Chapter 108: School of Hard Knock Life

Summary:

A very deadly day at school

"I'm just saying what's the point in giving an exam over brunch of all things." Princess Arms heard Ponyhead complain about their new curriculum. "It's just eating between breakfast and lunch."

"I dunno, as a cook, I like to think there's a fine classification between what you can eat at certain points of the day. I mean, waffles at dinner are just weird, right?" Princess Turdina asked.

"Waffles practically make up half of my blood aside from ice cream." Princess Butterfly said as they took a huge chomp out of a breakfast sandwich, "And one of the most important lessons my brother has ever learned was it doesn't matter what time you eat waffles, as long as you're eating them with someone you love."

"Exactly." The boy himself spoke. "Time zones are meant to be broken into dust in the face of personal enjoyment." He answered … while eating a waffle covered slice of pizza. Princess Arms may be an anarchist, but she wasn't a maniac.

"As long as none of it's vegan, I'm done for anything." The Woolet girl joined her boyfriend in the mayhem by eating a mutton covered in ice cream.

"I tried to cover as many bases as possible, because we really could use your guys' help." Princess Arms pressed on to the reason why she called them here. "Ms. Heinous for the past few weeks has been targeting every princess that's ever gone to this school outside of classes, and the robot guards are a bit buggy." 

"Wouldwouldwould you like a cookie little booooy?" A guard, asked, holding a vase to Princess Kelpbottom.

"I'm a ninety year old woman!"

"Yeesh, that's somehow more creepy than when they were trying to kidnap and kill us." Princess Butterfly shivered. "We completely got your back girl. We already have the Commission on her tail as we speak."

"Yeah, we'll lock Ms Heinous down and talk her down." Everyone stared at the Butterfly Prince. "Guys, she's mentally unstable, not evil."

"That still won't stop her from ripping out our souls and leaving our lifeless bodies to rot till they're dust, Q-fly." Ponyhead pointed out the obvious. "I know you guys have this thing where you talk to people that try to kill you, and it works half the time, but I'm pretty sure this is the other half of the time where you got to beat the snot out of her and lock her up forever."

"I get we need to lock her up … just, maybe not forever."

"Steven, come on." The woolet girl patted him. "If it's that serious, just leave it to Star, she'll at least talk while beating her up."

"Yeah, there's a balance we need to have." Star added. "You can't just beat up monsters just for existing, but you can't hold back on a psycho just because you feel sorry for them. I mean, I feel sorry for Mina, but I'm still going to rainbow punch her into the sun every chance I get."

"That's different." The boy groaned. "Mina is-" There was a loud siren noise.

"Mr Heinous is back! She's coming back!" The watchtower shouted.

The group immediately sprang into action. "Let's take em down." The woolet spoke with a grin, running before the robot stopped them.

"All troublemakers must be locked up in their rooms." Oh, so NOW it works!

"Damn it! Heinous must have some kind of override for these things!" Turdina observed as they slipped on some sparking gloves and punched the head clean off the robot, only for about a dozen or so more to swarm into the room.

"That just means we have an appetizer before the main course!" The Wool grabbed that impressive looking pink sword before slicing two more in half.

"I don't have time for this!" The Mewman prince shouted, before covering himself in a spiky bubble and bulldozing his way down the entire hall of robots. About the third quarter down the robots actually jumped out of the way of the screaming boy, as he made his way through the building.

"For someone that doesn't like fighting, he's really good at it." Princess Arms stated, looking at the busted up parts of metal and scrap on the floor now.

"It's when he has a goal in mind." Princess Butterfly looked. "We better catch up, fight some robots everyone!"

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Steven ran through about nine halls of scrap metal before finally making it to where he needs to be. "Yo, Q-fly, where're you going? You just sort of ran off on the rest of us." The not entirely unwelcomed voice of Ponyhead said from behind him.

"I needed to find Ms Hei…Meteroa." He corrected himself, pointing to a mostly dark room with a busted down door. "I want at least one chance at talking her down before everyone starts blasting and punching wildy."

"Alright, fine, but I'm coming with. Cause I want the first shot." He nodded as they ran inside. "Give it up Ms H!" Ponyhead shouted to the woman messing with some junk.

"Listen, we can talk." Steven said as she continued to fiddle around with the metal. "I know you're Meteora, we talked with your mom, we got the Commission to admit their crimes."

The half Mewman, half monster woman paused for a second, before continuing to scrounge through the metal. "Yes, because admitting to something terrible they've done three hundred years ago is suddenly going to magically make everything better. Tell me? Have they been crystallized? Have they been ostracized from the very people they swore to protect?"

"Um … no." He admitted. "Right now they're trying to track you down and crystalize you instead of talking to you … but I want to, we can make things right. You don't have to keep doing bad things, we can reunite your family and everything."

