A large and almost arrow-shaped hunk of metal clattered against a wall.

"No, no, no!" a frustrated voice echoed across the Bright Moon Castle basement chamber as the metal clanked to the ground, joining a pile of parts which were just as mangled. "None of this is working!"

Bow clutched the sides of his head with both hands, groaned, and laid his forehead on the table. "Seriously, why do all of you pick today, of all days, to not work? Why do you pick when it actually matters?"

Glimmer tiptoed through the doorway, coming up behind him. "Bow, is that you? I... heard noise. Like, bad noise. Like you were in pain, or something."

"I am in pain, Glimmer," Bow said, placing the back of his hand against his forehead, mock-dramatically. "A pain which cannot be measured by physical metrics."

Glimmer tilted her head. "What are you talking about? What are you doing down here?" She walked up next to Bow, and stared at him. "Hang on. Have you even slept?"

Bow looked down at his wrinkled lab coat, which had accumulated several mild splotches on it from the activity of the last few hours. A heaviness washed over him as he looked at the piles of mangled objects—each signifying a failed hypothesis—around his workshop.

It was only then he realized that maybe he looked as utterly exhausted as he felt.

"O-of course I did," Bow said. "I just... slept in here. And... maybe woke up three hours ago?"

Glimmer's eyes widened. "You woke up at noon?"

"Well, yeah, because I was working on this stuff last night, too, so I didn't get to bed until—"

Glimmer held up a hand. "Do not finish that sentence, I don't want to know. But you do know today's a big day, right? Princess Entrapta's coming to visit and everything!"

"Exactly! Which means I have to make sure I'm ready for her! We all have to make sure we're ready for her!" Bow darted over to Glimmer, gripping her shoulders. "Are you ready for her?"

"Well, yeah," Glimmer said. "Of course I am."

Bow blinked. "Well, I'm not! Maybe I never was!" He gestured around the room, full of scattered blueprints, gears, and arrow points, and which still carried the smell of grease. "Because nothing I have in here is giving me any hope towards that being the case anymore!"

Glimmer sighed. "Bow, not gonna lie, starting to have the teensiest bit of second thoughtage about convincing my mom to let you have this workspace." She took Bow by the hand, and walked him over to a nearby wall.

"Look just... Calm down. Please," she said, caressing Bow's arm and smiling up at him reassuringly. "Tell me what's the matter? Cause I've never seen you this wound up, literally ever."

Bow took a deep breath, looking into Glimmer's eyes. For a few moments he wondered if it were okay to do just that. If there would be any consequences. If Glimmer would laugh, or think he was being silly.

Then he remembered that this was Glimmer in front of him. If he couldn't tell her, then who could he trust, really?

"Okay," he said, relaxing with a sigh of his own. "I've told you about the Etherian Makers Community, right?"

"Sure." Glimmer tapped her index fingers together in recollection. "Network of super-geeks spread out all across Etheria, doing the whole science and tech thing. You know, while the other ninety percent of the world manages to make do just fine with magic and nature, all without rocking the boat." Glimmer grinned.

And there it was. Glimmer was beyond trustworthy, and she rarely laughed at anything Bow confided in her, but she also had a knack for fashioning herself as a stand-up comedian at the worst times. "Uh huh," Bow said, rolling his eyes and giving Glimmer a slanted look.

"Awww, Bow." Glimmer giggled, winked, and squeezed Bow's arm. "I'm kidding, of course! You're all super-hardcore, and that's amazing. Well, I think it is? I've only ever met one of you, and that's all I have to form my opinion on."

Glimmer was also impossible to get mad at, let alone stay mad at. Bow simply nodded in response. "Technically, you've met two by now."

"Huh? Who?" Glimmer's eyebrows furrowed, and she scratched her head—then gasped with a snap of her fingers. "Oh, my gosh! You mean, Princess Entrapta herself is one of you?"

Bow nodded. "Right. Well, in all but name."

"What do you mean?" Glimmer asked.

Bow walked to one of his lab tables, placed his hands on the counter, and looked across his wall-mounted diagrams and specifications sheets. Glimmer followed him, and stood by his side.

