Chapter Text
Once upon a time, there was a prince who lived in a shining castle of a magnificent kingdom, born to one of the most affluent and respected royal families of Mewni. He had it all. He was wealthy, sophisticated, talented, athletic, not to mention incredibly handsome...okay, who wrote this part? He did? And you let him? Yes, he is one of the main characters, but...okay, I'll keep going. Yeesh.
Anyway, his name was Prince Valiant, and nearly every young lady on Mewni was head over heels for him. From the day he was born, his mother, Queen Eleganta, declared that her son would have only the best of everything. The best clothes, the best toys, the best servants, the best teachers to teach him the best ways to hunt and behave in public, even the best and most noble of companions. Because of this upbringing, Valiant grew up thinking that he deserved only the best of everything.
Time went on, and Valiant grew into a tall, dark, handsome man. Soon enough, he reached the age when it came time for him to choose a bride, a woman would be his Queen and bear his heirs. Naturally, Valiant declared the he could not just marry any woman. The woman he married would have to be the best. And what, Valiant declared, is a better bride for a prince, than a princess?
Of course, she still could not just be any princess, insisted Valiant. She had to be a true princess. This confused the court. Isn't a princess any daughter of a King and Queen? What separates a true princess from an untrue one? Valiant explained that a true princess is the embodiment of feminine perfection. She is dainty, demure, graceful, refined, charming, fashionable and, of course, beautiful. She was perfect. And his bride had to be nothing short of perfect.
There was only one way Valiant could find the perfect princess to be his bride—St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses. Kings and Queens sent their unruly, rebellious and undisciplined teenage daughters there, and those girls graduated as polite, proper, perfect royal ladies. If there was ever a place where Prince Valiant could find a true princess to be his bride, St. Olga's was the place.
But when he and his mother arrived to check out the graduating students, they found the school in shambles. There were no proper ladies having tea in the parlor or waltzing in the ballrooms. There were only wild teenage girls stuffing their faces with pancakes and partying hard in the courtyard. When asked what had happened, the students happily answered that they had been inspired by St. Oleg's, the neighboring reform school for wayward princes.
A few months ago, St. Oleg's Reform School for Wayward Princes had been a respected institute where defiant and rebellious royal sons had been sent and turned into model future rulers. That is, until a rebel prince by the name of Turdo had arrived and started a revolution against the headmaster, convincing the students to embrace their individuality and rise up against their oppressors. His influence was so powerful, his message of freedom and self-worth had stayed with his followers long after he left. They kicked out the headmaster and turned the school into a place of junk food, swearing, and nonstop partying.
They had often invited the princesses of the neighboring school to join their fun, and the girls were inspired to kick out their own headmistress and turn their own school into a place of sanctuary of freedom, where they could be who they were. There would be no more lessons of table manners, of ballroom dancing, of how to be a proper lady. The only things the princesses would learn would be how to party hard.
Valiant was devastated. How would he find a true princess to marry of St. Olga's was no longer reforming the wayward ones? No perfect princess would ever come out of the doors of the reform school again. His life was ruined. There were no more true princesses left, and he could not settle for one less than perfect. He was never going to find a bride. And it was all because of that dreadful Prince Turdo for ruining St. Oleg's and inspiring St. Olga's to rebel as well. Valiant swore that if he ever crossed paths with that Turdo, he would make that jerk pay.
However, what Prince Valiant didn't know was that Turdo was not really a prince, or even that he wasn't actually royalty to begin with. Turdo wasn't even really a boy! No, Prince Turdo was actually an ordinary girl from the Earth dimension named Marcia Diaz. Marcia had accompanied her best friend, Dragonfly Prince Storm, to St. Oleg's to sneak his friend Prince Ponyhead out, and had instead started the rebellion that would free the sad and oppressed princes.
At the time that Prince Valiant was searching for a bride, Marcia was serving as royal squire to Storm, living with him in Dragonfly Castle. It was good, training to be a knight, hanging out with her best friend, exploring all of Mewni. There was just one little flaw in her new life.
Marcia had been in love with Storm for a long time now, but by the time she had realized it, he was back together with his ex, Princess Tamara "Tammy" Lucitor. Marcia wanted him to be happy, so she stayed quiet and never told Storm how she really felt, even though it hurt her to see him with another.
But as dark secrets from the past unraveled, Storm found he was not truly the royal lineage of King Dragonfly. He handed over rule of the kingdom to the rightful heirs, Eclipse and his infant son, Meteorite, who had once been headmaster of St. Oleg's, but had been granted a second chance at a happy childhood and life.
Storm decided he needed a break to figure out who he really was, without a royal title or duties. But if he really wanted to be free to explore, he couldn't stay with Tammy. She had already found who she was. She didn't need to go searching for herself. He had to find himself, too, before he could commit to a serious relationship. This was something he had to do alone.
They decided to take a break, and see how things went before they decided if they were in it for the long haul. Storm explored many aspects and interests, from knight training to sports playing. Soon, he found out that because he was not royalty anymore, did not mean he could not make a difference. He found interests in charity work and smaller politics, something that his parents and Eclipse encouraged wholeheartedly.
Marcia was there every step of the way, giving him help when he needed it and stepping back when requested or required to give him the space to do things on his own. She knew that his journey of self-discovery was almost at an end, and was proud of him. All that was left for him to do, she supposed, was reunite with Tammy. Even though she still loved him, and it still hurt that she thought she would never be with him, again, in her book, his happiness came before her own.
But the relationship between our heroine and her best friend would change over the course of a single stormy night...