"So, the good news is that Catra has agreed to let things go with Mermista in the interest of peace," Glimmer explained, "I can thank Adora mostly for that. Catra's going to tell everyone that it was just a stupid joke between friends that just went a bit too far."

"And the bad news?" asked Mermista halfheartedly, as they scribbled on their notepad.

"I did what you said and told Adora about what's been going on with Bow and the resistance," Glimmer said, "She wants to go into the woods and join the fight."

"Of course she does..." groaned Mermista, not even looking up as they continued drawing.

"I hate to say it, but it's almost a good thing Catra got hurt when she did," Glimmer said with a twinge of guilt, "If Adora wasn't so worried about having to take care of her, I would probably be stuck up in space right now, having to explain to Horde Prime what happened to her."

"Well, thank the She-Ra for small miracles," Mermista sighed, continuing their focus on the notepad.

"Are..." Glimmer said with concern, "Are you okay right now?"

"Hmm," Mermista mumbled, looking up from the notepad at Glimmer, "I'm really sorry. It's just since this whole incident, I've sort of taken a big hit to my self confidence right now."

"Did you want to talk about it?" offered Glimmer.

"That's okay. I'll deal with it," Mermista assured, returning to their notepad, "You're paying *me* to help *you* with your problems, remember?"

"I'm the Queen of Brightmoon," Glimmer stated smugly, "I can afford it. Besides, it's my duty as Queen to listen to her subjects' problems. isn't it?"

"That would be a first," Mermista snarked, continuing to avoid looking at Glimmer.

Glimmer slumped her shoulders and gave a shocked look at to her therapist.

"Wooow! Really?" scoffed Glimmer angrily, "You're gonna do me like that?! When I'm trying to be nice to you?! No, you're right. Maybe I should just fire you and look for someone else."

"Uggh, I'm really sorry," Mermista apologized, putting away their notepad to look at Glimmer, "I didn't mean that to be against you personally. That's just my general disdain for the whole princess monarchy slipping out. I could really use a friend right now, thank you."

"That's better," Glimmer said, suddenly very pleased with herself, "So, what seems to be the problem?"

"Alright..." Mermista said, taking a deep breath before they began, "Say there's this person who's been friendly with you. They are kind and helpful and when they talk to you, you just... *know* they are really interested in who you are as a person."

"You're talking about Bow," Glimmer guessed.

"Sure, let's say I'm talking about Bow," Mermista said, giving a half smile while shaking their head and holding up their hands in a 'Why not?' gesture, "And you realize that Bow is the perfect person you didn't realize you were looking for your whole life."

"Yeah, that's Bow alright..." Glimmer recollected, giggling a bit as she covered her mouth with her fists.

"And then you find out they're interested in someone else," Mermista said, "Romantically, I mean."

"Uh-huh," Glimmer said, flashing Mermista a knowing smile.

"You want so badly to tell Bow how you feel and to break them both up," Mermista said, "Except... you know in your heart the person they're interested in is really great, too. That they both deserve each other. Definitely more than you deserve the person in question."

"Oh! Oh! I know *exactly* what you're talking about!" Glimmer shouted excitedly, jumping up and down on the couch with glee, "This is about Perfuma!"

Mermista gave Glimmer a look of white hot rage.

"How could you *possibly* know that?!" Mermista roared furiously.

"Because this is exactly what happened to me during the Princess Prom this year," Glimmer said, standing up on the couch like a stage lecturer as her mouth ran a mile a minute, "You see, I wanted to take Bow as my plus one, but Perfuma already invited him and so I went to the Prom by myself except not by myself because Adora was there which got super weird because Catra showed up as Scorpia's plus one who I didn't even know was a princess before then but it was actually important because we were trying to recruit Princess Frosta into the Princess Alliance at the time, and she was super cold and angry at the time, probably because her parents probably died when she was like super young and she didn't have any friends, so Adora was trying to be nice and diplomatic to her, but came off as totally frustrated and condescending because Catra was there and I was super distracted the whole time because I was going through exactly what you just said between Bow and Perfuma, so I lost track of Scorpia and Bow while Adora got into a fight with Catra during our big dance and then a bunch of Frosta's guards who were replaced by Horde soldiers kidnapped me and Bow and also stole Adora's sword from the coat check up while Scorpia set the whole palace to explode which it didn't because Frosta used her ice powers to stop the palace from collapsing in on itself and also you were there too in that white fur coat and also Princess Flutterina was there too and oh, wait a minute, does that mean you and Flutterina were different people the whole time?"

