Archive of Our Own

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As night fell over Gardenia the Winx were gathered in the large shared area of their massive loft apartment above the Love & Pet shop, mattresses and cushions set out everywhere for people to lounge and sit on. The room almost looked like a giant pillow castle. Mirta was busy setting out bowls of popcorn and chips while Diaspero tuned the magical crystals above to give a soft glow, enough to allow them to see but not be irritating. Roxy was setting out a dish of food for Artu while Lucy and Saline came in carrying bags full of drinks from Magix and Earth. Stella was setting out more cushions and blankets while Musa was setting up the music. Layla brought in some platters of fruits and vegetables which were quickly deposited on the coffee table. Flora was charming some flowers to make the room smell like spring and Tecna was hurriedly going through all the devices of everyone who was going to show up and making them untraceable for the next few days. Griselda was just sitting back and relaxing, she wasn't here to do any work. Everyone was in sleeping clothes ranging from shorts and a tank top for Layla to an expensive silk robe for Stella. Faragonda emerged from the guest rooms followed shortly by Griffon, "the guest rooms are all set up."A sudden flash of light heralded Bloom's arrival with Aurora and Nebula in their normal garb. The blonde ice fairy was nestled into the redheads side but let go after giving a soft squeeze and moved towards Flora. Layla and Stella had both moved to curtsey but Nebula almost immediately threw herself onto a pile of pillows and began to scream into it, "I hate it! I hate it! I hate it! I HATE IT! Screw this job! Screw being queen! Screw ruling a queendom! Screw you Morgana!"Part way through her rant a second flash announced the arrival of another group of guests, Klaus and a heavily pregnant Morgana both dressed in robes, brought by Marie. The kitsune familiar's nine tails danced behind her as she stared down at the whining queen, her ice blue eyes dancing with amusement. Atop her head twin snow white ears rose from her silver hair and twitched a bit before her Zoomix wings glowed again and she flashed away. Bloom stuck around cause this was entertaining. Morgana raised an eyebrow at the Queen of Earth before stating, "given I am both happily married, and your mate's mother I find that statement highly inappropriate."She continued with an archy smirk as Nebula shot to her feet, "besides, you told me just days before I stepped down that you hoped I could pass on the crown soon and focus on my family like I always wanted.""I meant I hoped Roxy would be ready to take the crown soon!" Nebula snapped, "not that you would exploit a long forgotten law and toss the crown at me because I was able to wear it!""But now you know how to help Roxy when she finally is ready," Morgana countered as she happily rubbed her belly."We don't have a Major Fairy of Peace to fill in my vacancy so I'm doing both jobs right now Morgana!""Really dear, why haven't you filled that spot?""Cause no one wants the fucking job! Do you realize how tedious diplomacy is and how massive a bunch of zounderkite the humans are!? It takes a VERY specific kind of fairy to deal with the rantallions and most who could do the job don't want it!" Nebula turned to Roxy who had walked over to the blue haired girl during the exchange and threw herself on the younger fairy, wrapping her arms around the pinkets neck and burying her head into her chest, near invisible words on her left inner thigh began to glow pink when they touched, "Roxy! Love! Please take the crown soon so I can go back to being Major Fairy of Peace!""Aw, so you're not gonna help me with being queen?" Roxy asked as she embraced her mate.Nebula looked down to the side and muttered, "well I wouldn't mind helping you. I mean. It would be part of my job as a major fairy anyways.""You two are just precious," Bloom laughed before her wings glowed again and she vanished in a burst of light. Seconds later Marie reappeared with Riven, Helia, Sky, Brandon, and Timmy. The four boys were dressed in various sleeping outfits with Timmy being in a full sleep shirt and pants while Riven was wearing only pants, showing off his toned body. Sky and Brandon were both wearing pants and a tank top as a happy middle. Helia meanwhile was wearing an adorable cat onesie. At a glance they determined there wasn't anything to help with and moved to sit down. Riven went and sat near Musa, but not next to her like the tsundere he was. He didn't say anything as she scooted over and cuddled up against him. Timmy went over to Tecna and looked over her work as she was checking over everything for the third time. Noticing she hadn't made any mistakes he nodded and easily picked the Nymph of Technology up, eliciting a shriek of surprise as he carried her over to a plush couch where he plopped down, holding her tight against himself. Brandon sat down in a moon chair and held his arms open to Stella who happily jumped into her knights embrace with a giggle. Sky and Helia curled up on one of the loveseats together, talking quietly as they waited.Marie flashed out again just before Bloom reappeared with Daphne mid sentence, "..n't think I haven't figured out you planned this out! I know you too well to think you didn't intend for this exact outcome!""You mean how you're the crown princess again and inheriting the throne because even though you were frozen in time and didn't age you're still biologically older than me by several years and as a result I don't have to put up with the pain in the ass royal etiquette and formality?" Bloom asked with a smirk, "It never even crossed my mind."With another flash she disappeared followed shortly by Marie appearing with Nabu, and a bundle of familiars and pixies. Her last trip done, Marie released her transformation leaving her in a yukata as her nine tails folded into one behind her. She plopped herself down in a beanbag and was quickly joined by Diaspero. Nabu was wearing a robe and quickly joined Layla on yet another loveseat while all of the familiars and pixies went to their various masters and bonded fairies. A few seconds later Kiko bound out of one of the side rooms and leaped at Marie who deftly caught her in midair and wrapped her into a tight embrace. A final flash heralded Blooms return with Mike and Vanessa, both wearing robes."We brought snacks," Vanessa announced in a singsong voice as she moved towards the table at the center of the room."You didn't have to do that," Mirta said with a smile, "We have plenty.""So you don't want my spinach dip?" Vanessa asked innocently. Stella immediately sat up, forgetting whatever it was she had been telling Brandon as she said, "Now let's not be hasty. Thank you for bringing something and we would love to add your dip to the food spread."Snickers came from several places in the room as Bloom transformed back, revealing she was still in her day clothes, "I'll be right back.""Why was Bloom the one getting people?" Mike asked as he secured himself a nice recliner."She's the only one with enough magic to go zipping across the galaxy repeatedly, so her and Marie get the job," Selina replied as she joined Aurora and Flora on a large couch, waiting for Bloom. After a few minutes she emerged in a plain pj shirt and pants, "alright let's get this celebration started!"Jumping over the back of the couch she came down between Flora and Aurora. Seeing a problem she immediately pulled the ice fairy into her lap so Saline could snuggle up to her side like Flora was."Well, first things first," Roxy said from Nebulas lap pillow, "since everyone is finally here at once I believe you all owe us a story.""Oh, about what?" Musa asked as she played with Rivens messy hair."I believe it's finally time to hear the story of the Winx Club from the beginning," the baby of the group said, "I want to hear all about this 'crazy' first year you had. And since it's the end of this insane decade I figure now's a good time."The twenty six year old redhead laughed nervously as a number of eyes turned in her direction, "well, I suppose we have been putting that off for a while. It might take longer than just one night to go over everything though. It all started on a summer day…"The sun rose peacefully over the beautiful town of Gardenia, making the city's warm colored architecture seem to glow slightly. This was of little concern to the redhead lying asleep in her bed. Her room was a mess of books, and drawing supplies from the night before.  Her mother entered her room with a sigh and made her way over to the window, grabbing the curtains and opening them, sending beams of light shooting across the room to land on the bundle of blankets on the bed.Bloom curled into a ball to try and shield herself more from the light as she let out a deep rumbling growl. Her mom was quite used to this sort of thing and not afraid of the young woman at all saying in a sing-songy voice, “Get up Bloom the suns been up for ages.”Her only response was a sharp hiss and the bundle tightening as the bit of exposed red hair disappeared under the blanket. Snickering to herself Vanessa walked over to her daughter and continued, “You're late Bloom.”Bloom let out another growl but shifted so she could look out of her blanket cocoon at her clock. It took a few seconds for the sleepy girl to realize what her mom was telling her before she surged out of bed, throwing the blankets aside and began to frantically speak, get dressed, and try to make herself presentable all at the same time, “Oh no school! Why didn't my alarm go off!? Why didn't you wake me up before!? I can't…”She froze for a few seconds as she desperately tried to simultaneously pull her pants on and tame her mess of bedhead, “Hang on, its summer… I didn't set my alarm last night because I don't have to get up early today. That wasn't funny mom!”“Ah but you fell for it,” Her mom replied with a smirk, “Anyway, finished getting dressed, breakfast is ready. I would like your help in the shop today.”As Bloom yanked off her pants and sleeping shirt she looked at her mom and bluntly told her, “No, I already made plans with Salina today. And I am not working in the shop the entire summer without pay again.”Her piece said she grabbed her towel and robe and went into her bathroom to take a hot shower to finish waking herself up. It was impossible for her to fully wake up without one and she would be cranky for hours otherwise.Vanessa sighed as she looked at the door her daughter had just gone through. Looking around she picked up the outfit that Bloom had dragged out of her dresser and set it on the bed. She paused for a minute then picked the blankets up off the floor and threw them on the bed as well. She wouldn't make the bed or clean up the room for Bloom anymore but she refused to leave bedding on the ground. Shaking her head she left the room and went downstairs. Bloom had a point, she was sixteen now. She wouldn't keep working for free forever, she had grumbled a lot last year as well. In all honesty she should have expected this.“How is our little angel doing?” Mike asked as she returned to the kitchen and set out Bloom's plate of steak and eggs. How that girl could consume so much food so early she didn't know but she practically lived for meat. Teaching her to eat it slowly had been a trial.“Dissatisfied as teenagers tend to be,” She replied as she joined him at the table. With practiced ease she doled out their pancakes and eggs before returning the platter to the kitchen, “but I can't honestly say I don't see her point. I suppose I’ll have to make her a time card for the shop so I can pay her for her help.”“Oh, do you think she’s trying to save money for something? Maybe her allowance isn't enough?” Mike asked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.“Perhaps,” Vanessa replied, “But it's not like we give her an allowance anyway, we pay her for her grades, it's a big difference.”“It's a regular source of money, it just depends on how well she’s doing.”.“I never said it wasn't, but it's not getting paid like a job. This way she can use me as a work reference. It's not a bad idea honestly. Besides, what if she is saving up money for something?”“Well she could have just asked us.”“Mike, she was dropping hints for months about wanting a scooter, I honestly thought that's what you were setting money aside for!”“But scooters are dangerous!”“So’s going outside! And even if she got into a crash it's Bloom. She would be fine. Let's set some money aside and maybe we can get her one for her birthday. Decembers, pretty close but if we both save we can get her a pretty good used one. And I get the feeling she's been dissatisfied from her last couple summer breaks and has had enough.”“What's wrong with how we spend our summers?” He asked, surprised and confused.“We always go on the same beach vacation!” Vanessa sighed, “Maybe we should think about going somewhere else for once.”“What's wrong with the beach?”“It's boring, sandy, and we go there every year,” Blooms said as she walked through the door, her fiery orange mane more tamed than it was but still quite wild. They all knew there was no point in spending ages trying to tame her hair, it would require so much time and effort and only last an hour at most. Her willowy body was covered by a teal and yellow, skin hugging crop top with a heart on the chest and bellbottoms that seemed to be a size above skin tight. Now that her bright blue eyes weren't cloudy with sleep her unique catlike pupils also stood out giving her a feral beauty accented by her fang like canines and dangerously sharp teeth. Her blue bunny Kiko was riding on her shoulder happily, “And something always happens. Last year I got stung by jellyfish, the year before there was a sudden swarm of sharks, and so on.”“Well, I suppose there have been some incidents that happen, but it's a nice place!”“Suuuuuuure it is dad.”Bloom sat down and dug into her meal with glee. Nothing got that girl as happy in the morning as a hot shower and a rare steak for breakfast. Conversation was light as they ate and afterwards Bloom helped her clear away the dishes and clean them, “So what are your plans with Saline?”“Not sure, she said she had a surprise for me but wouldn't say more,” Bloom huffed in annoyance, she felt a flicker in her chest but a few deep breaths calmed it down, "have either of you seen Marie?"“Not this morning. Speaking of surprises,” Mike spoke up from the table, “We got you a little something to help you get around Gardenia.”Bloom's eyes lit up and Vanessa felt herself sigh internally, her little girl was going to be so disappointed, “Really dad!”With a delighted smile she ran out the front door. Mike and Vanessa followed, the former smiling proudly while the latter gave a small sigh at the disappointment on their daughters face. In front of her was a bright red new street bike with a basket full of flowers on the front. No gears to be seen, it was a one speed, and there was even a bell on the handle bars.“Thanks dad,” Bloom unenthusiastically said, before she got on the bike and rode off, Kiko jumping from her shoulder into the basket. The bunny wasted no time in beginning to eat the flowers. Mike looked proud of himself before he turned around and saw the disappointed glare his wife was giving him. They were going to be having a long talk about this later.“I can't believe him,” Bloom sighed to herself, “No, actually I can. He’s way too overprotective.”Knowing she had plenty of time she swung to the left at the next intersection, intent on stopping at the Frutti Music Bar to get a drink. The “bar” was the best hangout in town for people her age but at this time it would be mostly empty, the lunch rush wouldn't be for another couple of hours. Now if only she could make it by Mitzi’s place without meeting the other girl.As she rounded another corner it seemed she would have no luck today as the bitchy fake brunette was outside instructing two of their school's jocks how to load her stuff for whatever vacation she was going on this year. The girl had never liked Bloom for one reason or another and took every opportunity to make that well known. When she saw Bloom she immediately smirked and called out to her, “Hey Bloom! Vacationing in Gardenia this year?”Bloom slowed to a stop and rolled her eyes, already feeling the flicker in her chest start up again, “Why do you care, it's not like you ever talk to me unless you want something.”“That's uncalled for,” Mitzi said snidely, “but don't worry, I’ll be sure to send you a postcard from my ski vacation. Then you can see something new for once in your life.”Mitzi turned back to the boys who were hefting a scooter for some reason, “Be careful, that's brand new! What do you think Bloom, nice isn't it.”“Mitzi, you really need to work on your acting, or are you that dumb?” Bloom asked looking at the other girl blankly, “You're going to a ski lodge. It's way too cold to use a scooter like that, which means you had them drag that thing out here just to show it off if someone came by.”As Mitzi spluttered indignantly Bloom rolled her eyes again, already tired of dealing with the queen bee, although the burn had the flickering in her chest thrum with glee before quieting down. Before the other girl could recover she started to peddle away, “Have a nice summer.”Making a few more turns she rolled up to the Frutti Music Bar and hopped off. Sliding her bike into one of the nearby racks she went into the bar, Kiko would make sure no one tried to steal the bike while she was gone so she didn't bother with a lock. She made her way up to the counter where a pink haired girl with tan highlights was bopping along to the pop song playing on the speakers around the place.“Roxy my girl, one Dragonfire Sunrise please,” Bloom said as she slid onto one of the stools at the counter, putting her money down as she did.“On it Bloom,” The girl said as she started preparing the drink. At first it looked like she was just making a strawberry banana sunday until she reached under the counter and pulled out a box, gas mask and gloves. She put on the gas mask and gloves before opening it and pulling out a sealed vial containing half a cup of clear fluid. Carefully twisting the vial open she poured it into the blender and mixed the drink up. After a few seconds she pulled it off, poured it into a metal cup, added a straw, and screwed the cup tightly closed. She handed Bloom the cup before taking the blender to the back and throwing it into one of the sinks, pouring half a container of soap in just to be safe, and filling it to the brim. After that she took a red sticker, put it on the lid and stuffed the lid onto the blender.Coming back out she finally removed the gloves and mask, putting everything back under the counter as she stared at Bloom, amused, “I don't understand how you drink that, honestly that's hot enough that daddy had to leave work early the one time he tried it and you do it without breaking a sweat.”“I’m just that awesome,” Bloom said with a playful smile before she took another drink, “So how’s my favorite future freshman? Any boys hitting on you?”“Sis, I just started middle school,” Roxy whined at the other girl.“That still makes you a future freshman.”“Yeah, and because you and Saline tested out of school I'm gonna be all alone,” The pink haired girl said with a pouting glare.“Aw don't be like that, I'm sure Eldora can bribe the school board to let you test out early if you ask her, she did for us.”    Roxy looked shocked at that, “Wait, Bribe? I thought she submitted a formal request.”    