Whoa.

Bow and Adora started forward but Glimmer hesitated. She took one look at the ballroom and almost turned back down the hallway and all the way out the castle. It was sensory overload. Colors exploded against the blues and whites of the ice, the fresh scent of the massive floral arrangements mingling with the smells of spritzed fragrances and spicy food.

And people. Races and types she'd never even seen before. Everywhere she looked she was outclassed, the evidence of magic, status, and power everywhere.

Something brushed against her arm. She turned as a slender woman with wings like a moth swept past her, catching the eyes of half the people in the room with just the sway of her hips. Glimmer watched, feeling flushed, and then took a small step backward, crashing into the small butterfly girl behind her.

"Sorry!" She moved so her back was against the wall, trying to get her bearings.

Oh, she really wasn't good at this. Not at people or making friends or doing the small talk thing or trying to navigate all the tricks and traps of conversation. There was a reason she'd had a grand total of one friend for most of her life before Adora had come along. She never should have agreed to come to this, no matter how curious she was to see it.

She liked machines where things either worked or they didn't. She liked troubleshooting. Or, heck, just regular shooting. Gods, she wished she had her arrows right now. She never realized how much she relied on having her weapons slung on her back as a sign of her competence. In a battle, people could take one look at them and say, OK, she belongs here. She had nothing like that here.

Someone touched her arm. She jumped, but it was only Bow. He cocked his head a little and smiled at her. She tried to smile back, but it came out more like a grimace.

"You OK?" He asked, his brows raised.

"Yeah. Just a little overwhelmed." If it was anyone else, she wouldn't have admitted it, but it was Bow. They didn't have secrets between them.

"I know." He hooked his arm through hers, which made her feel a little better already. "We just have to get the greeting stuff done with and then we can find somewhere that's not nearly so crowded."

They joined Adora in the long line of people waiting to greet Princess Frosta. The princess looked tiny, dwarfed by the large guards that flanked her and the massive throne of ice that stretched above her head. Bow had insisted on the three of them studying up on all before they came, so Frosta's age wasn't a surprise, but the stern expression on her face still took Glimmer aback. No kid should look like that. Supposedly the young princess was incredibly powerful, and they definitely needed all the help they could get if they were ever going to turn the tide in this war but, now that Glimmer looked at the cold expression on that little face, she wasn't sure how much success they were going to have.

"Bow!"

Bow suddenly disappeared into a whirl of flowing pink and an overwhelming floral scent.

"Perfuma! Adora, Glimmer, look who's here!" Bow sounded slightly strangled.

"The She-Ra!" Perfuma released Bow from her hug attack and looked at the rest of the Best Friend Squad. "And Glimmer." Her eyes flicked from Bow's arm linked through hers to the gemstone on her chest. Maybe it was Glimmer's imagination, but Perfuma seemed to hesitate half a second before widening her smiling and continuing. "It is truly a gift to see you all again. I am so glad we will all have a chance to get to know each other better this evening. I was just going to get myself some refreshments but I hope to find you all again soon."

"Sounds good!" Bow replied, cheerfully.

Perfuma touched Bow's and Adora's arms and then gave Glimmer a quick nod before disappearing back into the crowd. Adora immediately turned back to Frosta. Her brows were knit like when they were about to enter a fight and Glimmer wondering if she was listening to the conversations of the people ahead of them for ideas of what to say to Frosta.

Bow gave Glimmer's arm a gentle squeeze. "See? You have me and everyone from the rebellion. You know plenty of people here!"

"I guess." Glimmer did feel a little better seeing another familiar face, but there was still a lot of evening left. She traced the stitching on the bottom of her bodice. "Was it me or did Perfuma seem kind of weird just now?"

"Oh. Well." He chewed at his lip and then gestured her closer. "She asked me to be her date for this."

"WHAT?" Glimmer smacked him on the chest. "Bow! You should have told me! I could have just as easily gone as Adora's date."

Bow was still worrying at his lip and giving her a weird look. "You're right. We could have done that."

Glimmer shook her head. What the hell had he been thinking? Perfuma was an elemental princess and a really powerful one at that! Not to mention that she was key to getting the Princess Alliance back together, which was Bow's whole thing right now. He'd really turned down a whole freaking magic princess just to be a pal and make sure she didn't get left behind? Guilt twisted in her gut.

Maybe they should go find her, see if they could explain. She scanned the crowd but didn't see any sign of the flower princess. What if Perfuma was so insulted Bow rejected her to take a nobody archer that she quit the alliance and then the Horde would win and the whole planet would be destroyed and it was all her fault for being a pathetic non-magic nobody who shouldn't even be here right now?

"When did she even ask you?" She hugged her free arm around herself, trying to keep out the sharp chill of all this cold.

"During the battle at Plumeria. She was pretty smooth about it. But…" He hesitated, and she turned to look at him. He was watching her. "Would you rather be here with Adora?"

"I—" She wasn't sure why the question threw her so far off balance. It should be the same thing, right? Adora… Bow… They were both her best friends. That would be the simplest solution, wouldn't it? She'd go with Adora and Bow and Perfuma could… but for some reason even thinking about that made her want to throw up. "Wait, a minute. The battle at Plumeria was weeks before you even asked me!"

Bow rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. It was."

"But…" He'd told Perfuma no because he'd already agreed to go with her as friends and was too nice to say anything. That's what she'd been assuming. But if Perfuma asked him first…

Bow exhaled, focused on her hand on his arm. "Look, I could have come here with Perfuma. You could have come here with Adora. We could all have hung out together and maybe it would have been a lot of fun. But you're my best friend and I've been wishing you were with me at stuff like this for years and… and I wanted to come with you. Is that OK?"

He looked at her then, his eyes twinkling and familiar. She stared at him, feeling warm and flattered and also kind of confused. Because Bow was a fantastic friend, the best friend she could imagine, but if they were all just friends hanging out in a big group, what did it really matter who went with who? But he hadn't asked her if it made sense, only if she was OK with it. She smiled.

"Yeah. It's OK."

His face lit up with a grin. He put his free hand over hers and suddenly it wasn't nearly so cold. "Good."

Maybe tonight wouldn't be so bad after all.