Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Traffic. Traffic. Traffic. Nothing but traffic. She couldn't tell how long she'd been on the road. A few hours at least. Crammed in the back seat of their station wagon, smothered elbow to elbow by boxes and belongings on all sides. Barely able to see out the window as the world occassionally lurched forward in stop and go traffic.

The cityscape was still a ways away, but it was beginning to come into focus in the distance. Maybe thirty minutes away still, if things kept moving this slowly.

"You haven't said a word all trip."

Her mother caught a glimpse of her in their rear view mirror. Completely deflated. Head in her hands, pouting as she looked down at the floor. Refusing to look up at the skyline. That she and her family were moving had been sprung on her at the last minute, leaving her to do nothing but stew in her misery.

She perked up, but didn't say anything. Instead merely shooting her mother a dirty look through the rear view mirror. "I don't have anything to say to you."

Her mother sighed and adjusted the radio. Turning the volume down lower to speak to her daughter more directly. "I know it's a big change. But it'll just be a matter of time. You'll get used to it."

"You know I hate big cities." She mumbled, looking out the window.

The car veered right onto an off ramp. The last leg of their journey began. Her mother smiled, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. "You've only ever been to a city once or twice in your life. This will be different. I promise, Bloom."

Only a few more minutes, and they entered, drove through, and exited the city again. It was a weird little place. A suburb in the shadow of the big city. 'Gardenia' her parents called it. She'd never heard of it before.

A maze of narrow streets with streetcar rails running up the middle. Tall skinny trees with canopies that reached across the road to form a tight ceiling of leaves which cast the entire suburb in shade and filtered rays of light. Constantly swaying and rustling in the wind. Leaves and maple keys littering the entire neighbourhood. Deep red brick town homes, tight to the sidewalk, with matte black trim were squeezed together. The exact kind of house her parents were moving into, apparently. Altogether homely and trendy all at once.

Bloom just stood, leaning against the car, staring up at the sky. It was bigger than her old house. Nicer too. In a nicer town, probably with a nicer school. Not that that meant anything to her. If anything, it was infuriating a place so comfortable was the object of her ire.

She hadn't given up much to be here. Not really. No friends left behind back home. No clubs or hobbies or commitments she'd abandoned. By all accounts, this move had nothing but upsides for her. But she couldn't suppress this feeling of resentment at her parents burning in her stomach. That she just came home from school one day, and her whole house was packed up, and in less than a week suddenly she was here.

Step by step, she walked up the porch to her new home, and she breathed deep.

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The third floor was more like an apartment unto itself than a house's bedroom. Attached bath, little kitchenette, sliding glass doors out to a terrace, fire escape up to the roof sandwiched between two taller buildings.

She hadn't unpacked all day. All there was in her loft style room were boxes, boxes and more boxes, and two mattresses stacked on top of each other. Though, as she stared out at the terrace, looking at the dark night sky, she wondered if her disheveled bed was the only reason she couldn't sleep.

Three in the morning. Yet she wasn't the slightest bit tired. If anything, she felt the most awake she had in months. Sitting in her pajamas overtop of her covers on her bed, staring out the glass doors.

Light filtered in through them. Her entire bedroom bathed in deep reddish orange sunlight, long shadows of her furniture, of the fire escape outside stretching across her floor up her far wall. Not even in the peak of summer did the sun come up this early. So why was radiant dawn beaming into her room in the middle of such a crisp autumn night? She squinted, a hand to her brow, trying to draw her curtains closed but succeeding only in ruffling the stiff drapes left by the previous owner to one side.

All at once, the light faded. Her room going almost pitch black. The faint blue hue of the night caressing her room with the gentlest touch once again. Any semblance of the daylight gone. She got up, walking to the window, forehead pressed against the cool glass as she looked around the fire escape. Nothing. Had she just imagined it? She hadn't slept in nearly 26 hours after all.

Just as she'd pulled up her covers, ready to turn into her bed, the entire room shook. Boxes falling over, her top mattress sliding off her bottom one.

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She ran. She ran as fast as her legs could take her down. Through the front hall, down the royal procession. Heart pounding out of her chest, breathing ragged, hair slick with sweat matted upon her face. Sceptre clutched in both hands, knuckles white.

As she kept running, she whipped her head back, eyes wide in terror. A million crawling black hands reaching across the floor, the ceiling, the walls. Everything fading to black and subsumed by darkness.

She burst out the front gates, and down the steps of the palace. A black hand grazing her leg, its clutches branding a burning clawmark into her skin. Breaking free of impending doom she lept, escaping the palace grounds. Bounding from step to step, perfect platforms of light floating still in the open sky. The hollow, delicate sound of glass ringing out with every step. Feet touching down on the precipice of the royal grounds.

Her momentum nearly carried her off the edge and out into the sky. Feet skidding to a stop, toes hanging over the edge. Looking down at the clouds below. Run so ragged she nearly retched, hands on her knees doubled over in agony. Gazing down at the clouds below, so high up she couldn't see the ground.

The end of Solaria's prosperity. The end of its peace. She was staring it in the face. The sky, high above the sea of clouds, fading from brilliant white to a dark royal blue above her like an ocean hanging over her head. The tiniest specks of stars visible even during the day.

Her palace, her home, the crown jewel that sat in Solaria's sky. Overcome by so much swirling gloom and darkness it was rendered totally featureless. Nothing but a giant silhouette sitting still in the air. A halo of light shining from all sides around it, as if it were the moon blotting out the sun during an eclipse. Deep shadows, black as pitch, cast so long they extended out into the world and across the final platform she found herself teetering on. The last thing unconsumed by the end of her kingdom, slowly eroding and cracking apart. Backed into a corner as it encroached upon her from all sides, cast shadows becoming passageways that allowed Its reach to strangle and claw at her feet.

She closed her eyes, and willed herself to fall backwards off of the platform, the ink black hell missing her by a breath. Hurtling towards the planet's surface head first. Clutching herself tight, a missile racing towards the ground as air and clouds pulled themselves in behind her. Burning up at terminal velocity. Watching the clouds part and stream past her.

"Past the heavens. Past the stars. Past the edge of the world still. Fate scatter this final seed of hope somewhere it will bloom."

Inches from the ground, and the world shattered. Her staff shining with a white hot light before sizzling to black, inert. Like a shooting star crashing into a black abyss she vanished, the world disappearing behind her.

Roiling chaos surrounded her. A weightlessness gripping her. Floating through an endless void towards nowhere. No idea where she was going. She turned in place, watching the pinprick of light she came from fade out of view as it drifted further and further away. Disappearing as it turned from white to black. Solaria, her home, pulling away.

Adrift. Floating through a black void. There was nothing left. No light, no sound, no warmth or air or gravity. All there was left was her. A speck in an infinite expanse, the nothing extending further and further the farther back one pulled their point of view. How long would she be here? A minute? An hour? A day? Would she be here forever? Would she starve? Would she go mad?

All of her questions were answered as she spiraled around again, another white light in the distance. A beacon of hope in the darkness. To where it didn't matter. She reached out, feeling it envelope her, and in a flash of light, a blink of the eye, nothing became something again. The warmth of the world. The sounds of nature. The light of the moon. The caress of the wind.

She slipped out of the tear in reality, and fell from several feet up to her knees. Attempting to get her bearings. Cool. Night. Trees. Dirty. Brick and wood and metal and glass. A world she'd never seen before.

She turned, once more, and was caught off guard. Suddenly spooked. A girl, with fiery red hair and some sort of ill fitting pink clothes, was standing several feet away from her. Staring at her like she had three heads. Speechless, eyes wide. Like a child seeing something miraculous for the first time. Basking in the sliver of light escaping the slowly closing portal to the abyss. Like reality was two parted fluttering curtains finally coming to rest, drawing shut.

Only it didn't close. With a shriek, just before the breach in reality could seal up completely, shadowy hands erupted from the gash. Latching onto its edges. Prying it open. Wrenching reality open like torn fabric. Claws and grasping hands lashing out trying to grab at her. Grotesque fingers curling around her forearms. Around her wand. Trying to rip her back into the abyss.