"Bad….bad? What I am doing is taking back all the years that were stolen from me." Meteora said as she picked up a discarded bot that looked like an old woman. "Hello, mother." The woman spoke to the robot with a hint of sarcasm. "There was a whole line of these made back in the day. For centuries, they'd leave these piles of rusted metal in charge of being headmaster. 

"Right you were left with this." Steven noted. "Did … did you just come here for answers?"

"No…I know what I want." Meteora fiddled with the insides of the robot before the eyes of it lit up, and projected on the wall. "I came to remind myself of what I'm fighting for." She sent him a devilishly malicious look. "And to show morons like you why there's no fixing what has been done."

The first image shown was of a much younger Meteroa, probably around her twenties, as she was strapped to a chair like she did with all the students before. "Sorry, sorry mother…I felt my mind…wandering for just a split five seconds. I thought I could use a refresher course…"

"Yeesh, no wonder why your head's so messed up." Ponyhead commented, before Steven nudged her in the neck for the insensitivity.

"Oh, you think this is bad." The woman chuckled. "Go further back." She commanded.

It now showed a younger Meteora messing with powder. "Cover up those arms dear, you can't let those disgusting imperfections of yours show." The robot stated to the distressed looking girl.

"Can't I at least let the tail out? It keeps getting cramped underneath the dress."

"It's either cover it up or cut it off dear. There's no inbetween for someone as flawed as you." The robot voice responded as if suggestions of mutilation were normal.

"Okay, I've seen enough…"

"Oh, but we haven't even gotten to the best part." She continued to smile brokenly, as the image changed to an image of a baby and Shasticon.

"What is my purpose?" The robotic Saint Olga asked.

"Take this thing and make sure it never sees a Mewman ever again." The man responded, holding the young Meteora on the end of a stick. "Apparently I can't just toss the freak of nature in a disposal bin. To think, a monster having royal blood. Such a Heinous creature could never stand."

"Heinous.." The mechanized motherly tone said as its robotic appendage rubbed the baby Meterora's cheeks. " What a lovely name."

The robot stopped playing images, turning to the group. "I raised you as best I could, the only way I knew how." Saint Olga said. " I was mocked by all the other drones. You should be thanking me."

"Yes…Thank you!" Meteora replied as she smashed through the robot's head with her tail. Steven could do nothing but stare awkwardly with Ponyhead as the clearly suffering woman went to town on the robotic corpse. "Now do you see why this can't be fixed?"

"... I-"

"You were born from the Rose Guard … half a freak and they let you in as one of your own … you don't even deserve the title …" He watched her arms start to grow. "My mother was the actual queen … and they put me into that life for being born … hiding away everything that made me me …" 

"But.."

"And can you imagine…just how insulting it truly is for you…the boy who has everything….to see you look at me with pity?" Her claws got longer as she grew about a foot taller. "To try and talk me down and say it's all going to be alright, when everyone knows that the only reason monsters are safe is because they ran away? "

"Hey, stay back, tall, dark, and slobbery!" Ponyhead lit her horn up as Meteroa inched herself closer to them. 

"Your words are meaningless in the face of this cruel universe we live in, 'Butterfly'." Meteroa's eyes lit up a disturbingly familiar shade of green. "I'm going to take back everything that was taken away from me, my youth, my power, and my throne…even if I have to turn it all to dust."

"I warned you!" Ponyhead shot a laser, which did nothing as Meteora grabbed her.

"You know … how about I make you as broken as myself!!" She grabbed Ponyhead's horn, an audible snap echoing across the room.

"Pony!" He cried out to his friend as Meteroa tossed her against the room. Steven's arms were grabbed by the older woman before he could do anything though.

"If your so insistent on helping me, then I know the best way." Her green eyes hit him right in the with lasers. He screamed, green energy flowing around him as he felt something being pulled … before it turned a strange mixture of pink and green, as he could feel his body become gray. "This … this is amazing!" She shouted. "So warm and precious." Everything felt numb…every thought….gon…

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Kelly slashed through bot after bot. "Where did he go!?" Sure, it was awesome seeing Steven crushing through enemy after enemy, but sadly they couldn't keep up with his pain train, leaving Kelly lagging behind and dealing with robot after robot.

"Don't know, l lost track of him and Pony about three hallways back!" Marco shouted, punching right through a robot's chest clean through. "Star's off on her own too, so it's just us right now!"

"Great." She snarked. "Just the two non magical fighters against an army of robots."

"Robots AND a lizard!" She swung her sword to the voice, barely blocking the chainsaw. "So we meet again, Woolet!"

"Rasticore!?" She pushed back, trying to keep her surprise in check as she ducked under a swing of the chainsaw. "I see you're no longer fun sized anymore! Don't need the misses to carry you around like a little baby, do yah!?" She sliced through one of his knee caps.

