Chapter Text
It is a bright, warm day in Brightmoon. The kingdom is still recovering from the attack that nearly left it decimated. Though, that hasn’t stopped anyone from enjoying themselves and celebrating that their castle still stands tall. All around the kingdom, people have their spirits up and help with the rebuilding and preparing for whatever the Horde will throw at them next.
The Best Friend Trio are among those that help out. Between training, going on missions, and planning out their next move, the three friends have been aiding in the rebuilding. Glimmer oversees some of the work that goes on. Good for leadership skills and it is her castle after all. Angella oversees the rest and aids her daughter when needed. Adora and Bow, meanwhile, work with the construction workers for the most part. Slowly but surely, the castle returns to its former glory.
During one of the days where much of their focus is on helping rebuild, Glimmer appears out of the blue in a cloud of sparkles, a communicator in her hands. One of the workers jumps and shouts at the sudden appearance of the princess.
“Oh, sorry! Didn’t mean to spook ya,” Glimmer apologizes. She hops off the platform she stands on and walks up to Adora and Bow. “Mind if I steal them?”
“Go ahead,” the worker says, catching his breath. “Thanks for all the help.”
“Anytime!” Adora replies.
With that, Glimmer takes Adora’s hand and guides her away, Bow following closely behind.
“So what’s up, Glim?” Bow asks once some distance away. “Do we have another mission?’
“Yes we do actually!” Glimmer lets go of Adora. She fiddles with her device before flipping it around and showing the two a short video. The feed shows some Horde robots and soldiers just outside a village. They survey the land and are setting machines up, probably some that will destroy the homes of those living nearby. “Got some good ass-whooping to do. You guys ready to go?”
“Always ready. Been a bit since we last had to drive off a Horde set up,” Adora comments.
“I’m ready as well. Does your mother know about this, though?” Bow asks. He starts walking, heading to where their weapons are stored.
“She knows that we are going to go out. It’ll be fine. I know she is still worried about what happened before but we will be alright, right? ‘Sides, seems easy enough.”
“She has a point there. We’ve driven them off before with no problem,” Adora says.
“Long as she is aware.” Bow comments.
Bow and Glimmer trail ahead while Adora lingers behind, looking at the duo. She keeps her gaze on the princess, however, watching her smile and laugh at whatever joke she is telling Bow. It has only been a short while but Adora can’t believe just how lucky she is to have her as her girlfriend.
Shortly after the Battle of Brightmoon, the two girls began to talk more. They have been close for a while and spent time together a lot and even slept together some nights. But after that battle, something changed. Adora always felt so mething for the princess but didn’t know what that feeling was. But one night as the two talk in bed, Glimmer dressing the wounds, now scars, on Adora’s back and face, she was told what it was. Glimmer paused in her care and just looked at Adora’s injures. Adora grew worried and asked what was wrong.
Glimmer admitted how she was so worried and scared for Adora during that battle. Not to mention when she became infected and then the whole thing at the temple. The last one hurt the most, feeling so powerless to help. Before Adora could say anything else, Glimmer admitted she didn’t feel that way just because they were best friends but because she had started to fall in love with the warrior. It took some explaining what she meant but once Adora realized, she put two and two together in her own heart and said it back, saying she to loves her. She also made a point that she’d try not to worry Glimmer like that again. Adora also will never forget that first kiss that night, how warm, how comforting, how right it felt.
Since that night, Adora has come to enjoy what it means to have a girlfriend. Cuddles, hugs, kisses, hand holding, and all that other fluffy perks that come with it. She can’t help but stare and watch whenever Glimmer takes charge and acts like a leader. She will make a great one one day. Now, she just looks at that infectious smile on her face. Nothing can ever go wrong when she is with her.
The three reach where they store their weapons, gather them up, and head off, following the map on Glimmer’s device. The map shows it will take about an hour to get there. Not too bad. Shorter than some of their other walks but makes for possibly most of the day being spent away from the castle. Hopefully getting rid of the Horde will go smoothly today. People still need some pick me ups.
As they walk, the trio talks about the plan of attack. They agree that talking to the villagers first is the best plan. Get more of an idea of what is going on, how long the Horde as been lurking around. After all, the video could only tell them so much. The more information the better. It also would bring the spirits up of everyone to see the leaders of the Rebellion as well as She-ra. Adora can’t wait to be able to mess around as She-ra again. She has been the warrior princess a few times since the attack. Most of it was minor and quick and easy things to do. Now she can show of some of her moves and loosen up a bit.
Finally, the three reach the village. They expected to see some sort of movement, something to show life inside the clearing. Yet there is nothing. The only thing that moves are the leaves from the trees, rustling from the wind. Meanwhile, the still houses have their shutters and doors locked tight.