In another flash of light, rays of the sun shining from between her clenched fingers, a wave of force erupted between the girl and whatever was trying to violate and corrupt her. They shuddered and squealed, shrivelling up and retreating back through the abyss. The gash in reality finally seeping shut, stitched closed. Her wand fading to black and shattering apart in the process. Most of its pieces flying backwards with her assailant back into the void. Flying in all directions. Like shooting stars cast across the city. A final piece of it clattering across the floor and landing at the red headed girl's feet.

Bloom reached down. Picking up the piece of pure black metal. Curved and cold. Her eyes darting back and forth between it and the girl standing across from her. Trying to regain a sense of normalcy she felt she'd never get back.

The girl, standing across from her, sent shivers down Bloom's spine. She was beautiful, in a haunting and disarming kind of way. Gossamer silk gown that was smooth like glass. Reflective like a mirror. Platinum blonde hair so bright it was like a halo of light danced off it, rays of the sun spun into threads. Floating in the air like it had a mind of its own, defying gravity.

But she was also utterly disheveled. Attacked and ruined. Cuts and tears all over her skin and her clothes. Dirt and dust coating her shins. Blood smeared and dried on her forearms. Sweat dried onto her. On her back, two tiny translucent things. Maybe pieces of fabric. Torn and creased. Like crumpled up tissue paper.

Fear. Confusion. Anger. They all blurred together on the girl's face. She reached a hand out to Bloom, her eyes transfixed on the metal chunk Bloom held in her hands. She looked up for a split second, making eye contact with Bloom. The light in her eyes going dark.

"Give that to me." She said plainly. Hints of seething she barely suppressed seeping through her words.

Bloom took a step back, then another, shrinking back on the fire escape. She dropped the piece of the shattered wand. A soft clang rang out as it fell to the ground. The battle scarred girl walked up to it, inches from Bloom's face. Picking it up, and with a hateful glare at Bloom, disappearing in a soft wave of light. When it faded she was gone. Leaving Bloom shuddering in fright on the cold fire escape steps.

At her feet, yet another piece of that cold black metal. She reached for it, afraid to touch it, stopping inches short of it. Like it would attack her if she got too close. She took another deep breath. Finally taking it, clutching it to her chest. An otherwordly cold coursing through her heart.

She walked back down the steps, returning to her room. Sliding under the covers. Staring out the window, eyes wide like dinner plates and a pit in her stomach.

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She stepped off the street car. It was strange, living in the city. She'd never been somewhere so dense and busy before. Barely able to keep herself awake she rubbed sleep out of her eyes, breaking up the sand between her fingers. Unable to shirk the nightmare that she'd had last night.

Unless it wasn't a nightmare. Unless it was real.

The same girl. The statuesque blonde goddess, small scabs and scrapes on her forearms and all, was sitting alone at the street car stop on the bench. Looking up at the sky. Watching the sun dance behind the clouds as it set.

The streetcar's lamp lit up the road, drawing the attention of everyone waiting at its stop. Eager to get on. All but that girl, Bloom realized. At first she didn't even notice it had arrived. When she finally clued in all she could do was stare, confused. Looking around incredulous before doing a double take at Bloom. The two's eyes met, and the colour drained from her face as her pupils shrunk down to pinpricks. She nearly fell out of her seat, stepping backward.

Bloom took a step towards her, but she turned and ran as the streetcar stopped and opened its doors. As everyone else filed on, Bloom hesitated, reaching for its door but ultimately letting go. She ran too. Chasing after the mystery girl.

She wasn't very fast. Bloom got the distinct impression she wasn't an athletic type. Despite how much shorter she was Bloom was gaining on her, even while carrying her backpack with her. The blonde looked back, seeing Bloom catching up, and turned down an alley between two rows of houses.

Bloom skid around the corner, face to face with the mystery girl. Her back to an eight foot tall chain link fence, squeezed between two tall red brick townhouses. Panting, barely able to hold herself together.

The gap between them got smaller and smaller. Bloom walking slowly towards her. Taking a deep breath. Looking her in the eye. "You're real right? This isn't all one big nightmare?"

The blonde girl opened her mouth to speak, only to hesitate and say nothing. Instead, her entire body, much to Bloom's shock, was consumed by a faint white light. She slipped backwards, and passed right through the fence. Looking at Bloom equal parts scared and superior from the other side through the diamonds.

Her dismissive facade was broken immediately. Falling backwards on her hands and backside with a yelp as Bloom lept at the fence. Clambering up it like an animal. Standing triumphant atop the fence and jumping off with an ungraceful grunt. Falling with a thud and landing on her feet from ten feet up.

The mystery girl tried to scramble to her feet, but Bloom grabbed her by her shirt collar before she could. Shocked, she realized, she could even touch her. "You are real! What the hell are you?"

"Don't touch me!" The blonde slapped Bloom but the redhead wasn't as easily fazed as she'd hoped. Merely squinting her eyes and gritting her teeth while her grip got tighter still.

"You were like- basically in my house! Who do you think you are!" Bloom yelled at her, her tone of voice getting firmer and firmer.

"That was an accident! Just forget you saw me and leave me alone you box dye bell bottom weirdo!" The blonde spat back at her. Trying and failing to pry Bloom's hands off of her shirt collar.

Bloom was holding her with two hands now, her grip tightening. "An accid- what the hell are you talking about?"

"Let me go weird girl! I shouldn't even be here! I thought my portal would take me somewhere like Andros or Zenith! You know somewhere that could actually help me!" Bloom was getting increasingly fed up. Had it not been for the mystery girl's display of power, Bloom would have written her off as some cosplay geek or insane asylum escapee.

The nonsense she was spewing only made Bloom's brow furrow. She pushed the blonde to the ground, kneeling on the pavement over her torso and holding her down by the shoulders. "You're going to tell me why you were in my house, now. You're gonna explain who you are and what those things were!"

"I can't tell you!"

"Why not!"

"Wh- people like you shouldn't know people like me exist!" The blonde tried to choke out. People like her? Who was this prissy spoiled bitch?

A thought she clearly couldn't leave as just a thoughtm "People like me? The hell does that mean?"

"You know! People with like...I dunno! You know! Her eyes were darting back and forth. Stammering frantically. Legs thrashing in vain beneath Bloom. Hands digging into Bloom's forearms trying to peel her off of herself. "Let me go let me go! A princess doesn't deserve this sort of shabby treatment!"

She was getting nowhere fast with this psycho. She was surprisingly weak for someone so much bigger than herself. Maybe she was a princess, beautiful, weak spoiled. She didn't know any royalty, but felt that fit the bill. "Princ- you really are just crazy aren't you? Now answer me how'd you do that magic light thing through the fence?"

She turned red in the face, puffing out her cheeks. Damn it, even when she was being a huge judgmental bitch it just made her look cute. "See? That's what I mean by people like you! People that have no magic! I thought I was hallucinating, but there really is no magic here!"

"You're gonna tell me what's going on, now."

She glowed one more time, the same glow she used to walk through the fence, only for nothing to happen. It fizzled out, like a bubble popping. The blonde girl wide eyed in shock. Hyperventilating. "See! See? What the hell is wrong with this place? Oh ye gods I'm going to be stuck here forever I'm going-"

She was broken out of her frenzy by a hearty slap across the face from Bloom. Staring off into space taking deep breaths. Looking up at the sky beyond her captor. Watching as the brilliant peaches and pinks of sunset become that deep blue void. Like she was still in the royal palace up above.

Bloom sighed and loosened her grip on her, but didn't get up off the other girl. "Pull yourself together, and tell me exactly what's going on."

A powerful glow shone between her fingers, just as it did last night. Only instead the light shorted out like tv static. Her hands becoming a sickly white colour. "What's going on? You, tell me what's going on! Where am I? Why am I here? What's wrong with this place, there's no magic anywhere!"

