She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power: A New Best Friend Squad Mission!

Chapter Three: A Little Bit Of Change

[Catra POV]

"If you so much as bring that body glitter near me, I won't be held accountable for my actions, Sparkles." I say, eyeing the said product on Sparkles' vanity dresser. The pink and purple haired girl laughs, and slides it away, instead opting for the hairbrush nearby. Even that gives me the shivers. 

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. You saw Adora at Princess Prom. I handled her whole look." Sparkles confidently tells; the fact that she was responsible for Adora wearing a dress for the first time in her life is completely unsurprising.

Parties were never a thing in the Horde, neither were celebrations of any kind, actually. That was to be expected, with the whole world domination plan going on. I've learned about these things called 'birthdays' from Sparkles; she says it's Arrow Boy's soon. She wasn't really shocked that I didn't know what they were; after all, she probably went through the same thing with Adora. Sparkles had explained to me that birthdays were a celebration of the day you were born, and she had never understood how we never had them in the Horde. I informed her that they existed, on some level, as Shadow Weaver was always reminding me of the day I'd been found as an orphan. I figured it was something she'd do to make me feel a bit more worthless, like I was abandoned purposely, but Adora had always reminded me that we were all orphans, so it didn't matter that Shadow Weaver mentioned it annually.

I know my birthday, as I was orphaned on the same day I was born, according to Shadow Weaver. A shiver runs through my spine now, thinking of how, on the day I was born, October 28th, I'd lost my parents without even knowing them. Heck, I didn't even know where I came from on Etheria. I'd read through so many of Shadow Weaver's files after becoming Hordak's second in command, but she had never detailed my birthplace in any files that even slightly related to me. All I knew was that my hometown had been destroyed, and I'd been found, newly born, and put in the Horde's orphanage, only to be taken into Shadow Weaver's ward. 

"Catra!" Sparkles' loud shout brings me out of my thoughts. A shout like that usually meant that whoever was yelling at me was angry, but when I look at Sparkles, I see worry on her face instead. 

"I repeated myself twice. Are you alright? You just zoned out." She says, taking a seat next to me. I sigh, and stare back out the window of her room. 

"I'm fine." I say, only for it to come out snappy. I sigh, and apologise. "Sorry, I'm just-" Just what? Sparkles raises a brow, prompting me to continue. 

This is stupid. Everything's perfect, for real this time. There's no portal creating an illusion of the perfect reality, this is actually happening, and it's better than I ever hoped. I've figured out my feelings for Adora, I've got her back at my side, we've saved the world, I have new friends, and a new home. I'm about to return magic to the universe. What more do I want? 

...Shadow Weaver, I realise with a sickening jolt. She was cruel, and manipulative, and so many other negative things, but she was mine and Adora's commanding officer, the closest thing we ever had to a mother, and hearing her say she was proud of me...it hit me hard. How could I move past that? She'd sacrificed herself for me and Adora, but what did that mean? 

"I'm just..." I repeat. "I'm having trouble settling into all this." I admit. 

"That's understandable." Sparkles reasons. "Wanna talk about it?" She asks, putting an arm on my shoulder. I go to tense, but remember that she's not the enemy anymore. 

"Like, it's been a lot, and all this partying and forgiving and love and stuff, it's kind of overwhelming." I admit. I want to stop talking, but now that I'm letting it out, I can't stop. 

"How do I deserve this? I nearly took out Bright Moon, I've tried to kill you all, I almost doomed everyone, and that portal only opened because of me..." I trail off, realising that not only was that portal the very thing that allowed Prime to find Etheria, to find me and Sparkles, and Adora, but it was also the thing that left Sparkles as Queen of Bright Moon  after her mother sacrificed herself to stop the portal. Ultimately, with Bright Moon being the biggest kingdom in Etheria, and the only one with a Queen, Sparkles had basically become the Queen of Etheria. She was seventeen when that happened. She wasn't even an adult yet, and it wouldn't have happened if not for me. She makes a great Queen, sure, but I now know the pain of losing a mother figure. To lose your actual mother must be so much harder.