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Glimmer grumbled as she saw yet another person step off the teleporter pad just outside of Brightmoon. Judging by their winter attire, it was someone who had just been to the Kingdom of Snows. While she was glad to see the marvels of Entrapta's reverse engineering of Horde Prime's technology at work, she couldn't help but feel a little... salty over this particular invention. For as long as she'd known, she and her mother were the only Etherians who knew how to naturally teleport, the only others being experienced sorcerers and even then, they couldn't nearly teleport as far as Glimmer could.
But now with dozens of these teleporter pads in practically every part of Etheria, her own unique abilities felt somewhat less special now. Everyone could teleport now, everyone now had that special gift that for so long had just been Glimmer's. The Queen let out an exasperated sigh as she saw another group of people teleport in. A part of her wished she had denied Entrapta the permission to build the teleporter network in the first place, so she could keep the wonders of teleporting all to herself, but she knew that would have been uncharacteristically selfish of her, since the teleporters had been nothing but a blessing for the whole planet.
Finally, even the most remote parts of Etheria could be connected together, allowing free movement and trade across the whole planet. In what universe was that a bad thing? But Glimmer still couldn't shake her feelings of jealousy and envy, no matter how much she tried to deny it. It was at that moment that Bow arrived, joining her on the balcony of the rooftop garden, perching himself next to her.
"You okay, Glim?" Bow wondered.
"Just peachy," Glimmer mumbled. "Okay, I'm not. Bow, be honest? I'm out of a job aren't I as the team's resident teleporter aren't I? Like, that was one of my main things, able to poof us from place to place in an instant, really handy in the middle of a battle and just... everyone can do it now."
"I can't believe you're actually jealous of this," her boyfriend remarked, chuckling. "C'mon, Glimmer, it's really not that bad.”
"I know it's not that bad but you know I don't exactly deal with this stuff healthily!" Glimmer complained. "I'm trying to work on it, okay?"
"Glimmer, it's fine, I promise," Bow tried reassuring her.... but then Glimmer noticed a pair of familiar faces appear on the teleporter pad below. Adora and Catra, having just returned from Plumeria, with Swift Wind in tow.
"Oh the nerve of those two!" Glimmer growled.
Catra looked up at Glimmer with a smirk on her face. "Hey Sparkles! Come to welcome us home?”
Glimmer fumed and grabbed Bow's hand, quickly teleporting both of them down to the ground below in a flash of sparkles. As they arrived, Glimmer marched over to Adora and Catra in exasperation. "Traitors! The pair of you!"
"Okay, what did I do this time?" Catra remarked, though she already knew what Glimmer was angry about. And she was honestly relishing the chance to get a rise out of her about it. Annoying Glimmer was one of her favourite things after all.
"Oh come on! How could you?! You couldn't have asked me to teleport you home?" Glimmer pointed out.
"Hey, the pad was there!" Catra chimed in. "You know, I really should thank Entrapta at some point. She finally made a teleporter that doesn't make me wanna throw up."
"Gahhhhh!" Glimmer cried out in rage. "Just rub it in, why don't you!" She was this close to punching that smug look right off Catra's face.
Adora stepped in, trying to defuse the tension. "Hey, it's okay Glimmer. Honestly, I promise next time, we'll call you to teleport us home, how does that sound?"
"That's not what this is about. You chose that hunk of junk over me! Heck, you didn't even fly home on Swift Wind!"
"Hey, in my defense, I hadn't been on a teleporter yet!" Swift Wind pointed out. "Plus my wings were kinda tired after Adora was very much insisting on the loop-de-loops on the way to Plumeria."
Adora blushed in embarrassment. "Well, to be fair, they are fun." She looked at Glimmer and put her hand on the pinkette's shoulder, trying her best to ease her friend's frustrations. "Hey, it's okay Glimmer. Just because everyone can teleport now, there's other things you still do that no one else can! I mean who else can shoot magic sparkles from their hands?"
"My mom?"
"Oh yeah."
"And my dad can cast magic too."
"Also true."
"And technically, can't you do that too Adora? And also, I'm pretty sure you can teleport too! You did get from the center of the planet to the surface pretty quick when we defeated Horde Prime."
"Well... yes... but that was like a special circumstance... but you see..." Adora tried to excuse. "Look, Glimmer you really don't have to worry about all this, I promise. Just-"
Catra just folded her arms, finding this all very entertaining but she admitted that she should probably put a stop to things before Glimmer really got ticked off. She quickly then grabbed Adora's arm and pulled her aside. "Adora, I love you and I love Sparkles, as much as I love giving her grief. But she has to work through her stupid teleport envy on her own, okay?"
"Don't give it a name!" Glimmer groaned.
"Well how else am I gonna describe how petty you're being right now?" Catra remarked.
"Okay, okay," Adora accepted. "Sorry, Glimmer. But I know you'll feel better soon, I promise!"
"Now if you'll excuse us, Adora and I have an appointment with your kitchens to grab some lunch," Catra replied, pulling Adora away. "Yes, with some apples for you too, bird horse!"
"Sounds like a plan!" Swift Wind agreed, trotting behind them.
As her friends left, Glimmer felt even worse. She quickly grabbed Bow's arm and teleported back to the garden. She quickly got down on her knees and screamed into her hands to try and vent her frustration. Stars did Catra know how to press her buttons.
"Stupid teleporters! Stupid Catra! Stupid everything!" came Glimmer's muffled voice as she curled up on the ground.
But then Bow hugged her tightly and just like that Glimmer was instantly feeling better. For someone who wasn't a Princess, Bow certainly had a magic about him that could cheer anyone up. Glimmer hugged Bow back, clinging tightly to him. She felt Bow run his hand through her hair and she breathed easily. She felt like the luckiest Queen on the planet at that moment. She looked up at Bow, smiling fondly.
Gently, Bow patted Glimmer's head gently and she made a pathetic little whine as she finally calmed down. "Thank you... for putting up with my nonsense. I don't know what I did to deserve you."
"It's not nonsense to me, Glimmer," Bow replied. "You'll always be special to me."
"I appreciate that Bow, but I guess I gotta face facts. No one's gonna be asking me to teleport them anymore."
Bow shook his head. "I know that's not true. Can I tell you a secret? I... actually haven't used those teleporter pads since they started popping up everywhere. I don't know, they just didn't feel right to me. It was always more fun when I did it with you and I helped Entrapta build those things. Plus I don't think I'm ever gonna see one of those pads wake me up in the middle of the night to go teleporting down to the kitchens for some midnight snacks."
Glimmer giggled and blushed, knowing Bow was right. She grabbed his cheeks and kissed him deeply. "Thank you, Bow."
"Anything for my favourite Queen!" Bow declared. "So why don't we go teleporting all over Etheria right now to cheer ourselves up?"
Beaming and literally sparkling, Glimmer squealed. "Oh yes! There's so many places to teleport that those stupid pads will never be able to get to anyway!" She grabbed Bow and kissed him hard again as the two of them vanished in a flash of sparkling light, heading all over the planet to places only Glimmer would ever be able to reach. So what if everyone could teleport? They'd never be able to compete with the original and Glimmer knew that for a fact.