Bloom  blinked before realising her blunder, “Ah, yes. Her formal request to have us test out of junior and senior year… and the six hundred thousand dollars she donated to the school to renovate the science building had nothing to do with it.”    Roxy blankly stared at her before shaking her head, “I can't even be surprised with you girls anymore. Where does she get so much money anyway?”    “From what I gather Miss Eldora is fabulously rich,” Bloom replied waving her hand as if it didn't matter, “and you know, Saline is her only relative so all she really has to do is ask, and provide a good reason.”    “So, are you going to meet her later?” Roxy asked as Bloom paused to take a long drink from her liquid fireball. Bloom let out a satisfied sigh before replying, “Yeah. They have some surprise planned for me. They’re being jerks and won't even give me a hint though. And don't think you can avoid the question, is any boy hitting on you?”    “Like anyone's brave enough to try, my dad aside all my schoolmates and every regular customer at this place knows who you guys are. No one is going to try and hit on me and risk dealing with you two,” Roxy glared at her without any real fire in her eyes as she spoke.    “Good,” Bloom replied with a smirk, “But look on the bright side, now that we aren't a constant presence at school you don't have to worry about that.”    “True, if you're done with that I can take it. I have to wash the blender too,” Roxy said as she held out her hand for the cup. Bloom relinquished it as she got up to leave, “I'm gonna head out, stay safe squirt.”    “I am not a little kid anymore!”    “As your adopted big sister I reserve the right to call you squirt if I want to.”    Roxy pouted adorably but Bloom would not yield as she walked out of the business and grabbed her bike, patting Kiko for a job well done. Hopping on, she headed off to the park.Bloom loved the park, it was the heart of Gardenia in her opinion. The massive area bordered the harbor, downtown, and suburbs putting it almost smack dab in the center of town. The lush trees were lovingly taken care of, in some areas almost forming a small forest. Bloom quickly headed for one of these thicker areas as they tended to be quieter than the open fields and hilly areas that were full of picnicking people enjoying the summer sun. She was still early for her meeting with her friends so she would just relax for a little while. They were supposed to meet at the fountain but they hadn't given her any hints about what they were hiding from her, so if they wanted to find her they were just going to have to look. It probably wouldn't take Marie long, she could hunt down someone better than a bloodhound.As she pulled an apple out from under the flowers in the basket on the front of her bike she absentmindedly wondered what her surprise was going to be. Leaving her bike propped against a tree she sat down and took a bite from the sweet fruit. After a couple of bites a muffled bang from inside the grove drew her attention. Standing up she put the apple back in the basket as Kiko bounded up her arm to her shoulder, and moved into the trees to see what that was. Maybe some idiot kids had gotten their hands on some fireworks or something and were setting them off. As she carefully made her way through the trees though the bangs and flashes of light didn’t look like any fireworks she knew of. She snuck around a tree and looked into the clearing that the flashes and bangs were coming from. She nearly screamed at what she saw. A blond girl with fairy wings was wielding a staff against monsters.The girl had twintails and was wearing sparkly orange short shorts and a crop top that only looped over her left shoulder. In her hand was a silver staff with a circular head shaped kind of like a sun that seemed to glow with its own light. Strangest of all, the girls' ears were pointed and nearly six inches long like a character from Jak and Daxter. The girl's entire body was pulsing with an angry golden glow as she swung the staff, sending out an arc of blazing golden light with the cry “Coronal Flare!”The blast slammed into the monsters, dissolving a good number of them but more emerged from the shadow of the trees around the big figure in the distance. The small ones were crimson, with massive clawed hands and glowing yellow eyes. They were hunched over, walking on all fours as their tiny back legs seemed unable to properly support them. Caustic black fluid dripped from their fanged maws as they began to surge forward. Their skin looked almost reptilian but without scales to speak of.The girl was standing strong but it appeared she had been at this for some time if the frustrating grimace she gave as more of the beasts emerged and the shaking of her legs and arms were any indication. She was sporting several visible scuffs and bruises, including a massive one that spread all across her left side and a viscous slash running all the way up her back that seemed to come from one of the red beasts.The monster in back pointed with one of its massive hands and the red beasts surged towards the fairy. She raised her staff high, the head glowing brightly as her body flared with light, before slamming its but into the ground, “SOLAR WIND!”Bloom barely had time to close her eyes and duck behind the tree before a massive surge of light exploded out from the fairies body. After the light faded Bloom glanced around the tree again. The monster in the shadows emerged into the clearing along with what seemed to be the last score or so of his minions. It was massive, both in height and build, nearly three meters tall and a meter wide at its shoulders, with sickly leathery yellow skin, jagged black nails, and beady red eyes that were almost invisible due to nearly half of its head being made up by its huge mouth full of sharp teeth. It was clothed in dark overalls that were torn and burnt in areas from the battle it seemed.“Go away you brute or you will face the wrath of the Sun and Moon fairy!” The blonde yelled at him, putting on a strong front but clearly on the verge of collapse as she struggled to raise her staff up again and lacked the glowing aura from before. The flicker in her chest surged at the girl's strength and defiance in the face of this monster, as the yellow creature let out a booming roar before charging at the girl, the beasts around it following behind slower, apparently content to let the stronger monster attack before joining in. The fairy seemingly tried to fire some form of spell as she raised her hand and created an orb of light, but the monster cleared the distance between them too fast, remarkably quick for something of its size and apparent weight. The beast crashed into her, throwing his entire body into the blow it carried through with the momentum, throwing her halfway across the clearing and into a tree. The girl hit hard and slumped down.“Ouch, that's gotta hurt, "Bloom winced in sympathy, she had taken a hard hit or two in the past and knew just how comfortable it was to hit a tree like that. She seemed to be struggling to even raise her head as the monster growled at her, “No hard feelings fairy. A job is a job. Ghouls, take the scepter!”As the red beasts surged forward Bloom made a snap decision, she dashed back from the tree she was hiding behind before launching herself at it with all her strength. The crack sounded out like a cannon going off as the tree trunk gave way under the force of the impact, sending the tree crashing down into the clearing and on top of the monster and red beasts. Pushing herself up she saw the monster pinned under the tree but thrashing heavily and almost half of the red beasts were still there, trying to drag themselves out from under the tree branches as their brethren dissolved into ash. Bloom jumped off the tree and tried to rush over to the girl however she didn't get too far. One of the red beasts had gotten free and jumped at her, screaming as it made a slash for her chest. She barely managed to turn out of the way of its claws as a searing pain went down the side of her ribs. The beast landed behind her screeching in glee as the monster threw the tree off itself, killing more of the beasts in the process and stood up. Bloom grasped her wounded side, the flickering in her chest growing to a roar, as she looked down as a scarlet stain began to spread across her shirt. She looked back up at the monster as her world turned crimson.“So we’re really telling her?” Selina asked for the tenth time since they had met up at The Glade. The anxious girl was pacing back and forth in front of the fountain, waiting for Bloom to arrive. Marie glanced up at her before going back to looking through the pamphlet in front of her. She was sitting calmly on a bench in front of the fountain, looking through an informational pamphlet about the various services that Alfea offered, a similar one beside her told about the famous locations of the city of Magix.“It's just… She is gonna be so excited… and probably angry at us for not telling her sooner… you know she's GOING to set something on fire right?” Selina continued to ramble on and on about her insecurities. With a silent sigh Marie closed the pamphlet and looked at her, “Then we explain to her WHY we kept this secret. I don't have a problem throwing Eldora under the bus for this, she made us swear a magical oath before we knew what they were. Besides, I got you both into the school two years early and without having to take any tests. Just… hope everything goes right for a change.” Any passersby might have found the sight of a girl talking to a fox odd, but a localized barrier was keeping everyone from noticing for now otherwise Marie would probably be drawing a lot of attention just by appearance alone. Marie was a stunning snow white fox with silver blue eyes. She towered over other foxes however, standing over knee height on Bloom and Selina at the shoulder, she was a colossal example of her species.Selina nodded, her olive blonde hair shifting slightly. She was wearing a dark teal cardigan with a gray top, around her waist hung a short sea-green ruffled skirt with a dark teal belt. Her wrists were covered by silver bracelets that she had started wearing after dressing up as Wonder Woman for Halloween a few years back. Her legs were covered by grey tights and she wore knee high dark teal wedge boots. The fact that most of her clothes were always tailored to Bloom's favorite color was something that Marie teased her on endlessly and Bloom noticed but kept mercifully quiet about. Before Selina could think up something else to worry about, a loud boom and a massive flash of light came from the wooded area near them. They both shot up and looked towards the sound as did many other people in the area. Selina quickly produced a small, flat river rock with a rune carved into it and charged the object to full power before returning it to her pocket. As soon as the rune glowed everyone seemed to lose interest in the sound, as well as whatever they had been doing before. They began to calmly gather up their things and leave the areaThe two magicals ran into the wooded area, uncertain of what they would find. It didn't take them long to reach a clearing with a massive scorched area in it beside a toppled tree with its leaves burned off. Halfway across the clearing from the burnt area was another burnt location that looked like a starburst made of scorch marks. A yellow arm was lying, torn from its owner and discarded on the ground beside the felled tree. It was clear a battle had been fought here if the destruction, scent of smoke, and barely conscious blonde were any indication. Standing in the center of all that devastation was Bloom, fire rising from the center of her back like flaming wings as her hair danced in a nonexistent wind, her pants and shirt torn.The two exchanged looks not even bothering with telepathy for their silent conversation. Marie moved towards Bloom while Saline went over to the blond who was feebly trying to pull something from her pocket. Before they could enter the clearing the magic dancing around Bloom faded and the redhead collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut.Kiko had run out of nowhere and was jumping beside Bloom as she panted and gasped on her hands and knees, watching her owner with concern. The redhead let out a puff of smoke before reaching out and patted the bunny softly. Saline quickly made her way over to the other girl and kneeled down. Gently grabbing her chin she raised the other girl's head, noting her unfocused eyes, she tried to communicate with the girl, “Are you alright? Do you need us to call someone?”“Call… Specialists… Sky…” the girl mumbled out before her eyes rolled into her head and she slipped into unconsciousness, her clothes shifting back as she did. After making sure the girl's wounds didn't seem to be immediately life threatening she took the device the girl had been trying to remove from her pocket and used the blonds thumbprint to unlock it. Once she swiped through the contacts menu to find the name listed as Sky she got up and moved over to the severed arm. The blood flowing from it was deeper red than a humans and its size would have looked acceptable for the Hulk if not as muscular. After looking it over carefully she nodded her head and stood up. She would need the blonde to confirm but it seemed pretty obvious this was an ogre attack and something or someone hurt it bad. It seemed to have survived because there was no body and the arm was torn off, not burned off, but it wouldn't willingly come back quickly after a beating like the one it seemed to have received.Bloom groaned as she grabbed Marie’s shoulder and pulled herself up, "What… What happened?”“That's a good question,” Marie replied, looking around the clearing, “I don't think you did all of this but you definitely exploded.”Bloom groaned as she stood up, her legs wobbling a little under her own weight. Saline walked over to them, fiddling with a futuristic looking handheld device with one hand and holding a staff with the other. She pressed a few things before handing the staff to Marie. The fox grabbed the staff carefully in her mouth as Selina went back to fiddling with the phone. Kiko jumped onto the fox's back and snuggled into her fur just as a brunette young man's face appeared on the screen, smiling at first his face quickly turned dark, “Hey beautiful how… Who are you and why do you have Stellas phone?”Selina arched an eyebrow at the greeting, “Stella... was attacked by what appears to be an ogre. She’s safe for now but unconscious and injured, we don't know how bad. Before she blacked out she said to call you. We’ll take her someplace for shelter but if you could provide medicine and protection we’d appreciate it. Our galactic coordinates are… what?”Marie gave her a pointed look before repeating the coordinates, “They are… NTD64-PS2-GBA-DS-3DO-3”“Can you repeat that again,” The boy said as he rummaged for something off screen before reappearing with a notebook. Marie and Selina repeated the coordinates again in a big irritating word chain for everyone involved. The boy set his notepad down before returning to the screen, “I’ll get my team there as fast as possible, please keep her safe until then. I don't recognize those coordinates so it could take several hours to reach that location. Once we get there I’ll call again so we can trace the phone's location. Set it in the center of an empty space and step back, we’ll use it as a teleport beacon.”The boy hung up the phone rather quickly, apparently in a rush to arrive. Selina looked between her best friends and asked the obvious question, “Whose place are we taking her too?”Marie looked around before sighing silently, “The Grove might be a good place to hide but I don't want to explain this to Eldora. Not to mention it's on the edge of town.  Bloom's place would be the closest. We have to explain things to her parents anyway.”Bloom tried to speak but Marie stopped her with a gentle growl, “We’re going to your place Bloom. It has to do with what we were going to tell you earlier. Also you just exploded, you know that you need to rest afterwards.”Bloom sighed as she gave in, “Let me get my bike.”“I’ll go with her to make sure she doesn't fall over,” Selina said as the redhead moved towards the edge of the clearing. Before she could leave Marie called out, “Help me get Stella onto my back, she won't be able to move too quickly in her state but we need to hurry. How long will that barrier stone last for?”“An hour tops,” Selina replied as she moved to help the fox who was rapidly increasing in size, closer to that of a pony, “Let's hope it's long enough.”    Knut howled in agony as he practically fell through the teleport spell he’d used to escape. His two ghouls jumped away from him, rushing to the edge of the cavern to hide in the shadows as the injured ogre thrashed about, trying to stopper the blood spurting from his jagged stump. After several minutes of booming roars and howls the cave fell quiet as the ogre’s body began to heal his injuries and numb the pain. With a grunt he broke his hand free from the rock like scab, wincing as blood gouted forth for a second before hardening like the rest of the mass.His wound no longer an issue, the Ogre growled at the ghouls who had survived, “Come here, bring what you pulled from the girl!”The ghouls moved forward slowly, one of them blood dripping from its claws, a scrap of cloth held tightly in its fist. The small monster offered the fabric to the Ogre who snatched it away from them. He wandered deeper into his cave, intent on resting before his bosses arrived. It would take several hours for his arm to regrow and he was almost certain they would send him out again once it was. Why did he have to get found by those witches?With a groan he rested on his bed, dropping the fabric on the slab of rock beside it that acted as a table. His troll would at least get a workout from the next outing.The walk back to Bloom's house was done mostly in silence. Stella groaned a few times when she was jossled wrong, but other than that no one made a sound. Bloom was trying to conserve all the energy she could, each time she ‘exploded’ it would take a large meal for her to recover enough to act normal. She wouldn't fully recover for a few days though. She was focusing all her energy on walking by herself, using her bike as a support but trying to hide it. Marie’s hackles were raised and her head snapped back and forth at any noise. The girls knew not to try and talk to her when she got like this. Salena carefully helped Marie make sure Stella didn't fall off or hit anything. Thankfully they didn't have to worry about cars or people seeing them, the barrier would see to that.After the first half mile of walking Bloom was flagging pretty heavily, using her bike more and more as a crutch. Her breath was coming in short pants, growing more and more ragged each second. By the time they were a half mile away from her home Selina was half carrying the redhead. Fortunately the rune barrier held the entire way and they were able to safely make it inside the house and disable it before the stone broke down.While Selina was disabling the near scorching hot barrier stone Bloom lurched towards one of the chairs and fell into it, almost asleep the second she touched down. Marie also moved towards the furniture, careful not to knock Stella’s unconscious body on anything she waited for Selina to come help her. Once they got Stella onto the couch Selina laid her out and made sure she was in a comfortable position before shrinking to the size of a large dog and looking for a blanket to cover Stella with.Hearing the sounds from the living room Vanessa called out, “Is that you Bloom? How was your day? I made up a time card for you at the shop, we can talk about your hours over dinner but you’ll have to start at the same wage as everyone else ok? Bloom?”The woman stuck her head around the corner to see Selina tucking a heavy blanket normally used for decoration during the summer months around the redhead's body with her nose, earning a soft purring from the girl while Marie dragged a blanket over Stella’s body. Vanessa's eyes widened when she saw the giant fox and the blond on her couch, her face plastered with mud and scuffed up.