Glimmer took a step backwards so she could actually see herself in the narrow mirror on the back of the bathroom door. She did a half turn, and the dress gave a satisfying swish. It was some weird synthetic material, but she liked the color. Just a pale lavender, but it clung nicely to her curves and there was a pattern of tiny pink gemstones along the neckline that highlighted her cleavage and gave her at least a little sparkle in this horrible, magic-less place.
Yes. This would do. It was certainly better than anything else she'd found. The more she'd looked around the room, the less sure she was that any version of her could possibly live here. Everything in the closet or strew about the floor was baggy and boring. She'd almost given up before she found this dress, shoved all the way in the back. It looked like it had never been worn before now.
The shoes she'd found sparkled too, a glittery moon on either side, and the laces threaded silver. They were durable, almost like boots, but they only went up to her ankle. Comfortable enough and necessary since she hadn't been wearing shoes when she'd gotten here. She wasn't entirely sure why they lit up with her footfalls, but it was really the least of her problems.
In the other room, the shower was off and she could hear Bow… the other Bow… moving around nearby. The idea made her agitated. She grabbed her nightie, much more of a For Her Husband's Eyes Only kind of garment than normal pajamas, and shoved it deep into a drawer.
Hello! Why, yes, I too am just a normal person who belongs in this dimension. All of this is quite ordinary! Haha, magic? Who's ever even heard of that? Certainly not me!
She exhaled and considered her reflection again. It was only for a day. She could totally bluff her way through this. No problem. It was like going undercover for a mission, disguising herself to blend in.
Except she had no idea if she was doing it right.
She fished in her dress pocket for the rectangular thing. She'd fiddled with it before and decided it was like a tiny tracker pad, but it wasn't set up like Bow's, so she couldn't figure out how to do anything on it, especially not get that picture of her mother back. Because that HAD been her mother, she was certain of it, even though she'd only seen the image for a second.
It buzzed in her hand, startling her so badly she dropped it. Luckily the outside was some kind of squishy glitter skin, which made her think the other her did that all the time. A good idea! When she got back, she should make Bow add a squishy thing to his tracker pad because she'd personally been responsible for the death of quite a few of those! She must have pressed a button as she grabbed the thing off the floor because suddenly someone was talking to her.
"Glimmer?"
"Adora?" For a wild moment she thought somehow she'd somehow gotten a signal all the way from home but that changed as soon as she turned the lit side to her face and saw the picture on the screen.
It was Adora… but it wasn't. This Adora's hair was close cropped, shaved at the sides, but still somehow had the terrible little poof in the front. What Glimmer could see of her bare shoulders was tan and almost as muscular as She-Ra. When her friend shifted in the frame, she glimpsed what looked like a drawing of the failsafe on her bicep in shades of pink and orange.
"Hey! I didn't wake you did, I?" Adora came closer to the screen, close enough that Glimmer could see the slit shaved into her eyebrows. Her friend looked good and happy, but off. When all Glimmer wanted right now was something familiar, it only tightened the unsettled feeling in her chest.
"Uh, no." Glimmer tried to position the tracker pad at a slightly more flattering angle. Wow, there was just really no good way to do to this, was there?
"Good, because I know I promised I'd call but I have a bunch of crap to do today so I wanted to catch you before I headed out." Adora narrowed her brow, considering her. Shit. Had she really blew her cover already? "Wow, did you give yourself another sadness haircut? Because it actually came out great this time. I love the undercut!"
"I, uh... yes. Yes, I did." No, she was acing this. Adora didn't suspect a thing. She touched the buzzed side of her head. Thank goodness her hair was so short these days it was really easy to manage. "Thank you."
"Except haircut equals sad Glimmer, which means last night's pep was for nothing. Ugh. Let me guess, you were a total chicken shit and didn't say anything, did you?"
"Oh, well... I said to… uh..." Fuck. This was already harder than she'd thought it would be. She had absolutely no context for any of this. "Remind me... What we were talking about last night?"
"Come on, Glimmer, don't be a doofus. Bow texted me after his date last night, asking about you. I didn't tell him anything, of course. Hoes before Bows." There was a snort of laughter on Adora's side of the screen that sounded a lot like Catra. Her friend smirked at something out of frame and then lowered her voice. "But he was completely freaking out about this date you allegedly have and… I mean, the date's bullshit, right?"
