Etheria
Was it more of a swoop or a curve? No, it was a curve. Definitely a curve. Well, she'd drawn a curve, anyway. But was the one in the book more of a swoop?
Ugh, it was no use. Glimmer threw off the blanket and slipped on her slippers. She'd never get back to sleep until she doubled checked this. She moved quietly, trying not to wake her husband, until she realized Bow wasn't on his side of the bed. There was, however, a note in his loopy handwriting and an adorable drawing of her sleeping surrounded by hearts and sparkles.
Thought you could use a little extra sleep after the late night ;-). I'll be in the office, getting starting on the meeting prep if you need me.
Love you!
Bow
PS: my doodle doesn't capture how beautiful you look when you're sleeping
Glimmer flushed and grinned, feeling silly and giddy, like a sixteen-year-old with a crush and not a married woman. Gods, she loved him so much. She tucked the note into her dresser draw with some of her other favorites. See, this was why she needed to double check that sigil! There was no way she was risking not coming back to this.
She teleported just inside the doorway of the re-purposed spare room in a flash without even bothering to get dressed. Nobody else could get into this room, and she wasn't planning on being in here long. The crystals lit as they sensed her motion, making it way too bright for this early in the morning. She yawned and snoozed them, summoning a much more manageable amount of bright in the form of a ball of light in her palm.
OK, let's get this done. Just check the sigil and then we go right back to bed.
After a few moments confirming that, yes, it was a swoop in the book. She paced her conjuring circle until she found the offending shape.
There. She'd drawn it correctly! Or… at least… hadn't she? Was hers swoopier than the one in the book or not swoopy enough?
She yawned. A sure sign that it was time to stop obsessing over this and go to bed. After all, it was almost a full day until she'd scheduled the pullback. Plenty of time to go over it later when her brain was properly awake. She replaced her book on the table and walked the inside of the circle again because it wouldn't hurt to do one more double check, would it?
Ugh, no. Stop it. If she didn't physically stop herself, she'd fixate on this forever. She extinguished her light, plunging the room in darkness.
Shit, without windows, it really was dark in here. Oh well, it's not like she needed to see to get out of the room, anyway. Sleepiness tugged at her, making everything feel heavy, and she decided it was time to go back to bed.
And so without thinking about how it was so dark she couldn't see the signs all over the walls or the red ribbon still laying on the table or that the rubber band was absolutely not on her wrist, she did the most natural thing.
And teleported.
Earth
The first few seconds passed without Glimmer even realizing something was wrong. After all, she'd been aiming for bed and she'd ended up in a bed! But it only took moments before she noticed the differences. The sheets were rougher. The pillow the wrong consistency. An unfamiliar, almost synthetic smell coming from the bedding.
Gods, she must be tired if she teleported to the wrong…
Teleported. She'd teleported! While standing right in the…
Oh, shit. Please, please don't tell me I…
She flung herself upright, thrusting out a hand to summon some light, but nothing happened. Nothing. Not even a tiny spark like on Prime's ship before she was really and truly out, just that horrible magicless feeling of being in space, empty and dry. She swallowed, losing herself to absolute panic, memories of being trapped, a cold metal claw against her cheek, green eyes and—
No. Get it together. Prime is gone. You're not in space, you're…
Where was she?
Not Etheria, that was for sure.
Gods, the atmosphere! She'd been planning on holding her breath in case… She sucked in a lungful and then realized it was pointless now. Clearly the air was breathable, if a little thinner than she was used to. She exhaled, trying to focus, the lack of magic in the air making her lightheaded.
Fuck. She'd done it. She'd really done it. And, yeah, OK, she'd planned on doing it, but this entire time she'd been picturing something like the portal, her world but slightly tweaked, and instead—
OK, calming down. Bright side… let's see… uh, the spell had worked! So that was… something, at least. And she was here now. Earlier than she'd planned, and she hadn't really expected the total lack of magic but, this was why she'd scheduled the pullback! It would activate any minute now and she's be home, safe and sound. Right so… might as well use this time to find out what she could about this world.
It was dark, but not the total darkness of the room she'd just left. She moved towards what faint light there and found a thick material covering what had to be a window. But nothing about the world outside it made sense.
