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Perfuma sent them a gift. Adora was interested, especially since this was the first time Perfuma had sent a gift for Catra specifically. Which was great! It meant Perfuma had fully warmed up completely to Catra, even as she did so much faster than the other princesses. Scorpia was no doubt an influence.
It was a small box with a well tied knot of rope holding it tight. A few tugs showed that the knot wasn’t actually that well tied, and had completely gotten stuck, and needed to be carefully pulled apart.
Adora instead decided to just use her sword. That she materialized from thin air using the awesome magic within the core of her very being.
Not like, as a sword, obviously, but she turned it into scissors and cut it open. Inside it was some green and brown powder that smelled odd. Maybe Catra would know?
She realized that she was late for an Alliance meeting, coordinating relief efforts to rebuild Etheria, as well as work on interstellar diplomacy. Catra would be there with Glimmer, the two of them working in tandem these days. The two of them together were a dangerous combination in the administrative sense, already resolving issues far faster than even Entrapta’s predictive models anticipated.
So, Adora walked to the meeting. Catra held two seats in the meeting room, one as royal advisor to Queen Glimmer, and one as The-Former-Horde Second-In-Command. They were still working on the naming scheme. Maybe renaming the Horde to The Fright Zone? The Scorpion Kingdom? Either way, Catra was busy, busier than everyone else.
Hopefully, Adora thought, this gift from Perfuma could help relax her, whatever it was. Giving her girlfriend unknown substances was definitely a good idea, thumbs up. Adora entered the room, and saw Perfuma, Mermista, Entrapta, Hordak, Scorpia, Micah, and Castaspella on one side of the room, poring over a map.
“Hey Adora,” Catra said, almost yawning. She was sitting in her advisor chair today, and was busy helping Glimmer with some sort of treaty. The look on Catra’s face was closer to boredom than tiredness, Adora noted.
“Hi Catra. Perfuma got you this.” Adora threw the box at Catra, who quickly caught it. Catra immediately opened it up and sniffed.
Perfuma looked up from the map. Her eyes widened and she shouted, “Wait, you should use that in private!”
But it was too late. Catra had already poured out the powder onto the flat surface of the table, used Adora’s She-Ra sword transformed into a card to carefully move the powder into three long narrow lines, then rolled up a piece of paper into a small funnel, and then, with little fanfare, she snorted all three lines up her nose.
After Perfuma yelled out, Adora realized she should have asked what Catra was planning to do with her sword-turned-into-a-card first.
The effect was immediate, and as everyone’s heads turned to Catra, she stood up ramrod straight, her tail fuzzing up and stretching all the way out. “Wowthat’ssomegoodcatnip!”
Then Catra jumped onto the table, then climbed onto the wall. And then, she pounced on the chandelier hanging above everyone. “Whoo!” She began swinging the chandelier slowly with her body weight.
Everyone else turned to Perfuma who began laughing awkwardly. “I can explain.”
Adora marched up to Perfuma, faces barely inches apart, and asked sternly. “What did you give her?”
“It was just catnip, I swear!” Perfuma raised her hands up. “It shouldn’t be doing this to her! Or at least not this much! I didn’t think she’d immediately just, snort all of it at once!”
Catra coughed violently, bits of catnip falling from her lungs down to the table. “I’m okay!”
Entrapta poked and prodded the box with a scanning device. “It’s clear, no traces of mind altering substances other than catnip.”
“It must be some really strong catnip. Last time Catra got some, she said it didn’t do much for her,” Scorpia said.
“Oh, uh I grew it myself.” Perfuma coughed. “With my powers.”
“How are we going to reach her from up there? Glimmer?” Adora asked.
“On it.” Glimmer sighed before teleporting.
Just as Glimmer reappeared, Catra, still giggling to herself on the chandelier, somersaulted down and landed gracefully on Hordak’s shoulders.
The sudden force of impact made him stagger, but his exoskeleton armor was very good at compensating. “Force Captain. Get off. ”
Catra’s voice was high and childish. “But I want a piggyback ride, dad!”
Hordak stopped moving. So did everyone else.
“I am not— I- I did not raise you!”
“Yuh huh! Shadow Weaver raised me and ‘Dora, and you and her were paarrrtneeeerrs so that makes you my dad!”
“She was not- We were never- She was my subordinate! You took her down yourself when she betrayed us! I’m too, I can’t be , I mean arrggh!” Hordak reached for Catra, only for her to jump off. She landed next to Mermista.
Catra snorted and wrapped an arm around Mermista’s neck. “I’ve got a secret.” She loudly whispered into Mermista’s ear.
“What?” Mermista tried to peel Catra’s arm off her, to no avail.