“What happened?” She cried, rushing in to check on her daughter while Saline moved into the kitchen.“That's a long story, when will Mike be home?” Selina asked as she filled up a bowl with warm soapy water.“He should be home in a few minutes, unless something came up,” Vanessa replied as she carefully checked on Bloom. Selina came back into the room, bowl of water and towel in hand and knelt down beside the blond. Carefully she began to wash the girls face off, removing the dirt and trying to clean the wounds as best she could. Once she made sure Bloom was alright Vanessa turned to check on the other girl, “What happened to her?”“She- Ogre attack,” Selina started to try and explain as she continued to wash off the blonde's face and clean her wounds before Marie’s psychic words cracked through the room sharply cutting her off. The other occupants stared at the white fox sitting calmly to the side as she stared at Selina, “Heal her, but don't forget to set up the phone out back.”Vanessa was staring wide eyed at the fox while Selina finished washing the blondes' injuries.“Did she just…” Vanessa started to ask before stopping, unsure how to ask the question without sounding stupid. Saline understood thankfully, “Yes, she did. It's part of the stuff we need to explain, preferably with Mike here.”Vanessa nodded dumbly for a second before Selina's words registered in her head, “Did you say… part?”“Yes, now watch.” Selina instructed, making sure the brunette eyes were on her before she raised her hand about ten centimeters above Stella’s head. Her palm began to glow with a pale green light, shining down onto the blondes head. Before Vanessa’s very eyes the wound on the young woman's face began to heal as if they never were there to begin with. As the last injury healed she grabbed Selina's shoulder, “Can you do that for Bloom?”“No, her magic is exhausted. If she were in a more magic rich environment it’d recover much more quickly but she has to make all the energy herself. If either Marie or I had used as much energy as she did we would have been in that state for at least a week, probably closer to a month, and we would likely be fully comatose,” Selina said as she stood up, a little wobbly, just as Mike walked through the front door whistling cheerily, “Now, I believe you asked for an explanation.”“So this girl is some kind of fairy from another world who was attacked by an ogre. An ogre that Bloom then somehow fought off. And all three of you have magic of one form or another,”  Vanessa asked them calmly while carefully replacing the damp cloth on the unconscious blondes head. Seeming to want to confirm the explanation given by her daughter's best friend. Bloom was little help as the girl was busy wolfing down everything Saline was bringing to her from the kitchen, seeming to eat faster the more she consumed.“Ridiculous,” Mike muttered from where he sat in his armchair as Marie raised her head from where she sat on the floor, “Correct. We also got Bloom entered into a very prestigious boarding school in the Magix kingdom. She needs to control her powers and unfortunately we were sworn to secrecy for so long we aren't sure how to help her to do so any longer.”“Ridiculous,” Mike muttered again as he shook his head. Vanessa looked at the snowy fox, “Sworn by who?”“My grandmother, Eldora,” Saline stated before moving to get the redhead more food, “Marie there is what's known as a familiar she was bonded to Bloom since before they can remember so Bloom’s birth parents must have done it before they left her on earth.”“How do you know about that?” Mike asked in shock as he jumped up. Vanessa had frozen on her way to help in the kitchen staring in horror at Saline before looking over to see how Bloom reacted. The redhead froze her fork midway to her mouth as all eyes turned to her. Shrugging she opened her jaws so wide they seemed to unhinge before snapping the massive hunk of beef off her fork and swallowing the chunk without chewing. She at least waited for the mass to pass down her throat before replying as she had been instructed by Vanessa through countless hours of training, “I don't get why you're shocked about that. It's pretty obvious, I mean, neither of your families have any redheads in them. Grammy, Grampy, Nana, and Papa didn't have red hair, neither did any of your great grandparents or their other children. I figured it out in like, sixth grade when we learned about punnett squares and genetics. I had suspicions before, you know, with the whole you being normal humans and me being anything but. For goodness sake, Marie has been following me around since before I can remember, talking to me like Jiminy Cricket.”“You aren't mad?” Vanessa asked carefully.“Why would I be? It's not the easiest thing to talk about, heaven knows dad will never stop thinking of me as his little girl to be protected. I figured you would wait till I was eighteen to tell me, that's what most people I talked to online said their parents did,” Bloom replied as she began to carve another slab of steak into pieces, “Besides, why would I be upset you adopted me? Can there be any greater act of selfless love than adopting a child abandoned in a burning building… although I probably was the one that set that building on fire.”“How do you know about THAT?” Vanessa squeaked out in shock as Bloom went back to eating. Saline jumped in to answer in her place, “I knew I was adopted and when, Eldora told me when I was seven and asked why I didn't have parents. Turns out I arrived in some kind of magical anomaly that drew Eldora’s attention. She described it like someone had punched a hole in the fabric of reality and I was what came out the other side. I did some research and found out that that same night a baby and a puppy were pulled out of a burning building by a young firefighter and that the fire vanished without doing any damage the minute they got them out of the building. The newspaper said the firefighter and his wife had adopted them both. I had already figured it out but seeing that it happened December tenth just hammered it home that that was Bloom and Marie.”“So you think Bloom is some alien or something?” Mike asked, staring at them oddly.“Thats exactly what she is,” Marie replied as she got up and shrunk down to about the size of a house cat. She walked over and jumped up onto the table before turning and looking at the man, “You and Vanessa are the only Terrans in this house right now. I don't know who any of our parents were, if they were alive, and why we ended up on earth. What I can tell you is that in most of the galaxy children are such a blessing that most wouldn't even think of just abandoning one anywhere. That means something happened and we were sent to earth for safety.”“You speak like you've been out in the galaxy,” Mike noted as he stared at the fox, his eyes narrowed.“I have! I have been to several different worlds over the last decade. Eldora happened to know my people so she got me in touch with them. I’m nobility amongst the Familiars but that holds no real power in most galactic affairs. It's like saying I’m a noble amongst butlers,” Marie said with cackling laughter that made everyone's hairs raise, “I have seen enough to know that if someone capable of sending three infants safely to another world was forced to do so, whatever it was won't be stopped by earthly means. And if any of us were the targets then we stand no chance against it as we are, Bloom especially since she has no handle on her powers.”Mike and Vanessa exchanged a long look, having one of those silent conversations only soul mates can before Mike looked back at the fox, “This school you want us to allow Bloom to attend. Will she be safe there?”“I can't guarantee she’ll be safe anywhere, even in a flagship at the heart of an armada. What I can say is that she’ll be on a planet called Magix, the capital of the Magix kingdom in the core of the Kingdoms of Magic. She will be attending a school run by one of the champions of the Company of Light, the heroes against the Army of Darkness in a war that tore apart the galaxy two and a half centuries ago, and that three of the other members of that company are on the same planet close at hand. Not to mention every teacher at the schools there is a veteran of that war, Marie stated as she curled into a ball on the table, “I can't think of any place that could be safer and still teach her how to use her powers so she can defend herself if need be. It's a school renowned for high profile attendants such as heirs to royal families and champions of realms. Famous for training kings and queens to be great. I don't know why, but literally all I had to do was mention that we were raised on earth and the headmistress was jumping at the chance to get us into her school. Apparently she wants us to get off of earth and to somewhere that other magicals can watch over us as soon as possible. I think she might have been on the verge of having an aneurysm from rage when she found out someone had just abandoned us there until I told her my suspicion that whoever did it did it for our own safety.”“So she’s trustworthy?” Vanessa prompted as she cleared away plates from the table.“I am willing to put our lives under her care,” Marie answered, curling into a ball and covering her face with her tail, “I would say that speaks volumes about her trustworthiness.”“Ngh,” The blonde groaned as she came back to consciousness. Sitting up she looked around herself before focusing on the people around her, “Hello, would you happen to know what planet I’m on?”“Earth,” Mike replied watching the elfin girl wearily.“Drat, that brute’s master really knocked me off course,” The blonde hissed out before standing up and giving a curtsey, “I am princess Stella Ghrian Von Solaria, crown princess of the Kingdom of Solaria.”“Nice to meet you, I’m Bloom,” Bloom said as she made her way over to the blond, her plate empty.“You're the girl that saved me from that ogre right?”“Sort of,” Bloom said with an awkward laugh before moving on with introductions, “This is Saline…”“Hello,” Saline replied with a light curtsey.“...Marie…”The fox didn't move and faint snoring could be heard from its snowy frame....and my parents, Mike and Vanessa,” Bloom finished, indicating the humans. Vanessa smiled at the blond while Mike nodded in greeting.“Nice to meet you. Thanks for the help earlier, someone interfered with the teleportation spell I was using to head to Magix and sent me right into the waiting arms of that ogre,” Stella said with a radiant smile on her face, her ears twitching excitedly, “You were amazing out there Bloom, I’m no slouch but the way you threw that tree at them and then burst into flames! And the raw strength you demonstrated! You must be insanely powerful! Are you signed up for Alfea? You could probably get in on merit of your power alone!”“Apparently I am,” Bloom replied, “Although to be fair I didn't know about Alfea until a few minutes ago.”“Ohmygosh!” Stella squealed in excitement as she grabbed Blooms hands, “If you didn't know that means you haven't seen it! I have a magical postcard that can let us look at the grounds, although we can't go inside the buildings! Do you want to see what the castle looks like?”As if hit by a ton of bricks Stella froze as she held Bloom's hands. After a second she collapsed to her knees.“Are you alright!?” Bloom, Saline, Mike, and Vanessa all asked as the redhead crouched down to help her up and the others moved closer.“Your magic,” Stella panting and leaning heavily on Bloom as her legs were like jello, “It's so warm and strong! It feels like the Heart of Solaria. How can you even exist? That much magic shouldnt be possible for a living being.”Everyone froze in shock and confusion as the girl pushed herself off of Bloom and wobbled away for a few seconds before leaning against a wall gasping, “Gods, that's unbelievable…”“Is it that bad?” Saline asked, looking at Bloom with concern, the redhead was starting to draw into herself like she did when she felt guilty or uncertain.“Not bad necessarily,” Stella replied, “But for her to be giving off that much magic without channeling is incredible. The fact she’s alive is incredible as well, it means even with all that power flowing out of her she still has reserves to spare. You have an insane potential girl. You're gonna kill it at Alfea.”“Won't I hurt other people by being near them?” Bloom asked uncertainty.“It probably won't have as much effect on others as it does on me. Our powers are fairly compatible, what with you being fire and me being celestial light. Not to mention on this world you're like an oasis in a desert. On Magix there's power everywhere,” As she caught her breath Stella’s voice became more chipper again, “Maybe we can room together! Princess Veranda of Calisto isn't going to be there this year so I don't have a roommate! It could be so much fun!”“Why don't you girls go upstairs and look at that postcard you mentioned while the two of us talk,” Vanessa cut through the conversation, her tone saying it wasn't a suggestion. Bloom and Saline moved towards the stairs with Stella following close behind. Marie stood up and stretched before jumping off the table and following after them.“I think we should let her go Mike.”The blonde man looked up the stairs, “I hate to say this but I agree. I just wish it didn't have to be so soon. The fairy bit doesn't really surprise me, but an alien… it's a bit hard to wrap my head around”“Knut! What happened?!” The echoing voice of one of his three mistresses rang out through the cave he called home.“I had the scepter! I swear! But then some girl appeared out of nowhere! She brought a tree down on top of me then when one of my ghouls hurt her she exploded with power!" Knut cried out as he groveled before the shadows of the witches as they projected their will through the darkness around him. His arm was almost fully regrown by now, the new limb looking skinny compared to his other arm but quickly growing in size."A girl!? What did she look like? What was her power?" Another of the witches asked, silver eyes narrowing."Ugh, um she was um…""Knut," the third witch growled, "where are your glasses?""Right here mistress," Knut said, cringing as he picked them up off his bedside and put them on, the hideous pink rims clashed horribly with his yellow skin."Damn it Knut!" The witch shrieked at him before the first one spoke in his defense, "Hey, how dumb is it for a brawler like him to wear glasses into combat? They would get broken.""Just because you have to wear glasses..." the third witch started before the second interrupted her bickering sisters, "shut up! Knut! How do you intend to fix this mistake!?""Ah! One of my ghouls hurt the girl who interrupted us and managed to get a scrap of clothing from her!" Knut said, glad for the little silver lining, "My hunting troll will be able to track her down! I was planning on returning once my arm finished healing.""Good! Now listen carefully. If you retreat because anything short of a group of serofiber wearing hero trainees show up then it will be your LAST failure! Now GO!" With that the shadows thinned and returned to normal, leaving the sweating and shaking ogre alone with his thoughts.“So this is your room? Wow!” Stella exclaimed looking around in genuine amazement. She seemed intrigued by all of the drawings Bloom had scattered on and around her desk, “Did you draw all of these? You're amazing!”She shuffled through them for a second before suddenly blushing as she looked back at the redhead, “Sorry I’m being so nosy.”“It's ok Stella,” Bloom said with a forced grin, “Just, what do you remember happening in the park?”“You used your powers to save me,” Stella replied as she turned to look out the window, “You snapped that tree like it was a twig then burst into flame after that imp slashed you. I don't remember much after that, but you don't need to worry. From what you said you're new at this, it makes sense that you wouldn't have full control over your powers yet. You were never taught how to.”Bloom nodded, relief flashing across her face before she frowned, “That reminds me I have to figure out what to do with Eldora. She won't be getting off easy for keeping this stuff from me.”“Well, how about a simple exercise in reversing a spell?” Stella asked innocently.“NO!/NO!” Marie and Saline cried, both shooting up from where they had sat on the bed. The other two girls looked at them, Stella confused and Bloom disappointed.“She has uncontrolled fire power and enough magic that the excess could affect a royal! She needs either professional instruction, or a fireproof area to practice,” Saline explained before grimacing, “Preferably both given how much power she apparently has.”“You’re right,” Stella said after a few seconds, a sheepish grin on her face, “That was reckless of me. How about we look at Alfea? That doesn't require any magic from any of us, just a magic item.”“That sounds great,” Bloom agreed, jumping at the opportunity to see more magic.“This is a bottomless postcard,” Stella explained as she produced a folded up piece of paper from the pocket of her dress. She opened it and set it on the ground before crouching as if ready to jump, “Just follow me!”With a small bound she jumped onto the postcard and seemed to be sucked into it, like water going down a drain. In a flash of light she was gone.“Stella?” Bloom asked uncertainly as she and Saline approached the card.They both jumped back with a yelp as a voice came from the paper, “What are you waiting for? Come on in!”Bloom stepped forward first, surprised when her foot met no resistance and immediately fell into the card, bringing her body crashing to the ground as her entire leg disappeared inside. Bubbling laughter burst from both the other two in the room as well as from the inside of the card.“Shut up!” Bloom growled as she pushed herself up to give her other foot room to get in. As soon as the last strands of her blazing hair disappeared into the card Marie jumped after her. Saline followed last, missing by mere seconds the sound of faint banging on the back door.She landed in the post card just in time to see Bloom run face first into the invisible wall as she tried to move closer to the building. She could only stare in shock as Stella and Marie dissolved into giggles while Bloom picked herself up, “What?”“This is just a pocket dimension with an image of Alfea,” Stella explained through giggles. Looking around Saline was amazed to see the massive castle. It was different from a european or asian castle. The building was gigantic and made of a pink stone. The large quartyard was encompassed by a gigantic wall with a dozen towers all of which were made from the same stone. The roofs were a deep blue and the main building seemed to be made of three parts. The center keep was a four story affair with a large domed roof that had windows indicating a fifth floor. To the left and right were large tower buildings, each of which looked like a keep unto itself, that each stood at least twice as tall as the main keep The three keeps were connected by a double story building. The full structure formed a half circle inside the outer wall with a well at the center of the courtyard they formed, halfway between the two towers. The walkway leading to the keep was lined with lamp stands that seemingly had no lamps on the end of them.