"You need to breathe. Just focus on breathing and try not to swallow your tongue you psycho."

"I was...we were attacked, and then I escaped. And I cast a spell to leave my homeworld, but I didn't, I didn't know where I was going! I just lept and prayed, and I ended up here!" She kept flickering between sadness and anger, trying to keep herself together.

Bloom held her hand, feeling the blonde's pulse racing a mile a minute. "Homeworld?"

Her eyes just kept darting around, coughing and wheezing. "...Where am I now? What's your homeworld here called?"

Bloom was dumbfounded, trying to keep herself grounded. "You mean...like my planet?"

"Uh yeah, duh."

Damnit. She was worried that's what the weird blonde freak meant. She swallowed her pride, and decided she'd have to really follow along with this if she wanted answers. "Earth. Which up until a minute ago I thought was the only planet with life on it."

Bloom finally got off the girl, both of them sitting dirty on the ground with their backs against one of the house's walls. The mystery girl gasped, rolling her neck back and looked up at the sky. "Oh my gosh, what back forty hellhole have I found myself in!?"

"I'm going to ignore that. So you're telling me you're a magical princess from another planet." She laid the sarcasm and skepticism on thick, trying to keep herself in check.

She blinked twice, nonplussed. A vacant look on her face. "What's so hard to understand about that?"

"Mostly? All of it."

"Are you calling me a liar?" She huffed indignantly.

Now Bloom was the one looking into the sky, trying not to let her head explode. Hoping against hope that maybe this all was one big continuous nightmare. The longest she'd ever experienced. Even if she knew it wasn't. "I watched you turn into the sun and walk through a fence. I saw you fall out of the sky and fight a monster. Even if you are lying, you're still not normal."

The two watched dark clouds roll in above them, the air pressure dropping like a rock. The so called princess shivering. Her eyes crossed looking at a raindrop that fell upon the tip of her nose. A shiver ran through Bloom as well, but not from the wind and rain. She reached into the interior pocket of her sweater, producing another black shard of metal just like the night before.

The girl's eyes lit up. "You have another piece! Give that to me!" She swiped at Bloom, falling on her face as Bloom ripped it away from her.

"You are going to tell me everything first."

Chapter Text

The rain was really coming down now. The pitter patter of its drops occassionallly interrupted by the shuddering of thunder that permeated the small cafe. A deep blue gloom washing over the town.

The aroma of coffee filled Bloom's head. Relieved that the little cafe was open even after dark. Fairy lights strung up in the window above her head. She silently cursed herself, frustrated she was finding things she actually liked about this town.

The two were squeezed into a narrow booth, staring each other down in silence. A simple coffee with cream and sugar in Bloom's hands, a frozen matcha frappe abomination piled high with chocolate and whipped cream across from her. Several scones and treats on a napkin next to it.

The blonde broke the silence after a long sip on her absurd drink. "Oh my gosh, I absolutely needed this. I feel like I'm about to keel over!"

Bloom scowled at the blonde girl's assortment of sugary snacks. She hadn't known this supposed princess for more than an hour and she was already burning a hole in her wallet. Hopefully she'd be more talkative once she was full.

"So..." the redhead started. The girl across the table snapped to attention, perky and wide eyed. "Let's start with names, at least." Internally she was screaming. She wasn't her friend, she shouldn't treat her like one. "I'm Bloom."

The blonde wiped a whipped cream smear off of her face before letting out a little hiccup. Which clearly amused her based on the giggle she let out in response. Damnit, Bloom thought, even when she's being gross she's still cute. The absolute worst kind of brat. She composed herself, taking a deep breath in, unsure if she should reciprocate. "...I'm Stella."

"Okay, Stella. You are going to tell me-"

Bloom's mouth zipped shut, prismatic threads of light binding her lips closed. Trying to speak, hands clawing at her own mouth. Stella looked ecstatic as Bloom's eyes frantically darted around the cafe, making sure nobody saw the literal magic happening right under her nose. The princess simply glanced over her nails as she shifted through and conjured pattern after pattern onto them with nothing but the bat of an eyelash. "Ha maybe I was overreacting! I guess I was just starving! Had to refuel before I could sling a spell again!" Stella's self satisfied preoccupation with her nails was suddenly interrupted by Bloom grabbing her by the wrist. Nails digging into her, Stella's arm in a vice.

She was staring daggers at her, glancing down at her mouth occassionally as if pleading for her to undo her restraints.

Stella took another massive sip from her matcha latte frappe...thing. Letting out a pleasant but clearly embellished, almost sardonic 'ahh'. "Sorry, but given I'm the magic princess fighting monsters trying to save the world, I'll be asking the questions. First, where the hell am I?" She crossed her arms, eyes closed, waiting patiently for a response. Only to open an eye to peak on Bloom, realizing she wasn't going to get an answer with her mouth sewn shut. "Oops! My bad! Didn't think that all the way through!" With a snap of her fingers Bloom was gasping for air, taking a quick sip of coffee before slamming her fist on the table. "So, where am I?"

The loathsome glare the princess got from Bloom would have turned any average person's stomach, but Stella remained unflappable. "I told you. Earth."

Stella tittered for a moment, staring out the window as lightning filled her vision while she listened to the rain. A streetcar passed by, its headlight like a beacon in the storm. "Mmmm....that doesn't really help me. I've never even heard of it! Why doesn't this place have any magic? Did something happen?" She asked, bringing her fifth or sixth pastry to her mouth.

Before she knew it icing was dripping down the window pane. Bloom having reached up and slapped it out of her hand, hair hanging unruly in front of her face. "Did som- there's no magic because magic isn't real!"

Bloom let out an apprehensive groan, the cinnamon bun floating through the air towards Stella with a wiggle of the princess' finger. "I mean...clearly not. I guess I'll have to go elsewhere for answers." She took one more bite despite it being ruined, only to leave it on a napkin and stand up out of the booth.

"Wait!" Bloom lunged over the table grabbing Stella as she got up to leave. Spilling both their drinks all over. The stares of everyone else in the cafe burrowing into her from all sides. "Just...hold your horses, I have questions too."

The chiding tone Stella slipped into made Bloom's skin crawl. "Sorry...Bloom right? I've got to go save the world, so I can't waste my time talking with weird magicless girls who carelessly mix reds and pinks." The princess jeered, looking over Bloom's outfit as she left.

She waited a moment, watching Stella leave. Only to pull that same piece of cold metal out of her jacket pocket. "Did you forget? You're going to tell me everything."

She stopped in her tracks, shoulders raised, cringing to herself. If she really wanted she could just take it from this annoying little redhead, but thought better of making such a massive scene in public. "Youuuuu are a nasty little thing aren't you!" She looked around, eyes flickering between all the other patrons and wait staff. Slinking back into her side of the booth with an audible thump. Her tone sharp and hushed. "So what do you want to know?"

Bloom leaned in closer, her voice also a whisper, snatching the last of Stella's uneaten desserts. A bite size tiramisu. If she was paying for them, it was hers after all. "First of all, what the hell are you doing here? Where did you come from?" She said through a mouthful of mascarpone.

Stella wrinkled her nose and let out an 'ahem', thinking about how she was going to explain this to someone who didn't even know magic was real. "I left home because my world is under attack by a horrific invading army of darkness. Why my spell brought me here and not somewhere that could help me? I have no idea."

Given what she'd just heard, Bloom felt Stella seemed more exhausted and annoyed than filled with trauamtic existential dread like she figured she'd be wracked with. "Is that what those gross black hands were?"

"Oh those things were the tip of the iceberg, like horrific little drones! I was nearly ruined by them! Luckily I escaped but-"

"Do they know you're here?" Bloom interjected, a pang of worry in her voice.

"Huh?"

Another massive bolt of lightning. Stella cringed and cowered as thunder rolled through her bones. Bloom's voice filled with trepidation. "Those things came out of that portal, and they were here. On Earth. Where I live. Are they coming back?"