"Nope, but you should definitely focus more on defense!" He swung through a good chunk of her hair. "Only one of us regenerates after all!"

"Good thing she has the next best thing, back up!" Marco called as he sent a kick into the back of the lizard's head.

"Gah, I may not feel pain anymore but nerve damage is still a dick move!" The bastard shouted, swinging at Marco.

"Like you have any room to talk about dick moves, assassin!" Kelly counted as she silenced off a chunk of his arm. "Does Heinous really pay that well for you to keep sticking with her!?"

"Well …" He trailed off. "At first it was just a couple thousand a head … then she kept me safe while I was a hand … then we got flirty …"

"Wait, you…and her…!?" Marco screamed at the horrorid idea, trying to stop himself from barfing.

"Oh like you haven't done weirder." He scoffed. "I'm five hundred and she's three hundred. And last I checked when I was spying on the group, you've been seeing a woman that's been around since the beginning of the universe."

"That was what he was..oh forget it!" Kelly rolled her eyes as she sent a punch into the man's side. "We don't have time to think about gross lizard sex!"

"Hey, I'll have you know I like things to be gentle in the sack!"

"We didn't need to know that!" Marco set his fist on ice, beginning to freeze the bastard over. "And maybe you can regenerate, but we can slow you down even more!" Chunks of the lizard's body cracked and crumbled as they frosted all over.

"You know, my life is already a mixed bag without assholes like you constantly coming back again and again, but you've really picked the shittiest time to start causing trouble now of all times!" Kelly hacked away at the frozen pile of flesh. "Things are finally getting better with me and my boyfriend, and I don't need another villain of the week trying to kill us!"

He groaned and grunted, finally free, with chunks of his body missing. "Alright … definitely gonna need to upgrade my arsenal." He grumbled. "And the goal isn't to kill, it's to distract you moron."

"Distract? What the heck are you talking-"

Creeeek

Kelly started coughing violently, falling to the ground. "Marco, stop the cold. It's freezing. It's too cold." Too empty, too dark.

"Kelly!" Marco quickly stopped the gloves and wrapped his hoodie around her. "What the heck did you do!?"

"This I have nothing to do with." Rasticore raised his hands up defensively. "Like I said, I was just distracting everyone as Meteroa sucked as many souls as she could."

"Soul…sucking.." Gears started turning in her head as she quickly gathered her bearings and sliced right at Rasticore's neck, the cold flash finally fading. "We need to find Steven now!" Why did she have to fall for such a bleeding heart!?

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"Why does it always have to be so cold in here?" Blue Diamond heard Yellow ask her. "I swear I can feel it in my gem."

"I simply prefer it … although the lights seem more faded than usual." She'd have to talk to a Peridot or Bismuth about it. "It's rare for you to be around my side of Homeworld. You're usually too busy running your colonies."

"And you're not busy enough. It's rare for me to see you anywhere outside Pink's zoo." Because it was one of the few possessions of hers still left intact after five thousand years. "Quite frankly, I'm here to make sure you're holding up. I don't want to be caught off guard by another virus."

"It was strange … but not unwelcome." She answered. "It was lukewarm, it was like being with pink in some strange way … childish and irrational thoughts." Blue answered as she messed with her consol.

"How you were able to find any form of comfort while transforming into that horrendous form will baffle me until the end of time." Yellow groaned. "While I'm grateful no traces of it seem to remain, I still can't identify the source of it, other than the feeling of something..unknown."

"Who are we to question the nature of magic?" Blue pondered out loud. "With just a little imagination, almost anything can be possible."

"Are you really going to dip your pads into the incomprehensible nature of magic?" Yellow asked with an accusing glare.

"Says the one who experimented with gem shards and made the cluster." It was quite an abhorrent project to her personally, but White held no objections to it, which basically was a free pass to do almost anything.

"At least I'm being productive with my time making up for lost resources by using grounded science and reality." Yellow answered sternly. "You can't just put your faith in something unknown and expect everything to turn out fine."

"Well I could go back to earth and grab the rest of the organics in order to expand the zoo further than it already is." Blue calmly explained the alternative.

"Stars Blue, you're determined to make this difficult for me no matter what you choose." Yellow rubbed her eyes. "If you're so determined in thinking Magic can offer any kind of solution, then I'll take the lead in research. If anything gets out of hand, then I can quickly disperse anything that could possibly go haywire."

"I suppose that's a better result than nothing." She noted. "Now, how to access it …" And how to use it to bring back pink.

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Star was feeling pain, and cold, and emptiness. Her vision kept blacking out for some reason. "Need to … find Steven …" Something was definitely wrong.

Everything was just pain, like someone was constantly driving a pick ax into her heart while locking her in a freezer. The only thing that was keeping her conscious right now was her overwhelming desire to find her brother, which was hard when she had to narwhal blast a robot every five seconds.

