Known books:
“Mer-Mystery: The Pearl
Who Knew Too Much”
“Mer-Mystery: Secret of
the Abalone”
“Mer-Mystery: Serpent of
the Sea”
“Mer-Mystery: The Maltese
Otter”
“Mer-Mystery: Salt-er Ego”
Potential titles:
“Mer-Mystery: Rip Current
Events”
“Mer-Mystery: Seaweed
Scandal”
“Mer-Mystery: The Missing
Mermaid”
“Mer-Mystery: Lost at Sea”
“Mer-Mystery: Cat-Fished”
“Mer-Mystery: The Case of
the Great White”
“Mer-Mystery: Hidden in
the Coral Reef”
“Mer-Mystery: Devious as
a Clam”
“Mer-Mystery: Brainwash
in the Deep Blue”
“Mer-Mystery: Murder at Salineas
Shore”
“Mer-Mystery: The Stolen
Trident”
Mer-Mystery: Atlantis Apocalypse”
“Mer-Mystery: Sea Shell
Standoff”
One stormy night, the
princesses sat together in one of the chambers of Bright Moon castle. Frosta
had a bored look on her face, arms crossed, next to Perfuma who stared off into
space. Other sin the room included Mermista, Sea Hawk, Perfuma, Flutterina,
Adora, Bow, and Glimmer. Glimmer stood facing the fire in the fireplace.
Mermista sat on the couch next to Sea Hawk who was lying down, tired.
Glimmer turned around. “I
called you all here to discuss what happened today. The mission to retake Dryl
was a complete disaster. We barely made it out. I wanna know why.”
Bow spoke up. “The Horde
knew we were coming. They were ready. How do they keep doing this? We thought
they were tracking Adora, but she wasn’t even there today.”
Mermista then slammed her
hands down on the table. “Isn’t it obvious? There’s a Horde spy somewhere in
Bright Moon.”
Outside, the sky lit up
white as thunder rumbled.
“And no one is going
anywhere until we figure out who it is.”
Thunder crashed again.
Mermista,” said Glimmer,
“It’s very unlikely that there’s a spy…”
“We need to investigate,”
Mermista cut in, pacing back and forth. “I’ll be the lead detective since I’ve
read every single Mer-Mystery book.”
“Mer-what?” asked Adora.
Mermista moved over
behind the couch dramatically. “Mer-Mystery.
It’s only the best undersea mystery novel series ever. There’s 18 of them.
It taught me everything about solving mysteries.”
She leaned in, and said
louder, “Murder mysteries.” Sea Hawk fell down on the couch in shock.
Perfuma raised her hand.
“Um, but no one’s been murdered.”
“Yet!” added Mermista,
moving between Frosta and Perfuma, making Perfuma flinch. “First, we need to
question the suspects.”
“Who are the suspects?”
asked Frosta.
“Everyone is a suspect,”
stated Mermista.
“Everyone?” asked Bow.
“Is anyone else sweating? I’m sweating.”
Glimmer sighed. “This is
a waste of time. We know that the Horde is pulling their troops back for
something big. That’s what we should be investigating.”
“No, Mermista’s right,”
said Adora. “And it can’t be me the Horde’s tracking, since, once again, you
used me as a distraction today. A spy is really the only thing that makes
sense.”
Glimmer crossed her arms.
“Maybe they didn’t fall for the distraction because you’re a bad actress. And
who would the spy even be, anyway?”
“Heh,” said Adora. “How
about the Horde officer who’s living at…I’m sorry, being held prisoner at
Bright Moon? Shadow Weaver has actual spies. We met them.”
“Shadow Weaver does seem
like the obvious suspect,” said Mermista. “Which means it definitely isn’t her.
It’s never the obvious one. Like in Mer-Mystery:
The Pearl Who Knew Too Much. You think it’s the pearl, but it’s not.”
“Spoilers!” cried
Perfuma, flinching again.
Mermista pointed off in
the distance. “It’s time to interrogate the castle.”
Lightning and thunder
crashed once again.
“How are you doing that?”
Frosta asked.
“I practice at home!”
Mermista answered dramatically as thunder boomed again. Glimmer facepalmed and
groaned.