The princess shrunk back, sheepish. Glancing between Bloom and the outside. The redhead unsure which was scaring Stella more. "Well I...I mean probably not? They only care about taking over my world."

"But you're here. They were chasing you. Which means they want you. They'll come here to get you."

The look on Stella's face told Bloom everything, to say nothing of the deathly palour of it. Ghost white just like her hands when her magic ran out. Her voice however, was shockingly chipper and reassuring. Though it didn't match her face at all. "...You're overthinking this. All I have to do is get to a planet that can actually help me." She stared off into space out the window again. Waiting, waiting, drumming her fingers on the table, before suddenly being shocked upright. Like the airhead had startled herself. "Oh! Speaking of...piece of my sceptre back please."

"...Nnno." Bloom droned out, turning away from the princess and clutching it to her chest.

"Excuse me?"

It only took a second for Bloom to find her voice, to find her firmness. "It's not happening. Far as I can tell, you need this thing, and the second you get it you're gone. If those things are after you, on my- I can't believe I'm actually saying this for real- planet, then I'm keeping it for insurance."

"You're blackmailing me to stick around?" Stella was standing up, almost towering over Bloom now, everyone else watching on as she made a scene. "Well, good luck with that, I'm so out of here!"

She left in a huff, stamping out the front door. Rounding the corner. Bloom chased after her, still clutching her piece of the sceptre. Ducking into another alley. Only to see a flash from around the corner ahead of her, and nobody there when she rounded it herself.

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She was fuming. It was nearly 3 a.m. again, and once again she couldn't sleep. This stupid blonde bimbo- Stella she said her name was- breaks into her home, tracks in a monster, eats thirty dollars worth of food at the coffee place, insults her clothes, and then leaves.

The lights in her room were turned down low. The dull warmth of her floor lamp contrasting with the cool blue haze of her computer monitor. Bed a disheleved mess caught between them, clutching her pillow to her stomach.

She looked down in her hand, gripping the black metal to her chest. Images from somewhere flashing through her head. Forget Stella. This was hers. If she wanted it she shouldn't have been so goddamn rude. Stupid spoiled magic princess.

She kicked off her covers, trying to pull herself together. Walking to her window, watching the rain come down.

It wasn't until after another rolling bout of thunder crashed through her bones that she realized a faint glimmer reflected against her window pane. A wave of colour that matched neither lights in her room undulating across her floor. Turning around she saw an irridescent, platinum light cascading from beneath her closet door. Step by step, she got closer, and closer. Throwing her door open, fists braced for whatever was behind it.

Nothing she had experienced the last day and a half could have prepared her for what she saw next.

"Wh-what are you doing in my house!...And why are you so tiny!"

Eye level with herself on one of her closet shelves, was Stella. The entire shelving unit fashioned into a tiny loft, not unlike the world's most modern dollhouse. Full of both tiny furniture and repurposed full sized household items. The princess no bigger than a finger, rolling her eyes at Bloom. Lounging on a baseball glove like a massive loveseat.

It was a surreal little scene. Here the princess was, sitting doing her nails, feet up on a plastic table from a pizza box, soaking wet clothes from today all over her floor. Wearing- goddamnit- wearing some of Bloom's own albeit shrunken clothes herself. One of her favourite longer tees barely a top on Stella, chest stretching out the fabric with her midriff exposed.

The tiny princess got up, walking out to the edge of the shelf. Defiantly putting a foot on Bloom's freckled nose with her hands on her hips. "Uhhhh miniaturization is an extremely basic magical ability of fairies. Though I had to wait for my wings to heal and my magic came back before I could really flex these metaphorical magical muscles."

Bloom was nearly cross eyed trying to focus on the tiny princess in front of her face. Did she say fairy? Lo and behold, shimmering sun rays, so bright and opaque she swore she'd be able to touch them, shone from the princess' back in the vague shape of a butterfly's wings.

She stumbled backwards as Stella pushed off of Bloom's face, flittering around her.

"That doesn't answer any of my questions! Now get out of my room before I shove you in a shoebox and bury you in the backyard!" Bloom whisper shouted through grit teeth. Hands waving wildly trying to grab Stella out of the air, swatting at her.

In another flash, Bloom found herself instantly face to face with Stella, properly sized. Looking down smugly at the redhead. "...Wow. Overreact much? Well, I went looking for the rest of this thing, so I can go home thank you very much, and I found three of maybe fifty pieces, then I got tired."

"So you're here!?"

"Let me finish! Obviously, I have no money, no ID, no contacts, and no knowledge of this taudry little no magic dustball. So I decided to crash at the one place I actually know of." With a snap of her fingers she conjured forth what she'd managed to find. Four pieces of sleek metal shining dimly. "Plus, you have something that's mine I believe." She said, gaze falling upon a similar shine coming from Bloom's pocket.

"You're a goddamn home invade- what's that?" A shadow, on the fire escape. Bloom wide eyed gazing right past Stella. Trying to figure out just what was going on.

"What's what?" The princess asked patronizingly, rolling her eyes as she turned to look in the same direction Bloom was. Her heart aching and her blood running cold as she saw what Bloom saw.

More of those vestigial shadowy hands, slipping around and sliding beneath the doors to Bloom's room. Skittering around like cockroaches.

"Those...hands again...You did lead these things right to Earth! You're going to get my home killed!" She had Stella in her hands now, grabbing her by her shoulders.

Stella snapped to attention, suddenly standing tall. A steely look in her eye that made Bloom's heart skip a beat. Watching as black mist spewed in from the corners of the room. The world outside going pitch black. She blasted Bloom's door open, her head spinning to glance at Bloom's closet. Both doorframes pitch black as well. "This isn't good. They've isolated our room in the darkness, detached from your world." A deep timber in her voice. She'd become an entirely different person instantly.

"Our room-!?" Bloom's indignity was cut off by Stella immediately. A powerful stoic confidence shocking the redhead.

"-Calm yourself. Get back, and get behind something. I'm going to handle this. There's nothing you can do." A snap of her fingers, and Bloom found herself swaddled in her pillows and blankets in the corner of her room. A small gap to look out from as her bedding ensconced her, hiding her under the pile of linens.

"Stell-!" Her lips suddenly clamped shut. Those damn prismatic threads again. She couldn't get a word in with this girl. The fabric constricting her tighter and tighter.

Both of them watched, Bloom breathless and trembling, Stella steadfast, as the chittering black hands wove and climbed upon each other. The empty blackness writhing, melding together, the individual forms of each hand giving way to a single entity.

Seven feet tall, well built yet gangly. The creature reminded Bloom of a knight. Curved, spiked armour. Spindly arms and legs terminating not in hands and feet but blades. Horns adorning its head like a helmet. A deep red V on its face the only thing on it that wasn't a featureless black silhouette.

It took slow deliberate steps towards the two girls. Legs piercing into the floor. Stella stood between it and Bloom, hands brimming with power. Rays of light burning bright in her hands.

Holding her hands out, a flash of light shot forth from her palms. It simply bat it away with its bladed arm. The princess let loose a volley of blast trying to ward it away, but it continued to approach, swatting several away, and holding its blade up to the final one and splitting it in half. Bending the light away from itself.

Ceaselessly, coldly, it walked on. One of its two blades splitting open like a claw. Pincing twice with a sharp vorpal slice.

Stella's eyes darted around the room, looking for an answer. Spying Bloom's computer monitor on her desk, she let loose another salvo of rays. Mere distractions as the knight sliced through all of them with both hands. Only for the strongest of them to reflect off of the computer screen. The ray pierced through the knight from behind, a perfect circular hole in its abdomen. The creature stunned for just a moment. Only to continue on. Merciless, bearing down on Stella. The princess herself ready to collapse from exhaustion.

Bloom was trembling. Barely able to see what was happening. Trying to scream, in vain. Thrashing trying to get to her feet.