“An impressive building, right?” Marie said as she walked to Saline’s side, her head on a swivel, “It doesn't really translate from the flier but looking at it now I can see it should be easily defensible. The towers are properly built and I would wager there’s probably magic defenses built into the stonework. The tower keeps provide good points for air defenses and the walls seem both tall and thick enough to hold off an attack.”“Are you serious right now? You see this amazing castle and all you think of is how it would hold in a fight,” Saline sighed out as she looked around at the beautiful architecture.“Of course, war is what I was born for,” Marie replied as she moved over towards Bloom. The redhead looked at her familiar, confused, “What do you mean you were born for war?”“Well since she can communicate she’s at least a High Familiar. Most of them were bred specifically for the guards of royals and heroes or nobles of some sort. A lot were engineered to hold knowledge so they wouldn't need training. My bodyguards had some, but none quite as beautiful as her,” Stella said as she walked over to pet Marie. As Bloom processed that Kiko burst into the postcard in a panic, squeaking loudly.“Kiko? What's wrong!?”“Something must be going on outside,” Stella said as she glowed with magic, transforming back into her fairy form with its shining orange outfit. She jumped up and the object's magic drew her out of the postcard. Bloom and Selina exchanged concerned looks as Marie followed the fairy out of the card. Selina followed after with Bloom in last.When they emerged they heard roaring from downstairs accompanied by shouts and screams. Stella was already out the door and flying with Marie following behind her, having grown to the size of a dog again. Bloom and Selina charged after them as Stella went over the banister into the sitting room below and Marie cleared the stairs in three bounds. They arrived on the scene in time to see a massive blue troll and a yellow ogre accompanied by dozens of imps tearing apart the living room.“WHERE ARE THOSE GIRLS!” The ogre was screaming at Mike and Vanessa who were backed into a corner, Mike using his body to shield his wife.“RIGHT HERE! SUN BURST!” Stella exclaimed as she leveled her staff at the ogre’s back and fire a bolt of light at him. He spun around just in time to catch the bolt to his chest, causing him to scream in pain and bat at his now burning overalls. Marie wasted no time darting forward, slashing the imps with razor sharp claws of magic and crushing them within her powerful maw. As soon as the troll saw Bloom it let out a mighty roar and charged at her, taking her by surprise as it body slammed her into and through the wall and back into the sitting room. Selina let out a cry of shock and created a magic circle in the air, aimed at the troll, “ANANTA!”A gargantuan snake, bigger than an anaconda and with seven heads, shot out of the circle and bit into the massive creature, dragging it off of Bloom. The redhead didn't stay down for long, she was up and pissed in seconds as the Troll struggled to get the jaws and coils of the snake off his body.Marie was having trouble killing all the imps, they just seemed to keep increasing. She killed one and two more would take its place. As she darted through the living room, seemingly wreathed in shadows from her near continuous stream of kills she noticed that the imps seemed to have devoted their entire focus on her. She rapidly turned, bursting around the continuing battle between Stella and the ogre and shot towards the back door, intent on leading the nuisances outside so she could get a better grasp on their numbers.Stella fired off rapid bursts of light at the ogre, staying in continuous motion as it tried to grab at her and punch her. She couldn't use any of her more powerful spells, they required too much charge up time and focus, things she didn't have to spare right now as she avoided yet another punch that probably would have shattered her bones if it connected. She needed more space to move in, so she could get out of his range of attack. Seeing Maire burst through their battle, leading the imps outside Stella shot after her, intent on getting more space. The ogre managed to catch up just as she made it into the kitchen, its hand slamming into her back and knocking the wind out of her as it shot her towards the kitchen window.In the sitting room Bloom and the serpent were struggling with the enraged troll, trying to contain or incapacitate it. The beast was dragging two of the serpents heads off of its body when Bloom struck with a vicious haymaker, the crunch of bone clear as its jaw broke. It let out another bellow and tried to strike the redhead but its arms were grabbed by a head each, restraining it enough to allow Bloom to dodge the attack. The redhead tagged back in as it turned its attention to the snake again, delivering a flurry of jabs to its gut before administering a sharp uppercut that produced more crunching bone sounds. The troll screamed in pain and rage before throwing its entire body forward, dragging the snake along with it as it slammed into Bloom and took her into and through the wall of the sitting room.Marie was trying to contain the ever expanding number of imps when two things happened nearly simultaneously. Stella was thrown through the window, slamming into and killing a number of imps as she ragdolled across the backyard before tumbling to a stop on the grass, her staff laying nearly a meter behind her, speared into the ground. At almost the same time the wall of the house burst outward as Bloom, the troll, and a rapidly dematerializing snake tumbled along with the debris through the hole. Selina tried to follow but she only made it about halfway across the room before collapsing to her knees in exhaustion, her magic spent. Everything stood still for a second before the ogre emerged from the back door, his face, chest, and arms covered in burns and the top of his overalls mere ribbons of cloth that thankfully still held the bottoms up.As the troll shoved itself up to rejoin the fight a red dot appeared on its forehead. Seconds later its head disintegrated into red mist as its body collapsed. Two shadows fell from the sky as a pair of young men landed in the yard, one had blonde hair the other burgundy, both wore skin tight blue bodysuits with white accents and a teal cape and held transparent weapons in their hands. They burst into motion, eviscerating imps at a rapid pace, the blonde using a blue sword and shield while the other fought with a purple cutlass in each hand. The ogre let out a surprised yelp as a third boy landed, this one the brunette from Stella’s phone with a massive green zweihander. He brought the blade slashing down towards the beast who threw up an arm to defend itself, the blade sunk into its forearm nearly halfway through before stopping. The ogre twisted its body, throwing the brunette who didn't release his sword out towards the imps just in time to dodge another shot from the sniper that impacted the brick wall where its shoulder had just been. The brunette twisted in midair and slashed through three imps to clear his landing area, going into a roll and coming up in a fighting stance.Marie was helping Stella get up when the troll stood back up, half its head regrown but clearly enough for it to fight. Before it could jump into the fray though Bloom's leg smashed into its knee in a viscous low kick that sent the joint bending in the wrong direction and the beast crashing to all fours. Less than a second later its head and a massive portion of its back were mulched as another sniper round tore into its body, bringing the beast down again as the golden bolt stayed embedded in its flesh. With the troll downed again Bloom rushed over to Stella to help her. Almost as soon as she reached her the blonde grabbed her wrist, “Aim your palm towards the ogre and hold your hand flat like you're going to push a door shut.”Bloom did as instructed and felt a rush of… something. It reminded her of that feeling she got whenever she managed to cause something to explode or burst into flames. This time instead of something random happening though an orb of orange light burst into existence in front of her palm, growing bigger and brighter by the second. The feeling didn't go away either, it continued to flow, slower and more measured than the normal rush she was used to. After a few seconds Stella whispered into her ear, “Now let go.”She shouldn't have known what the blonde was telling her to do, she had no practice or experience with magic. If anyone had asked her that morning how to release a spell she would have said she had no idea. Now, it seemed like the simplest thing in the world as she breathed in and pulled that slow seeping feeling running down her arm back into her body. As soon as she did the orb shot forward, slamming into the ogre’s face and sending him ass over teakettle.As it stood up the ogre looked around quickly, taking in his troll defeated and the imps being slaughtered faster than the multiplication magic could recover and finally at the green sword wielding warrior moving back towards him. With a growl the ogre brought up its hands to clap them, it didn't get the chance. Its right arm was torn off, a golden bolt stuck in what remained of its humorous bone. It let out a roar as it fell on its back, blood gouting out of its stump. The beast seemed to recognize that the swordsman was still approaching; however as it raised its remaining hand and slammed it into the ground, a burst of inky black smoke engulfed its body as the zweihander swung down towards its chest. The blade struck the stone of the patio and sliced through it, revealing the ogre had vanished.“Damn, this one got away,” The brunette growled as he pulled his blade out, “Timmy, bring the ship over, we need to get the troll into containment before it regenerates.”“On it.” A second voice cut in as the gem on the brunette’s cloak holder glowed. The brunette turned to help his companions only to see the blonde slice the last imps head off with the edge of his shield.“I got thirty three,” The burgundy haired boy said proudly as he stowed his swords away.“It's not a competition,” The blond said as he deactivated his shield and stowed his sword. He was silent for a second as the redhead glared at him, clearly about to say something before the blonde continued, “But I got thirty five.”“BULLSHIT!” The redhead growled as the blonde laughed.“Guys, guys, relax. We all did great on our first mission,” the brunette said as he stowed his own blade.“Not to interrupt your little party or anything,” Bloom said from where she now stood by the trolls body again, her hands on her hips and a clearly annoyed tone in her voice as she brought her foot down on the trolls back, caving its chest in to interrupt its regeneration as the bolt had been ejected by its rapidly healing flesh, “and it's not like I’m not grateful for the help but, who the hell are you guys?”“They're the specialists Bloom,” Stella said as she limped over, leaning heavily on Marie so as not to put pressure on her left leg. She was holding her ribs which were rapidly bruising as was much of her back, “An order of fighters who work to maintain peace and stability across the galaxy. They work kind of like a police force that acts independently and sometimes alongside planetary police forces.”“So like the FBI?”“Something like that or interpol,” Marie affirmed before Stella began introductions, “The brunette here is Prince Sky of Eraklyon, the blonde is his squire Brandon, the redhead is Riven, and their sniper is Timmothy.”“We call him Timmy for short,” Brandon said as he walked over to Bloom with a smile, drawing his blade again before plunging it into the troll's back and wiggling it back and forth to enlarge the wound.“Nice to meet you all. I would invite you to sit down but the troll sort of wrecked my sitting room,” Bloom said, glancing into the room in question just in time to see Mike rush over to help Selina stand and Vanessa came running out and glomped onto her, crushing her in a tight hug. A sudden wind storm seemed to blow up causing everyone to cover their eyes as chunks of plaster and wood flew through the air. After a few seconds the storm stopped and a door opened from nowhere three meters off the ground. A ramp extended out as another blonde, this one with glasses on his face, descended, a massive crossbow like weapon slung on his back and a box in each hand, “The barrier is active so no one should notice anything odd in this area.”“Thanks Tim,” Brandon said as he walked over to meet the other blonde who handed over one of the boxes he was carrying.“I’ll take the medkit,” Sky said as he approached, reaching out for the other box which Timmy readily passed over.“Where’s the repair tools?” Riven half demanded as he walked past Timmy up the ramp.“Second chest after your locker, grab me one too,” Timmy replied as he moved to see how he could help.Brandon rapidly constructed a dome around the downed troll, Once the pieces were assembled he pressed a button on the box activating the device. The cage levitated itself and the troll before fully encasing the troll within its confines. Pressing several buttons on the box he began to direct the cage to the ramp and up into their invisible ship. Sky was meanwhile administering aid, and the occasional peck on the cheek, to Stella who looked quite happy in spite of her wounds. Once he was done he moved to see if any of the others needed treatment. Stella’s bruises were already beginning to fade as the magic and advanced medicine went to work on her body. Riven emerged from the ship after Brandon had gotten the troll inside, a strange gun like device in each hand. He tossed one to Timmy, who fumbled the catch but managed to grab it before it hit the ground, and began to use the device on the back door. The device scanned the door and after a few seconds began to shoot out rays of light, rapidly repairing the cracked out entryway. Timmy was doing the same to the shattered wall of the house while Mike, Vanessa and Bloom looked on in shock.“Are you sure you don't want to come back with us Stella,” Sky asked as the others returned to the ship, the repairs on the house done.“I’m sure hero. The Peters were kind enough to invite me to stay with them and I intend to take them up on that offer. I can get them to Magix quickly tomorrow after all and Bloom and Selina need rest,” Stella replied with a soft smile.“Alright, I shall count the hours until we meet again,” he whispered before kissing the back of her hand and departing. Their ship took off and it was like nothing magical had happened at all that night.“Hurry up Bloom, we have to go!” Stella yelled up the stairs. She was impatiently tapping her foot as she waited. Marie was stretched out on the carpet while Selina combed her fur, “She wasn't aware we were leaving then she didn't have time to pack yesterday. Cut her some slack.”“But we have to make it in time for orientation! I will not be spending the first evening of school in Grisseldas office getting lectured.“Are you sure we can't come see the school?” Mike asked from where he sat in his chair, twiddling his thumbs in worry.“No, Marie was right. You won't be able to get in. We’ll have to arrange a meeting at a later date with Miss Faragonda,” Stella replied as Bloom came rushing down the stairs with her suitcase stuffed as full as it would go, “Sorry!”“Alright! Let's go!” Stella exclaimed as she raised her ring overhead and teleported the three girls, fox, and luggage away.“They’ll be alright Mike.”Mike stared at where they had been just seconds before, “I hope you're right dear. Cause there is absolutely nothing I can do if you aren't.”“You wanted to speak to us, Faragonda?” Griffin asked as she materialized out of the room's shadows, her body still partially made of the intangible darkness. On the other side of the room Saladin had emerged from a door of light which had appeared on her bookshelf then vanished.“Yes, I felt I shouldn't keep this from you anymore given they will start arriving soon,” Faragonda said calmly as she sipped her tea.“You mean your students?” Saladin asked as he sat down, helping himself to the cup of tea set out for him.“Yes, but more specifically who will be among those students,” The headfairy replied, a smile on her lips.“You don't mean…” Griffin started before Griselda cut her off, “Five of their names have been confirmed as attending Alfea this year.”The Headwitch glared at the younger looking fairy who simply glared back. After several seconds of the deadlock Griffin turned her attention back to her old friend and rival, “So, it begins again. Just like you said.”Faragonda smiled at her over her teacup, “It was never a question of if it would, only when my love.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Welcome to Magix!” Stella exclaimed, spreading her arms wide. Bloom and Selina looked on in shock at the scene before them. They stood in a forest atop a cliff overlooking a large lake. A road ran along the far end of the lake in front of the massive pink stone walls of a castle, identical in every way to the one from the postcard.
“Why exactly did you teleport us to the far side of the lake, in the middle of a forest?” Selina asked, her eyes staring vacantly at the woods they would have to walk through.
“It's the schools teleport point. Speaking of, we need to move or the next group is gonna land on top of us. I had to slot in between teleports cause I missed my own time,” The princess replied with a grin as she waved a hand and shrunk Blooms luggage before heading off.
The others followed her, Selina staring wearily at the trees around them as they went and sticking closely to the others.
“What's the matter? It's just trees,” Stella asked as she noticed the other girls discomfort.
“I-its no-nothing," Selina stammered out unconvincingly as Bloom wrapped an arm around her shoulder protectively, "Selina here got lost in the woods when we went to middle school camp. They didn't find her until the next day and she's hated forests ever since."
At the embarrassing admission Marie snickered while Selina let out a soft whine. Fortunately the walk around the lake was relatively short and they arrived at the gates of the castle in less than ten minutes. There was a small crowd of people waiting out front of the closed gate, milling around and talking even as more people came out of the woods. The stunning blue wing shaped door opened with the wings seeming to collapse as they opened and descended into the ground seamlessly. Waiting inside the gate was a severe looking woman with chin length brunette hair, green glasses, and a blue dress that fell all the way to her ankles.
“Who is that?” Selina asked as the woman was approached by the first group of students.
“Deputy Headmistress Griselda, head of discipline,” Stella replied as she fished through her pockets, “she has to make sure to account for every student so she ambushes everyone before they can get in and go do their stuff.”
Stella was elbow deep in her front right pocket, a feet that shouldn't have been physically possible given the size of her miniskirt, before she fished out a letter and continued with a sly smirk, “She’s a stickler for the rules but not bad. Just make sure you always follow the letter of the law, if not the spirit around her.”
They had to wait a few minutes as the woman dealt with each group in turn before waving them over.