Glimmer blinked, trying to keep up. "I—"
"Yeah, I thought so. Look, I love you two but I am sick of you both being idiots about this. You need to just woman up and—" Something rang on Adora's end. "Fuck that's the farrier. Give me a sec. I gotta take this. Swifty threw a shoe this morning, like a dumbass, and we've got to get him re-shod before the show tomorrow. Here. Talk to Catra."
Glimmer was still processing the image of Swift Wind performing in a show and exactly how high the heels would be on any shoes he might need for this performance when the screen shook and she yelped as someone almost familiar came into view.
"C-Catra?"
"That's my name." She must have propped the camera up somewhere because the image steadied out and Catra was scowling, jabbing a spoon into what looked like a bowl of rainbow circles. Her hair was curly and sticking up in every direction, her mismatched eyes crusted and half closed. But her ears, her face, her arms... had she really teleported herself to a dimension where CATra wasn't even a cat?
Glimmer said the first thing that came to mind. "Wow. You look like shit!"
"Well, fuck you too, Twinkle Bomb!" Catra growled, but it didn't have the same effect when she was like this. "Like you've got room to talk? Who the fuck puts on that much body glitter before 8 am? Did you dump an entire bottle of sparkles on your hair too? It's worse than usual. You look like a hobby store threw up on your head."
"Oh, yeah?" Glimmer shouted. "At least I'm not—"
"Hey! Ladies! Play nice!" Adora came back on the screen, which was good because Glimmer had nearly blown her cover for sure. She was plenty used to sparring with Catra, but she had a feeling the rules were different with this version. "Ignore her Glims. She's hungover, and I had to get her up at dawn to help with equestrian drama. It'll take at least three more cups of coffee until she stops being a brat."
"She insulted me!" Catra yelled in the background. "Like I need that cotton candy bitch shrieking in my face like some tween TikTok stan when my brain's an oil field being fracked to fuck! Talking about how I look in my own house! She's the one who dresses like one of those unicorns that shit glitter slime! Like, excuse me, little miss too good for her own trust fund but some of us earned every cent in our portfolios by our own goddamn—" Catra's voice faded out.
Adora seemed to have moved to another room. She re-appeared on the screen, looking apologetic. "Sorry, bestie. She's kind of a bitch when she's hungover. You know she really loves you."
"It's fine. I didn't understand half of those words, anyway." Actually, she didn't understand a significant portion of what was going on and that was really starting to worry her. Her stomach lurched as a door opened somewhere nearby. She froze, listening. Footsteps close enough they had to be just outside her door. She lowered her voice in case Bow's doppelganger was listening. "Actually, Adora... Can I ask you something real quick?"
"Sure, anything."
"Do you think you could, like, explain all of this to me?"
"All of… what?"
"This." Oh, gods, how was she going to ask this without completely blowing her cover? "I need someone to explain to me how this world works. Like… what does it all mean, you know? Not every single thing but… I'm just trying to get through the day here!"
To her surprise, Adora laughed. "God, mood, right? Life (derogatory). Alexa, play I'm Just a Kid by Simple— No, it's a meme, don't actually fucking play it, you stupid—" She turned, smacking something just off screen, cutting off a woman's voice. "Anyway, I'm sorry, but I gotta run. I'll text you when we finish up with the blacksmith. Hang in there!"
"Adora, wait, I—" Her friend's image disappeared. She stared at the tiny tracker pad and felt completely overwhelmed by hopelessness for a few seconds before she forced herself to rally.
Honestly? We're doing great so far! We successfully talked to two of our best friends and they didn't even suspect anything. And we're learning things! Like now we know Catra is not a cat here but is still a bitch so how different can she be, really? And Swift Wind is a performer who needs particular footwear and Adora doesn't get along well with her friend Alexa and then something about hexing or texing which Adora would do to her later but had already done with Bow last night about… something? And that clearly meant that… uh…
"Glimmer?" Shit. The other Bow. He knocked softly, and she had the irrational urge to flee but there was nowhere to go. "Are you OK? Earlier you seemed kind of—"
Before she could change her mind, she yanked the door open, hoping the smile she'd plastered on her face didn't show how much she was completely freaking out. "Hi, Bow."
"Uh, hey." He stood frozen in the doorway, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly before he managed a strangled. "Hi."
"Did you need something?" She flushed, feeling a little self-conscious about the way he was gaping at her.
