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Her new haircut still looked a bit off to her. She wasn't used to it looking so… tended to. The servants had been adamant about her having a fresh new look since she was going to be the new queen.
Queen … that still didn't sound right, not when it was attached to her name. The queen had always been her mother, the angel, seemingly untouchable.
She kept thinking back to their last conversation before she disappeared with Shadow Weaver.
" We have to do something! You'd see that if you weren't so- paralyzed with fear !"
How could she have said that? Given the circumstances, and in a military context, it made sense to call Angella out on her lack of decisive action, but she'd made it personal by pointing out her mother's fear of losing another person. How could she have done that?
And how could she forget when Adora had fixed everything and they returned to Bright Moon? She knew something was wrong the moment Adora hugged her; Adora wasn’t usually a hug initiator.
“ Angella she… she stayed behind ,” Adora had said. “ She saved us… ”
Adora had tried to explain what had happened along with alternate reality Entrapta’s scientific reasoning, but the news had affected Glimmer so bad she couldn’t hear anyone, much less understand the weird She-Ra Science behind portal technology. She was swept up by the castle's medics and treated for shock, but it didn’t do anything for the grief that followed.
“... Your Majesty ?”
Glimmer was quickly brought back to reality by the servant fixing the earrings to her ear. “S-sorry?”
“I was asking you what do you think?” the servant said, turning and pointing at the mirror. The earrings and the tiara she’d been given matched pretty well, but Glimmer couldn’t really find a way to articulate it.
“It looks- good,” she managed awkwardly.
There was a knock on the door, and one of the other servants working on her ceremonial cloak opened it.
Bow was standing there, a small, hopeful smile on his face.
“Can I talk to Glimmer in private for a moment?” he asked politely.
The servants hesitated until Glimmer gave them a nod and they filed out, closing the door behind them. Glimmer stood up and hugged him. The past few weeks, everyone had been so busy with preparing for the coronation, she hadn’t seen any of her friends in a while.
“You doing okay?” the archer asked. He knew she was still grappling with a lot of feelings, but he knew it would be better to ask than to stay silent.
“Everything feels weird , Bow,” Glimmer said, sitting back down. “The new clothes, my hair, me being the fricking queen now. I hardly feel like myself anymore”
“It’ll take some adjustment, that’s pretty much given,” Bow said. “But we’ll all get used to it in time.”
Glimmer just stared at herself blankly in the mirror. “I’m tempted to call off the coronation. Just for a little while longer so I can process all…” she waved a hand around her head. “... this .”
“If that’s what you want to do, I can talk to…”
“It won’t matter. Aunt Casta won’t let anything postpone the ceremony; might be her way of grieving Mom’s loss or something. Probably Dad’s, too.”
Bow pulled up a chair and sat down, putting a hand on Glimmer’s shoulder. She turned to look at him, and Bow could already see the redness at the rims of her eyes. Her face slowly shifted into grief and sadness and tears streamed down her cheeks.
“I shouldn’t even be doing this! I was already a frazzled mess as a Princess and commander, now I’m in charge of a whole kingdom and the Rebellion‽” she sobbed. “I’m gonna screw up at some point, because that’s all I can really do, and we’re gonna lose the war and everyone else! I’m gonna be such a terrible queen, I’ll never be like Mom!”
Bow moved in and hugged her, hugged her tighter than any of his other hugs- which is saying something. Glimmer buried her face in his shoulder and just sobbed. Her fingers dug into his back, she shook with each breath, her tears were soaking his shirt, but Bow didn’t care about the little things. He cared about his friend, and even if the Horde showed up and started blasting holes in the walls, he wouldn’t let Glimmer go until she was done crying.
She needed to cry, to get all of this out, and as close as she was with Adora, Frosta and the other Princesses, it wouldn’t be the same as opening up to Bow. Bow was- different. He’s her best friend, the one person she could talk to about anything and everything in the world. Even things that hurt so bad, like grief.
When Glimmer’s shaking had subsided and her sobs turned to whimpers, Bow decided to talk.
“It’s gonna be ok. I know it doesn’t feel like it now, but it will be. You’re not fighting the war on your own; you have me, you have Adora, Frosta, Perfuma, so many people here to help you. You don’t have to be like your mom, you can be something even better than your mom.”
Glimmer picked her head up and wiped her eyes. “What can I be that’s better than my mom?”
Bow smiled. “You.”
For the first time in weeks, Glimmer cracked a smile. “You’re such sap sometimes, you know that?”
“But it worked, I got you to smile.”
Glimmer rolled her eyes playfully and looked back at the mirror. “Everything still feels weird.”
Bow looked over his shoulder and saw Glimmer’s old outfit in a pile of other clothes. One item in particular item caught his eye: the long white glove she wore under her old ones. He scooped it up from the pile and helped work it onto Glimmer’s left arm.
“There,” he said, “you look perfect.”
Glimmer smiled again and hugged Bow one last time. “Thanks Bow.”
Bow hugged back. “I’m here for you, Glim. Don’t forget that.”
Glimmer smiled and pulled back. “Better go get ready for the ceremony.”
“Yeah, I probably should. Not everyday your best friend becomes queen.”
He headed out and closed the door behind him, leaving Glimmer alone in the room. She looked down at the long white glove on her arm and thought about what Bow said. It was a small comment he’d made, but it kept repeating in her head.
“ There, you look perfect .”
Glimmer couldn’t help the bashful little smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. It was such a Bow thing to say.
One of the servants poked her head back in. “Your Majesty? Shall we continue?”
Running her fingers over the long white glove, Glimmer shook her head. “I think we’re all set.”
“I’ll go inform Madame Castaspella then.”
When the servant was gone, Glimmer stole one last look in the mirror. She looked more like her mother now than ever, or maybe that was just because of how the clothes for the reigning monarch were designed.
“I can be me,” she said to her reflection.
She stared for a few moments longer before exiting the room, heading for the gardens where the coronation ceremony was being held.