“Ah, friends of Stella I see. I’m warning you now that won't get you out of any trouble. Ms. Faragonda may have let her back in but the same does not necessarily apply to you. Now what's your names?” Miss Griselda asked as the group walked up to her, glaring at Stella who began whistling innocently.
“Bloom Peters,” Bloom replied, cautious of the intimidating woman.
“Selina Kyle,” Selina replied with a grin before giving a sharp yelp as Bloom elbowed her hard, “Selina Kerridge.”
Griselda glared at the green haired girl while Selina glared at Bloom and rubbed her tender side. The Deputy headmistress made two checkmarks on her clipboard before saying, “I take it that's some sort of joke from Earth. Regardless when asked for your name in an official capacity in the Kingdoms such jokes can be dangerous. I must key you into the wards for the school and that requires you to give me your name. That aside the two of you will need to speak with Headmistress Faragonda after her introductory speech and you find your dorm room. I trust you've been there enough times to guide them, Miss Stella.”
Stella nodded, “Yes ma’am. I have a letter for you from Varanda Callisto.”
Griselda took the letter, opened it and looked through it. She nodded and waved them into the school as others cued up behind them. Stella led them through the large gatehouse and into the courtyard within. Pointing out various places she enjoyed going to as they went. As Bloom and Selina walked their heads were on a swivel. The massive structure was just a beautiful as the postcard they had explored the night before but now without limits. There were also a multitude of people around that were so different as to be baffling. Some had feathers or vines in place of hair, while others were furred, had tails, ears, gills, some were centaurs while others had feathered or membranous wings. The sheer number of people with different apparent biology's were mind boggling.
“Surprised love’s? Did you think everyone had ears like me?” Stella asked with a smirk.
“Kind of,” Selina replied, glancing at a young man built like Arnold Schwarzenegger but with cow like legs extending from his shorts and a pair of large horns jutting from his forehead and back over his skull before they rose to a point behind his head like a devil. Even more jarringly he was wearing big glasses and reading a book on electronics that was almost as thick as his wrist like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
“Nope, Only Solarians have ears like me,” Stella said before spinning around and running her finger along the underside of her curved ears to the tip, just barely not touching them, “Though not all Solarians have such smooth and perfectly curved ears like mine that taper to such a fine point. Stunning right?”
They looked at her in confusion before Marie’s snickers drew their attention, “Solarians consider ear shape as part of their attractiveness. Having well-formed ears is considered attractive. Probably because they're so sensitive, if you ever get the chance to, blow some air on her ears, watch what happens.”
“DON'T YOU DARE!” Stella hissed, a horrified look on her face. Before anyone could comment though the doors of the school opened as a loud bell rang from the center tower of the school. A dignified woman with curly silver hair in a blue dress led a group of people that were clearly older than the students. None of them were visibly old, not even the woman leading them although she appear to be amongst the oldest of the group. The woman waved the students who were milling about in the courtyard to follow her towards the main building as she began to speak in a voice which mystically carried to apparently everyone, "Welcome all, I'm Ms. Faragonda your headmistress. I'm an Alfea alumni and former fairy godmother. This year we have quite a wonderful class. Some of you will fight evil, others grant wishes, and many are princesses that will take over your realms. Each of you is unique. You all have different sources of power, and diverse origins, but our mission is the same! To have each of you become the very best you can be! Naturally we expect you to do your best at all times."
Near the end of the speech Stella copied the headmistress in a mocking tone, "To have each of you become the very best you can be, she says that all the time."
"Now girls, go find your dorms and introduce yourselves to your dorm mates for the next few years," Faragonda said as she waved everyone towards the stairs up before vanishing in a flash of light. Selina and Bloom both followed Stella as she went up the stairs with the rest of the group. Many people were chatting, filling the halls with a dull murmur of noise. Kiko had jumped on top of Marie who had in turn jumped onto Blooms shoulders when they began to move as a group, intent on avoiding being stepped on. She was resting her head and forebody on top of the redheads poofy mane while balancing with her back legs on the girls shoulders. Bloom barely even seemed to notice this as she glanced around, like Selina, gawking at the castles interior.
"How are we supposed to know where our rooms are?" Selina asked as they moved through the hallway behind the blonde who, unlike the rest of the first years, seemed to know where she was going.
"You have to look for them obviously. This way you learn the dorm layouts and where stuff is," Stella replied with ease, glancing at the signs on doors as she went. They reached the end of the hallway which lead into one of the large towers and had to double back, trying the other side of the castle. She suddenly stopped as she stared at a door. When the others stopped they saw the sign on it had their names on it, but Stella was staring at it like she wanted to light it on fire.
"What's wrong?" Bloom asked as she moved towards the door, trying the handle which wouldn’t budge.
"You have to unlock it like this," Stella said, pressing her hand on the plate over the top of the handle. As soon as she did the door around her hand glowed and the handle flipped down opening the door, "And the issue is this room is normally reserved for seniors."
"What?" Selina asked as she followed them in, gawking at the massive apartment contained within, "Why is that?"
"Because, this room is reserved for the Alpha of the school. The, for lack of a better term, dominant Flight of the school gets this apartment. Its called the Nymph Hollo because before the Shadow War the Nymph Flight had maintained ownership of the dorm for over fifteen centuries," Stella said as she checked the doors inside the dorm, "Looks like I have a single."
She opened the door revealing a room with two desks, a large window, an in suite bathroom, an open walk in closet, and a pair beds although only one was made up. Stella was quickly pulling her luggage out of her pocket and unshrinking it before throwing it onto the empty bed.
"Same," Said Selina as she opened another door to reveal much the same arrangement. In fact the room was nearly identical down to the window even though the wall it was set in should have been linked to Stella's room, "How does that work."
"It’s a simple projection spell," A voice said from the main doorway where a magenta haired woman with milky white skin with black circuit like tattoos rising from the collar and out the left sleeve of her green and purple zip up tank top and matching purple trousers that stopped a little bellow her knees was reading the sign, "They have a portal made from magic runes that connects to the outside of the window frame, all the other windows are then connected to it. The only real window should be the one in here and the rest are all portals. There should be a control somewhere near the window to turn it off."
"Um, hi," Selina said as the new girl walked in and began looking around herself, "Are you one of our dormmates?"
"Yes, my name is Tecna," the new arrival replied as she found a room with her name on it and opened the door, "Isn't it strange they have some of us rooming together when there are more than enough rooms here for each of us to have singles?"
"It does seem a bit odd," A brunette with honey bangs in a pink skirt with a strawberry like red fruit pattern and a poofy yellow halter top said as she opened one of the doors and allowing the smell of flowers to flood into the room, "Is one of you Bloom?"
"That’s me," The redhead said as she raised her hand.
"You're rooming with me," The tan skinned girl smiled sunnily as she spun around and went back into the room, "Sorry for the mess. I arrived first and kinda spread out everywhere." She wasn’t kidding either. As Bloom and her two pets entered the room there were flower pots everywhere with a few suitcases on one of the beds. A bookshelf now dominated the wall beside one of the desks and it was almost full. The room had been changed from the pink stone that all the others had to a plastered, smooth look. She had barely made it a few steps into the room when Bloom stepped on a vine and a plant shrieked at her. Stumbling away with a cry of shock Kiko and Marie were both thrown from her shoulder although the fox both caught the flying bunny by the nap of its neck and spiraled to land on her feet. Setting the bunny down the fox moved over to look at the plant as it was holding its bruised branch and whimpering.
"Sorry about that," Flora said as she rushed over to sooth the plant, "This is a talking plant, one of my experiments. I didn’t mean to leave him there but when I heard you girls talking I just got up to say hello." Once it had stopped whimpering she stood up and bowed, her hips bumping the table from the sudden motion and knocking the plant to the floor where it just whimpered quietly. Flora looked distraught as she moved to try and fix her accident.
Before Bloom could say anything a loud thud and muffled curse word came from the shared room. Sticking her head out she saw a raven haired girl wearing a red one sided tank top and baggy cargo pants lugging a large duffle bag with her. The girl looked around and when she saw them, waved, "Hello, I'm Musa. Do you know where my room is?"
Her voice was melodic, almost hypnotizing. Tecna stuck her head out of her room, "A Melodian I see. You are rooming with me."
Musa's head spun to look at the other woman, her eyes squinting, "Are you Zenithian?"
"Correct," Tecna replied, "My name is Tecna and you are the last person to arrive. Please close the door behind you."
"Um," Bloom spoke, getting their attention, "How did you guys tell where the other was from?"
"Melodians all have hypnotic qualities to their voice," Tecna replied as she walked out and in one hand lifted Musa's bag off her shoulders, eliciting a surprised yelp at the sudden redistribution of her weight, "And in my case the skin tone is something of a giveaway."
"You aren't just an albino?" Selina asked as she emerged from her own room, closing the door behind her. Tecna raised an eyebrow at her, "No. Why would you think that?" Tecna asked, confusion clear on her face.
"The pale skin…" Bloom replied, unsure of herself. The Zenithian casually carried the heavy duffle bag into the shared room with Musa following her, "I have hair pigmentation and circuits in my skin."
Flora had emerged, wiping her hands clean, she was also confused, "Do you not know how to tell apart people from other kingdoms?"
"These two have never left their homeworld and have next to no knowledge of the races of the kingdoms," Marie said, sitting beside Bloom's legs.
"I forgot about that," Stella said as she emerged from her room and looked at the other three girls, all of whom had come back into the room, "Right, so Linphean, Melodian, and Zenithian. Obviously Solarian's have long ears. Melodians have their hypnotic voices. Linpheans are part plant which is why she smells like a flower garden. And Zenithians are born from a combination of magical and technological methods, they universally have milky skin amd circuit like lines in their skin."
"Well put princess," Tecna confirmed, "But I don’t recognize any traits in these two."
"We grew up on Earth, maybe that’s why?" Bloom offered while Selina shrugged.
"But you're clearly magical," Musa said, wrinkling her forehead as she thought, "You cant be an Earthling."
"Whomever hid us apparently made sure that their racial traits were also well hidden," Marie said as she drew attention back to herself, "Stella, we still need to see Ms. Faragonda. Then how about we go to Magix for dinner and we can talk about things more?"
"Right, good idea," The blonde fairy replied without missing a beat as everyone else did a double take at her. The blonde just walked through the confused group and openned the door for the three Earth raised individuals before following them out. Once the door was closed Flora finally spoke, "Did the princess just follow a suggestion from a familiar?"

"Ah, welcome. I hope your first day on Magix has been good so far. According to Cordatorda and Saladin your introduction was unfortunately not pleasant," Headmistress Faragonda said as they entered her office, a large smile on her face and a cup of tea in hand. She waved her empty hand through the air and created a pair of chairs and a large plush stool with stairs leading up to it. The girls sat down and grabbed the tea that floated towards them while the fox jumped onto the stool and laid down.
"Now, I want to let you know that my door, and the door of any faculty member will always be open to those who need help," Faragonda said with a warm smile, "You three will be behind in a number of subjects and will have to work hard on your own time to catch up. I have arranged for the books to be provided to your dorm to study as we don’t offer those classes here. You are something of a unique case. We expect that by the end of the year you will have read the books we provided to you and, hopefully with the help of your dormmates, gotten a little more used to Magix. You will find your rulebooks there as well. Classes begins tomorrow after breakfast but that is really more of an introduction to the courses. Stella will be able to tell you when that is, I'm sure she will be a great help to you getting used to things here. Now, we need to help you choose classes, aside from your core classes. Given you don’t have an advisor due to your late admittance I will be handling that for now. Ask any questions you want while I go over our various programs and what they offer."
Both girls looked overwhelmed while the fox just yawned. She had set up her classes a week ago in almost this exact manor.

Stella was shocked to look up from her phone and see two haggard looking girls exit the headmistresses office, "What happened to you? You were in there for almost an hour."
"Choosing classes," Bloom groused as she walked away from the office, Stella falling in beside her, "Oh yeah, that’s terrible. The Headmistress always goes into such long explanations for everything."
"Wait," Bloom stopped and looked at the blonde, "Don’t you have an advisor for that?"
"Yeah, the Headmistress, duh," The blonde replied.
"That doesn’t seem normal," Selina said, exchanging glances with Bloom. Stella shrugged before moving on, "Probably just a thing for royals or special cases like you. Anyways, the others should meet us by the bus into Magix, let's go! We have nine hours till curfew and I want to enjoy myself."

The trip into Magix was interesting to say the least. The 4 magical girls asked a barrage of questions about Earth while Bloom and Selina fired off their own voleys about the various worlds and other info on Magix. Part way through the ride while Tecna was showing Bloom her new phone and trying to figure out how the 'archaic technology' in Blooms phone worked Bloom found out that one of her messaging apps was compatible with the phones the others were using and insisted everyone start a group chat. When they got to the city suddenly everything ground to a halt. None of them could agree on what to eat, not helped by Bloom and Selina constantly having to ask for an explanation of what the food was and vice versa with their suggestions. Eventually everyone settled on an Androsian restaurant that sold what was essentially sushi.
Afterword's they walked around, showing the Earth girls around and explaining various things to them. A couple hours before curfew they decided to head back to the bus and give Bloom a chance to call home

"…and now we're currently waiting for the bus to go back to school. I think it should be arriving soon so I have to go," Bloom said over the pay phone, glad the card Faragonda had given her was accepted here.
"That sounds lovely sweetie," Vanessa said, clearly relieved to hear from her so soon.
"Be safe, alright. And if you need to you can come home any time," Mike said, "And we love you sweetie."
"Love you guys to, bye," As Bloom hung up the phone she saw a yellow creature walking down the street in large overalls. Shocked she slipped out of the phone booth and followed it. Could it be the same ogre? She didn't have time to grab the others but she should be fine as long as she didn’t get seen by the beast. She followed it for half a block before it darted into a back alley. Trailing down the alley as she hid behind whatever she could, she saw him stop in front of a trio of irritated looking girls, all of whom were dressed in gothic attire. He was carrying a bag and handed it over to them, saying something but clearly subservient. The three girls went through the bag for a bit and spoke among themselves before they started asking the ogre questions. Bloom decided it was time to go before they headed her way when a voice whispered in her ear, "See something interesting?"
As she spun around the world went back and her body screamed in pain. When the world came back she was in front of the three girls and the ogre
"So this is the little tail," The white haired goth said with a glare. The ogre looked surprised as he stared down through his hideous pink glasses, "That’s the girl who tore off my arm!"
"So this is the girl who interfered," The one with a Frankenbride hairdo hissed. The final girl who Bloom now recognized the voice of as the girl who snuck up on her, "A fairy it seems, and she has fire magic. Want to do the honors sister?"
The white haired girl grinned evilly," With pleasure!"
Bloom jumped up, attempting to dash away but before she could move more than a few feet something hit her back and contorted her body before freezing her in place. In horror she realized that ice was encasing her limbs and rapidly flowing across the rest of her body.

The group was sitting around, mostly chatting about nothing when Marie sat up before bolting off. Selina looked after her in confusion but Stella bolted upright, "Bloom's not in the phone booth!"
The other girls all made sounds of shock and alarm as the blonde dashed after the fox.
"What does that mean?" Selina asked as the others all quickly jumped up.
Flora grabbed her arm and dragged her after them, "Familiars can sense when their masters are in danger! Bloom is missing and Marie is going to go straight to her!"
The group tore after the fox and blonde, dashing down the ally. As they rounded a corner they heard a cry of horror from Stella. When they caught up to her they saw Bloom, back arched and entombed in ice. An unearthly shriek sounded from the small fox who had jumped onto the morbid sculpture, a half dozen swords appeared in the air and launched at the girls standing near the frozen redhead. The ogre put its body between the girls and the blade, grunting as they dug into its flesh but getting stuck.
"Pathetic beast!" The brown haired girl with glasses shouted, a blast of pure shadow burst from her hand and washed over the sculpture, smashing into the fox who shrieked again and collapsed onto the ground.