"There aren't a lot of us in the Guild," Bow said, "but there are enough of us to matter, and you wouldn't believe who was a part of it if I just told you names. Either way, like any good network, we exchange information. Messages, specs, blueprints, experiment results, locations of rare resources..."

Glimmer nodded. "And here I thought you came up with all of your trick arrow designs all by yourself."

"Nah, only most of them. The network can be inspiring, sometimes." Bow smiled, and continued. "Every once in a while, though, something comes through the pipeline that blows the Guild's minds. Advanced enough that it sends ripples through the whole community and completely changes the way we do things. And even though these findings are always anonymously submitted, we eventually figured out that they always come from Princess Entrapta. She's way ahead of the rest of us, and there are so many things we never would have learned about Etheria, and especially the First Ones, without her involvement."

"Whoa." Glimmer gasped. "I didn't think it was possible, but that means she's an even bigger deal than I already thought she was!"

Bow sighed with a small smile. "Seriously. I haven't even told anyone I've met her, yet. I mean, what would I even say? Heck, what would they say?"

Glimmer giggled again. "I guess I could see how that could be a little weird. But..."

"Buuuut..." Bow continued.

Glimmer shrugged. "But I'm still confused. All of this, including everything about Princess Entrapta, sounds like good stuff. So why did I walk in on you halfway towards a nervous breakdown?"

Bow turned to Glimmer, looking into her eyes. "You all but said it yourself just now: Bright Moon is full of princesses, of magicians, people in touch with the earth. But I'm the one here who's into science and tech."

"Which helps round out Bright Moon's skill set," Glimmer said, nodding.

"And since Entrapta's into that too, I figured that would make a great impression diplomatically. If I can show her that Bright Moon can communicate on her wavelength, then we can impress her, and..." Bow sighed. "Well, that was the plan, anyway. Plans are only good when they have half a chance of working, though—" He stopped as he heard Glimmer's trademark giggling. "See? This is exactly why I was afraid of telling you all this!"

Glimmer's giggles trailed off. "I'm not laughing at you, Bow. Just circumstances. Usually I'm the one who's spastic, and you have to calm me down." She clasped Bow's hand with both of hers. "I guess I'm a little tickled that I finally get to be the supportive one."

Bow leaned back against the lab table and chuckled, shaking his head. "Oh. Okay, yeah, that's fair, I guess. Sorry about that."

"Are you kidding? I'm happy to do this! To be the one to tell you that I've totally been where you are—and that I already know that you don't have anything to be afraid of. You're seriously scared of not being able to impress Princess Entrapta? The girl whose life you saved, like, twice? And then you totally worked in sync to bring down that evil First Ones tech?" Glimmer sparred with an invisible enemy in front of herself. "You're practically the whole reason she agreed to join the Alliance in the first place!"

Bow felt his face going hot. "O-okay, didn't count on that much cheering up."

Glimmer grinned wide. "Hey, I'm good at what I do. And so are you, dude! So don't worry. Spinnerella, Netossa and I will handle all the 'protocol'-type stuff. Meanwhile, you? You just be your awesome self. Because, honestly?" Glimmer hesitated before finishing with, "We'll both have to be."

Bow looked at Glimmer. "Are you all right?"

Glimmer shook her head. "I'm fine. It's just that since I'm in charge of this visit, I'm trying to think of a way to approach it that's different from how she would do it. But we can talk more about that when you're presentable. Go shower and change. You may be awesome, but awesome isn't immune to BO. And don't worry. We've got each others' back, right? Just like always?"

Bow nodded and smiled. "Of course. Just like always."

"Sweet." The two shook hands, then morphed the gesture into a mutual fist bump. "Best Friend Squad has this in the bag."

Bow's eyes sparkled. "You used my group name!"

Glimmer walked to the door. "The Great And Powerful Glimmer can be benevolent sometimes." She waved as she walked out.

"Hey, Glimmer?"

Glimmer poked her head back in.

"Thanks," Bow said.

"None needed," Glimmer said, as the two met eyes, and smiles, one last time.

Glimmer left, and Bow turned his attention to the mess in his workshop. Fortunately, with his mind clearer, and his heart calmer, cleaning things up would be a trivial matter.

Maybe there was a chance of things working out, after all.

The tiniest one.