"I, um… the… you were…" He finally lifted his eyes to hers. "Sorry! The dress. It's… nice. I've never seen it before."
"Oh! Well, it was in her closet." Shit. MY closet, she should have said, but it was too late now. She smiled wider, hoping Bow hadn't noticed. She gave the skirt a little swoosh. "Does it look OK?"
"Yes!" he answered quickly. "More than OK, it looks… You are so beautiful. I-in the dress, I mean. Because it's… nice."
"I see." Glimmer laughed, all the tension from earlier easing off her shoulders. Maybe not her Bow but there was something comforting in knowing this version devolved into the same adorable disaster when he got flustered.
Bow exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Breakfast?"
"Uh… sure!"
He nodded and ducked around the corner and out of sight so fast it seemed like he was running away. She followed him cautiously, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. It wasn't very big, wherever they were, just a sitting area centered around a large black rectangle and beyond that a small kitchen where Bow had already started puttering around. She peaked into an open doorway to see a room about the size of the one she'd just left, probably where she'd heard Bow moving around before. She couldn't see much from where she stood in the hallway. Just a neatly made bed, the quilt patterned with hearts, and a small desk covered with gears and bits of electronics. Something that might be a bow and quiver was propped up against one corner, but it was much more complicated than any bow or quiver she'd ever seen. There was the same pink, purple, and blue striped flag over his bed that hung over hers… probably the flag of whatever kingdom this was.
The whole place was simple. Nothing too fancy. It seemed like it was just the two of them here. Compared to Bright Moon, where there was no escaping advisers, guards, servants and friends even in a giant castle, the idea of her and Bow just having a few small rooms to themselves was incredibly appealing.
There were pictures on the far wall of the main room and she was dying to go get a closer look at them, but if she really lived here, it would seem too suspicious for her to be investigating the place. Instead, she went into the kitchen, sitting on a stool up against the center counter where she could study this Bow without him noticing.
He had a lot more hair than her Bow. That was the first thing she'd noticed earlier. Her's had always kept his cropped short. It was wartime after all, and visibility was kind of important when you were an archer. It was only recently he'd let it grow long enough that he could collect it into a small ponytail. But this Bow's hair was long enough that he had a mass of dark curls atop his head, the coils at the edges bobbing a little as he ducked to grab a pan from a low cabinet.
It was adorable. The urge to go over there and play with it like she would with her Bow was almost unbearable. She sat on her hands and tried to think about something else.
Then there was the beard… if you could really call it that. Dark hair lined his jawline all the way down to his chin, and she did not hate the look at all. Well out of the way of kissing, which was half her problem with the stupid mustache he kept trying to sell her on. Maybe she could convince him to accept a small beard as a compromise option.
Hmm, thinking about kissing was a mistake. This was NOT her Bow, and she was keeping her hands and lips off. It just didn't seem right. And the other her damn well better be doing the same! But that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the view.
Bow turned to hand her a plate and caught her staring. She didn't bother to look away, just smiled. He considered her and pointed his spatula at her before turning back to the stovetop. "I like your hair. It's different but very you. I still wish you'd let me help instead of randomly attacking your head with scissors in the middle of the night. Though at least the back is even this time."
"Maybe I wanted to surprise you." That came out more flirtatious than she meant it, but she couldn't seem to help herself. Besides, they were married here too, right? Wasn't flirting with her own husband in character, anyway?
"Oh, uh…" He froze for a second and then laughed stiffly, and handed her a mug of what smelled like— Thank Mara!— coffee. "You seem better this morning."
"How so?" She took a tentative bite of the eggs he'd placed before her, relieved when they were exactly how she liked them. The coffee was sweet enough that it tasted nothing at all like coffee, which was exactly how she like that too.
"I don't know. More confident, I guess. Your whole posture is different. First time in a while, you're sparkling again!" He gave her that really intense look he'd been giving her for half their lives that it had taken her way too long to realize was open adoration. "I love… when you're happy."
He spun around so quickly Glimmer wondered if what he'd just said was a good thing. Was the Glimmer that lived here not normally happy or confident? Was she playing the role wrong? The comfort of being with Bow and the familiar breakfast had lulled her into a false sense of security, but the moment was a sharp reminder that she really knew nothing about this world and even things she took for granted might be—
She gasped. "Your abs! They're covered!"
