Young Princess Moon was bored. Beyond bored. Tired and bored and frustrated with her mother. 'Overwhelmed' might be a nice way of putting it, and 'smothered' might be another.

Her wand was only a few weeks old, and its blue crystalline design matched her hair at the very least. She still wondered sometimes why it had chosen this form, but her mother simply said that it always changed to fit the new owner. It was a reflection of each new mistress's inner self.. So that's what she must be like, a fragile blue crystal that was nice to look at, but didn't look particularly powerful.

And she wouldn't get any more powerful if her mother didn't let her focus more on her spell work.

Moon had tried to focus on the words and illustrations in her enormous spell book, originally she had dove into it thinking she would be a master caster within days, but that turned out not to be the case.

She wanted to be free to delve deeply into the book at her leisure, taking things at her own pace and studying whatever she felt like that day. But no, her mother had other plans for her.

Ever since she had been old enough to hold a pencil, the queen had set her daughter to lesson after lesson under the guise of giving her a well-rounded education, but Moon suspected that it was simply to keep her out of any trouble. Or possibly to keep her close without ever actually having to spend time with her, since between her lessons on history, arithmetic, etiquette, music, art, and so on, Moon barely ever saw her parents. Until she received the family wand, that is.

Honestly, Moon had been used to it, it was a pretty good system, but she had to go and rock the boat by turning fourteen and taking on the responsibility of the wand. Now it went from one extreme to the other, she now could no longer get a free moment away from her mother to practice her spells by herself. This was something that Moon could almost tolerate, if it weren't that they would always go over what seemed like the same ten spells over and over again.

And Glossyrck was no help. She had no idea how he could be so vague with his instructions and still expect her to do them as perfect as her mother wanted. Honestly, wasn't the fact that she had the wand enough? She knew the spells already, surely she didn't need to follow each and every step so meticulously. It was frankly just plain dull.

Moon thought that maybe if she could have a chance to practice on her own without her mother or that odd little man breathing down her neck, she might make some progress.

But getting time away was the hard part.

"Concentrate, darling," her mother admonished from the sidelines on a particularly frustrating afternoon.

"She's not doing all the steps, my lady," Glossyrck called to her from the book.

"I am too," Moon whined. "I'm sure I did all of them."

"You forgot the last pirouette on the last word," her mother pointed out. Moon wanted to groan with frustration, but that was 'terribly unladylike'. Then again, so was whining.

"Is there any way that I could just do this by myself?" She asked as she walked through the spell dance once again. "Maybe I could improve if I weren't so- distracted." She tried to delicately phrase the frustration she was feeling at their continued berating of her casting.

"Oh, did you hear that? We're distracting her. And I thought we were instructing, but no. We're distracting. I suppose that is what caused you to forget the wand position on the fourth step. Not your lack of studying."

"No no, Glossyrck. If she feels we are a distraction, perhaps we are. What then might you suggest, Moon? To help you focus?"

Moon wondered if this was a trick question. Her mother often gave her decidedly non-option options.
'You can either eat your vegetables now like a proper princess or suffer a crippling vitamin deficiency.' 'You can play your recital in front of hundreds of people or disappoint your entire family'. 'You can study by yourself or become an embarrassment of a magical princess'. That type of thing.

"Just give me an hour by myself," she answered, catching herself twirling one of her ringlets anxiously. "Maybe let me practice in the gardens for a little while. If I don't improve you can monitor me all you want."

Her mother seemed to consider this, looking down from her seat towards the blue book man and back to Moon, who was hopeful she had kept the whine out of her request. That was a sure fire way to get a 'no' from her mother.

"Please?" she added with her biggest of doe eyes.

Thankfully, the stars must have been in her favor, because her mother nodded in ascent, although a little tiredly.

"Very well, Moon. You have one hour. But I want to see a real improvement in your form."

"Yes ma'am."

"And follow *every* step, dear," her mother added as she gestured that Moon was dismissed.

"Yes ma'am, thank you, " she beamed up at her mother and quickly scampered off towards the castle gardens. It wasn't much, but an hour away was just the break she could use. Of course she'd have to actually study while on it, but hey, a break was a break. She could at least enjoy the scenery while trying not to screw up the spell yet again.