The black armour snapped to attention, looking at the linen pile behind Stella. Bloom's heartrate spiking as she tried to be stock still. Both Stella and the shambling warrior looked at the bedding. Moments passed. An uneasy feeling of fear hanging in the air. Only for the creature to lock back onto the princess after a brief pause.

With an open claw, it locked eyes with Stella and rammed its arm into the wall. Trying to skewer her. She collapsed to the ground, narrowly avoiding its blades but barely able to hold herself up on her knees. "It's getting closer. I can't do anything, it's over." Brick chip and drywall dust went flying everywhere as the monster ripped its arm out of the wall. It swivelled, arms and legs rotate in place. Facing the other way without turning around. Its pincers snapping shot one more time, preparing to lunge at the collapsed princess again. Until it paused. The pile of bed linens wasn't there.

It stumbled backwards. Blanket wrapped around its face from behind. Stella must have already been dead, this must be her brain dying as she bled out. Because she couldn't believe what she was seeing otherwise.

Bloom had lept onto this thing's back. Trying to smother and tangle it up in fabric. Tripping it up and steering it into walls and furniture. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Protecting you you spoiled bitch!" Bloom lashed out at Stella, the prismatic threads sewing her mouth shut snapping apart as she finally became able to speak again. How did she do that?

"You can't do anything without magic!" Stella screamed at her, clutching her own chest as her heart burned up inside.

"Then give me yours!"

"It doesn't work like that!"

With a nasty wrench the knight slammed Bloom into the wall, then whipped her through the air. Hurling her to land right beside Stella.

She was on her hands and knees, her arm resting on Stella's shoulder, leaning on her. The shining rays of light that shone out of Stella's back waning, spiraling apart.

"No no no no, I'm nearly out of magic." Stella gasped.

"...your sceptre, we can use that right?" Bloom withdrew the piece she'd been holding over Stella's head during the day. The black metal glowing dimly.

"It's broken! You know that!" Stella shrieked as the black knight got closer, her eyes transfixed on the holes in its torso. Producing the four pieces she had herself. Eyes going wide realizing they glowed more strongly as she held them next to Bloom's piece.

The two held hands, the five shards between them in their grip. Bloom's breath quickened. Palms clammy. Heart pounding. Arms aching. "Is this enough? Enough for you to start shining and fighting again?"

"Just let me try! On three okay?...three!"

The two were subsumed in a final brilliant flash of light. So bright even the princess of the kingdom of the sun had to avert her eyes. Trying to beat her wings. Only to realize she still didn't have any.

"It, it didn't wo-...What did you do!"

Standing before Stella was Bloom. Two massive jets of fire and sizzling black smoke erupting from her back like monarch butterfly wings. Even the locks of her hair instead of were plumes of flame.

She wasn't sure what happened next. All she knew was she was alive. And standing just beyond her and Bloom, was the smoking remains of the creature, its entire head and upper body missing. Watching as it crumbled to pieces. Embers fizzling out along the edge of the blast zone. Its arms and legs falling apart and to the ground one after the other. Bursting into ash and fading away as it hit the floor. The blackness beyond the room's doors and windows slipping away.

Stella was dumbfounded. She looked at her hands, at the pieces of her wand, rendered inert and black yet again. Barely able to will forth even a twinkle between her fingers. Any attempt to dazzle her wings ended in failure. Feeling completely powerless.

Then she saw Bloom, again. Both her wings and hair raging with fire. And yet, the power coursing off of the girl from Earth was at once foreign and familiar. "You...stole my magic!?"

Bloom simply turned to her, smirking. "And you stole my clothes, we're even." No response from Stella. She was on her hands and knees, hair in front of her face splayed out all over the floor. Breathing heavily, the verge of sobbing. Bloom's face softened, for the first time a tiny bit sympathetic to the girl who'd turned her life even further upset down than it already was. "I saved your life dummy."

Stella just said nothing. Resigned to struggling, her head in her hands. "Oh my gosh, ohemgee ohemgee ohemgee this is absolutely not happening."

"You're...Stella come here."

She was scooped up in a hug. This girl from Earth. She was warm. Not just because of the fire she'd ignited. She was burning inside and out. Her skin on Stella's own as she embraced her filling her with comfort. With resolve. Stella put her hand on Bloom's shoulder. Her handd plunged in the fire bursting out of her like wings. Even they filled her with warmth, rather than burning her.

The two rose to their feet. Bloom pulling her by the arm. Walking in tandem. She opened the door to the balcony, and the powerful pouring of rain filled her ears. Kept relatively dry by Bloom's fire steaming up all the water around her. The two of them stopping and huddling down beneath the fire escape stairs to the roof.

Another deep dry heaving sob came from her. "I'm alone, and I'm powerless, and I'm stuck in this no magic cesspool and you stole my powers and my world is in danger and-"

Her eyes jolted open, feeling herself being pushed away. A sharp stinging spreading across her cheek. All she could see was Bloom, a firm but bemused look on her face. "That's the second time I've had to slap you. Now, you're going to sit down, suck it up, and tell me for real exactly what's going on."

"...I'm the princess, of a planet called Solaria. It's a place that's always bathed in shining sunlight, really truly beautiful. You could wear a sundress and strawhat every single day if you wanted." She was altogether tearing up and yet chuckling to herself. Though her smile faded looking out at the sky. "And my home, my family, the royal palace and royal family of Solaria, were overthrown and attacked by this horrid legion of monsters. Just like the one that attacked us here."

Bloom was angry, but she chose to suppress it. This girl was already hurt. She didn't need to pile on. Though even as she spoke plainly she knew a little ire was dripping through. "So my world is in danger because you ran away and dragged them here."

"Not on purpose!...My sceptre is what allows me to travel between worlds at my leisure, a royal heirloom. That's why I need all the pieces of it back, like the one you have. So I can leave this place, and find allies and other worlds who can save them."

"Meanwhile, as long as you're trapped here Earth is in harm's way." A deep flame burned not only on Bloom's back but in her eyes. Just looking at her filled Stella with...envy, but also safety.

"And now that you've stolen my powers you're the only one who can defend it. I mean, I have a tiny bit left, but I can't don my winx anymore. They're...yours now." She said, moving her hands through Bloom's locks, her fire. Still it refused to burn her.

"...So if we find all of these pieces, you can go save your world, and these creeps will lay off of mine once you leave."

"I'm...sorry for all of this. I never meant for this to happen." She stifled one more sniffle. Looking back inside at Bloom's ruined room. "I've been an absolutely awful guest on your boring little world...no offense."

Bloom tightened her hands into fists, watching fire jettison out the sides as she clenched them. The dull roar making Stella flinch, much to Bloom's amusement. "I mean, I did put these hands on you, more than once. I haven't exactly been a good host."

The princess regained her composure, only to totally lose it again as the world flashed. Bolt after bolt touching down across the city. The rumbling of thunder shaking the entire fire escape. The powerful bass of the storm shooting through her jawline.

"Augh! What is that?" She screeched, digging her fingers deeper into Bloom as she clutched her tighter. Held her closer.

Caught so off guard she couldn't even react, Bloom just giggled as her hands fell slack at her side. "It's thunder and lightning. You know, a storm. Do they not have storms where you live?"

"They do! Just...I've never seen one. I've never been underneath the clouds before. I mean, they'd block the sun and moon! It just doesn't make sense." Did this girl live in heaven or something? She was even weirder when she was nice and sincere than when she was being a snot nosed brat.

The two just sat, watching the storm roll through. There was no way either were going to sleep tonight. It was already later than 4 a.m. It made more sense to just stay up. Water pouring down the steps of the staircase. Her hand crept across the balcony, resting atop Stella's.

She froze, confused. "Hey, where'd you get all of that furniture in my closet anyway?"

Another massive bolt of lightning made Stella cower. But she perked up and became her chipper self as she squeezed Bloom's hand back. "I saw them in some storefront windows. So I just shrunk them down and put them in my pockets. Oh, same story with some of the outfits by the way!"

"You stole it all?" Bloom balked. Her astonishment punctuated by another bout of grumbling thunder.

