She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Universal Heroes

Prologue – New Beginnings, Old Friends

#Before we begin here is some Important Information about the story:

#This is my own post-ending exploration of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, I am not pretending to follow an already existing canon except for the show itself, any book canon is not included as I have not read them and I am quite literally making it up as I go along.

#For the purposes of this story Adora and Catra haven't had their canon child as that causes a few complications for the story

#This story was made because I really liked the show and I wanted to get some practice in writing as i've never done it before, all feedback is appreciated.

#This story is mainly focused on Catra and Adora plus any new characters specifically made for it, I plan on eventually having every major character play a role at some point.

#This story is preemptively rated M for violence and graphic descriptions of events.

Spoiler Warning for the entire She-Ra Netflix show

if you have not watched the show you should do that, it is excellent

this story is best read knowing the main plotline of the show beforehand.

It has been three years since the defeat of Horde Prime, Prime's Galactic Horde crumbled shortly after his death as his mindless drones were incapable of functioning without his guidance, his iron grip upon the universe suddenly releasing after thousands of years of subjugation.

Etheria is inconceivably at peace for the first time in hundreds of years, magic has returned to the world and life is blooming, Hordak's 'Etherian Horde' still remains but maintains an uneasy peace with the rest of the planet as all of his previous goals that drive him to conquer no longer matter.

The Princesses have mostly gotten back to running their respective kingdoms with the exception of Scorpia, who has begun rebuilding the old scorpion kingdom at the Fright Zone and Entrapta who has returned to Dryl, bringing what remains of the Horde along with her and Hordak. Adora and Catra have become a married couple.

Things are going well.

Everything is just fine the way they are.

Adora sits under a blooming tree at the top of a cliff, watching as flower petals and tree leaves float past, observing the magical wildlife of the Whispering Woods. The movement of the animals was mesmerising.

Snap!
Crunch

Ruffled leaves and broken twigs alerted her to someone approaching from behind, rising to her feet Adora spun around to meet whoever it was only to find an empty field in front of her.

Strange, she thought. But maybe she was just imagining things? A sudden pressure on her shoulder told her the gravity of her mistake, she had wasted time thinking and let herself get ambushed. She met the unexpected foe with a flurry of action as Adora knocked the potential ambusher off their feet, dragging them from behind and pinning them against the tree.

Looking over the disabled opponent Adora noticed freckles, a single yellow eye, claws – wait.

"Heeey Adora~ Did I scare you?"

"Wha- Catra? Of course you scared me, what are you doing here?" Adora asked.

Adora let go of the cat, promptly dropping them softly against the tree.

"Oh, you know I was just wondering where you've been going these last few months, so I followed you here."

"Past few months?" Adora asked. "How long have you known about this place? And just how long have you been watching me?"

Catra's smug expression clearly visible on her smiling face, an unuttered taunt echoing in the wind."I don't blame you" Catra answered. "it's a very pretty spot. I tried to make it into a little game to see how long it'd take you to find me but unfortunately you never did."

"Catra, I know you're not just here to taunt me, what are you actually doing here?"

Catra's smile faded somewhat as her voice took on a more bored tone "Sparkles wanted you in Bright Moon hours ago." Catra responded.

"Oh, do you know what it's about?" Adora asked.

"She didn't give me the details."

"What do you even do up here anyways, Adora? I've been watching you but you just sit there, unmoving" Catra's voice betrayed a small amount of concern for her friend.

Adora looked at Catra before looking back at the scenic view "I just sit here.. thinking really. Can you really blame me? I don't have too much else to do these days" she responded.

"It's good we're finally at peace and all but it's hard to feel useful when all I really do is go parade around towns and cities once every few weeks." her voice rising slightly as she continued "The Princesses have Kingdoms to run, cities to maintain, people to look after-".

"Adora." Catra interrupted. "You know you always have your friends, you always have me and we promised each other all those years ago that we'd always stick together." her concern was obviously growing "You should ask them for jobs, you know? I know it's not quite the world-saving adventures you used to have but it's at least something, Scorpia is desperate for engineers to build her new city, you could do that. Entrapta and Hordak are still looking at that whole idea of seeding magic across the universe, I know you've already tried helping but it's better than just sitting here." she explained "Plus, it seems like Sparkles might actually have something productive for you to do for once, it didn't sound like the usual party parade."

Adora's features immediately lit up "Really!? An actual mission?" a starry-eyed Adora asked. "We have to get back right now!"

"Wait, what are you doing? Don't grab me-"

[Bright Moon Castle] – Prologue Part 2

The trip to Bright Moon was fast; Adora's enthusiasm boiled over into a sprint as she thought about all the possibilities, upon crossing the limits of the Whispering Woods a towering structure came into view as a large castle pierced the sky and dominated the landscape, slowing down to observe the landscape Adora thought back on this castle, how it had formed the backbone of the Rebellion's resistance in years past, a mighty structure that once defended those who opposed evil.