Bow spun to look at her and then down at himself. He was wearing a simple gold collared shirt with buttons down the middle, a red bow tied at his neck, and black dress pants. He looked nice, and the pants were doing his backside a lot of favors, but the sight of his midsection completely covered with cloth was so jarring she put down her fork, too sick to eat another bite.
Bow blinked at her and then laughed nervously. "Well, yeah. I've got to go to work in a minute. I'm pretty sure the museum would not consider a crop top appropriate work attire."
"Museum? You mean you're still doing history stuff here?" She'd started pacing the small area between the counters, too agitated to sit. Bow sat down with his own breakfast and watched her, a bewildered expression on his face. "Oh, no. No no no. That's not right! That's not what you want!"
"Yeah, well, maybe someday Entrapta and I will form that tech start up we've been talking about forever." Bow exhaled, moving bits of egg around his plate with his fork. "But we're both tinkerers at heart and neither of us know anything about running a company. Besides, even if we did, it takes a lot of money to start a business."
Money they didn't have. He didn't say it, but she could hear it between the words. There was something about the way he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye that made her think the money thing had something to do with her, and he was trying not to make her feel bad. Another thing she didn't understand. But he was unhappy, and she hated it.
She stopped pacing, sinking back down onto the stool next to him and forcing the last of her breakfast down. Growing up a princess had warped her sense of how money worked but she imagined this world was like any other. That the difference between having it and not having it was huge. For the first time she wondered, if she wasn't a queen here, what was she?
Glimmer washed the last leaden bite of egg down with the dregs of her coffee and watched Bow rise and put his dishes in the sink. She should just leave it. She was here to find her mother and then go back home. That was it. This wasn't even her world. But she couldn't just leave this Bow like this, knowing he was unhappy here. Knowing the other her was unhappy here, too. She had to do something about it.
"Well, then we just have to figure out how you can do that instead."
He leaned against the edge of the sink. "Glimmer…"
"Don't Glimmer me! The history thing, it's making you miserable! That would make you happy, right? Working on your projects? Showing everyone who you really are instead of covering it all up!" He glanced at her and she knew she was right. Of course she was, she'd already helped him through this same crisis already back home! Finally, some familiar footing. "Then that's what you should be doing!"
"I don't know."
"Well, what do Entrapta and Hordak have to say about it?"
"Hordak?" He looked at her, his brow furrowed. "Who's Hordak?"
Glimmer froze. If Catra wasn't even a cat, what might Hordak be in this world? "You know, Entrapta's… lab partner?"
"I've never heard of him. It's only ever been us." Bow headed for his room and she followed, feeling like the floor was disappearing out from under her. OK, maybe Hordak wasn't her favorite person on Etheria but he was someone they knew, an important part of their shared history, and what did it mean if in this universe he didn't even exist? "Ever since she and Scorpia got married, Entrapta's been talking about it more and more but my dads pushed so hard for me to take this position, I don't see how—"
Glimmer raised a finger, the hairs on her neck standing up one by one. "Married. You mean Scorpia and… Perfuma?"
Bow paused halfway before pulling on his dress jacket. "The lady who owns the flower shop down the street? Mermista's girlfriend? What does she have to do with any of this?"
"Mermista and…" Glimmer leaned against the edge of the doorframe before her legs gave way underneath her. No. This was all wrong. "Entrapta and… Perfuma's with Scorpia!"
"No? Scorpia and Entrapta have been married for… you were there! You went to their wedding with me!" He pulled his jacket the rest of the way on and stared at her. "Are you feeling OK?"
"Me? I'm fine! I mean, haha, obviously I knew all that I just… pfft! You know…" So what if in this universe some people they knew were with different people and other people they knew DIDN'T EXIST AT ALL? That wasn't a big deal. A bit unsettling, sure, but what did it really matter? She tried to ignore the bead of sweat dripping down her back and adopt a casual tone. "But Catra and Adora are together, right? I talked to them before on the tiny tracker pad!"
"Yeah, they're… wait, the what?"
"The…" There was another one of those rectangle thingies lying on the edge of his dresser, and she grabbed it and showed it to him. "This thing!"
Bow took the tiny tracker pad from her slowly, never taking his eyes off her. "The phone?"
"Sure. Yeah. Whatever!" She was laughing too loud, too high, but she couldn't stand him looking at her like that, like she was really Double Trouble or something. "I just meant, they're together! So that's normal! And, of course, you and I, we're—"
Oh no. His eyebrows lifted and she froze as a bunch of little things suddenly added up. The separate bedrooms. The talk of dates and sadness haircuts and how weird he'd gotten when she'd been flirty before.
