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A hearty knock rattled Glimmer’s door, causing her to let out a yelp of surprise. She had been adding a few new items to the ‘Brightmoon Secret Armoury’ as she called it, and the knock had caused her to flinch, knocking a rather impressive looking crystalline mace from its holding onto the floor.
“Ahh! Um! Hold on! Wait! One second! She exclaimed, hurriedly dumping the near armful of weapons into a trunk before teleporting out of the room, activating the hidden switch to hide the area from view. She scampered over to the door and opened it, but not before smoothing down her clothing and hair.
“Um… hello? Bow, is this your idea of a prank, because this is really simple, even for you…” she said, leaning out of the door to glance along the darkened corridors. The moon was rising and the castle was quiet and still. After a few moments, she sighed, shook her head, and turned back into her room, closing the door behind her.
“Hello!” a nasal voice exclaimed a few feet in front of her. Red glowing circles hovered in the air, inches from her face. To say that Glimmer shrieked would be missing an opportunity to say that she was only just short of shattering every single window in the entire wing of the castle. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, no-one was around to hear it other than the princess and her mysterious visitor. The visor and the glowing orbs that were attached to it slid up, and, in the gloom, Glimmer could make out Entrapta’s face, looking confused and concerned.
“E-Entrapta!? What are you doing here?” she hissed, as the purple haired girl’s expression shifted to one of eager glee.
“I’m here for our date!” Entrapta replied, grinning widely. Glimmer’s face erupted into a deep crimson as she spluttered.
“W-w-w-w-what!?” she managed.
“Well, when I asked about studying your teleportation magic you said maybe later and then I said that it was a date and now it’s later, it’s very late actually, wow, I’ve never seen stars this bright, I wonder if it had to do with Dryl’s location closer to the pole of the planet than Brightmoon’s, I shall have to analyse that too when I have some time,” Entrapta said, droning onto a tangent involving constellations and theories about the Old Ones and the stars.
“Ohhh, so when you said date, you meant… a study… session. Not a… ahahaha, that’s, that’s fine! I mean, it’s not fine; you snuck into my room late at night. Why did you sneak in?” Glimmer asked when she was finally able to get her words in.
“The door was locked. I knocked quite loudly several times but evidently you didn’t hear me. Fortunately, even Castle Brightmoon has ducts that can be crawled through!” Entrapta said, triumphantly. Glimmer let out a little sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose as she processed this new information.
“Entrapta… I appreciate your enthusiasm but you can’t just sneak into people’s rooms late at night,” she said.
“Yes I can, I just did.”
“OK, that’s my bad. What I mean was, you shouldn’t sneak into people’s rooms late at night,” Glimmer said, remembering that she needed to think a little bit more literally when talking to the genius princess.
“Ohhhhh, this is a social protocol thing isn’t it? I have a big study on it coming up in a few months, the Princess Prom! I intend to experiment all night long there!” Entrapta said, nodding her head enthusiastically, her hair shifting to allow her to sit down upon it. Glimmer blipped across the room with her magical power, and returned with a large cushion that she could sit on, only to find Entrapta gazing enraptured at the little sparks of magic that remained hanging in the air for a few moments whenever she teleported.
“Fascinating!” the girl said, her face lit up by the fading glow of the spark. Despite herself, Glimmer found herself blushing lightly again.
Get it together! She just wants to learn about your magic, it’s not a real date or anything! She chided herself, as she sat next to Entrapta, who had already pulled out a notepad, which she was scribbling in with her hair gripping her pen.
“So… what would you like to know?” Glimmer asked. Entrapta turned to her slowly, her eyes wide and her expression one of contemplation and a faint hint of fear.
“Everything,” she whispered, reverently.
---
A loud knock rattled the door to princess Glimmer’s room. Glimmer smiled brightly, teleporting eagerly over to it. For all the chaos she seemed to generate, Entrapta was surprisingly predictable. Every three days, after dinner, which all present princesses attended, Glimmer knew that she had exactly two hours and thirty eight minutes to herself before the knock would come. Glimmer had come to look forward to these meetings the most, even more than her missions with Adora and Bow, even more than the Resistance meetings despite her mother’s negative presence. She found her cheeks darkening again as her fingers touched the door; her simple yearning for more friends had so quickly turned into a crush that she at times struggled to deal with. She swung the door open, and beamed with feigned glee at the purple haired girl stood there.
“I was doing some research in the kitchens, and it turns out, cooking is a lot like science! Measuring, calculating, making, it really is rather fun! And you can even choose what result you get! Look, mini cookies!” Entrapta exclaimed, lifting the lid of the box she held to reveal the most perfect looking regular sized and mini sized chocolate chip cookies Glimmer had ever seen.
“They gave you permission to use the cookers? They never let me and Bow into the kitchens, not after the… baking soda vinegar incident a few years ago,” Glimmer said as she closed the door behind the girl. The table had already been set up for Entrapta’s note taking, and she had prepared some items for aiding with the research as well.
“Mmmm, is it technically permission if they don’t know that it happened?” Entrapta said, glancing away from Glimmer, scratching at the side of her cheek with her hair.
“Entrapta! I’ve told you about this before!” Glimmer said with a half-hearted sigh.