Mermista leered back in wide eyed shock as they processed the cavalcade of information Glimmer dumped on them.

"Well, that's not... *exactly* what I'm going through right now," Mermista said, "But sure let's go with that. To answer your last question: Yeah, I did base my cover identity off of the real Flutterina I met at the prom. She was just too cute and annoying not to use. So, how did you deal with the whole Bow/Perfuma thing?"

"Oh, I wrote a letter to Bow and Perfuma expressing everything I felt, but never sent it," Glimmer said, pulling out a sheet of paper, "Here, let me read it to you. Ahem, 'Dear Perfuma, I hope you and Bow had a great time at the prom together. Just know that he is a perfect cinnamon roll who is too good and pure for this sinful world and that if you do anything to hurt him, the Kingdom of Brightmoon will make sure your punishment will be both painful and lasting. Love, Glimmer.' It made me feel a bit better. I don't know if they broke up over bad memories of the prom or something or if they never clicked to begin with and I was just overreacting, but whatever they had just seemed to fizzle out."

"That sounds a lot like my primary method of therapy," Mermista theorized, stroking their chin, "Except without any of my fabulous acting or cool shapeshifting. But for some reason... that letter sounds veeery familiar."

"It does?" Glimmer scoffed, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "Huh? Fancy that! Because as it turns out, this *isn't* a letter I wrote up to not send to Perfuma. This is an anonymous threat Perfuma told me she got in the mail today."

Glimmer's smile quickly turned sour as she handed Mermista the letter with it's messy and hastily scribbled handwriting.

'Dear Plant Girl,' it read, 'I am to understand Scorpia has expressed a romantic interest in you. Know that I think the two of you would be perfect together and wish nothing but the best for you. But I want you to also know that Scorpia is a perfect cinnamon roll who is too good and pure for your sinful world and just got out of an abusive relationship. So, if I ever find out you've done anything to hurt her in any way, I will hunt you to the ends of Etheria to make sure your punishment is both painful and lasting. Kisses to the happy couple, A Friend.'

Glimmer gave Mermista a look of disappointment as they let the letter fall to the ground and sank back into their chair in shame.

"Now, if you ask me," Glimmer deduced, "This totally sounds like a letter from someone who used to be in the Horde with a close personal connection to Scorpia. That means it can't be Adora or Hordak because they barely know her. I know it's not Catra or Shadow Weaver because neither of them are self reflective enough to recognize an 'abusive relationship'. And I know for sure it's not Entrapta because I can actually read it. So who does that leave out, hmm?"

Mermista, who had barely reacted at all to Glimmer's inquisition, wearily returned her gaze, too exhausted to bother denying anything.

"Okay, so..." Mermista explained diplomatically, "I maaay have written this after getting a little drunk a few nights ago. I also appear to have developed something of an impulse control problem."

"Now, like I said, I *get* it, I really do," Glimmer assured Mermista, getting up off the couch to pick up the letter, "But *this*? We really don't need this creepy stalker garbage to deal with right now."

"I know and I'm sorry," Mermista told Glimmer, "I'll tell Perfuma I sent the letter and give her an apology."

"No, you are staying as far away from the two of them as possible," Glimmer ordered, sitting on the edge of the couch, "No more letters, no more warnings, and no more therapy sessions with Scorpia. I want want you to break it all off and leave them alone. That's an order from your Queen."

"Uggh," moaned Mermista, "Yeah, that's probably the smart thing to do. As you command, your Majesty."

"Excellent," Glimmer said, leaning forward to closely examine Mermista, "Now is there anything else you wanted to go over before we end our session?"

~*~

DT's Notes

Glimmer, Session 4

-*A small drawing of a stick figure with claws and a tail skipping happily with another stick figure in a dress with long hair across a field of flowers with a pointy eared stick goblin hiding in a cave in the background.*
-Forever alone...