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Glimmer jolted as she heard a loud crash from outside, smiling placatingly at the officials she was with she quickly ended the meeting and hurried out to see what had caused the commotion. She groaned as she looked out a window, seeing large spikes of ice coming from the gardens. Frosta had been off all week, grouchy and irritable, kept freezing people who 'snuck up on her'. Which was becoming a frequent occurrence with Frosta losing sleep and becoming more jumpy.
Glimmer hurried down the stairs taking them two at a time until she stumbled out into Brightmoon's gardens. Panting slightly looking around quickly she shot a quick smile at Shadowweaver who pointed her in the right direction as she rushed past sprinting across the grass and skidding around the corner to see Frosta arguing with an annoyed Netossa while Spinnerella looked on anxiously obviously unsure of how to diffuse the situation.
Coming to a stop by Spinnerella who was by far the calmest one in this situation, "What happened?" She whispered.
"I'm not entirely sure, one moment we were chatting, playing around and the next Frosta was freaking out and that's when the ice happened. Some of it came my way. Netossa's been erm, scolding her since then." Glimmer sighed, "Do you have any idea what's causing her so much trouble? Ever since my coronation I haven't had as much time to spend with the other princesses, especially Frosta, she doesn't like sitting still for the longer meetings." Spinnerella smiled wearily. "Somehow I don't see that changing anytime soon."
At that moment Scorpia popped her head from around the corner smiling brightly as usual, "Hey guys! What's going on here? Ooh Frosta, love the new icy additions to the garden, they add a nice cool tone, though I'm not sure how much Perfuma will appreciate her plants being frozen."
"See! At least Scorpia likes my ice!" Frosta shouted angrily at Netossa, "I'm not saying I don't your ice! I'm saying I don't like your ice when it nearly stabs my wife! What were you thinking!" Netossa shot back. Okay this was getting out of hand, Time to put her queenly abilities to use.
"Hey now, I'm sure Frosta didn't mean to get her spikes all up in your space! How 'bout you and Spinnerella go and take a walk round the gardens, the non iced parts if you so please, have a lovely romantic time while me and Frosta clean this up. How's that sound?" Scorpia but in before Glimmer could get a word in. Annoying but honestly a good solution, Netossa never turned down time with Spinnerella. Unfortunately it looked like Netossa was going to argue, probably to cuss Frosta out again, she was never very good at keeping a lid on her temper.
"I agree with Scorpia, Netossa take a walk please." She huffed and walked over taking Spinnerella's before leaving. Glimmer let out a small breath of relief.
"Now, let's see about getting this cleaned up, right Frosta?"
Half an hour later Frosta had mostly stopped grumbling but was still sulking, Glimmer had tried talking to her but Frosta just got huffy whenever she tried to talk about what had caused the outburst. Scorpia had been happily snipping away at the ice despite being told that she didn't need to help, Glimmer didn't exactly know what to make of Scorpia, to her she'd always been a Horde soldier following Catra's orders, albeit an oddly optimistic Horde soldier, but still a soldier, someone that threatened her and the rebellion multiple times.
Maybe she was doing this out of genuine want to change, or maybe she wanted to get on Glimmer's good side. Glimmer would let her try. Either she tries to take Brightmoon and the Princesses take her down or she tries to redeem herself and fights with the rebellion. Glimmer didn't believe she could do much harm, to be honest, they'd checked her over when she'd first arrived, she'd had nothing but a pack with supplies and a few sets of clothes, all minimal and in the Horde's style (They had immediately removed the insignia once they'd interrogated her.), as well as Emily.
"Soooo, Frosta, how've you've been lately?" Scorpia asked with a light but curious lilt to her voice.
"Fine." Frosta replied shortly. "Why do you wanna know?"
"Just wondering, haven't had much of a chance to chat with you, Perfuma mentions you a lot, we chat while tending to the gardens, she likes the flowers and I prefer it over the Fright Zone. Though everything here is way different to the Fright Zone."