Puffed and slightly exhausted from running all this way while dragging a surprisingly heavy and very annoyed Catra she turned to her friend before asking "How much do you know about the mission? Am I finally doing something for the wider universe?" Adora asked, incredulously. "Am I going to go fight space pirates?! Meet up with the other planets that rebelled?"

The Moonstone loomed high above them, shining a pale light on them as they approached the stairs to the castle.

"Adora, I don't know. Sparkles was creepily quiet about it, I confronted her about it but she didn't say a thing before locking herself in the war room." Catra said.

"Well, that's ominous but I'm sure whatever it is we'll get through it, just like we always have." Adora responded.

Once again the conversation fell quiet, the castle entrance appearing close and looming, without the hustle and bustle of the rebellion's war this whole place felt strangely abandoned. These days just a singular vigilant guard stood watch as they walked through the courtyard. Passing through the great doors they turned towards the many winding hallways that lead to the War Room.

[Bright Moon's War Room]

The War Room was quiet, the strong doors gave way to the sight of a long table with chairs encircling its perimeter, all of them empty. A single figure stood alone at the end of the room, looking upon a statue of Queen Angella.

"Queen Glimmer?" Adora said.

The figure seemed surprised for a moment, straightening up before turning around.

Glimmer seemed stressed, she had obviously not gotten enough sleep lately. "Adora? Good, you're here. We'll begin immediately." Glimmer said as she walked away from the statue to take a seat on her chair. "After Horde Prime was defeated I got Entrapta to move his communication antenna from his space station and installed it at the top of Bright Moon's castle." She said. "At the time we did this in hopes of receiving communications from other rebellion planets." Glimmer lowered her head down before continuing "But unfortunately we never heard from anyone, and now we've received a very strange communication."

"What kind of communication?" Adora questioned.

"It's a communication from someone who calls themselves "Emperor Nikola Salazar" of some great empire" Glimmer said.

Catra's eyes widened slightly, she discreetly pressed her hand against her head, playing it off as a simple head scratch while she tried to remember what was so familiar about the name.

"Huh, 'Emperor'? that doesn't sound good. Do we know his intentions?" Adora said.

"No. Probably not his true intentions, but if we are to believe the transmission then they are coming here to request your help Adora." Glimmer responded.

Adora's gaze grew distant and far for a moment, thinking about her duties, her gaze steeling as she thought back to all those towns she had saved "As the She-Ra it is my duty to try and help wherever I can, if this 'Emperor' really does need help I don't think I can turn him away."

"Adora." Catra interrupted "This Salazoo person might try and hurt you, maybe even capture you to attack Etheria undefended."

"I'll be fine Catra, we beat Prime i'm sure we can handle this unknown bozo, we haven't heard from anyone else about him"

"Adora, you know just as well as I do that your powers don't make you invincible."

Glimmer rose from her seat, as if to confront her friend's decision, speaking in her authoritative 'Queen' voice. "Adora, your duty as She-Ra is to protect Etheria, if you're going to go running off to help this guy you need to tell me before you do anything. It could be a plot, a ruse to try and conquer Etheria while your attention is elsewhere."

Adora stopped to think for a moment before nodding in silent agreement."Alright Glimmer, but we need to at least hear them out." turning to stare at one of the nearby statues "How long do we have, Glimmer?" Adora asked.

"Well, I got Entrapta to do her techy stuff and according to her we only have five days. I've already called for a meeting of the war council to prepare for a potential invasion." She responded.

"And just who is coming to this meeting, Sparkles?"

"Everyone. All the Princesses except Entrapta, the leaders of the major cities and a few Horde observers"

"Horde observers!?" Catra exclaimed. "You're putting a lot of trust into Hordak, Glimmer! I'd suggest you keep an eye on him and his 'observers', they could very well be the ones who set this whole thing up for all we know." she said accusingly.

"Catra, look I know it's probably a bad idea to trust him but we don't know what we're up against and we need all the help we can get, he still has a small army of bots." Glimmer said. "It's worth at least considering."

"Fine. I'm still not happy about it, but if you think Hordak's worth having around in this meeting then i'll trust you." Catra said.

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Legality, Rights and Credits to Artists

I do not own or claim to own any characters from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power in this story, all rights to them are reserved by their respective companies, licence-holders and creators.

All art has been credited to the best of my ability, if the owner of any artwork I use in this story wish for me to discontinue using their art they may ask me to do so at any time.

The cover image of the story – the one with the dragons and the throne is called "Dragon Throne" created by Nele-Diel on DeviantArt, I contacted this artist to get a list of images that could be used freely, as a non-profit writer I am able to freely to use their lower resolution images such as this one.