandma Mellie. She's my daddy's mommy and she's the Queen of the Underworld. Well, she and Grandpa Dave but he's not as interesting." She awaited the questions that the class usually had an abundance of but there were none.
"Does anyone have any questions for Halley?"
To Halley's delight a boy raised his hand. She looked at him eagerly as Mrs. Florence called on him.
"What does your Grandma look like?"
It was an odd question considering the doll she held in her hands but she answered anyway. "She's big and beautiful! But, she can be very scary.*"
"Wait...so that's what she really looks like?" He pointed towards the doll.
"Yeah."
The class snickered and Halley nervously laughed along.
"Look at her gross tail!" Halley heard someone say. She looked towards the voice and it was that same girl from yesterday. Halley looked down at her feet and drew hair tail under her dress. She was trembling by now, the entire class was laughing at her. Mrs. Florence immediately ended sharing circle and put the girl in time-out.
Halley automatically went to her seat and sat down, trying hard not to cry. But when the girl who made the comment about her tail passed by with her friends, she heard one say, "Looks like the monster got Celine in trouble."
M-monster?
The kind that she made Daddy check for under her bed before she went to sleep? The ones that Mommy was having such a hard time trying to bring into Mewni? The ones that everyone hated? She dropped her doll and ran out of class. Halley ran to a closet in the hallway. Once inside she sank to the ground and buried her head in her knees. Her tail wrapped around her ankles tightly as she cried.
She was a princess. How could she be a monster? She stood shakily and walked over to an old mirror in the broom closet. She looked at herself. Her entire life she thought she was normal. No one had ever told her any different. She looked like the king of Mewni and the Queen of the Underworld, how was she supposed to think that was bad? She went from princess to some...creep. Halley put her hands on her horns. None of the other kids had horns. She looked at her stupid third eye. Then her fang like teeth. Then her cheeks. She brought her tail from under her dress and stared at it.
"Halley! Halley! Where are you?!" She could hear Mrs. Florence calling for her. Halley quickly rushed to the door and locked it. Her teacher must have heard and came to the door.
"Halley?"
The princess was angrily staring at herself in the mirror, tears welling in her eyes. She grabbed at her horns and tried with all her might to rip them off.
"Halley, let me in—"
"Go away!" She screamed. When her horns wouldn't come off she started pulling at everything. Her hair, her face, her tail. She heaved angrily in exasperation and sobbed even harder. Halley looked down at her dress. Burnt holes were forming from her molten lava tears. She had Grandma Mellie to thank for that. It only occurred when Halley was really upset about something.
"Halley, please, let me in."
"No!"
Halley was left with only the sound of her crying and the smell of the fabric of her dress burning. What seemed like only seconds later to the princess, there was another knock at the door.
"Halley?" She instantly recognized the sound of Phil's voice. She wiped her tears away quickly and unlocked the door hesitantly. To her surprise both of her brothers came into the closet and closed the door behind them.
"What happened?" James asked, shocked by the state of her appearance.
"I-I..." Lava trailed down her cheeks once more even though she wanted to be strong in front of her brothers. "They called me a monster." She managed to barely whisper.
Phil gave her a confused look, "What? But you're not a—"
"Yes I am Phil!" She yelled at him, "No one else has these horns! Or an extra eye! Or this stupid tail!"
James flinched a little, he inherited his father's tail as well but always kept it covered.
She turned away from them and sniffed, "I just want to go home."
"Halley the school day just started. Mommy and Daddy are out at the Ponyhead kingdom for the day." Phil informed her.
"I don't care!" She screamed. She was angry now so her flaming aura started to form.
"No Phil," James came and placed a hand on her shoulder. No matter how hot the flames Halley made got, James, Phil, and their father were the only ones who could touch her without burning themselves. "Let her stay here. We'll tell your teacher where you are. Don't let anyone in except for us."
"Yeah, we'll come back for lunch." Phil nodded.
Halley hugged her brothers tightly. She had never been more thankful for them.
And so, the two brothers left their sister but, like they promised, they came with lunch for Halley and stayed with her the whole hour. They even brought her doll back. At the end of the day, they helped her sneak out of school unnoticed. Her hair was tangled, her eyes were red, there was soot smudged on her face, and her beautiful dress was ruined. Halley was never more grateful for them in that moment.
Their parents weren't home when they arrived so Halley spent hours in her bathroom cleaning herself up. She wanted nothing more than to wash the day's events away. She rubbed soapy water over her cheeks. The pink flowers started to glow and she frowned. Why did she have to be so different?
"Hals?" Her mother knocked on her door.
Halley dried her face and padded over to the door. She opened it to see her mother with a sad look on her face, even though she was smiling.
"Hi Mommy." She mumbled.
Star bent down to her level and grabbed her hands.
"Phil told me what happened today, sweetie. I'm so so sorry."
"Mommy?"
"Yes honey?"
"Why don't I look like you and my brothers?" And with that she started to cry again. She brought her hand up to her face.
Her mother picked her up and attempted to comfort her to no avail.
"Halley I know it hurts, I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She rubbed her back.
Star brought her over to her mirror and stood her up. To Halley's surprise, her mother suddenly looked a little angry.
"Halley I want you to look in that mirror."
"Why?"
"Look." She said firmly.
Despite not wanting to look at her self, she did. All she saw was the same thing she saw only seconds before. A gross ugly monster that scared people away.
"Now what do you see?"
"A monster."
"What did you see yesterday?"
Halley grew confused. What did she mean?
"I don't know."
"Surely not a monster."
"No but—"
Star came to stand behind her, "No 'buts'. Yesterday you knew you were the prettiest princess in all of Mewni."
"But Mommy how can I be pretty like you when I have these ugly horns o-or my tail—"
"Halley you say you don't look like me, but you do. Look at your hair. It's just like mine, except pink and that's your favorite color. Not everyone gets to have pink hair. It's very unique."
"What about my horns? You don't have those."
"But Daddy does. It's even more unique than your hair. When I was younger, I used to wear a headband that had horns like you and Daddy. I guess you could say I was a bit jealous."
"Really?" Halley marveled. Her mom was so pretty. How could she be jealous of her ugly horns?
"Of course. And look at your eyes. They're like mine. Blue. James, Phil and Daddy don't have those. Not a lot of people do. So does that make you scary?"
"No...I guess not..."
"So no matter what happens, don't let anyone make you feel like they made you feel today. You're beautiful Halley."
But am I monster? Halley thought. She did notice how her mother hadn't mentioned the word "monster." The princess was going to ask, but she looked up at her mother and she looked so...sad. It broke Halley's heart. In that moment, Halley vowed to never make her mother feel that way again. Ever. Even at her expense.
Halley nodded, "Okay."
Her mother hugged her and she almost felt better. Almost.
...
Later that night when everyone was asleep. Halley slid out of bed with her dolls at hand. She left her room and walked down the halls until she approached a door. Halley maneuvered her dolls so that she could put her hand up on the door. Her cheeks started to glow and the door gave her entry. Inside was the Grandma Room. Her parents had explained that each tapestry represented a previous Queen. Halley looked at her dolls—replicas of her parents—and then looked around the room. Not one of her grandmothers looked like she did.
"I knew it." She whispered miserably. Halley dropped her dolls to the ground.
"I am a monster."
...
*Just a Ponyo reference I was thinking about when writing this. XD