Gingerly, Adora steps further into the area. “Hello?” No answer. “We aren’t with the Horde, we swear! We are with the Rebellion and here to help you. We are from Brightmoon.”
“Yeah! And we are here with She-ra! It’s okay to come out!” Glimmer shouts. This gets some attention. A few windows creek open and pairs of eyes look out curiously. Once they realize no harm is about to be brought to them, doors open. A few brave people come out and walk up to the three.
“You’re really here to get rid of the Horde?” a young teenage boy asks. “And you’re really She-ra?”
Adora smiles and reaches behind her. She pulls out her sword, shows it off to the young boy, before turning herself into the warrior princess. The teen’s, along with anyone else looking at her, eyes widen and Adora swears they start to sparkle.
“Can any of you tell us any information on the Horde? Anything at all will help us get rid of them much faster,” Bow informs the forming crowd.
Some people snap out of their trance of seeing their mythical hero and begin explaining their situation. The Horde has been lurking around for a while, scoping out the area and harassing anyone they can as they started to construct buildings and bring in machines and robots. Day by day it is getting worse. Everyone in the village is afraid to step even a toe outside. Adora, Bow, and Glimmer reassure everyone that they will take care of the Horde right away. That there will be no more need to worry and they will be live without fear soon. The villagers cheer and thank the trio for all the help. A few say that they will have a celebration for them when they free them of the Horde. Adora, however, quickly says that there is no need for it and they are just doing their job.
Once they can get the crowd to calm down and give them a path to walk on, they start to head off. But as they are leaving the village Adora hears something. Like a whisper. Someone saying something but not loud enough for her to make it out but still gets her attention. Maybe someone snuck up behind her but was too nervous to speak up.
She turns her head, looking behind her, but no one is near. Some villagers linger about the center of the area. A few see she has her gaze at them and smile and wave. Adora returns the gesture. Still, she wonders what she just heard.
“You okay, love?” a voice asks. Familiar and clear as day.
“Huh? Oh! I’m fine, Glim,” Adora replies, looking back at her girlfriend. “Just thought I heard something. One of those moments, you know?”
“I hate when that happens. It’s annoying. But if that’s it, c’mon. We got no time to waste!”
They return to their trek towards the forming Horde establishment. It does not take long to get there. The sounds of boots hitting the ground in unison and scraping of metal parts start to fill the air. As they draw near, the trio slows their steps and hid in the brush. Carefully, they peer around wherever they are hiding to get a view of the Horde.
Some robots and soldiers are lingering about, yet to notice the trio. Skeletons of buildings sit in newly cleared land. Perfect time to strike before they plant deep roots. Adora motions for Glimmer and Bow to spread out and around. The two take their positions and wait for the right moment to attack. When a Horde soldier draws near one of them, it happens to be Adora today, they make their move.
Adora reaches out in a flash, grabbing ahold of the soldier before flinging them away. Before anyone else can react, Bow shoots out a number of arrows. They fly through the air and make landfall in several bots. Glimmer, meanwhile, uses her teleportation powers to appear in front of another soldier, knock them out, before disappearing. The surprise attack worked.
The Horde scrambles to react to the threat. One by one, their robots are made inoperable or a member of their squad is render defenseless or unconscious. Some begin to grasp what is happening and start to fight back. They fire off their weapons or attempt a feeble counter strike with their fists. It is pointless. Adora, Bow, and Glimmer start to overpower the Horde. Many start to tuck their tails between their legs and run off. No bot stays standing for long. Adora might be getting a little cocky as she watches the Horde run away. Seeing and getting some action has been long overdue. Feels so nice to get the blood pumping again. But as she is occupied by disarming a small group, she fails to notice the soldier stalking behind her. They lift up the weapon in their arms, ready to strike Adora.
Everything that occurs next happens in a flash. The second after Adora finishes her fight, she snaps around without thinking, grabs the soldiers weapon, and swiftly knocks them unconscious. After another moment, Adora’s mind seems to finally catch back up with herself.
She blinks, confused. How the hell did she do that? She didn’t even know they were there. Did her body just sense it before she realized it? That is a thing right? Sometimes you just react to something without thinking. That’s it. Still, something sits uncomfortably in the back of her mind.
Whatever it might be are forgotten about when Glimmer tackle hugs Adora. “We did it! Another win under our belt! And did you see those guys running?” Glimmer looks up at Adora. “Hey, you okay?”
“Hm? Oh yeah, I’m fine. I’m just glad that we were able to help the villagers. Feels nice to do something more, you know?”
“Totally. C’mon! Let’s go back and tell them about it.”
Adora heads off with Glimmer and Bow, forgetting about what just happened.