In a flash of light the others all transformed into their sparkling fairy forms, all but Selina who slammed a hand into the ground and summoned a giant snake. The fairies launched a barrage as the snake shot towards the girls and the ogre. Small green darts, golden pollen, a blast of scorching light, and near invisible sonic darts shot down the alley. The three girls all raised a hand and a wall of black ice dancing with electricity blocked the attacks. The Snake smashed through the wall with ease but was stopped in an instant as a bolt of lightning hammered into the snake before reforming behind it and carrying on towards the fairies. Tecna raised a green shield that the lightning smashed without even slowing and tore through them. All five girls were writhing in agony as the electricity arked through their bodies before fading, causing them all to collapse.
"Looks like we got lucky girls," The white haired girl said as she raised both hands above her head, a mass of glowing teal magic gathering above her head, "We caught ourselves a whole flight of brats."
Stella struggled to her feet, her muscles still spasming as she used her staff as a crutch. Seeing the attack coming her training kicked in and the calculations for her teleport spell leapt to mind in seconds. With a hiss she charged the spell just as the witch launched her massive attack. In a flash of light, just as the air around her lost all warmth, the entire group of fairies vanished.

The group slammed into the ground at the bus station as the bus driver was climbing back out of his bus. The green skinned man looked in shock at the group of six fairies and the familiar. Stella was barely standing and Tecna began to pick herself back up. Bloom was collapsed and coughing, sucking in deep breaths while shivering madly. Selina wasn’t moving at all.
"Help us please," Stella gasped, shaking the man out of his stupor and into action. He moved over and easily picked up the still form of Selina as Tecna lifted Musa like a doll, apparently fully recovered from the bad shock. Flora staggered over to Bloom and helped her stand up before the two staggered towards the bus. The princess collapsed her staff into its ring and on legs that felt like jello she walked over to Marie and lifted the small fox. The group staggered into the bus, gathering around Selina in the back seat where the driver had laid her down. As Stella climbed into the bus he stopped her, "Whoever did this to you, are they close by?"
"Yeah, I couldn’t teleport us far," Stella replied, wobbling in place. He nodded before moving to his seat, "Sit down with your friends, we're leaving early."
The princess stumbled back before collapsing next to Bloom and Flora, putting the whimpering fox down beside Selina. She grabbed the shivering girl and pulled her flush against her body, channeling her magic so that she began to emit a soft glow, "You're safe sweetie. Just rest against me and warm up a little."
Flora had leaned against her other side, intent on providing the fridged redhead as much warmth as possible. She began to dig into one of her pockets before pulling out a small set of vials. She selected one and uncapped it, pressing it to Bloom's lips, "Drink this, it will help with the cold."
Bloom meekly did as she was told before slumping down, her head lolling into Stella's shoulder. Tecna was busy with some device she had pulled from her pocket, scanning over Marie and Selina. After the device gave out a beep she turned it on the others, first Bloom then one by one she scanned the remaining fairies.
"Well? Are they ok?" Stella asked, worry thick in her voice. Tecna nodded and hummed, "They will be. The familiar is in some kind of magically induced hallucination, Selina just blacked out. Bloom is the one in the most danger but so long as we get her warmed up she should be fine. Everyone else took the hit much better."
"Her name is Marie," Bloom mumbled, her slitted eyes narrowing at the technology fairy. The pale woman was taken aback as she pocketed her device, "Its really that important to you?"
"Obviously," Bloom growled, "How would you like me referring to you as 'the albino'?"
"I am not an albino, and I am not a familiar," Tecna replied as if both facts should be obvious. Before Bloom could respond again a soothing scent washed over the area and Flora began to stroke the redheads long hair, drawing out a pleased grumble from the girl. The flower fairy looked at Tecna and spoke, "I think what she's saying is that to her Marie is just another person and she expects us to treat her that way. My guess is it’s a cultural thing we aren't aware of."
Bloom let out an agreeable murmur as she curled into the warm body of the blond and pressed her head back into Flora's hand like a pleased cat. Tecna's head leaned to one side as she looked down before nodding and sitting down beside Musa who was trying to massage feeling back into her legs which were still spasming. Without a word the magenta haired girl pulled the ravenettes legs onto her lap and began to massage them for her getting a small thank you from the sound fairy.
Less than an hour later they had pulled up to the entrance of Alfea. Selina and Marie had regained consciousness a bit before they arrived, both groaning in pain but sitting up and assuring everyone they were alright. They arrived back at the school and dragged themselves up to their dorm. The night was fairly subdued as they dispersed to their rooms and practically collapsed into their beds.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Bloom stared at the mirror in front of her before glancing around at the other girls around her. Stella wasn’t being any help as she was just checking her hair and redoing her makeup, apparently seeing the exercise as kind of pointless. Most of the others had no real issues with it, channeling their magic into their hair. Bloom couldn’t help but admire the flow of magic each girl demonstrated, all were different but all were beautiful. Flora's were like vines running up her neck and into her hair before flowing down and blooming as the color shifted to green, making her hair look like a bouquet. Tecna's were like fractals that ran up her neck and covered her hair before fading away and leaving the black hair behind. Selina's were similar to Flora's but more snake like, given her apparent penchant for summoning the serpents and her preference in pets that made some sense. Musa's were the strangest, looking like lines of music with notes included, as she quietly hummed they rose up into the air around her head before flowing down into her hair. Regardless the energy always started in their chest, so she decided to channel that heat from her chest into her head with the image of blonde hair. That shouldn't be to hard.
Focusing on the image she directed that feeling in her chest upwards. She saw the bright orange energy rising in ragged, chaotic bands. It was like seeing whips of flames rise up from her chest and around her head. She felt her hair moving, then she heard screams from all around her. After a few seconds of confusion her chair gave out beneath her and she looked around stunned as everyone in the class was rushing away from her and towards the edge of the room. Actually, some of them were rushing out of the room. The only ones who hadn't rushed away were Stella, Marie, and Professor Wizgiz. Looking down she saw the wood of her desk and chair were charred ashes, the metal melted and twisted around her. She was even charring the floorboards around her…. body… which was on fire…
A new voice screamed out as Bloom desperately tried to curl into a ball to hide her naked body, her clothes incinerated by the raging fire that enveloped her. More screams sounded out as she unconsciously increased the heat of her flames to the point where she had half enveloped the room. The enclosed space quickly devolving into an absolute inferno. The wood around the room with the exception of the teachers desk flash ignited. A barrier had formed around Wizgiz and his desk while Stella and Marie just seemed to be absorbing the flames into their bodies.
"Uncle Giz, could we get a fireproof blanket?" Stella asked as she stood up and walked around behind Bloom, examining her for a bit before looking at Wizgiz.
"o' cooehrse me dear," The elf said with a sigh as he snapped his fingers, creating a large blanket in the air over Bloom's body and another few rolled up on his desk. The blanket fell over Bloom and Stella wrapped her up in it, Marie jumped up on his desk and grabbed another roll to bring it over to Bloom and drop it in her lap. As Stella made sure Bloom was covered and extinguished Wizgiz was doing some form of magic that pulled all the flame and smoke up into an orb in the air above him. Once it had all gathered he pressed his hands together and it condensed down into a pebble and fell to his desk. Now that the room was visible again everyone looked around it and winced at the thoroughly destroyed room. People were staring in from where the doors used to be, including Miss Griselda who was gaping in shock.
Wizgiz turned back to Stella and Bloom, "you 'ave 'ahmewahrk me dear. Teach Bloom 'ow to cahntrol 'er magic. I'll adjoehst de wards ahn 'er room to give 'er a safe place to practice. You and yooehr roommates need to wahrk wit 'er to make sure she can use 'er magic wethooeht ignitin 'erself."Faragonda was watching the first class of the year with an unusual amount of focus. Her eyes fixed on the redhead who was trying to simply change her hair. This was such a simple and fundamental skill that almost everyone could do it before they even entered primary school. Stella for example wasn't even bothering to try, simply checking her hair in the mirrors that Wizgiz had conjured for them to use. Bloom, however, was struggling with this simplest of skills. She frowned, the Bloom from her memories was a force of absolute domination. She knew what she wanted and went for it. She was strong, smart, and wise. Someone who didn't take shit from anyone. Someone who knew exactly how exceptional she was and expected to be treated with respect. And ultimately someone with the power, skill, and capability to ensure that expectation was met. Faragonda couldn't understand how this girl was supposed to be that woman in the near future. Nine years before she was supposed to go back in time. How would Bloom go from this to who she was meant to be in that time? That seemed like decades, maybe centuries of growth.
"Something wrong Faragonda?" Griffin asked as she materialized in the chair across from the fairy, a pool of shadow given form. The headmistress glanced at her only enough to confirm that the Umbran was truly present and not a projection before turning her focus back on her mirror.
"Its Bloom. She's so different from my memories. Confused, unsure, lost, those are things I never would have connected to Bloom..."
"Would you connect them to me, Fara? Clearly not, but you have seen me at my lowest, and you helped build me up to something greater," the witch replied, arching an eyebrow.
Faragonda couldn't dispute her words. She had seen Griffin at her lowest. She had helped the woman reclaim her pride, her heart, and her soul. But that had taken over a century of dedication and effort on her part and the shattering of everything the other woman had thought she knew... plus a war so devastating and horrible it had left the galaxy in ruins and everyone was fully willing to forgive the witch for her past misdeeds provided she could make up the difference in fighting capability between the sides and help put everything back together afterwards. Arguably the putting things back together had been more beneficial to the witches confidence and conscious than anything else.
Instead of voicing those doubts she changed the subject as she watched Blooms body burst into flames while everyone in the seats around her except for Stella jumped away, "I take it the same song and dance as every year prior?"
"But of course! Why ruin a long standing tradition? Besides. Its a good test of all involved."
"I must agree," Saladin said as he emerged from the apartment adjoining the office, wearing a bath robe and with hair still wet. The silver haired Dwarf ambled over to the Witch and kissed her hand like a gentleman, "its always lovely to see you in person, my dear."
"You two should have said something yesterday. I would have stayed as well," seeing the woman pout was always amusing to the other two.
"If you had showed up in person we probably would have," Saladin teased as he moved to the other chair, "hopefully this year I'll win... again."
"Oh don't be so smug Saladin," Griffin hissed, "you lost just two years ago. And Faragonda won the year before that."
"I am almost certain the Winx will get involved this year," Faragonda insisted with a smirk.
"I already know who is likely to win the chance on my end. A coven of seniors with incredible promise," Griffin said smugly.
"The ones we talked about?" Saladin asked, stroking his beard thoughtfully. At the witches' nod he hummed. They knew of the covens ancestry of course. Being in their line of work for this long they knew any important secrets their pupils had. Its one of the reasons their schools were so safe normally.
"Are we still set upon this course?" Griffin asked, glaring at the fairy across from her. One of the last daughters of Sparx alive stared back at her passively, "We could try to interfere, but could that accomplish anything? The loop must be closed. The events that made the Bloom that I met are already set in stone. Best to mitigate the damages of the events we know will happen, few that they may be."
"And what events are those again?" Griffin hissed in irritation.
"The Trix become the Winx rivals. It started yesterday but really becomes set in stone tomorrow night…"Bloom growled in frustration as she sat on a blanket in front of her rooms large mirror, another wrapped like a robe around her body. Stella and Flora were on the beds on either side of the room watching closely as she tried, again, to change her hair color, Kiko was hiding behind the blond and shivering in fear. Nothing happened for several seconds before her body burst into flame, throwing the blanket into the air from the sudden updraft. She let out a scream of rage as a splash of water fell out of a portal in the air above her, putting out the fire before the blanket fell around her nude form.
"I really don’t know what to try," Flora said in exasperation, rubbing her forehead, "I've never seen anything like this."
"Which part?" Bloom hissed, her eyes flashing orange as she glared at the flower fairy in the mirror, her pupils slits, "The part where I destroyed all my clothes in a public space? The part where I literally cant do anything but create blasts of fire without bursting into flame?"
"The part where none of the tricks we've been trying have worked," Stella said, rubbing her temples, "I self ignited for nearly a week after I started learning magic, and I did the first one in a very public area as well. Its actually not something super surprising in our society if you have magic like ours. Half the reason fairy forms were developed was to allow magic users to wield their full strength without destroying their clothes all the time."
"Witches don’t," Bloom muttered petulantly as she cocooned herself again and went back to mopping.
"Witches use a different method," Flora said with a gentle smile, trying to placate the irate redhead who was giving off so much heat the air around her was visibly shimmering. If it weren't for the barrier Stella had put up around her to contain the heat the room would be an oven by this point, "But I do agree, I don’t know what to try. You can focus your magic, but its just so unstable."
"But I'm NOT focusing it!" Bloom growled, looking at the ground in shame and frustration
"What?!" Both girls asked in confused shock.
"What? Everyone else has such interesting and beautiful ways of using their magic. Like, that one girl from class… Amaly? The brunette who was glaring at Stella," Bloom said, waving off her misremembering of the girls name, "She makes streams that look like shooting stars envelop her hair and raise it into the air as it changes color. Everyone can control their magic so well, but when I try and channel it its like I'm trying to control fire with my bare hands! I can get it to move in the direction I want but its so chaotic and unfocused I cant do anything with it!"
Flora was staring at her blankly, clearly having no idea what she meant. Stella on the other hand looked thoughtful. After a few seconds of silently stewing Bloom ignited again, growling as she was doused once more.
"Bloom, when you say your magic is unfocused by comparison to us, are you saying you can SEE our magic when we use it?" Stella asked, her eyes narrowed slightly.
"Obviously, what else would I be talking about?"
Flora and Stella glanced at each other before Flora replied, "That’s not something most people can see."
Blooms head popped up before she spun around, "what?"
"Most people cant see magic, like actually see it," Stella explained, "That’s a form of synesthesia. You're experiencing one sense with another."
"That’s a big word," Bloom snarked at the blonde who stuck her tongue out before continuing, "We're in luck. I have the same issue. This makes sooo much more sense now. You're doing the same thing I did when I was first learning magic. You're trying to copy the way other people are picturing magic. You need to create your own personal image for your magic. It doesn’t have to be anything super clear for now, starting vague can give you room to grow. But you need to figure out what form your own powers take, not copy us."
"What does that mean though?"
"Its… complicated," Flora said lamely, holding up her arm as she cast a simple light spell. Bloom watched as the vines spiraled down her arm and came to stop on her palm where the bloomed. The flower glowed like a small lamp to her, "I visualize my magic as-"
"Vines," Bloom cut her off, her orange eyes shifting from the translucent flower to shocked emerald eyes, "They wrapped around your arm and when they reach your palm bloomed into a glowing sunflower."
"T-" Flora stuttered as the vines and flower faded away, "that’s… a bit creepy honestly."
"Sorry," Bloom curled into the blanket, like a turtle trying to hide as her eyes shifted back to their natural turquoise.
"Anyways, you need to figure out what your own way is," Stella said, picking up the explanation.
"How do you do it? I never see your magic," Bloom asked in confusion.
"Mine is… Well…" Stella started to explain then stopped, her brow furrowing in thought, "I do use my staff allot… maybe that’s why… anyway, my image is a wave of magic that runs under my skin. I can see it but it might just be because I know what it is I'm doing."
"It can be inside your body?"
Stella nodded, "Its unconventional I suppose. I have vary rarely seen cases that might be something like it. Other people like Selina hide their channeling under their clothes without meaning to."
"What is hers?" Flora asked curiously.
"She channels her magic as serpents for some reason," Stella replied with a shudder, "The thought of one of those things on my body creeps me out."
Bloom was deep in thought, gnawing on her thumbnail as she did. She needed her own image to cast magic, something for her alone. And it didn't have to extend out of her body like the others did. If that was the case... she spun back around to face the mirror, holding up her arms to look at the faint lines of veins in her skin. It might work, and they might even help contain the chaotic flow of magic. She closed her eyes and pictured her heart, but instead of the magic rising out of her body she imagined it flowing out into her blood stream, through the aorta and into her arteries. She couldn't help but picture it almost like some kind of beast though, serpentine but otherwise without distinct form. A creature yet to be understood, magic felt almost alive to her as if it had a will of its own after all. She pictured it flowing up her carotid artery and into her head. Then it dispersed out into her hair.