“I know, I know, when in Castle Brightmoon I have a moral and social obligation to consider the feelings, thoughts and rules of those whose castle this is, and am obliged to take the consequences of my actions into account before taking them,” Entrapta said, as if reading off of a script. Glimmer giggled, and dropped onto her cushion chair as Entrapta mooched across the room, a pouty look upon her face.
“I’m glad you remembered! Now, let me have one of those cookies!” she said, grinning from ear to ear.
This particular study session seemed a little different. The hours went by slowly, and Entrapta seemed distracted by something, normally nothing out of the ordinary, but she seemed unfocused, which was definitely not normal. Her hair was barely moving, in fact, it only seemed to move when she did, almost like it was regular hair. She was also not eating, which, considering she had made herself tiny cookies, was another oddity. After an hour, Glimmer’s curiosity got the better of her.
“Is everything OK, Entrapta?” she asked, looking up into her eyes. Entrapta blinked once or twice, returning the look with furrowed brow.
“I am feeling well, if that is what you are asking, but… I suspect you aren’t. And I must confess… something is playing on my mind,” she said, glancing down at the box of cookies.
“If you’re waiting for some sort of social protocol to eat, then you don’t need to, you can just eat,” Glimmer said, hopefully.
“Actually… I made those for you. As I understand, it’s traditional for someone to gift something to someone else when they have to leave for a while, a ‘going away’ present as it were. I also understand that one gives gifts when one is sorry, and… well… I am going away, and I am sorry,” Entrapta said, awkwardly, not matching Glimmer’s gaze.
“What do you mean?”
“The Princess Prom is in a few days. I need to return to Dryl to pick up my invitation and to gather my prepared notes… so I will be leaving Brightmoon,” she said, pigtails wringing over one another as she struggled with her words. Glimmer’s heart sank.
“F-for good? Like, you’ll be moving back there full time?” she asked, leaning towards Entrapta.
“I… don’t know. I have been feeling… homesick, I believe is the term, for a little while. I miss my robots, and I’m sure the staff misses me… probably…” Entrapta went on, taking in a quick breath. “And besides, I am just a nuisance here anyway, probably for the best that I stay tucked away in my castle,” she added with a weak smile.
“That’s not true! You’re definitely not a nuisance! I… I’ll miss you,” Glimmer said, grabbing hold of the purple haired girl’s hands tightly. “You’ll… I mean, I… that’s…” she stammered, not sure what to say, not even sure what she wanted to say.
“This is why I made the cookies…” Entrapta mumbled, her voice waivering a little. Glimmer looked up at her, her heart catching in her chest as she noticed the beginnings of tears in Entrapta’s eyes. She lunged forwards, aided by a tiny blip of magical energy, and clasped her arms around Entrapta tightly, letting out a whimper. Entrapta let out a similar sound, a mix between a gasp and a yelp, but she soon returned the gesture, arms and then hair slowly curling around Glimmer’s back.
“Let’s… let’s go on a date!” Glimmer said, once she had been released from the intense hug.
“Hmm?”
“We could… Oh! We could go to the Princess Prom together! Ohhh, no, wait, Bow and I always go together, darn… we could do something after though!” Glimmer said with a wide spread grin.
“Aren’t we already having dates? Isn’t that a bit redundant?” Entrapta said, tilting her head to one side in her confusion.
“I don’t mean a study date, I mean a d-date date. Me. You. Something r-romantic. I, I, I mean, I-if that, if, if you wanted, it’s not, it could be another study date, or it cou-” she stammered, only to halt when a gloved finger touched the centre of her forehead.
“Panic reset button,” Entrapta said softly, a little smile spreading across her lips. Glimmer blinked, and looked up at the finger.
“Huh?”
“I just installed a panic reset button in you. When you panic, just press it, and you’ll stop panicking. It… it isn’t scientifically sound, but… my… my mother installed mine when I was very, very young, so young I can barely remember anything else, but… that…” she mumbled, glancing away sheepishly. “You must think I’m so foolish.”
“No. I think you’re really sweet. A panic reset button… it’s very you,” Glimmer said with a smile, before taking a deep breath. “Would you like to go on a romantic date with me after the Princess Prom, Entrapta?” she asked.
“I think it would be fascinating,” Entrapta replied, beaming back at her.
---
Glimmer stared up at the statue, built of wood and leaves, topiary but still staggeringly lifelike. Perfuma’s magic, even during her grief, was not to be scoffed at. Tears sat heavily in the corners of her eyes, her fists balled and her teeth gritted. Brightmoon was safe, for now, but the forest was in ruins, and the Horde grew in strength every day.
“No more. I will not allow the Horde to take another person, another loved one, from us!” she snapped, mostly at herself, as she took in a shuddered breath, wiping away the tears from her eyes. She turned, and stalked away from the topiary tribute to the genius Princess, to where Adora and Bow were waiting beside Swiftwind.
“All done?” Adora asked, looking over to her friend with a face full of concern. Glimmer nodded, fighting back more tears. Bow and Adora were quickly at her side, embracing her tightly.
“Thank you. I’m fine, I’m fine. Let’s get back to Brightmoon, mother has called a Princess Council meeting. Let’s… let’s do this. For her,” she said, glancing back at the statue one last time.
“For Entrapta!” Bow exclaimed, his enthusiasm leaking out into Glimmer despite herself. She nodded, and moments later, the trio were in the air, borne on Swiftwind’s wings.
For Entrapta… Glimmer thought, closing her eyes.