As lightning flashed across
the sky, Flutterina hummed a happy tune as they went inside a tent on the
Rebellion campsite. Checking that the coast was clear, they transformed into
Double Trouble. The chameleon flopped onto a cushion and took out a tracker
pad, pressing a button. Catra’s angry face appeared on screen. “Move. Now. We
don’t have all night, Kyle.”
“Meow. You all right
there, kitten?” they asked.
Catra stared straight
ahead. “About time you checked in. Are the princesses still moping around about
Dryl?”
“No,” they said with a
scoff. “Watching them mope was my favorite. Now they’re playing detective,
searching for the elusive Horde spy who foiled their plans.”
“Wait. Spy? Is your cover
blown?”
“Please,” they said. “Who
would suspect a goody-two-shoes like Flutterina? Besides, if they get
suspicious, I’ll do a quick wardrobe change and throw the blame onto someone
else.”
They transformed into a
guard.
“They better not,” Catra
demanded. “Keep them in Bright Moon. If they catch on before the plan is
complete, before our bug mission is done, I…”
They transformed back. “Darling,
darling, don’t worry. I’ll just tire them out a bit.”
A dark brown skinned guard
sat on the couch in front of Mermista and Perfuma. Mermista slapped her hands
on the table. “Where were you when the murders happened?”
“The what?” asked the
guard.
Mermista slapped her
hands again, Perfuma winced and shook her hand.
“Don’t think you can get
away with it,” added Perfuma. She turned to Mermista. “Although, there still
aren’t any murders, Mermista.”
“Yet.” Mermista planted
her foot on the table.
“I sincerely do not have
time for this,” stated the guard.
“According to a bunch of
other people…”
“Witnesses!” yelled
Perfuma.
“…you weren’t where you were supposed to be at the battle for Dryl.”
“I followed the plan
exactly,” said the guard.
Perfuma planted her foot
on the table causing the flower shaped head lamp to shake. “A likely…sorry, a
likely story!”
“Admit it,” said
Mermista. “You were slipping away to warn the Horde of our plan. Just like in Mer-Mystery: Secret of the Abalone. That
one’s really good. You should read it.”
Perfuma took notes on her
scroll of paper in fancy cursive: “Maintain scowl,” “Hit the table,” “Secret of
the Abalone.”
The guard moved the
spotlight away. “Look, this is what happened. “On approach to Dryl, Glimmer
filled me in. She-Ra would lure away the Horde. Team A, Frosta, Bow, and
Flutterina, would scout ahead. Team B, Sea Hawk and Mermista, would guard the
exits. Team A indicated the coast was clear, and we converged on their signal.
That’s when Frosta ran into us and said, “We haven’t finished scouting.”
Team A sent the all
clear. If you wanna know what went wrong, ask Bow.”
“Okay, I confess, it was
me” he cried.
Frosta stared back at him
in her chair. “We’re not even interrogating you.”
“I mean, if I am the spy,
it’s an accident. I think. Can you be an accidental spy? Do I have an evil
alter-ego? Or was I brainwashed and I’m just realizing it now?”
A shirtless man with a
flower necklace sat next to Bow. “So, like, are you guys still questioning me
or…”
Bow took the spotlight
and held it up to his face. “It all goes back to what happened in Dryl.
Everyone was in position, and I was using my new tech to look for remaining
Horde soldiers. But then, my goggles glitched and I don’t know what happened. I
started to see double. That’s when the other team came in way too early. I
tried to signal everyone to fall back, but my tracker pad was missing.”
“Whoa,” breathed the
shirtless guy.
“Don’t you see what this
means?” Bow asked. “Either I lost my tracker pad at Dryl, and that gave the
Horde vital information, or I did it on purpose because I am the spy, and I
gave the signal and I didn’t even know.”
Bow grabbed the guy’s
flower wreath. The shirtless guy stared into Bow’s eyes. “You’re blowing my
mind.”
“Bow!” called Frosta.
“You aren’t the spy!”
Bow’s voice rose up in
panic. “You don’t know that! It all makes sense. Who else could it be?”
