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Being Queen was taking Glimmer some getting used to. She'd always had some degree of authority in Brightmoon, considering she was a Princess, but still, even though it had been at least a month since her coronation, the fact that she was Queen Glimmer never fit quite right. Heck, even staring in the mirror at herself, she still felt surreal that the woman staring back at her in the reflection was indeed her.
The last few months had changed Glimmer greatly, forcing her to grow up in a ways she thought she wouldn't have to for a long time. If Glimmer was honest, she was hating that things had changed so much. Yes, she had made peace with the fact that her mother was gone, but everything else... it felt like she'd stepped into some alternate reality. But while so much had changed for Glimmer, she took some comfort that nothing else was going to change regarding her friendship with Adora and Bow.
She had just snuck out early from a meeting with General Juliet, something about troop deployments near the western perimeter. While Glimmer had indeed done her best to listen and knew she'd contributed enough to the discussion that the general was satisfied, Glimmer felt bad for ditching Juliet like this. Her mother wouldn't have but... Glimmer still had to try and have something of a social life which is why she was currently heading back to her room where Bow and Adora had promised to hang out with her. She really needed a break.
Could she just teleport straight to her room? Yes, in fact with her enhanced magic, she could teleport anywhere she wanted to… but where would the fun in that be? Besides, she liked taking the scenic route overlooking the beauty of her kingdom from the castle’s balconies.
However, when Glimmer walked into her room and saw Adora and Bow in the middle of a conversation, something stood out to her. Adora and Bow were wearing... new outfits? It was definitely unexpected, especially since Adora hadn't changed her clothes since the day she'd come to Brightmoon and Bow? In all the years Glimmer had known him, Bow had always worn his usual archer gear and yet, here he was looking quite different.
Adora had traded her usual white Horde shirt and signature red jacket for a much more casual looking red and white tank top, allowing her muscular arms to be more prominent.She was also wearing some new shoes with pointed golden toes. Bow's new look, meanwhile, was a different shirt that still more or less resembled the one he usually wore, but the Heart on his chest was a lot smaller and he'd lost the golden-armoured shoulder pad he usually wore.
For a moment, Glimmer was about to blurt out "who are you and what did you do with the real Adora and Bow?" before she eventually calmed that intrusive thought. She knew there was probably a rational, realistic explanation for her friends suddenly having new clothes. It also wasn’t the only intrusive thought on her mind.
Glimmer was trying… so hard not to look at Adora and Bow's arms because she wouldn't lie, she was blushing a little. Stars, why did her two best friends have to be the most gorgeous muscular people on the planet? Especially Adora because if Glimmer already wasn't guilty of staring at her muscles as She-Ra, she was definitely seeing that Adora herself was starting to match her alter-ego in the size of her arms.
It was then Adora noticed Glimmer staring at them, and waved at her politely. "Oh, hey Glimmer!"
"H-Hi!" Glimmer squeaked, before she regally composed herself. "Uh, hey guys... what's with the new looks?"
"Oh these?" Adora wondered, looking down at her new shirt. "Oh yeah, we figured it was time for some new looks."
"Why didn't you tell me?!" Glimmer groaned. "I could have helped you pick them out! You know how much fun I have picking out outfits."
"Well uh... we didn't wanna bother you," Adora admitted, blushing a little. "You've been so busy with being Queen that we just thought we'd do it without you."
"Plus we also kinda decided on this a bit spontaneously," Bow added. "See, earlier, Adora and I were checking on my dads and it turns out they were throwing a bunch of old clothes out that belonged to me and my siblings when we were growing up. I saw this old shirt of mine, realised I missed wearing it and decided to keep it. And then I saw this top that I remember used to belong to one of my sister's and it just so happened to be exactly Adora's size!"
"Yeah, funny coincidence!" Adora chirped. "Really makes me feel better about showing off my arms as regular old Adora."
"Okay that makes sense, but you still haven't explained why you decided on these new looks," Glimmer pointed out.
"Well, I guess," Adora began. "I guess because so many changes have happened around here lately that it just kinda made sense. You became Queen and you got a new look. I'm storing my sword like this now." She pointed to the bracer on her wrist, which she currently had her sword transformed into. "Heck, even Catra has a new look! I'm... not sure why she has a new look, but it does look kinda good on her... I mean, what?"
Glimmer and Bow silently agreed to pretend to ignore Adora's freudian slip.
Bow then looked at Glimmer with a big smile. "So... do you approve?"
"Yes!" Glimmer squeaked, saying that a little too quickly. Fortunately for the Queen, Adora was too obvious to notice Glimmer obviously crushing hard on her and Bow had likely just assumed that Glimmer approved it in merely a platonic way. "But... you are gonna still wear your old clothes right?"
"Oh of course!" Adora declared. "In what universe would I ever get rid of my red jacket?"
"Yeah, it's kinda iconic at this point!" Bow added.
"Yeah! Whatever iconic means!"
"Adora, I've explained it to you like, twice."
"And I keep forgetting!" Adora reminded her friend.
"Well it's true, when people think of that jacket, they think of you," Bow pointed out. "Heck, Glim, did you see they've started selling replicas of Adora's jacket now in some places? Me and Adora passed through Thaymor on the way back and there were a bunch of people wearing them. Our girl Adora is getting quite the fan club!"
Glimmer giggled. "Well, good thing she has that new shirt. If enough buff blonde girls buy those jackets, we'd never tell them apart from our Adora."
Adora scoffed. "Yeah well, not every girl who wears a jacket like mine is gonna be able to transform into She-Ra though so I guess that still makes me pretty unique!" She blinked. "Wait, hang on, should I change She-Ra's look too? Can I change She-Ra's look? I mean, I can turn my sword into a bunch of different things, but I don't know if my armour can transform too... I mean I do love how She-Ra looks, but I've never been the biggest fan of that skirt-shorts combo."
Her pink haired friend laughed. "I mean, I don't think it would hurt to at least maybe try. I always thought you looked a little goofy with those shorts too. Maybe a nice pair of pants would go well with She-Ra's look. Oh, and a ponytail! I think She-Ra would look really good with a ponytail like yours?"
"And a hair poof too? I think that's also pretty eyconic of me!"
"It's iconic Adora!" Bow groaned.
"Look, I'll remember it eventually!"
Glimmer just kept giggling, sitting between her friends. Yes, she approved of her new friend's looks greatly, but she hoped that would be the last big change she'd have to deal with. She'd had more than enough to last her a lifetime.