"Borrowed! I'll give it back when we fix this thing, just before I go home."

Bloom's wings twitched, her fire smoldering gently. "Yeah okay. How do I turn these off by the way?"

Chapter Text

The palace was innavigable. Every single surface totally devoid of form, of texture, of colour. Endless deep black that absorded all light. All sense of space and depth, lost forever. It was like standing within the void of space. But even space had stars. Even a black hole was surrounded by its event horizon. Here truly felt like nothing. A gross deception, for everything was still here. A fact Luna learned as she proceeded forward only to discover a staircase was in front of her. The central stair in the throneroom in fact.

She conjured forth the opal shine of the moon. It illuminated her hands, and absolutely nothing else at all. The palace snuffing out every ray of the moon's light. It cast no shadows, produced no shades, revealed nothing of the forms of the palace's architecture. The only thing the withering light cascaded upon was her own skin, and his face.

That man. He sat upon her throne. Like a parasite who'd finally found his host. Usurper. He leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees, chin resting on his hands. His lithe youthful form betraying the power he possessed. The reality of his age.

"You're supposed to be dead." She choked out.

"And you're supposed to be queen. That makes two disappointments." He stated. Matter of fact. Every so often darkness surged across his body, like brush strokes swathing the world in ink. Cutting into his silhouette. "Now, allow me to repeat myself. Where is your daughter?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure if one of your freakish soldiers has found her, it's already killed her. She would never go along with you willingly." She had no more tears to cry. She'd waste no time mourning her daughter. Wherever she was, she both hoped she was safe, and made peace with the fact she would never see her again whether she was or not.

He stood. He radiated a beguiling charm, but it fell flat in the face of her overwhelming hatred for him. The infinite inky black expanse of her- of his palace suffocating the sound of his footsteps down the stairs. He stood over her, clutching her by her silken silver hair. Raising her to her feet. "When I find her, you will regret ever having the audacity to lie to me."

"Do you fancy yourself a king, you worthless-"

His other hand ran through his hair. "Do you understand how much you would ask me to give up to be a mere king?" He threw her to the floor, tattered coat flapping upon his shoulders. "You flatter yourself thinking I care the slightest bit about Solaria. This arrangement is a matter of convenience and nothing more, as I scour the realms for your daughter the star child."

"Then what do you want with her?"

"What do I want with my bride?" He looked back at her, his eye staring at her over his shoulder. A piercing light, the only light in his palace, shooting right through his iris into her soul. His quiet ego asserting itself. "What a fascinating question."

><><><><><

It was a brisk monday in October. Her first day at school since moving. It was a small high school, maybe 500 students. She wasn't in the mood to make friends. It was twelfth grade after all. She was going to be here for eight months and then she was going to leave and never see these people again. Why bother trying to ingratiate herself to people who've all probably known each other since kindergarten.

Besides, how was she going to concentrate on school? She was too busy worrying about magical invaders from another planet.

She was thankful nobody had made a big fuss about her starting at school. No teacher making her stand at the front of the class making her introduce herself. No speech about where she moved from or interesting facts about herself. Just keep her head down, finish her math problems, and concentrate on real problems like the goddamn fairy princess squatting in her house.

It wasn't until she looked up that her sense of peace fell to pieces. No. No no no damnit.

Sauntering through the front of the class, stepping through the rows of desks, was Stella. Wearing more of her clothes. Turning heads as she spun around, hair whipping around obnoxiously hips sashaying with an irritating gregarious sway, grazing a desk as she went by.

Eventually she fell backwards into a seat right beside Bloom. Chair pushed extra far back to slouch in the little desk. Looking at Bloom with a wink before turning to face the front of your class. Hands behind her head rather than on her desk.

Not even a hello. After stealing from her closet and stalking her at school. Bloom inched her foot towards Stella's, lightly kicking her in the ankle. That certainly got her attention as the princess pouted. Both of the girls exchanging dirty looks. "What the hell are you doing here?" Bloom whispered.

Stella spoke as if it were so obvious she was patronizing Bloom. "You have the magic powers. I'm the person those things are after. If I stay home and you go to school, I'm easy pickings!"

"...Fine. You're not wrong. Just don't do anything stupid!"

The princess swore she could see a vein throbbing on Bloom's head. Watching as she tightened the grip around her pencil, scorchmarks below her fingers along its length. Bloom gasped, dropping it on her desk. Looking at the smoking charred pencil. Trying to catch her breath as Stella looked at her unimpressed.

She plucked it off Bloom's desk, looking it over, feeling the heat coming off of it. "I'm also here to make sure stuff like that doesn't happen."

It pained her to admit it, but having Stella here was probably better than not. It meant not leaving her in her house unattended with her mother. And as long as she didn't start shooting her mouth off about magic and fairies and other planets Bloom could just keep her head down and work.

A thought which would be all the more difficult when the announcements over the PA cut in. Loud and crackly, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. The voice on the other end as warbly as it seemed disintered. "Attention students. As was outlined at the beginning of the month, today is club and sports day. Please proceed to the cafeteria to sign up for a student organization of your choice."

Great, exactly what she needed.

><><><><><

The cafeteria was stuffed to the gils with students. Classes flooding in and out like clockwork, teens moving between stalls and desks, filling out forms and signing up for organizations.

Far at the back, well past the alleys of sports teams and hobbyists, was a small desk cloaked in a silky black tablecloth. Baubles and trinkets strewn across its surface. Crystals, star charts, candles and incense placed all around. Though left unlit, given how cramped the school was.

Manning the booth was just one lone senior. Dolled up in black lace and studded leather, dirty blonde hair cascading down in waves. An indigo shock running down one of her bangs. Popping her bubblegum on occassion.

"Ms. Selina."

Her homeroom teacher. Clipboard in hand, standing over her little booth. Tapping his foot as he pushed aside her cheap parlor crap with his pen.

"What's up Teach?" A little newfie lilt spilt out of her mouth. Disarming most anyone in the west coast student body effortlessly. Selina smirked, legs crossed flipping through a massive reference book. Not even looking up to acknowledge him.

He placed his clipboard overtop her book, forcing her attention upward. Gesturing to the rest of her display. Distinctly devoid of any inquiring students or new members. "Let's skip the coy act. Your so called paranormal club, this is a scam, isn't it?"

She placed her book down and began to shuffle a deck of tarot cards in her hands. "Why, whatever do you mean?" Her teacher cringed as she placed her deck on the table, the rapid fire thwip of her cards being riffle shuffled filling his ears. "Are you saying I haven't invested plenty of time and earnest effort into putting this club together?"

"I'm going to speak frankly. You've run this club for the past year. And still you're the only member. You don't hold events or meetings, your recruitment efforts are abysmal. From what I can tell you're just siphoning off the activities budget to enrich yourself and buy things on the school's dime."

This only upset her further, prompting her to start waving a crystal in front of him. Frowning at the lack of results. Hoping to have detected what the hell was wrong with his aura. "Pardon my french, but how dare you?" He didn't budge at all, even as she spread her tarot cards out in a fan face down. "I can't help it if nobody else in this school is prepared to learn about what's out there." She flipped the center card. A wheel surrounded by gold coins, the holographic foil making it appear a deep indigo. A tsk tsk coming from her as she held it up in front of her teacher's face. "Fortune, inverted. Perhaps you're taking some frustrations out on an innocent student?"

He plucked it from her, which sent her scrambling overtop her desk trying to grab it back from him, before he put it down atop her face. "You're going to recruit at least a single other member by the end of the day, or we're absolving your little farce. Which, by the way, means back payments on all of the frivolities you've been indulging." He'd left as unceremoniously as he'd shown up.

He'd creased it, stupid douche. Just a few months after starting her club she'd resigned herself to the fact it wasn't going to be very popular, but didn't expect there to be nobody involved in it at all. A fact that didn't really bother her. At least not until it meant giving back hundreds of dollars she didn't have to the faculty.