Meanwhile in Shadow
Weaver’s dark garden…
Adora paced back and
forth. “So you’re telling me, you really didn’t know about the plan to retake
Dryl? Really?”
Shadow Weaver held a dark
rose in her hands. “Not a bit. I’ve been busy with my garden. She’s always been
paranoid like this, you know.”
Glimmer giggled under her
breath. “I’m not being paranoid,” Adora argued. “You were spotted around the
castle without your guards this morning, and I wanna know why.”
“Actually, Adora, that’s…”
started Glimmer.
“I was engaging in a
ritual,” Shadow Weaver explained. She recounted the time when she stood by her
magic basin, naming ingredients and adding them in.
“Essence of Echinacea. A
dash of Gingerroot. Ah. My daily morning ritual.”
She held a cup of tea in
content.
Adora burst out laughing.
“Okay, you expect us to believe you were just having tea? She’s the spy. You’re
the spy. Who else could it be?”
“I am not the villain of
this story,” stated the sorceress. “As to your question, Glimmer saw fit to
grant me free rein of the castle. My guards have been dismissed.”
“No guards? Seriously?”
Adora glared at Glimmer.
“Yes, seriously,” she
shot back. “What has she done other than to help us?”
“Do you really want me to
answer that?”
“Girls,” warned Shadow
Weaver, “Every moment you waste here, the Horde gets that much further ahead.
In order to catch a rat, you need to spring a trap.”
“Well in order to catch
the spy, we need you to admit that you’re the spy,” blasted Adora.
“Let it go, Adora,” said
Glimmer. “There’s lots of other people it could be.”
“Like who?”
“Ah,” Sea Hawk sighed
happily, propping his feet on the table back in the chamber. “I love recounting
the epic tales of my exploits. My heroic exploits.”
Mermista groaned out loud,
Perfuma sitting next to her on the couch. “It definitely isn’t Sea Hawk. Why
did you even bring him in?”
“You said everyone was a
suspect,” mentioned Perfuma.
“Exploits for the ages,”
Sea Hawk began. “Narration. I was supposed to be guarding the door. But Perfuma
relieved me of duty so I could join the fight. I advanced through the
courtyard, avoiding the booby traps, risking my very life, just like in Mer-Mystery: Serpent of the Sea.”
“Wait, is that were my
book went?” asked Mermista. “Sea Hawk, I’ve been looking for it.”
Sea Hawk continued his
story. “That’s when the clouds parted, and the moonlight illuminated my dearest
Mermista in the distance.”
“Moonlight?” Mermista
sighed. “The battle happened this morning.”
“I made my way over to
her when…we were ambushed! My sole aim was to protect Mermista from the Horde.
Thinking quick, I took on the 40 or 50 Horde soldiers surrounding us, and saved
Dryl.”
“We lost Dryl, and you
punched, like, one guy before Glimmer got us out,” Glimmer said with a laugh.
“Exactly 100 guys!” he
countered.
Both woman facepalmed.
“Wait, wait,” said Perfuma, “I was with the General the whole time.” She leaned
in and glared at Mermista, crossing her arms. “And why weren’t you with Sea
Hawk, Mermista?”
“Because Frosta waved me
over, but disappeared before I could reach her.”
“But that doesn’t make
any sense. She was with Bow, and then Glimmer, and the others were…”
“Who wants to watch me do
some squats?” Sea Hawk asked, beginning his exercise.
Mermista then proceeded
to shove him out of the room.
“I bet Adora and Glimmer
don’t shove suspects out the door.”
Flutterina sat innocently
on a chair, while Adora and Glimmer stood apart, turned away from each other.
“Okay, Flutterina,” asked
Glimmer, “Where were you at the start of the battle?”
“With Bow and Frosta, of
course. Like we planned. Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine,”
said Glimmer. “Now…”
Flutterina spoke up,
“It’s just that, everyone’s so on edge after what happened in Dryl. Have you
tried interviewing Shadow Weaver about it? She seems kind of untrustworthy.”
“Oh no,” said Adora with
sarcasm. “According to Glimmer, she’s totally trustworthy, and it’s fine to
just let her walk around the castle whenever she wants.”