"We're friends." Her mouth went entirely dry. "Just friends."
"Yeah. Best friends." He was watching her, his brows knit. "Glimmer? You're acting really weird right now."
"Am I?" She did that laugh again, the one that didn't exactly make her sound not crazy. "I guess I just need more coffee! Or less? Anyway! You need to go to work and so do I! Unless… I don't? Ha! That's a joke, obviously, because I know all about myself, because I am her. Me! I'm me! Glimmer."
Bow was looking at her like she had six heads, and she didn't blame him. Why had she thought she could do this? She stepped backward, ready to go hide in that tiny bedroom until the pullback when the phone-thing he was still holding in his outstretched hand chirped. He glanced at the screen and exhaled, frustrated. "I guess your voicemail is full again because she called me this time. Looks like there's a message."
"Oh." Her? Her who? His girlfriend? HER girlfriend? She wasn't sure which one would be worse at this point.
"Do you want to listen to it?" He held out the phone and then hesitated. "On second thought, maybe that's not a good idea right now when you're already all—"
"I am not 'all' anything!" She snatched the phone out of his hand. She stared at it a moment, her finger poised over the screen. "Uh, what do I…"
Bow studied her for a moment and then shook his head. Without a word, he reached over and pressed something. She held it up to her ear and then the voice started playing and Bow's irritation, the unfamiliar tech in her hands, the whole strange magic-less world around her disappeared. The phone slipped out of her hand, tears pouring down her face.
"Glimmer? Glimmer, what's wrong? Did something happen?" Bow was there suddenly, his hand rubbing her arm.
"My mom." She was shaking so badly she could hardly get it out. "Bow, that's my mom! That's her voice!"
"Yeah…" He was looking from the phone on the floor to her in confusion. "I don't understand. Was it bad news?"
She couldn't answer, just shook her head. She hugged her arms to herself, thinking about the last time she'd heard that voice, in a dark cave underneath Bright Moon, on one of the worst days of her life. Bow grabbed the phone from the floor and replayed the message, loud enough that they could both heard it.
Her voice! She hadn't forgotten what it sounded like, not exactly. How could she? But the memory was different from the real thing, and it transported her back in time and ripped her apart all over again.
She's here. Oh gods, she's really here!
"Glimmer, what's wrong? The message only says she'll be in meetings all day, but you could call her at lunch. Here. Listen again." He handed her the phone, and she tried to do what he'd done before, but the message didn't play. He handed her a tissue, and she showed him the screen, helplessly. "Oh, it looks like it got deleted."
"No! I need it back!"
"Hey. Look. I'm sorry about the message but… you've been avoiding her for weeks and now?" He grabbed her arms, his faces inches from hers. She wanted to collapse into his shoulder and fall apart, but this was not her Bow and that only made her cry harder. "Please, just tell me what is going on. I've never seen you so upset. It's like someone died!"
Someone did, Bow. And after all these years I finally have a chance to… "I need to see her."
"Well, she is coming up in a few days."
"No. Today. It has to be today." She looked into Bow's eyes, full of so much worry. "And you have to take me."
Bow let his arms fall and took a step back. "Glimmer, your mom lives two hours away and I have to go to work. We- I can't lose this job and I can't call out twenty minutes before opening. Why can't you drive yourself?"
"Because…" I don't know what drive even means or what I would even drive and even if I did, I don't know where to go or how to get there or how any of this world works and you're the only thing here that I know for sure I can trust. "I just can't, OK? I need you to do it. Please, Bow?"
Bow grabbed two handfuls of his hair, blowing out a long breath. He wasn't going to do it. Why should he? She wasn't making any sense. Plus, it asking too much. For him to drop everything and miss work and take to see her mom right now with no explanation and all this after she'd already annoyed him by acting strangely all morning. She couldn't even explain to him why she needed to do this so badly, so how could she ever hope to get him to agree? He probably thought she was crazy!
The thing was, her Bow would do it. Even if he thought she was crazy. No questions asked. He'd do anything for her. If she needed him, he'd be there or die trying. But that Bow was in love with her and this one…
"OK." He exhaled and then leaned his forehead against the wall. "I'll take you. Just… just give me a second to call out."
She watched, open-mouthed, as he ducked into his bedroom and closed the door behind him.