Starfall

Epilogue 9: Sight

Mabel had flown across the country for this. The book sold slowly at first, but soon built a small fan following. But when it was featured on a daytime talk show, it exploded.

She sat behind the table with a copy of the book propped up as a display.

MEET SABLE P. MINE, AUTHOR OF SCARLET LUNA: BOOK I, SUNDAY 2:00PM

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Mabel had to throw out her first draft. Everything she assumed, everything she thought she knew, was wrong.

It wasn't love at first sight like in a fairy tale.

At first, Marco thought Star moving in with his family was a life altering disaster. They may have become friends quickly, but love took a while longer. He still had a crush on Jackie. Star even developed her own crush on someone else while she and Marco were just friends.

Then there was Prince Kevin and Jackie. At first glance, their story was a fairy tale. The handsome prince comes to rescue the beautiful and fair maiden from a life of loneliness.

But Jackie wasn't a maiden in need of rescuing. And Kevin was like an anti-Cinderella. Instead of becoming a handsome and dashing prince, he became an everyday schmoe. His lie of omission clouded the start of their relationship.

The start of her own brother and sister-in-law's relationship involved booze.

Mabel decided to go back to look for a genuine fairy tale. Before Marco and Star. Before Grunkle Stan and Daisy.

Way, way back.

Which was why she found herself standing at the sign-in podium of the Great Library of Secrets.

"Dipper said you would be able to help me find information on the..." Mabel looked at her brother's note. "...Seventh Mula era, before the Great Decline."

"Well, that depends. You got something for me?" Glossaryck said.

Mabel held up a pudding cup. Tapioca.

"Ugh. No thanks. Your brother and his girlfriend found an endless source of that stuff. I'm done with that flavor for a while."

"So, it's flavor you want, eh? I think I got what you need, friend."

Mabel held up a dessert cup. She peeled back the foil cover and scooped out its green contents. The transparent substance jiggled.

Images of the wiggly spoonful reflected in Glossaryck's irises. Tears of joy and wonder formed in his eyes at the first taste.

"SO DELICIOUS! WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!"

"That's not even the best flavor." Mabel said holding up another cup of gelatin. This one was red.

Glossaryck scratched his neck anxiously.

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Mabel was seated at a table in a back corner of the library. Stacks of books on genealogy, history, wars, and magic surrounded her. Weeks of research had turned up this.

She was shocked. The story had been romanticized and sanitized.

The version of the story in Dipper's journals, the version that had been told in Mewni for almost seven hundred years was just a fairy tale.

Though different regions and kingdoms added their own details and flair, the basic fairy tale story was always there. The commoner Max of Lur and Princess Nova Firefly of Mula were bound by the Blood Moon and fell in love. But Nova was promised to marry Lord Jon of Kipen in order to stop a war. Max challenged Lord Jon to ritual combat for Nova's hand in marriage but lost and was killed. Nova's spirit died with Max, but her body stayed alive to fulfill her royal duty. She ultimately failed as she and her daughter sired by Lord Jon died in childbirth. When a new ruler of Mula rose, the royal wand of the Fireflys and its magic had vanished.