“Can we please not start
this up again?” Glimmer asked.
“I’m just saying, it
would’ve been nice if you told me.”
“I don’t have to tell you
about every decision I make.”
Adora panted in anger.
“But you tell Shadow Weaver?”
“Maybe it’s because
Shadow Weaver actually listened when you and Bow kept leaving without me!”
Glimmer fired back.
Flutterina smiled. “You
two seem like you have a lot to talk about. Maybe I’ll just come back later.”
Glimmer added, “I don’t
know why I’m going along with this. The Horde is obviously planning something.
We should be out there, looking for them, not stuck here, playing around.”
Double Trouble grinned
deviously through their disguise as Adora and Glimmer continued their argument.
“No one’s playing around,
Glimmer. There is a reason we’ve been losing.”
“And we’re going to keep
losing soon if we don’t act.”
Mermista opened the door,
the other princesses behind her, startling Flutterina. “There you are. Why are
you just standing around? This isn’t Mer-Mystery:
The Case of People Who Just Stood Around, the sequel I wrote right now
about all of you.”
“Who is even left to
question?” asked Glimmer.
Later on that night,
several other people were questioned.
“I think I saw Mermista
with Bow’s tracker pad,” said an elfish man standing with Entrapta’s baker and
servant.
“Wait, you guys have been
here the entire time?” asked Bow. Perfuma and Mermista stood with him.
“Tiny scone?” asked the
baker, holding up a small desert.
During another
interrogation, Mermista, Frosta, and Sea Hawk talked with one of the guards. “I
can’t believe you read those too,” said the guard. “Mer-Mystery: The Maltese Otter is my favorite.”
“Ugh, that one’s so
predictable,” groaned Mermista. “I saw that twist coming a mile away.”
Swift Wind was next and
he did a pose on the table along with a neigh.
Mermista, Perfuma and
Adora rolled their eyes.
“Swift Wind, you weren’t
even there,” stated Adora.
“I told you how I took
out 100…no 150 guys right?” asked Sea Hawk.
Mermista groaned again,
frustrated.
Bow them walked over to
the front, tears in his eyes and held out his hands. “You have to arrest me for
everyone’s safety. Otherwise, my evil alter-ego might do it again.”
“Bow, knock it off,”
Glimmer demanded.
Swift Wind posed again
with a mace in his mouth.
“Still no,” said Adora.
“And put that back.”
Mermista took a look at
the other people coming in for the interrogations.
A group of people, one
with three eyes…
“It’s not them,” said
Mermista.
A bunch of fauns and a
dark skinned lady with bull horns…
“No,” said Perfuma.
Netossa and Spinerella in
fancy clothing, holding a bouquet of flowers. Two butlers standing awkwardly to
the side.
“No,” stated Glimmer.
The shirtless guy came
forward. “Okay, dude, I think, like, maybe She-Ra did it.”
“Hey, we already
questioned you,” Frosta reminded him.
“Oh yeah, I came back for
the tiny scones.”
“I made a fresh batch,”
said the smiling baker as the guy popped one into his mouth.
“Fizzy beverage?” asked
another server.
“If you just lent me the
book, then I’ll show you who done it,” said Mermista to Sea Hawk.
“We should interrogate
him again,” argued Perfuma.
“Happened in Pearl in the Window,” Mermista
mentioned.
Glimmer stood in her
darkened bedroom, watching the lightning flash outside. She conjured her staff
in her hand, getting ready to handle the issue herself.
“Glimmer? Where are you
going?” Adora asked as she walked behind her.
“This isn’t working.
Nothing we do is working. The Horde is always ahead, and I just can’t wait for
the next bad thing to happen.”
Adora walked over. “So
what? You’re gonna teleport into the Fright Zone and try to solve this by
yourself?”
“Someone’s gotta do
something.”
“Glimmer, please,” begged
Adora. “You can’t leave in the middle of the night without backup.”
Glimmer shook her head. “The
less people involved, the better. We don’t know who to trust.”
“And what about me? Were
you gonna tell me? Or Bow?”
“Adora, I…”
“Stay. Please. I know we
can figure this out if we work together. No more secrets and doing things without
us.” Adora placed her hands on Glimmer’s shoulders.