In the garden she stood, wand in hand. Without Glossyrck the book just lay there silently, open to the page for a brand new spell. A brand new spell she was having trouble with.

"Okay, so it's a pirouette, then a guards' pose and then - making sure to rotate the wand ten degrees to the left - a half turn and then aim it at the target. " Moon tried her best to mimic the poses in the pictures, but she kept falling over herself after the pirouette, or saluting with the wrong hand during the Guards' Pose. Or smacking herself in the face with her wand a couple times.

This was the exact reason she wanted to try this alone. She could mess up as much as she surely was going to and no one would see. And especially nobody would criticize her.

At least, she thought she was alone.

Moon thought that – since this was a more advanced spell – that she could do it non-verbally and it would still work effectively, since she seemed to do better with non-verbal incantations. This however was not the case with this spell. She tried once more, speaking the words aloud this time and making sure to strike just the right pose on each word.

"Crystal lightning cascade!"

Finally, she had gotten it right. A shower of lightning bolts and sharp shards of shimmering rocks fell down all around her. Alright, so she had been aiming at a tree on the far side of the garden, but at least she was getting closer. Plus she had assumed that nobody was around to be caught up in the sudden lightning/rock storm.

That was until she heard a yelp of pain from behind her.

Jumping at the sound, she spun around and stood planted to the ground, wand brandished out in front of her.

"Who goes there?" she called. It had not sounded like anyone she knew, and a royal guard would be smart enough to stay out of range but still be visible.

After a moment, she called again. "Show yourself!"

At first there was no movement but for the branches of the Mewnian willow tree swaying in a late-afternoon breeze, but soon Moon could see a shadow emerging from behind it. An oddly shaped shadow, a non-Mewman shadow.

The figure raised clawed hands towards her, but not out of aggression, it raised them shakily, as if bracing for another hit of the magic barrage.

"No, no. Don't shoot that again. I mean you no harm."

"How do I know that? Come out from behind there," she warned. Moon wasn't sure if she could actually hit the figure with another intentional blast, but she tried to look intimidating all the same.

"Only if you promise not to shoot me," the figure answered back.

"Fine, just come out and tell me why you're here before I call the guards."

"There's no need for that," he said as he slowly emerged, for Moon could see now that it was a male. A male monster, one with long, black hair and very distinguishing reptilian features. His clothes were shabby and dirty, and she couldn't quite tell if the fear in his eyes was genuine. She wasn't certain that she was that scary. Then she noticed he wasn't really looking at her, but her wand.

Of course he was fearful of the wand, the monsters that once plagued Mewni had no magic of their own, but they knew that the royal family had it and could do just about anything to them if given the opportunity.

Although this monster didn't realize that Moon was still learning and probably couldn't do much damage to him, but that was besides the point. There was a monster – a real, live monster – inside the castle grounds. That was more than unheard of, that was just plain inconceivable.

Moon was more curious about this than she let on, but she tried to continue her all-business, threatening facade in the hopes that the monster might still be intimidated.

"How did you get in here?" she asked, keeping a hardness to her voice.

The monster kept his hands up but took a step closer. Slowly he lowered one hand towards the pockets of his tattered pants. Moon kept her wand pointed straight at him as he did this, but she allowed him to do it out of sheer curiosity, hoping that he wasn't about to pull a weapon of his own on her.

He still looked afraid, but now – Moon thought – slightly irritated that she still had the upper hand, that he had to take orders from her, a girl several years younger than he from the look of it (if monsters aged the same way as Mewmans, that was).

He pulled something from the depths of his pocket, something that shined in the light, reflecting the sun on its sharp, metal surface. For a split second, Moon thought it really was a weapon, but then she got a better look as she noticed his claws threaded through the handles at the top. They were scissors. Dimensional scissors.

"Where-where did you get those?" she asked, not able to hide the awe in her voice. It was astounding for one thing that a monster had infiltrated the castle, and even more astonishing that he'd managed to get a hold of his own dimensional device.

"You're not the only ones who know how these work, your highness," he answered, the fear leaving his face and voice the longer he beheld her. But Moon still kept her wand raised.

"So, why are you here?" she inquired. "With those you could go practically anywhere in any dimension, why come here?"