"Well that's an improvement at least," Flora said happily. Bloom blinked her eyes open, the light stinging slightly. She wasn't on fire now, but she was doing an incredible imitation of a bad hair day. Her normal mane of hair now sticking up in a manner resembling David Bowie's Goblin King.
"I didn’t catch fire," Bloom murmured in surprise. She wasn't terribly upset by her new do, she hadn't even had a color in mind. But she was stunned she had pulled it off, it had been so simple too.
"That was impressive, I couldn't even see what you did," Stella said as she walked over and began running a brush through the crimson mess, getting it to return to its normal wild appearance.
"Really?" Bloom asked in surprise, holding still as the blonde worked her magic on the wild mess.
"Yep, just when it started coming out of your hair like flames. That was really cool to, totes gave me an idea for a new dress to work on," the blonde exclaimed happily, "I'll have to get the right materials. OH! I'll need to take your measurements too. We can do that later though. We all probably need our own ateliers and we can sort out how to use the spare rooms with everyone later!"
"You make clothes?" Flora asked, surprise bleeding into her voice.
"No, I make fashion!" The princess corrected her, pride in her voice.
"Right. Why are their so many spare rooms in here?" Bloom asked, clearly trying to change the subject, "it seems strange to have this huge apartment but only give it to six girls."
"That's true, last I heard they weren't using this apartment anymore," Flora added her own musings as she watched Stella do the seemingly impossible and actually tame Blooms mane into a normal hairstyle.
"It is somewhat odd. This apartment hasn't been used for almost three centuries. The last use was in the class of 14798, right before the Shadow War," Flora shrieked and jumped as Tecna spoke from the open doorway where she was watching with interest, a device out and recording, "as for the size, it was expanded in 13126 to accommodate larger groups as the Nymph Flight had begun using Alfea as a semi-permanent base of recruitment. At least half a dozen Nymphs became permanent staff members and the students they scouted would stay in this dorm with them to receive training before joining the Flight proper."
"When did you get there?" the nature fairy hissed, her hand on her heart. The technology fairy tapped away at her device as she replied, "I heard that the princess and Bloom have synesthesia and I was seeing if I could replicate the results with my mana scanner… I don’t appear to have succeeded. All I managed to do is make a rough image."
"You can visualize magic," Musa asked, poking her head into the doorway from the other side, staring down at the screen as Tecna turned it so she could see better, "Not really. Its more that it can detect where it is and who was making it. Then my scanner fills it in with a color I apply to an individual, the darker the color the more potent the magic in the area."
"Whats the Nymph Flight? You mentioned it before and it sounds important. And didn't you say this room belonged to seniors and the alpha of the school?" Bloom whispered to Stella as Tecna and Musa began talking about ways to replicate synesthesia, apparently the Melodian wanted to be able to see sound.
"The Nymphs were the largest flight in the 13 Kingdoms of Magic. They spanned every planet and demographic. The only requirement to join was you be a fairy, they had sibling orders for witches and such. In the Shadow War they fought on the front lines and the Flight was largely destroyed. Only a handful remain and there was too much else going on for people to be interested in joining. This dorm was for seniors, back then. Its just been said that no one has earned the room since the end of the Shadow War, which is why its weird that we're in here and why some people might not be happy with us," Stella whispered back, "try your hair again, but have a color in mind."
Bloom digested the information as she repeated the process, picturing her hair turning black. After a few seconds it had become darker, but not by much. With a sigh she slumped down as Stella gave her a one armed hug, "look on the bright side, you figured out how to channel your magic right. In a few days you'll be able to do simple things much easier!"
Bloom smiled at the blondes encouragement, maybe she was right. Looking back at the mirror as her hair shifted back to its normal color she sighed, "maybe its time for a little break..."
"You have been at this for nearly six hours," Tecna offered helpfully from her spot in the doorway.
"Well, practice makes perfect," the redhead said with a tired smile, "or at least passing grades. What calendar are you using by the way? How long ago was the Shadow War?"
Tecna, Musa and Flora looked at her in confused shock several seconds. Flora recovered first, "right. Earth wouldn't have the interstellar calendar or know about the Shadow War. The years in question are interstellar years. Its somewhat arbitrary but it was originally based on the calendar of the main kingdom of the old 13 Kingdoms."
"Sparx year was approximately 547.33 Earth days long," Tecna added, typing away at a new device that looked like a square plate.
"Thank you," Flora said with a soft smile before continuing, "the calendar is based around their year because they were the first of the kingdoms and generally led things diplomatically. Every planet has their own planetary calendar as do the kingdoms but the interstellar calendar is the one everyone aligns to for things involving all or multiple kingdoms. As for the Shadow War, that took place 259 interstellar years ago. The 260th anniversary of the end of the war will be near the end of the school year, as will the memorial for the loss of Sparx in the Great Eclipse. That's when the calendar switched. We're in the year 259 After Eclipse."
Bloom felt like she really didn't want to know the answer to her next question, but that it was important she do, "what was the eclipse?"
Everyone was silent. Musa coughed and said, "I just remembered I need to go grab something."
"I need to try and fix an issue on my scanner," Tecna quickly said, following her roommate. Bloom looked at Stella and Flora who seemed to be glaring at each other as if to demand the other girl explain. After a few seconds Flora sighed, "fine."
Looking at Bloom she explained in a sad voice, "the Great Eclipse was a genocide of unrivaled proportions. In one night, all of Sparx was wiped from the galaxy, the planets left as barren husks. It didn't stop there though, the kingdoms of Valnos and Sordent were also near completely wiped out. At the same time the capital of Umbra was turned to ice and Galvanos burned. It was the beginning of the end of the war, the Shadow Phoenix had died with the Nymphs, and the Dark Lord had been captured by the Company of Light and imprisoned on Omega. It was the last desperate strike of the Dark Alliance. People generally don't like to talk about it, the war destroyed so much and it seemed like it was only a matter of time before it ended. Then the Eclipse wiped out three kingdoms and the last vestiges of the alliance took out another two."
"That's," Bloom started but stopped shortly after, "I have a lot of history to learn don't I?"
"Yes," both the other girls in the room answered.Bloom was yawning as Headmistress Faragonda gave her speech about the upcoming dance. Her eyes were heavy with sleep and her actions and mannerisms were drawing both blushing and scandalized looks from various people in the cafeteria around her. She couldn’t bring herself to care about whatever cultural faux pas she had just broken. Not after staying up until three in the morning trying to get her hair to change colors consistently without combusting. At least she had managed to shift it from ginger to burgundy before crashing into her bed. Her magic really didn't seem to like altering things from their natural forms, that or her body didn't like it. Letting out another large yawn she reached out for a sausage looking food identical to what Marie was ripping into beside her, "Is this why you asked if I had any formal wear Stella?"
"Of course!" The blonde whisper shouted, "I can buy you something if you cant find anything in the basement. There are plenty of dresses down there that the drama class uses. What about you girls? Do you all have something to wear?"
Everyone nodded except Marie who finished clearing her plate and leapt off the table.The Trix were in one of their favorite stores, waiting for the results to come back about the little school competition. The jewelry store, Alchemic Artistry, was well known amongst the students of all three schools for selling affordable and fashionable enchanted accessories. They also stocked higher end pieces so it was popular with the royalty that attended all three schools as well. Today however it was empty save for them. Alphea was busy preparing for the dance, Red Fountain was in the middle of preparing for both, the dance that night and their two week long training camp from hell they called "Induction" which would start tomorrow, and most of Cloud Tower had missed the early busses trying to come up with a great submission for their prank, or just decided to enjoy their day off in their dorms.
The Trix however were looking at the more affordable enchanted accessories, looking for something that could help them in some way. Most of what they really wanted was well out of their price range, and most of what was within that price range was simple things that would be helpful to people well bellow their personal level of ability but were worthless for them.
"I hate to say this, but we may need to find a way to raise funds," Darcy sighed as she looked in longing at a pair of bangles that doubled as focuses. Icy hummed in agreement as she stared through the glass at a mithril choker that could heal the wearer rapidly. Stormy grunted as she examined the earrings, her eyes lingering on a set that would project a null detection field around the user, something Darcy could do but she couldn't.
The chime of the door drew their eye as a new customer entered. She paid them no mind, sweeping her single exposed eye over the merchandise as she moved through the store in a circle before heading to the counter, "do you carry unenchanted pieces? Preferably in mithril, orichalcum, adamantine, dragonite, maractite, or hihi'irokane?"
The girls all gawked at the woman who continued to ignore them. The clerk raised an eyebrow at her, "while we do stock the pieces you asked about and they will be cheaper as they lack enchantments, they are still very expensive just from the materials so..."
He was cut of as a clink sounded out. Darcy did a double take as the woman had just tossed an uncut stardust that must have weight twenty pounds onto the case in front of the clerk who froze before picking it up and saying, "one moment please."
He walked into the back room and after a minute came out, setting the gen down on the counter and reaching under it. After a few seconds he produced a tray containing numerous accessories. They clearly weren't stacked for showing off, instead being as dense and space efficient as possible without anything rubbing on each other due to separators, "feel free to browse, when you are ready to make your decision please inform me what you want and I will wrap it for you."
She moved her hair from obscuring her left eye and everyone flinched in shock as a gout of flame burst from the area and around her head. They danced for a second, then she released her hair and they fell back into place. She pulled a dozen or so pieces from the container, "I'll take these."
"If that is all you want then I will need you to come back tomorrow. We don't have the funds on hand to compensate you for the rest of the value of the gem," the clerk said with a strained smile.
She drew out another piece, "add this and put the rest on store credit under my name. I'll be back for more unenchanted pieces later. Can you message me when a shipment comes in."
He nodded, "we can do that for such a well paying client, yes. I'll need to scan your ID."
Ice and Stormy had come over to where Darcy was to watch. The woman passed over an ID chip and then began casting spells on the final piece she had pulled out of the container. Light filled the store as she cast magic into the gem and the clerk went to work finishing the purchase. When he came back with the contract for her to sign she did so without complaint, took her bag of merchandise and ID, and turned to the witches. They flinched as she walked over, a smile crossing her bewitchingly beautiful face her eye locked onto Darcy. The final piece she had pulled out and enchanted was a choker made of orichalcum with an amethyst set into it. It dangled from her hand loosely, the band around her first two fingers as she held it out to the Umbran, "Here, I think this should look nice on you."
"What's your game," Icy hissed as she eyed the choker suspiciously.
"She reminds me of someone I owe my life to. I cant repay her anymore, but if she had something like this at the time she might have lived. It'll protect you from one assuredly lethal blow, and its got a first aid enchantment that will work to keep you alive on the brink of death and call for aid. Three more enchantments can fit on it but I thought you would probably better know how to make it useful to yourself," there was no guile in her voice and manner, "just take the thing, you can examine it later to see I'm telling the truth and it will ease my conscious to protect someone so like her."
Darcy reached out and took the thing holding it carefully in her hands. It felt heavy to her. She silently glanced at the orichalcum piece she had been looking at and winced as she realized this probably cost more than the full year of tuition, and room and board, at Cloud Tower. Looking up to thank the woman she blinked dumbly, she was gone. They glanced around the store in shock but only the clerk was there, standing behind the register and waiting. A ding went off and they all jumped before digging out their phones, blinking as they realized that they had gotten a message from Professor Ediltrude alerting them that they had won the competition and that they should return to school to speak to the headmistress as quickly as possible."Glad you could make it," Griffin said as the three walked into her office. Her eyes were cold, hard and calculating as the ageless looking witch stared at them. Being in Griffin's presence was always stifling, practically suffocating. The woman exuded an aura of pure dark power, a seething mass of negativity and malice that was palpable to anyone who was sensitive to such things. It sent a shiver through the three young witches, to have so much darkness and hatred was frightening, even to them.
For her part Griffin found the amount of darkness exuded by these three to be concerning. They clearly hated something, the question was what and why? These young women were barely three decades old, less than a twentieth her own age. The fact that they held as much malice as they did was cause to watch closely. She also noticed the beautiful choker around Darcy's neck, one far to expensive for them to be able to buy.
"I've received a number of proposals, but none as disgusting as yours. A repulsive idea! Revolting! Despicable! In other words, it’s the best. Congratulations, your abominable," Griffin exclaimed as she tossed their submission onto the desk in front of her as she got up and walked around it.
"That’s sweet, thank you," Icy said with a smirk as she preened under the compliment from the headmistress. Her sisters looked quite pleased as well, smirking as their leader accepted the praise for the group. These witches had talent and a naturally built internal hierarchy. They could be the foundation of a truly fearsome coven… if only they could be turned off their self destructive path. But that would have to wait, the loop hadn't closed yet, and Griffin knew that short of another time traveler interrupting it, nothing could affect the loop.
"Its just the thing to spoil their fun," Griffin stated as she walked around behind the three, a literal haze of shadows drifting off her form as she walked.
"You will not be disappointed," Darcy said, a shiver going down her spine as she felt the shadows roiling behind her. What Griffin was doing was just shy of open hostility. Like a mother dragon shoving its young towards the edge of the nest to get them to fly.
"See that I'm not," Griffin said as she snapped her fingers and the door slammed open behind them. Taking the clear dismissal they turned and walked from the room, quickly as they could without seeming afraid. Once they were gone Griffin snapped her fingers and the door shut as she dissolved into a pool of shadows and disintegrated."Bloom, Bloom," A soft voice was calling out to her from the darkness. It was all around her, all encompassing. The only thing she could see was her own body as she turned left and right. She didn’t know where she was, or how she got here.
"Bloom," the voice called out again, sounding so far away, as if being called to from.
"Who's there!? Where are we!?" Bloom yelled out, trying to move forward but feeling as if her entire body were enveloped in syrup.
"Bloom, find me Bloom," The voice called out again, seemingly from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"Where are you!?" Bloom cried out before another voice cut through her dream, soft but much clearer and closer, "Bloom, come on. Its time to get up."
The redhead shot up, letting out a viscous snarl as her hands wrapped around flesh and slammed it into the mattress as Bloom straddled the other girl, causing a soft squeak to come out of the tan skinned woman who had awoken her. Her eyes were glowing crimson as she snarled down at Flora who had frozen up under her grip, her eyes locked on the redheads barred fangs and jagged teeth. In her confusion and instinct she hadn't the presence of mind to control her strength, squeezing with enough force to pulp flesh and crush bone but Flora just looked surprised as a soothing scent began to fill the area around them. She gently reached up to caress the side of Blooms face in a soothing manner, caressing the redheads cheek even as the she almost instinctually pressed her head into the warm hand. She let out a soft mur of confusion and comfort as her tired brain put together what was going on. Her eyes slowly returning to their normal blue color, her face paled and her pupils narrowed into slits before she jumped off of the flower fairy and began to fret over her, "Oh my god! I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you? Dumb question, how couldn’t I have!? I'll go get the nurse!"
"Bloom," Flora laughed out as she sat up and grabbed the worried girls hand, "I'm fine. You do have quite the grip though."
Flora held up her right wrist and showed that there were indentations in her skin, and at a closer inspection Bloom could see the hand print from where she had been squeezing the flower fairies thin neck. The brunette didn’t look terribly bothered by it as she massaged her wrist. Bloom let out a soft, "How?"
Flora looked at her in confusion before a flash of understanding crossed her face, "I'm part plant sweetie, I'm very resistant to injury. You couldn't have permanently hurt me with that. Its just a matter of massaging my skin back into the right shape."
"Oh…"
"That may have been why they had me rooming with you. Though I think I'll stay out of arms reach next time I wake you up, if you had tried to gouge me with your claws I likely would need to see the nurse. Cuts are a little more of an issue to deal with," Flora glanced meaningfully at Blooms hands as she finished getting the hand print out of her wrist and began to smooth out her neck. Bloom looked at her hands in confusion and found her nails had extended about two inches beyond her fingertips and become extremely sharp. She gawked at her hands as the nails receded back like retractable claws before her very eyes.