She was going to need new associates and soon. She flicked one of her salt crystals, watching it spin around atop the black cloth. Coming to a slow stop, then swinging backwards a quarter turn just as it looked like it was finished.

Two girls, neither of which she recognized after attending Gardenia high for four years, stood across the floor from her. Clearly disinterested in any of the other clubs surrounding them.

She couldn't read their auras, or gel with their vibe. They were a regular odd couple. The redhead was short, tomboyish, freckles dotting her face framed by her unkept hair. Trim and athletic, a certain natural beauty to her. The blonde the polar opposite. Tall for anyone not just a girl, head and shoulders above her friend. Perfect hair, exceptionally long down to her knees, not merely voluptuous but a figure that screamed feminine excess. Sunkissed skin accentuated by conspicuous though not egregious make up.

She may as well take a chance on these two. Students were already beginning to leave, even some of the booths had been taken down because they were full already. Even if they didn't want to be part of her club, they were clearly running out of options. They had to join someone's organization, why not hers. "...Hey! You! Yeah you two. Do you believe in magic?"

The redhead and blonde locked eyes with Selina. The blonde innocently pointing to herself in disbelief. The redhead crossing her arms instictively. Stammering nervously. "Magic!? Uh nope! No! Magic's super definitely not real! No magic here!"

Selina permitted a coy smile to cross her face. "Then you are the perfect person to join the paranormal investigation society. We'll make a convert of you, once you see the arcane first hand and up close!"

The blonde girl turned her back, picking her phone out from the front of her shirt collar. Studying her rose gold flip phone before grabbing the redhead's arm, pulling her towards her. "Bloom! Bloom we gotta go." What the hell was that? Were they blowing her off? Faking an emergency?

"What? Why?" The redhead protested, looking between herself and the blonde pulling her away.

"There's a little...situation in the bathroom."

The redhead crossed her eyes staring at the bridge of her nose befuddled. "...A sit- okay. Fine. Sorry girl, just not our cuppa tea y'know?"

What the hell was wrong with those two?

><><><><><

"This place is disgusting!" Stella grimaced, pushing the door to the girls' room opened. The fluorescent lights flickering. The drip of the leaky faucets. The squeal of swinging stall doors. The lingering stench of pot smoke and rusted orange screws in the corners of the mirror. Just walking across the floor was irritating, nauseating. Why was it sticky?

Bloom just sighed, rubbing her nose. "It's a public bathroom. Not a walk in the park. Where's this situation you're so worked up about?"

Stella was absolutely glued to her phone. A phone altogether similar and yet distinctly not one she'd ever seen here on Earth. Even fairy princesses can't escape the unlimited texting plan it seemed. Its camera held up to her surroundings, readings and lights spiking across her screen. She took a deep breath, one she clearly regretted as she got a strong whiff of the bathroom's putrid air. Then with her foot on the door slammed the stall in. Standing triumphant. "This right here!"

"...Stella this is a toilet." Without even flinching, Bloom lit a fire on her fingertip. Trying to clear the air.

Wrinkling her nose Stella let out an exasperated huff. Shoving her phone under Bloom's face. A bright red warning flashing across the screen as she focused the camera on the can. "Check it out. Magic radar totally indicates all kinds of decrepit darkness in this room. Take a look!"

Bloom looked at the toilet, then at the phone, then at Stella. Frowning. It was just an ordinary bathroom. "Whatever it is, it's gone now. Let's just go."

"It's not gone! It's...whatever it is, it's building some kinda nest, or like a base of operations here." She said. A light shining from her phone, revealing red fingerprints arranged one after the other like footsteps walking out of the back of the toilet, down the side of the bowl into the pipe.

Shrugging her shoulders Bloom stepped back, trying to leave the stall. "Well whatever it was has been flushed down the toilet, so good luck finding it."

"Hmmmph!" Stella took another regrettable deep breath. Readying herself. Before dropping to her knees and rolling up her sleeve, ramming her hand into the plumbing and searching around up to her elbow in water.

Water splashed all over Bloom's shoes as she stepped back, embers igniting across her bangs and eyebrows. "What the hell are you doing! Are you insane!"

Stella whipped her hand back out with another splash. The entirety of it, along with several inches of her forearm, coated in pure black darkness. Scarlet lightning jittering across its fringes. "See this! Black magic. This whole school is going to be overrun with shadowy abominations." As she held her phone up to her arm dripping with darkness, its readings simply exploded off the charts. "Remember when that knight invaded your house, and your entire bedroom was cut off from the world in parallel space full of darkness? It's building the same sort of space here."

The Earth girl could barely look at the princess. Recoiling at the sight of her soaked with black magic and toilet water alike. "So what do you want me to do?"

The princess was already waving her defiled arm indignantly in Bloom's face. "First all of, burn this tres disgusting garbage off!" Bloom obliged, holding her hands out, slowly burning the magic away like dead wood. Fire is a cleansing agent, after all she mused to herself. Stella shook her hand dry, a few droplets splattering the hem of Bloom's shirt. Flexing her fingers and giving them a little wiggle to make sure they all worked. Bringing her freshly cleaned hand to her head in a mock salute. "Thank you kindly cadet. Now, do you remember what I said about miniaturization being a basic ability for all fairies?"

Immediately she tensed up. "Oh no. No no no no no are you seriously suggesting I flush myself down the goddamn toilet?"

"Oh relax! It's not like that. We're gonna end up in a dimension of darkness, not in a septic tank!" Stella's flighty eyeroll was not at all reassuring to Bloom.

"Oh that's so much better!"

It was Stella's turn to be incredulous. "I mean I think it is!"

Resigned to her fate, Stella guided Bloom through the steps to change her size, exactly as she herself had done in Bloom's room. Doing the same to shrink Stella as well.

The two came to stand on the edge of the bowl, watching the still water below.

"Please tell me you know a magic spell that'll keep us dry!" Bloom quivered, looking over the edge. Dizziness overcoming her.

The apologetic look Stella gave her wasn't what she wanted to see. "I do, but I think it's a little advanced for a newbie."

Bloom took one more look over the edge, her grip tightening around Stella's forearm. Pulling her gently to stand on the rim with her. "...Plug your nose Stella."

><><><><><

A deep sense of relief came over Bloom as her feet touched down on whatever was beneath her. There was nothing but blackness all around her, though the coursing undulating shocks of crimson that raced across the space's surfaces revealed its otherwise invisible form. A shockingly small space. It felt like a shoebox. Literally and figuratively.

Bloom wrung out the hem of her shirt as she looked around trying to get her bearings. Tapping the ground with her feet, relieved it felt like solid ground. "Oh thank god. You were right! Just a den of monsters and not-"

"Don't even mention it! For real, seriously." The princess cut her off.

Both of them stood together, the fire blazing around Bloom doing its best to keep them warm and dry. Taking in the dank darkness. How even her flames failed to illuminate the suffocating black space.

Far in front of her, was just a single one of those accursed decrepid hands that had swarmed her room. Skittering along on its fingers. Picking up and rearranging opal pearls as big as Bloom's torso. Stacking them up like a bunch of crystalline grapes.

"What are all of those things...is that me in that bubble!?" True to her word, whatever the pearls were, visions of Bloom wings alight faded in and out of it.

Stella peered in at the same bubble Bloom did. Watching the same playback of the redhead she was seeing herself. "You look great in your new winx at least." She said, looking back between the actual and the mere visage of Bloom. Until something caught her eye in the background. "Wait, look at the perspective. This is what that bladed mannequin freakazoid from your room saw! These things are reconstituting its memories. Like some sort of scout."

The gears in Bloom's head started turning, her eyes fixated on the single remaining black hand arranging the last of the memory pearls. Watching as the bottom of the pile faded to a deep crimson, sinking into the darkness like it was giving way to the dreamlike edifice's sheer weight. "Which means we burn this thing down now, or reinforcements are on the way."

Once again the flames on her back, the beautiful locks on her head, roared even brighter as her flames flickered larger. Training her own hands on the tirelessly working one.