"I-" he halted, looking embarrassed which caught Moon off guard. "I got lost. I was just jumping through dimensions and I lost my way."

"You were?" she asked, surprising him now with her more conversational tone. "I mean, what for?"

She saw his tail give a swish before he answered, possibly a nervous gesture. "Because – well – because I can. I don't exactly fit in with the other monsters, so I figured I could just pick up and leave for a while. Haven't you ever wanted an escape?"

Her brow furrowed, was he telling the truth? She couldn't tell, all she could tell was that yes, indeed she had. With her overbearing mother and all the expectations and responsibility of becoming a queen, Moon had wanted an escape. If only for a little while.

"No, I don't suppose you do, being a princess. Living here in the lap of luxury. I'll bet you'd never want to leave."

That's where he was wrong. It was strange, because Moon didn't even know if this reptilian creature was telling the truth or not, but at his words she had felt a twinge of sympathy, the feel of something they had in common. That surprised her more than anything else that had occurred thus far.

"Now, if you aren't going to shoot me or arrest me, I'll go ahead and leave you to your luxury and magic," he said, slowly opening the scissors and beginning to make a cut in the fabric of reality.

"Wait!" Moon shouted, causing the monster to pause. For a crazy, half-formed idea had just come to her. A way of getting what she wanted most in the entire world. Time away from her mother to do magic on her own.

A smile grew on her face as she stared the monster down, finally lowering her wand to his continued surprise.

"Take me with you."

"What?" he gasped.

"You heard me," she stated. "Take me with you. I don't care where you're going. I need a break, a real one. A break from being the crowned princess."

He looked skeptical, but he hadn't walked through the portal yet, so she kept going.

"So let me come along with you and I won't call the guards, I won't even use magic on you. I swear."

He narrowed his eyes at her, and for a long minute she watched him ponder this idea. It was an absurd idea, Moon knew. She didn't know this monster, had no idea of his history or motives, but at that moment she didn't care. He had a way out of Mewni, and she wanted it desperately.

"Or I could knock those scissors out of your hand and have the guards on you in a second," she bluffed.

But her bluffed appeared to have done the trick, for he made a frustrated yet resigned sigh, and then swept his clawed hand outwards towards the portal, gesturing for her to go through first.

Her smile growing with every second at this impossible idea of hers, Moon didn't think twice. She practically skipped into the portal with the reptile following close behind. A new adventure waited for her, she could sense it. And she didn't even mind that a monster had made it possible.

Young Moon feeling smothered and tied down by her mother and her various duties, when she runs into Toffee she asks to run away with him (Because he has scissors ) and the Royal family think Toffee kidnapped her, but she kinda kidnapped him.

They jump through several places until finally Toffee puts his foot down and says she has to tell him why she wants to run away. She reveals that she isn't sure she's ready for the responsibility of the wand, it being the first step towards bring queen.

They then get attacked by some giant thing and Moon defends Toffee with the wand, but going so leads her guards to her location, and she pleades with them to spare T, since she was the one who snatched him, not vice versa.

They spare him on her behalf and Toffee is super grateful.
She then proceeds to tell her mother it was him trying to get her to come home. She asks if Toffee can stay with them he has no family.

They resist since he's a monster, but reluctantly concede for a temporary time.

Reveal also that Toffee was sent to steal the wand. He doesn't, but his fascination with its magic is clearly shown.

Later on a short for how Moon and River met. Obviously he needs to think he's rescuing Moon from a monster by hunting Toffee and attacking him, and she stops him and straightens everything out. But River is clearly smitten with Moon, and this can cause jealously with Toffee.
Of course it's only after she starts returning the interest that he gets really jealous.

Plus her mother dissaproves, and Moon likes that. Of course had she chosen Toffee her mom might have had a heart attack.

Why doesn't M go for T? Maybe she didn't let herself see him that way. She keeps herself focused on what she can do, because having a monster as a friend is unorthodox, but being in love with one is simply unacceptable. Literally, no one would accept them. She wants to do what she can for him, but in the end she chooses the role her mother wanted for her, the role she was born for. The perfect little future queen, and so that means saying goodbye to her childhood friend, and she let's him go. She chooses her magic and her crown over him. She would have had to give up the crown and her magic for him, and in the end she couldn't.