“We need you here. I need
you here,” she said softly.
Glimmer’s staff vanished
and she put her hand on Adora’s. “Okay. I’m here.”
“Adora! Glimmer!” called
Bow.
Frosta opened the doors
to Glimmer’s darkened bedroom, spotting Adora and Glimmer. “Where have you guys
been?”
“The communication panel
in the war room has been severed,” said Perfuma with concern.
All the princesses made
their way to the room and sure enough, the holographic map had a hole in it.
“When did this happen?”
Adora asked.
“I don’t know,” replied
Mermista. “We were passing by the room when we saw it.”
“Wait, we saw you run out
of here two minutes ago,” Frosta accused.
“Uh, what are you talking
about?” the mer-woman asked. “I was with Perfuma.
“Could the storm have
done something to cause this?” Perfuma suggested.
Glimmer then glanced down
at a broke tracker pad on the floor in a puddle of water. “This wasn’t an
accident. It was sabotage.”
As it began to rain
outside, all the members met once again in the chamber sized living room.
Everyone remained seated in the same positions as before, but with Glimmer
standing by the fire again.
“The General is working
on restoring communications. In the meantime, there’s a backup device in the
dining room, should we need it.”
Mermista closed the
doors. “All of us knew we were trying to unmask the spy. And we were the ones
who made the plan to take back Dryl. We’ve ruled out all other suspects. Which
means the only person the spy could be is one of us.”
Perfuma gasped.
Frosta stood up on her
chair. “Perfuma let the Horde take the doors.”
“I wasn’t there,” she
argued. “Wait, your team was the one who told us to come in, and you led
Mermista way.”
“I did not,” Frosta
snapped.
“Trying to throw the
blame on someone else, huh, Frosta?”
Frosta pointed at
Mermista. “If Mermista knows so much about mysteries, she’d probably know how
to plan the perfect crime.”
“And there was water by
the tracker pad,” Perfuma mentioned, glaring at Mermista.
“Water that could’ve been
melted ice,” Mermista replied, pointing at Frosta.
Bow cried again. “It’s
probably me.”
“It’s not you, Bow!”
Frosta shouted.
Mermista countered, “Or
maybe it is, like in Mer-Mystery: Salt-er
Ego.”
“It couldn’t be me. I was
busy fighting at least 200 soldiers,” Sea Hawk bragged.
“This is a waste of time,
Glimmer,” said Adora. “Shouldn’t we be…”
“Stop. Stop questioning
my choices, stop whining about being a decoy, just stop. Okay?”
“I’m not whining,” said
Adora. Sea Hawk did squats on the table.
“All you do is question
me, question my authority. It’s exhausting.”
Sea Hawk shouted and
buried his head in his hands. “Okay, I lied. I didn’t fight 300 soldiers.
Mermista, will you ever forgive me?”
“Sea Hawk, we all knew
that,” Mermista deadpanned.
“I don’t know who to
believe anymore,” said Bow. “I can’t trust my own eyes. Who am I?”
“Look at what she’s doing
to you,” Adora argued. “Shadow Weaver wants power and you are listening to her.”
“Oh what? Are you jealous
because you aren’t Shadow Weaver’s favorite anymore? Or are you just mad that I’m
queen and in charge and you’re not?”
“That’s ridiculous,”
Adora said.
Glimmer wasn’t done. “You
just run around playing the perfect hero. You have no idea how hard it’s been
for me.”
“Because you stopped
including me in your decisions. We used to be a team. And now? I don’t know
what we are.”
Flutterina had disappeared
and quietly opened the door to the darkened dining room. Flutterina crouched
down.
“Come on, backup
communicator, where are you?”
The lights turned on and
Flutterina gasped.
“Hey, Flutterina,” said Glimmer.
“Looking for something?” Glimmer and Adora stood, triumphant.
“Glimmer? Heh. Adora. Hi,
hi. Uh, just looking for the bathroom.”
Flutterina ran into Bow
who stood with Frosta, Perfuma, and Mermista, all grinning.