What she could see of the sky between the massive rectangular monstrosities that must be buildings was dusty, gray and moonless. Everything smelled like the Fright Zone, burning oil, grease, smog, and that fizzing smell she associated with tech. A metal transport rolled by, blasting angry sounds, almost like music made by robots fighting each other. Most unsettling of all was the mysterious drawing of a man with a mustache holding a spotted circle afloat. It blinked at her from the building across the street, glowing like a sigil in the air.
She stepped backwards from the window, hands shaking.
Everything about this place felt wrong. How long had she been here? She tried to do a mental tally of seconds. Surely it had been enough time for the pullback to activate. Because this world was dirty and weird and she was ready to go back home now, thanks, but if she'd screwed up the spell, if the pullback never activated—
There was a sound like Scorpia's lightning, and she spun towards it. It took her a moment to realize it was coming from a small glowing rectangle on the bedside table, twitching and buzzing itself nearly off the edge. She approached it carefully, not entirely sure if it was a creature or tech.
Wait. What was that? She only caught the briefest glimpse before the thing went dark and still.
No! No no no, wait, please, that was her! I need to see that again!
She grabbed the thing and pulled it towards her, but as she tugged, she discovered a long tail extending from the bottom. It popped out, but not before the cord swept everything from the table onto the floor, including what appeared to be a large lamp, the whole mess landing on the floor in a crash.
"Everything OK in there?" a voice called from somewhere, the first familiar thing since she'd gotten here.
"Bow?" she called back, ready to burst into tears from pure relief.
"Yeah?" He must have followed her. Of course he did. That wonderful worry wort! There was a plain wooden door on the other side of the room, illuminated by the light from the window. She followed the sound of his voice, yanking it open. Bow yelped. "Glimmer! What are you—I'm getting dressed!"
"Like I haven't seen you naked bef—" She gasped and closed the door as fast as she opened it. She stood on the other side for a moment, her heart pounding out of her chest.
"Uh, sorry," she said, trying to sound normal even though she had exactly zero idea of what normal even was in this universe. Because nothing else she'd seen made her realize how far she was from home, then what was behind that door.
That person in that bathroom? That was NOT Bow. Or, rather… it was? she guessed? but it also… wasn't?
At least not her Bow, anyway.
Fuck. FUCK. She'd been listening when Bow had explained about infinite realities, but she'd never really taken it seriously because Entrapta had told them her mother was stuck between dimensions. She's been picturing some kind of inter-dimensional null space where her mom was just immortally chilling, bored out of her mind, waiting for her to come and get her.
Not this. Not some freaky bizzaro world where there was ANOTHER Bow.
How long has it been? Cold dread settled on the back of her neck like Prime's icy fingertips as she realized she'd been here too long. Much too long. Which meant the pullback hadn't worked. Without the spell to pull her back home, she'd be stuck here without magic for…
But, no, damn it, the spell was right! She'd JUST checked it moments before she'd come here. She'd perfectly set it to pull her back exactly half a minute after…
After departure time. Which wasn't until almost a full day from now. She'd triggered the spell too early, so… it would be hours and hours before the spell pulled her back. An entire day stuck in this magicless place that she knew nothing about, completely powerless with no way to get back home, and that was assuming time even moved the same here as it did on Etheria.
Shit. Her knees faltered, and she sat back on the edge of the bed as the enormity of what she'd done hit her. The sound of running water came from behind the bathroom door, the other Bow humming some song she had never heard in her entire life which only freaked her out worse.
Was there some off, bizarro version of everyone here? It occurred to her then that the other Bow had called her Glimmer. He hadn't seemed surprised to see her here… just that she barged in on him getting undressed. Which meant there was probably a HER here too. But the room had been empty when she arrived. Which begged the question…
If I'm here… then where's the other me?
Author Note
(Adding this note to all my fics.)
FYI, I am not longer uploading new fics to FFnet.
I will still continue to update my existing multi-chapter fics on here for as long as the site lasts but the writing is on the wall and it looks like FFnet will very soon be no more. But never fear, all my fics that I have posted on here (as well as a few more than I never posted here) as well as everything new I have coming up will all be on AO3 so I hope you'll all join me over there (same username).
Questions? DM me! I'm also on Tumblr at the same username if it's easier to reach out through there.
I love my FF readers so I'm hoping you'll be able to join me over on archiveofourown.