“I always thought Sea Hawk was like, super hot. So I made out with him once.”
“You. Did. What?” Mermista grabbed Catra’s arms and pulled her down onto the table, bringing Catra’s face onto the map. “ When? ”
Catra laughed. “It was his idea! He wanted practice!” She struggled slightly, and then a flick of her tail and push by her foot, and Mermista fell back, letting Catra go.
Adora caught her by the wrist and asked, “Did you really kiss Sea Hawk?”
Catra wrapped her hands around Adora’s neck and then she bit Adora’s nose. Adora squeaked in slight pain. “Nah. We just played board games!” She waved her hands in the air. “Hooray! Board games!”
She ran up to Castaspella and said, “Your name is dumb. Micah’s is better.”
“I knew it.” Castaspella whispered.
Glimmer teleported next to Catra, poked her, and teleported them both to their seats, where Micah pinned her down with a spell.
Then he muttered a little bit and said, “Begone, inebriation!” And a light flashed and Catra slumped over.
The two of them let her go. Catra stretched and yawned. She stood up and then, pounced onto the wall and climbed out of the room.
“It didn’t work!” Glimmer yelled. “Why didn’t it work?”
“That spell was designed for alcohol, I didn’t have time to make a spell for catnip!” Micah Spella shouted back.
“Oh! I get it now!” Entrapta said in delight.
—
All nine of them spread out, on the lookout for Catra. Adora went back to her room, while Glimmer and Micah searched for Melog and went to check all of Catra’s usual hiding spots. Catra would not be found there.
Instead, she had gone out to the castle's outer limits, where Bow and Frosta were returning after a long journey to visit his fourth brother, who was arrested and placed in a Snows kingdom prison after a lengthy misunderstanding. Bow hummed a tune as he waved at a royal guard, who saluted him back. Frosta tried to match his tune, but failed horribly and it sounded like she was constantly clearing her throat. They both walked leisurely, wondering if they made it on time for the meeting.
“Hey, Catra!” Bow waved at her, only to see her beckoning them to come closer to her spot, hidden amongst the shadows of a very beautiful statue.
Bow shrugged and walked up to her, and Frosta followed suit. “What’s up?”
“I’m being hunted,” Catra said. “Everyone’s gone crazy, you’ve gotta help me.”
Bow blinked and looked at Frosta, who only shrugged. He stepped closer and asked, “What happened?”
“Some kind of magic and tech interaction, I dunno. Basically they won’t listen to reason. We just need to calm them down, capture them. Don’t listen to anything they say.”
Frosta said, “Sure. I’m in. It’s been a while since something weird’s happened.”
“You arrested my brother last week!” Bow complained.
“I thought he stole an ancient Snows artifact!” Frosta replied.
And so, they began.
Then, Adora and Glimmer came out of nowhere, and Adora asked, “Where’s Catra?” Then, they looked at the two of them with their weapons drawn.
Bow and Frosta looked at each other. “Okay so, Catra—“
“Whoo!” Catra pounced from above, landing on Glimmer, causing her to teleport both of them away.
Adora groaned and ran after them. “We’ll talk later!”
The two of them looked at each other. Frosta asked, “They don’t look crazy. You think Catra was punking us?”
“Yeah, probably.”
—
Catra laughed loudly as they teleport-landed on the roof. Glimmer grumbled and reached for Catra, only to see that she had slid off the roof.
Glimmer sighed and followed after.
Adora reached the edge of the roof, having turned into She-Ra. She was about to jump onto the roof itself, only for Catra to slide at breakneck speed, barreling into Adora and causing them both to tumble to the ground.
“Hey Adora~” Catra purred.
“Catra, stop being drunk on catnip.”
“No. I wanna snort some more.” And then Catra burst out laughing, clutching her gut and fell down to Adora’s side. Adora, tired from running, simply wrapped an arm around her girlfriend and the two of them relaxed under the bright and cheerful day.
Eventually, everyone else made their way to the two of them, and Catra broke the truth.
“Catnip doesn’t do anything for me,” Catra said. “But I got ya good, didn’t I?”
Mermista fumed, while Scorpia and Perfuma were just kind of impressed at Catra’s acting. Micah and Casta were bummed they didn’t have a reason to use the catnip remover spell they spent twenty minutes working out. Bow and Frosta were just kind of disappointed they missed most of it.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got the whole thing recorded,” Entrapta said.
Catra paled. “What?”
“Please send it to me,” Bow asked.
“And me,” Adora laughed.
“I’ll take a copy for blackmail,” Glimmer snickered.
“I’ll pass, but do something good with it, got it?” Mermista said.
“Indeed.” Hordak narrowed his eyes.
“Eh heheh,” Catra laughed. “It was just a prank, guys?”