Flutterina backed up on
the floor. “Okay. Okay. This looks bad, but it isn’t what it looks like. So let’s
all just…”
Flutterina kicked Adora
in the foot and ran off. Adora grabbed onto it in pain and fell down. The spy
grinned and ran toward the door…only to be blocked by a force of magic. The spy
stood trapped, standing on a glowing light blue circle.
“Oh,” they said with a
laugh, touching the force field around them. “I see.”
Glimmer stepped forward,
having cast the spell. “Give it up, Flutterina. If that’s really who you are.”
“Magic. How very clever,”
remarked the trickster.
“Isn’t it? Shadow Weaver
helped,” said Adora.
“You see…” Glimmer began,
but both girls were shoved aside by an excited Mermista. “The reveal of how
they caught the murderer is my favorite part.”
Glimmer sighed.
“In order to catch a rat,
you need to spring a trap,” recounted Adora. “So we set up one of our own.”
“Classic murder mystery
move,” added Mermista.
Perfuma spoke, “There’s
no murder…never mind.”
Glimmer began, “We knew a
backup communication device would be irresistible to whoever destroyed the
original.”
Adora added, “We wanted
the spy to feel safe enough to make a move, so we created a diversion.”
“Adora managed to be a
really good actress for once,” said Glimmer.
“It was really hard. Do
not ask me to do that again,” she said.
“So that brings us back
to you,” stated Glimmer, walking over. “Who are you really, Flutterina?”
The shapeshifter transformed
into Glimmer, causing the queen to yelp and step back. They then transformed
into Bow, Frosta, Perfuma, Mermista, and Adora.
“Please…” they said as
they transformed into their true form. “Call me Double Trouble.”
“You’re a shape-shifter?”
asked Adora in shock.
Bow gasped. “It wasn’t my
goggles glitching. It was you pretending to be Frosta at Dryl!”
“And Perfuma said Double
Trouble. “Don’t shortchange my credits, darling.”
They gave a bow and moved
their tongue over their eyelid, making everyone gasp in disgust.
They continued. “May I
say, as one actor to another, that was truly a masterful performance. I really
bought that you two were furious at each other. If you would indulge me, were
you inspired from any real emotion or experience?”
Glimmer glared. “Enough.
It’s over, Double Trouble. Now tell us what the Horde is planning.”
Double Trouble laughed. “Over?
Oh, love, it’s just beginning. The Horde has been planning a massive attack for
some time now. I let Catra know that you were going to Dryl. After that, all I
had to do was plant seeds of doubt. Sowing chaos where I could.”
Double Trouble has
disguised themselves as Frosta, Perfuma, and Mermista, luring the group away.
They also smashed the holographic map with a hunk of metal and broke the
tracker pad when no one was looking.
“It wasn’t hard. I just had to keep you
isolated and at each other’s throats until the plan was underway. Salineas. If
the Horde controls the seas, they control Etheria.”
Mermista looked downcast
and twiddled her dark blue braid.
“That will never happen.
We won’t let it,” Glimmer claimed. “Now that we know their plan, we can stop
it.”
Double Trouble laughed
again. “No. Stop it? Oh, this was a ruse, darling. A distraction. The Battle of
Salineas is over. It happened earlier this very evening. It’s too late.
Salineas is gone.”
“No,” breathed Mermista.
“No!” cried Glimmer. “No,
it’s not too late. It can’t be.”
In desperation, Glimmer
teleported her friends over to Salineas. Glimmer raced up the hill, spotting a
bright red Horde flag waving in the wind, the black symbol on it. To everyone’s
horror, the magical gate was broken and filled with gaping red holes like
wounds. Horde flags stood guard at every corner. Black smoke rose up into the
blood red sky. A lone doll was floating in the water.
Mermista sunk down to her
knees and sobbed.
“We can fix this,” Adora
assured. “We have to be able to fix this, right?”
“This won’t happen again,”
said Glimmer, tears in her eyes. “I won’t let it. We won’t give up. We will
take back Salineas. Take back all of Etheria. No matter what it costs. No
matter what the Horde throws at us next.”
Hordak and Catra smiled
at their victory, while out in space, Horde Prime grinned sinisterly.