"Never had that happen before I take it?" Flora asked, raising an eyebrow at Blooms dumbfounded face, "I've never seen anything like it either. You must be descended from a lost race."
"Lost race?" Bloom asked as she flexed her fingers, trying to get the claws to sprout again and yelping when they shot out like a switchblade and pricked her palm.
"One of the races almost completely wiped out in the Great War centuries ago. You would need to ask one of the Professors for any details on any lost races, we aren't taught much about them anymore. Wizgiz, DuFour, and Griselda all lived through the war though and would have been taught to identify all the races that existed before then," Flora explained as she got up and walked over to their stand up mirror, examining her neck to make sure that she got all of the hand print out.
"Oh…" Bloom said again, unsure how to react or what to feel about this revelations. She was shocked, elated, confused, and scared all at once. She had a lead though, a way to potentially find out how she had ended up on Earth. But did she really want to, maybe it was better to just leave it alone. Marie had said that someone might be after them and if they were then advertising she was some rare near extinct race was certain to attract attention. Maybe it was better to just remain hidden under the guise of a random girl from Earth who had developed magic…
"Don’t you need to go pick out a dress?" Flora asked, breaking Bloom from her musing as she began to pull her own pink dress with what looked like ivy decoratively embroidered into it from her closet. Glancing at the clock Bloom blanched and raced from the room shouting over her shoulder, "RIGHT! Sorry again about that!"
The flower fairy giggled. She would have to talk to Bloom about that sooner rather than later, she was accidentally doing all sorts of things that were rude in various cultures. It was kind of cute though. The way she did them with no intention to insult was obvious, her ignorance of the faux pas she was committing apparent to anyone who could look past their outrage at her actions would see she didn’t even know they would offend.Half an hour later Bloom was grumbling to herself down in the basement, having been looking through the various dresses that the drama class had accumulated over the… well it had to be centuries of the club being active considering the ridiculous scale of the storage room. There were thousands of dresses, all stored in these interesting magical boxes which would transfer the dress to her body and then she could adjust its size and fit as needed. The only problem is they ranged from cute to gaudy, beautiful to absolutely horrific. She swore she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing some of these things, and that’s not counting the fact that the dresses were all mixed up with the various other costumes and such. She had just now found something she liked, a sky blue body contouring halter top with a slit running up to her right thigh. As she was finishing making adjustments to the fit and basic design of the dress, she heard voices coming from outside the room. For some reason they sounded like they were coming from deeper in the basement though. Glancing out the slightly open door she saw what seemed to be a flashlight approaching and heard a voice say, "It should be three doors down on the left, right next to the stairs up to the main floor."
Hiding in the shadows behind the door Bloom waited until the people moved past before glancing out the door frame, immensely grateful that the school saw fit to clean these rooms and the door didn’t squeak as she saw three familiar gothic figures walking past her. She would recognize them anywhere and was still sore that such a thing wouldn’t be pursued by the police for some… bizarrely archaic laws considering the apparently future technology she saw all around her. But regardless, there were the witches, standing around a chest which they were shinning a light on and talking as frankenbride pulled an egg out. They scoffed in disgust as it turned into a bunch of beautiful butterflies. The white haired girl who froze her laughed and said, "aw, how pretty. Lets create an amazing surprise for those little moths."
They formed a triangle with their hands resting on the chest as dark magic swirled between them. Bloom was stunned as she watched them work, the strange swirling of energy and the paths of magic running from their heart and spiraling around their arms were beautiful but terrifying, all of them identical instead of in a unique form like everything she had seen up to then, as they began chanting, "these presents with just one touch, once opened wont please fairies much, become snake-rats with a venomous crunch!"
The magic flowed from their chests, down their arms, and into the chest of eggs. They began to laugh before the brunette spoke, "Alright, lets get somewhere with a good view of the show. We can check the brats fingers while we wait for it to start and if its not their we swipe it from her jewelry chest once the chaos begins and she wont know until she's discharged from the nurses office tomorrow!"
"Right," The other two agreed and they moved up the stairs into the school. Bloom silently slipped out after them and watched them go up the stairs. She followed as quietly as possible, watching as they slipped out one of the doors to the outside of the building. Pulling out her phone and sending off a quick message in the group-chat they had set up last night.
[Bloom - meet by east entrance to ballroom. Something big happened! Grab teacher if possible!!!!!]

Stashing her phone in the weird dimensional pockets the dress had she took off to the ballroom as quickly as she could, she needed to let a teacher know the presents had been tampered with! She just missed Sky and Brandon coming around the corner from the other direction to retrieve the chest. It took her a couple of minutes to make it to the ballroom. Fortunately her roommates were together near the entrance she had specified. Stella saw her rushed into the room and went over to her, "There you are! What was with that text? And that dress is gorgeous!"
"Forget my dress, the witches are here! The ones who attacked us! They tampered with the eggs, something about a snake-rats," Bloom hissed. Flora whispered, "we need to do something fast, look! They are already bringing the presents up!"
"Ok, counter spell time," Stella said in a tone that brokered no debate, "Everyone hold hands and channel your magic towards me. I'll handle the spell."
"Um, maybe I shouldn’t…" Bloom started but Stella grabbed her hand and pulled her into the circle the others were forming, Selina taking her other hand as the blonde said, "Nonsense, just channel your magic towards me like you did last night and hold the intention to undo any magic changes. You'll be fine. I'm doing all the heavy lifting for the spell, you just act as a battery."
The redhead nodded shakily as she began to channel her energy, its form ragged and unfocused compared to the others as it flowed down her arm and out of her body, even the shimmering emerald serpents of Selina's magic looked like bands of magic compared to the chaotic and ragged streams coming out of her and flowing towards Stella who had begun to chant, "with our fairies power, may reality mend! What was changed to evil must become good again!"
The energy flowed towards Stella and into her chest before rising up and snaking its way towards the center of the room. It arced out of Blooms line of sight and then there was a large burst of rainbow colored light and cries of surprise and awe from the center of the room. When exclamations of glee and amazement, as well as laughter, began to sound out from the center of the room they all breathed a sigh of relief. But Bloom knew things weren't over yet, "Stella, they were going to use the confusion to try and steal your ring again!"
*Tch* "They just don’t know when to quit," Stella said, clicking her tongue.
"Where is your ring?" Tecna asked, a projection of the schools map appearing above another strange device she had in her hand, "I assume it is in your room somewhere?"
Stella arched an eyebrow at her and crossed her arms, "Now why would it be there love?"
"You don’t have it on your hand," Tecna stated as if it was obvious, but an edge of confusion was in her voice. Stella smugly smirked as she slid a hand into a hidden pocket and produced the ring from it, "It’s a family heirloom that someone tried to steal not two days ago. Its not leaving my side dear.""Damn it! She has it on her and the eggs were counter-spelled," Darcy hissed, her eyes glowing as she used her clairvoyance.
"We need to think of something else then," Stormy muttered urgently, "we can still recover from this! We just need an idea quickly!"
"Darcy, can you sneak in there with your illusions?" Icy asked, chewing on her thumb nail as her brow crinkled in thought.
"Yeah, why?"
"Its cliché but you can spike the punch to buy time for us to improvise a new plan," the ice witch hissed as she pulled a flask from the back of her belt.
"That's not a bad idea honestly. But I wont allow it," a voice called out in their minds. It was their only warning before the world around them exploded with a roar of fire and dirt.Bloom felt a surge of vindictive pleasure and rage rush through her, but she new it wasn't hers. Something about it just felt wrong, alien. She felt a tug on her magic as well, guiding her from the room as she moved quickly following the feeling. She could hear the others behind her, talking to someone, even as she took off as quickly as she could go in the heels that came with her enchanted dress. She barely made it down the hall before the explosions started."What was that!?" Griselda exclaimed as she leapt to her feet alongside the other faculty who were rapidly demonstrating their veteran experience as they shielded the room and their students and put the area into rapid lockdown. Cordatorda bellowing orders to the specialists demanding them to move everyone away from the windows. Flashes of what looked like artillery were bombarding the lawn outside the halls windows, shattering trees and throwing up dirt. So distracting was it that among the staff only Faragonda and Saladin noticed the small white fox sitting between the building and explosions. The other girls were all desperately worried but couldn't slip out to help now that the doors had been locked. Stella was biting her thumb, a bad habit from her childhood, as she waited. She knew she should have gone after Bloom when she ran off so suddenly like that."By Omega! What was that!?" Stormy hissed as she stumbled to her feet. Icy and Darcy were pushing themselves up onto their hands and knees as they all searched around for their attacker. Darcy saw it first, the little white fox from yesterday, a dozen swords vibrating menacingly in the air around it.
"Girls," She said, pointing their attention to the fox whose eyes had begun to glow faintly, its tail was lashing back and forth irritably behind it as the shadows seemed to grow across its glossy white fur and taint it black.
"I guess I need some target practice," the voice hissed through their mind again, sending a shiver up their spines from the blood lust, "I had intended to make you bleed in compensation for the harm done to my mistress. But given my aim... I suppose I should just tell you to try not to die."
A trio of swords blasted at them, barely enough time for Icy to throw up a shield of ice before they collided and exploded, showering the trio in shards. Stormy launched an attack but as the lightning arked from her hand a trio of metal rods slammed into the ground around the fox, causing the electricity to split into the sharpened tips of the lightning rods. Darcy fired an orb of shadows at the familiar which was blocked by a massive slab of stone in the vague shape of a sword slamming into the ground in front of the fox. A new wall of ice formed in front of them just before the barrage resumed and began to chip away at the much more durable ice wall.
That was when Bloom arrived on the scene, emerging from the building she saw the three witches behind the ice wall, Marie growling and launching swords at them and generating more in the air around her like she had Unlimited Blade Works. Without hesitation Bloom did the one thing she knew she could do with her magic well. Holding her hands above her head she funneled a mass of power through her arms and into the space between her palms. It was like fire was flowing through her veins, hissing in glee. It felt good.
"By the Dragons!" Icy exclaimed as the new light source drew her eye. The red haired fairy from last night was standing there in a fancy party dress creating a ball of fire as big across as her head. That shouldn't have been possible! She should have been in the medical wing for days! The ice witch launched a torrent of ice towards the fairy, intent on freezing her again, just as Bloom launched her fireball. The blasts met midair and caused a massive explosion of steam. Bloom was inexperienced and waited, Icy did not. She had already launched another spell, a beam of frigid magic, at the spot that she had last seen the fairy. Bloom barely managed to summon a shield of flames between her body and the beam, desperately trying to push the beam back.
Stormy lobbed a blast of lightning at the irritating fox, the energy smashing into the stone sword she had summoned and shattered it. Marie dodged out of the way as a dart of shadow followed an instant later, cutting into the area she had been sitting. She began to run in a large circle, firing swords at a much slower rate as she drew the two away from Icy and Blooms fight, dodging lightning and dark energy as she went.
Icy had pushed Bloom down to her knees, the witch advancing as she wore down the fairy. Bloom could barely maintain the small space she had as the flames began to wash back across her body.
"You just had to but into our business again and again didn't you? You couldn't leave well enough alone!" Icy raged as she forced more magic into the attack, pushing the redhead back a few meters as her heels dug furrows in the ground, "Now it's time to teach you a lesson about what happens to nosy moths that bite off more than they can chew!"
The fire washed over Blooms body. She felt that stirring in her chest that always preceded an explosion, but it wasn't the same. She knew now that it was her magic trying to get out, and she didn't try to stop it. Power surged through her as she embraced the heat in her chest. Let it flow through her body and down her arms. The barely structured barrier of fire became a wall, then a beam, slowly pushing back the ice magic. She could do this!
"Pathetic," Icy hissed as a surge of magic undid all the ground Bloom had gained before both spells gave out with a shattering boom as the cold and hot magic finally nullified each other. Bloom was thrown back a dozen meters into the wall, her skull hitting with a loud crack before she crashed to the ground. Icy hissed as she stared down at her hands, burnt from the second flash of steam that night. A scream of rage cut the night and drew her attention back to their other assailant just in time to save her life. She threw herself to the ground as a pitch black sword as wide across as her hips and nearly as thick as her arm flew over her head and smashed into the ground. The fox was growling, its eyes glowing with a bright white light. Darcy was panting, surrounded by swords and with a cut on her arm that was rapidly closing thanks to her new choker. Stormy was surrounded by weapons embedded in the ground, panting as she glared at the fox that was giving them a run for their money. A half dozen thin metal needles were sticking from her limp arms and shoulders. It was a wily beast with a seemingly bottomless arsenal of weapons and tricks, including some kind of paralytic poison on some of its weapons. It hadn't gotten out of the fight scot-free though. It was smoking from either a hit or near miss by Stormy and its side was dyed crimson, blood running down its legs. An angry crimson orb appeared in the air beside her, glowing as energy seemed to be sucked into it. The fox let out a vicious growl, its eyes locked on Icy.
"We need to get out of here," Stormy yelled as a shape began to rapidly form inside the crimson orb, "we've been found and don't have any way to distract the moths. If we wait to long the teachers are going to catch us!"
"Damn it!" Icy growled before nodding, glancing back at the transformed fairy in her blue outfit who was pushing herself up the wall. Her eyes blazing mots of fire as a fireball appeared in the hand not on the wall to help support her own weight. "lets go."
Darcy grabbed their hands as Icy rushed over and seconds later they were gone. What hit the area next was like a mass driver, a concentrated slug of metal. The crimson spear smashing into the ground and carving a trench six meters long in the dirt. Then a napalm strike might as well have hit as Blooms fireball exploded and through a jet of almost liquid fire across nearly fifty feet of the lawn. Marie growled at the spot of burnt grass in the shape of a recall teleport spell that stood at the intersection point of where their two attacks had flown over.
She stopped to look at the several foot layer of ice and the next to nothing her barrage had done for damage to it before limping over to Bloom, "are you alright?"
"Last I checked I'm not the one bleeding," Bloom replied as she looked down at her body, taking in her transformation. They were interrupted when senior Red Fountain students and teachers began to stream out of the school, moving to secure the area.
"This could take a while…" Marie and Bloom said as the armed students surrounded them."So you were discovered," Griffin stated, looking at the girls who had crashed into their room just a few seconds ago. The perks of being the ruler of Cloud Tower is you knew everything, as was the curse. She had made a shadow body inside their room seconds after they returned, having watched the entire debacle with her scrying pool.
"We're sorry ma'am," Icy groaned out as she pushed herself up, dazed and queasy from the emergency teleportation.
"Don't be sorry! Be better! Learn from this failure, examine it! Figure out what went wrong and be better about it next time!" Griffin commanded before dissolving the clone. She waited several minutes before walking out of the shadows of Alfea's courtyard beside Faragonda and Saladin.
"That was unexpected," She said in lieu of a greeting.
"Agreed. In a way things did go as planned. Yet not," Faragonda replied, "Bloom said she transformed for the first time at the night of the start of year dance. She never mentioned her familiar being there. And she definitely said she barely survived the fight."
"It is concerning," Saladin sighed as he watched Griselda giving Bloom and Marie a dressing down on his crystal ball.
"Something is throwing off the script. Did she even mention having a familiar?" Griffin hissed, "and Darcy had a choker that must have cost a small fortune. Pure orichalcum with powerful layered healing enchantments on it. She just acted like it was her normal choker. Didn’t even try to hide it. When I called the jewelry stores around town one place was missing one. At first they thought they had been robbed but upon checking it had been sold and the clerk at the time had no memory of the transaction. According to the ID they had used they were from Hirikanan. What's more the ID predates the Eclipse. None of this makes any sense. Bloom clearly would have told you about Darcy having the capabilities I sensed in that choker. What could have caused this change?"
"There are only a few things that possible could. None of them are good and we shouldn't speculate but we do have clear suspects in the form of the people Bloom never mentioned that are out of place. The bigger issue is how will things go from here…" Faragonda replied, her voice concerned.