Star vs the Forces of Evil: The Ballad of Earth-Mewni

Episode 5: Forward Resistance

Earlier that day...

As Marco left Star's room to join the Butterfly family & Janna for a tour of Echo Creek, Star was left soundly & peacefully asleep under her blankets. Only the sound of her snoring broke the otherwise peaceful silence in the room. A quick round of intimacy with Marco always left her severely relaxed, very often relaxed enough to fall right asleep. Not that either minded. She needed as much rest as possible and Marco thought she was adorable when she slumbered.

Unfortunately, the peace didn't last. Soon enough she found herself loudly grunting & yelling, tossing & turning like mad. The bad dreams were back...

[Dream]

Star found herself locked in an intense fist fight. Her opponent? Herself. Or rather...the image of her mirror reflection, the one that had the Joker voice and was often faded or black in color scheme. The fight, surprisingly, was going well for Star, landing in several blows on her twisted doppelganger and knocking her back onto the ground. For a moment, it seemed like Star had won. She stood over the body of her doppelganger for a moment, loudly panting with sweat dripping from her forehead. The doppelganger did not move.

Until it did.

It reached its arms out to Star and grabbed her neck, pulling herself up and then, with a sudden second wind, pick her up & threw Star several feet away, causing her to land hard on the ground. Star had her struggles standing back up. She had a bit of blood dripping from her lips and her body was starting to shake. Her vision blurred. Just a moment earlier she had quite the upper hand on her opponent. Now? She was falling backwards, having forfeited any advantage she once had over her opponent.

The doppelganger sprinted towards Star, scaring her into hastily standing up and ending up wobbly on her feet as a result. This only resulted in Star getting a nasty uppercut punch to her chin, which was followed by a barrage of flurries to her body all around. Eventually one hard right hook across her face resulted in her collapsing onto the ground again, this time clutching her chest in pain, her heart once again acting up.

The doppelganger showed no mercy, picking Star up off the ground effortlessly and then kneeing her hard in her abdomen, causing blood & saliva to spit out of her mouth before meeting the doppelganger's fist again with her teeth. Once again she found herself landing on the ground hard. But this time she couldn't get back up. The pain was too great. The doppelganger responded by forcefully slamming one of its feet onto Star's chest, specifically in the place where her heart rested. She let out an ear-splitting scream of pain, one which only crescendo'd in volume the harder the doppelganger pressed. Ever so slowly, it lifted its foot up off her chest, supposedly giving Star a reprieve...only to then slam it down as hard as it physically could back on her chest.

SLAM

[End Dream]

Star let out another scream, and then she shot straight up in her bed, dripping in sweat and harshly panting. Another bad nightmare. Each one seemingly more frustrating than the last. Every time, she woke up in a fit: difficulty breathing, sweating like she was in a sauna, and of course, now with chest pains. As her breathing stabilized, the room around her became incredibly quiet, with only the sound of her increased - and occasionally irregular - heartbeat filling the air. She looked over at her clock, realizing she had been asleep for about three hours since her intimate round with her boyfriend. But upon looking in that direction, she noticed there was a big box sitting next to her dresser with an envelope attached to it.

She sighed and stepped out of bed, approaching the box. She opened the envelope first: inside was a letter addressed to Star. "The Ultimate Star Butterfly Home Vacation Care Package." She sighed but smiled, continuously flattered at their overdoting on her. However, upon feeling the envelope a second time, she discovered there was something else inside. It turned out there was a wad of cash - and quite a thick one at that - and a smaller post-it note on it. "Star...spoil yourself. You deserve it. Love, Marco. Ugh, Marco...why do you have to be such an angel?" She couldn't be upset. He was so nice.