As she stumbled through the hallways, she noticed more and more limp bodies around her, all of them princesses that had dark black eyes and were slightly floating. "Meteora … has been here …" She panted out, continuing her walk. "Steven … must be … fighting." She had to find him, make sure he wasn't being too forgiving on a woman that shared his backstory.

"B…B…B-fly…Star." A weak voice came from another limp body, except this one was breathing."

"Pony?" She looked down at her friend and saw.."Oh my corn, your horn!" She noticed the now busted appendage now snapped from pony's slightly bleeding head.

"Never mind..that…Heinous…Q-fly…can't stop…can't talk.."

"I know. Where are they?" She asked. "I'll stop her." There was a thudding, Star turning to eyes in the darkness getting closer, Star raising her wand in defense.

The tall and powerful woman walked out, an empty look on her face … as she tossed her brother … her brother with … black … soulless … eyes. His normally bright pink gem filled with a dull black . 

"Steven..Steven…" Star hollowly repeated as her brother floated weightlessly into her arms. There was no pulse…no heartbeat…no breathing. "Wake up…wake up…" She cupped his now dull colored face while trying to fight the tears leaking out of her.

"I have to say, out of all the souls that I've consumed over the years, this was the most…invigorating." The absolutely HEINOUS MONSTER right before her said with a snarl. "Check it out, it's great for the skin too." She expanded her arms, a PINK glow coming off them.

"You monster….you complete animal!" Star glowed pink too, everything around her was pink, and rage was her fuel as she slammed into the bitch and smashed her through three walls. "He's the only one that gives a damn about your ass and this is how you repay his kindness!?" She shouted as the tears filled Star's eyes.

"You little brat, you think kindness exists!?" She shouted, punching down into the ground. "No, I wasn't given an ounce of kindness my whole life! That child looked down on me with pity!" Meteora hit again, Star mentally comparing it to the likes of Mina and Jasper.

"Whatever your twisted mind thinks it was, it's more than you deserve!" She forced herself to shapeshift her four extra arms from butterfly mode and deliver six uppercuts to the monster's head. "I'm just happy Eclipsa's not here right now to see that her kid has grown into a savage slobbering psycho!"

"You don't get to talk about mommy like that!" The hybrid's eyes began to glow, shooting off green energy at her.

Star retaliated with a giant bubble, which slowly began to break, so she shoved it with a magical beam straight at the woman's head. "So what next? You're just going to keep acting like a stubborn child and take away more lives until everyone else is gone!?"

"Mewni rejected me, rejected the life I should've had. It's only fitting that I reject them back!" Meteora shouted. "You know, maybe Toffee had the right idea. Just murdering the fuck out of everyone around until I get the throne that was stolen from me!"

"Oh good, so now whatever sappy weepy backstory you have I can completely ignore." Star focused her arms and created a crystal bubble that was beeping. "So now I can blow you to bits guilt free!" She rushed right to the woman. "This is for my brother! Butterfly BOMB!" And shoved the crystal right into Meteroas face.

Kabooosh!

The two of them were sent hurdling in opposite directions, both of them crashing into walls. "Ugh, seems that other hybrid freak isn't the only gal he made stronger." Meteora scoffed as she rubbed the rubble off her slightly bleeding arms. "Rasticore, Gemini, we're leaving now! I need more powerful souls to absorb than these mere princesses."

"On it!" The broken looking lizard ran forward, cranking on his chainsaw … and again. "Oh come on, how are you so good at getting us to places but not away from them?"

"My mistress, are you alright?" The purple midget asked.

"You're … not …" She charged up energy in her wand. "Leaving! Mega Ultra Shining NARWHAL QUASAR!!" A shimmering armored narwhal armed with a laser came flying out.

"Almost….GOT IT!" Rasticore shouted as the chainsaw reved, the blast created a giant explosion of rainbow smoke..but judging by the portal rip that was closing…she missed. The bitch and her posse had escaped.

"Aggggggggggh!" She shouted angrily at the sky before realizing there was something much, MUCH more important than blasting that bastard to bits. "Steven, Steven!" She cried as she cried his still empty, floating, and soulless body. "It's going to be okay…it's going to be okay.." She cried furiously.

"Star, what happened!?" Marco shouted, running with Kelly. "We let Rasticore get away cause he said he was a distra-…." He stopped talking, eyes gazing at her brother. "No. Nononono."

"Steven!" Kelly cried just as hard as her as she joined Star in cradling his lifeless body. "You overcarring dummy! Why did you have to confront her by yourself!?" Kelly wept as she rubbed her face on his. "I felt it..I felt his warmth leave during the fight…why was it so painful?"

"It's going to be fine….it's going to be fine…it's going to be fine.." Star squeezes her brother's body, becoming more and more disbelieving by the second. What the hell could they do-"We need to get to mom, pronto!"