"What was your kingdom before it got all, Horde-e? I was super young when they handed the kingdom over to Hordac." Frosta asked glancing up from where she was slowly retracting the ice out of the ground. "That's a good question! I don't really have the best answer for it though, I remember it was sandy, and that we had a lot of forges, I think we used to export metals before the Horde came, it's why they have so much material for that stuff."
"What else? I'll admit that I wasn't really taught much about your kingdom, mostly that they were just traitors and had sided with the Horde and stuff." Glimmer was genuinely curious, her teachers hadn't really spoken of Scorpia's kingdom, they'd tried to keep talk of the war out of the class, probably because she heard enough about it outside and needed to focus on her studies.
"I don't really know, I was around ten when they arrived, I hadn't really ventured outside of my home, the castle I suppose you would call it though it wasn't nearly as impressive as what've you got here in Brightmoon." Scorpia said a faint smile on her face.
Gimmer's brow furrowed, that was it? Usually Scorpia could go on for hours no matter the topic, why was she so tight-lipped about this? Frosta seemed confused as well, "What else?" She questioned tilting her head.
Scorpia paused for a moment before responding, "I remember that I didn't exactly get along well with the other princesses, though looking back that may have been Mermista's general attitude and Entrapta's preference of robots over people." She chuckled a little of beat, "I remember hiding under the table, curled up at my Moms feet listening to them discuss borders and trade, stuff I didn't really understand at the time, still don't but I liked being close. I know that my kingdom doesn't have the best reputation, it certainly wasn't improved after we sided with the Horde, but back then I couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit of pride at that. Sure we weren't the most liked kingdom but we were useful. People relied on us, and that felt important. I couldn't wait for it to be my turn."
"Of course soon after that Hordac basically crash landed in our back yard and the rest was history."
Glimmer glanced over at Frosta who was sat watching Scorpia with rapt attention and seemed to be thinking the same thing. That... this didn't sound right. A kingdom that was as prosperous as Scorpia was making it out to be wouldn't of made the decision to team up with a foreign organisation, one that didn't have a lot of man power behind it during that time.
"Scorpia why did your Grandfather sign over his land to the Horde?" Glimmer asked cautiously.
"Well, as I've mentioned the Horde crash landed in our kingdom, My Grandfather didn't recognise what the ship was so he sent scouts to investigate, they come back with an injured Hordac, we healed him, helped him get back on his feet showed him around our home. Once he was healed he offered to show us his technology, my mother was ecstatic, she loved fiddling around with machines almost as much as Entrapta does, my mom went with her. They didn't come back."
Hordac was determined to take the land by force we had too many minerals and resources that he needed to expand his empire, my Grandfather recognised that, and negotiated a more peaceful exchange, his people would work for the Horde expand and build, mine the resources needed. A life of servitude but a life nonetheless, in exchange for this he traded his land and secured me a place within the Horde. That's why my grandfather sided with the Horde. I'm not quite sure how he's doing now, I'm not allowed to keep contact."
Scorpia finished her story focusing intently on ridding a bush of the ice surrounding it not making eye contact. Glimmer felt like the rug had been pulled out from under her, the Scorpion kingdom hadn't wanted to help the Horde. They'd done what they could to prevent the extinction of their people. What had happened to them since then? Were they still alive? Oh she'd been quiet for too long she needed to comfort Scorpia. Luckily Frosta had seemed to process that much faster than Glimmer and had leapt at Scorpia and was hugging her despite the pincers and exoskeleton. Good. She needed that.
"Aw thanks Frosta but you don't need to do all that, I'm ok really." Scorpia said with a chuckle that didn't sound quite as bright as usual. She leant back and Frosta climbed into her lap hugging her waist tightly. "The Horde killed my mom too." She said voice barely above a whisper, "She was out on a mission and they got her." Scorpia didn't say anything just hugged her back the best she could, wrapping her tail around them keeping the sting away from Frosta.
Glimmer didn't now how to handle this, she was still grieving her own mother. She didn't know how to help them. Not properly. Maybe she could just be there for them, at least for tonight.
"Hey I think we've cleaned up enough, how about a sleepover?"