Stella, as her friend readied herself to fry the little hellion, was still transfixed on the dream bauble. She was so disoriented during the battle that night she could barely remember it. Seeing exactly what happened, seeing what happened from the knight's point of view, left her clutching her chest.

The second Bloom had stolen her magic. She'd moved instinctively, autonomously, with dull eyes as though possessed. Throwing both hands forward fingers spread and cupped like claws, a torrent of white hot flame thrown point black at the creature of darkness subsuming the entirety of its vision. The pearls going dim after.

But Bloom's eyes, the Bloom in front of her, were big and blue. Shining with life. Which was ironic, because her movements were very much lacking in energy, in intent and intensity, compared to just after taking Stella's magic. Fumbling through calling forth fire. Failing to roast this final chittering monster in front of her. Barely able to graze it, her aim sloppy and inelegant.

It placed a final pearl upon the monolith, turning to Bloom and Stella. Digging its fingers into the ground and tensing up. Veins bursting along its back. Lunging at Bloom, crushing her in its grip.

"Stella!"

The left the monolith behind, rushing over to Bloom. Still clutching her hands to her chest trying to regain her footing. "I can't do anything! I told you you took my magic! Burn this thing!"

"I'm trying! Any other bright ideas little miss sunshine?" Bloom spat back at her. Anger making her flames burn brighter, yet doing nothing to help free her.

A snap of her fingers and a lightbulb went off over Stella's head. "Little mi- oh duh we're little right now. Just become big again!"

It was so obvious it made Bloom groan in frustration. In mere seconds she was on her hands and knees, fully sized in the confined space. Getting to her feet, it took only a moment for her to squelch the clawed little demon under her shoe. Snuffing it out with a twist of her heel. Turning to the amalgamation of bubbles buzzing with memories and shattering them with a kick.

As it shattered into dust, the whole world shook. Scarlet fissures ripping through nothing. The pocket of space groaning and contorting. Heartbeats quickening. Breaths becoming shallower and shallower.

"So, how exactly do we get out of here her highness?"

><><><><><

"Look Julie I don't want a whole ounce, just a few grams. It's been a long day." A long day was an understatement. Zero new members. Chewed out on two additional occassions about it, with five minutes until the bell and having her club shut down for good.

Which meant stress, which meant stress relief, which meant medicine. So here she was negotiating the price of some ick down from her usual plug in the flannel and toque.

Until of course her concentration was broken by two girls falling out of the handicapped stall, crashing down on the floor. A burst of water erupting out of the toilet splashing the ceiling.

The two were barely able to keep their composure. Sputtering as they got to their knees, then standing up. Aching all over.

Bloom was the first of the two to take in her surroundings, realizing exactly what she'd gotten herself into. The girl from the cafeteria, looking down at her. Equal parts disgust and pity. "Uuuhhhh hi!"

Julie had seen worse in a public bathroom, but she didn't need anyone else knowing she was dealing. "I was never here got it?" She said in a hurry, as she kept stealing glances at the two girls lying on top of each other. Slamming a small altoid tin into Selina's hands.

"Yeah, get going." Selina watched her link rush out of the room, turning unamused to the two girls who'd been lying on the bathroom floor in a heap. "I thought we were alone in here and you lovebirds have been first basin' it in the stall the entire time?"

"It's not like that!" Bloom squealed.

Stella tossed her hair behind her shoulder as she let out a scoff. Eyeing Selina up and down. "You sound a little jealous, other girls not into the punk meets little lolita look?"

"Eugh, as if either of you are my type." Looking over the two of them, she just sighed. Her look softening. "Listen. I need at least a single other member in the paranormal investigation club, or I lose my funding. And then I find you two in here no doubt doing something unsavoury, sharing a bathroom stall of all things. So how about we call it even, you sign up, and we all get what we want and forget we ever met?"

Bloom held her arm, unable to meet the other girl's eyes. "That's really not what-"

"Sounds way beyond excellent. You drive a hard bargain..." Stella had all but bounded over to her, bouncing on her feet. Arm extended for a handshake.

"Selina." She replied. Her grip firm but gentle.

"Selina! Stella, and this is Bloom." She'd already turned to leave, dragging Bloom with her. A dismissive wave and 'ta ta' motion letting Selina know they were on their way. "Just let us know if anything 'supernatural' happens while we're out."

The bathroom door slammed shut, Bloom grabbing Stella by the shoulder and pulling her down to her level. Her eyes burning. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Stella let the moment pass. Taking Bloom's hand off of her with her thumb and forefinger like she was handling precious goods. "Mostly? Humouring her. But if this girl is serious, and is actually looking for magic, she's gonna end up running into those monsters or finding pieces of my sceptre. Hence I want to be on dark and brutal's good side."

Selina looked down. A piece of cool black metal in her hand. Vibrating gently. Turning slowly to point at the closed bathroom door. "There's definitely something up with those girls."

Chapter Text

"Oooooou yes! School is out! The sun is shining! What a day!" Stella's exuberance was contagious to everyone but Bloom, bounding out the doors of the school spinning around arms outstretched.

"Why do you care if school is out? You don't go to school for real, you don't have grades or exams." Bloom was stewing in resentment for her newfound friend's sheer excitement intruding on every aspect of her life. Pretending she had even a fraction of the stake Bloom had in her education all while undermining it with distractions and 'missions'.

No matter how frustrated Bloom got, Stella was wholely oblivious. Too busy celebrating her newfound afterschool freedom. "Just because I'm faking it through classes doesn't mean I like being here. I enjoy my freedom just as much as you do!" She spun around once more, hands behind her head chest out as she scanned Bloom's frowning face. "So, what do you want to get up to tonight!"

An autumn wind blew through Bloom, prompting her to close up her cardigan. Lowering her voice just a little as she stole glances at all of the other students idling around school. Sidling up to the princess to try and maintain some semblance of privacy. "Stella, I was three inches tall today, inside a dungeon inside a school toilet. I don't want to do anything but go home and relax." Her point made as she pinched her forefinger and thumb together, musing about how small she just was.

The princess merely pouted in response, arms thrown up rolling her eyes. "Oh you're no fun! So what are we gonna do when we get home?"

Those words had Bloom sending another death glare at Stella. Where did this girl get off just inserting herself into her life? "We get home? You still think you're going to live with me?"

She was following behind Bloom like a lost puppy now, trying to reason with her. The two stepping off campus, looking down the street waiting for a ride. "Well I can't exactly check into a hotel! I must be galaxies away from home with no cell reception, no magic even. Come ooooonn I take up no space at all."

"Fine. But if you're going to live with me we're going to do it right. Which means...ugh which means you're going to meet my mom." She was pinching the bridge of her nose trying to calm herself. The princess was quickly becoming a walking talking poke in the eye.

There was a pause. Bloom kept walking for a moment until she realized she didn't hear Stella's footsteps anymore. "Your mom...I wonder if my mom is okay." She had her hands to her chest, trying to contain her deep breaths.

Once again Bloom softened. "Oh! Oh, sorry. I'm sorry."

"It's alright. That's exactly what you and I are going to fix." The two stepped onto the streetcar, relieved that it was mostly empty. Both sitting down at the very back watching the road as it pulled out. Stella putting her feet up across the entire row of seats, the amazon girl once again absolutely splaying out and lounging again like she owned the place. "So how's your mom gonna feel about you having a roommate?"

It took Bloom a moment to respond, eyes transfixed on the outside world whizzing by. "Oh don't get the wrong idea. You're coming over after school as a friend, not a house guest."

That got Stella sitting upright in a heartbeat, leaning in. Wiggling her legs nervously. "You're kicking me out!? Out on the street in the cold with nowhere to go?"

Bloom found herself slouching in frustration. "Ugh no! You can still live in my closet. I'm just not telling my mom that. I'm not exactly ready to tell her magic is real."

If Stella had suddenly shown up with Bloom in tow on her own planet, she supposed she'd have lots of explaining to do too. She just gave her new friend a simple nod. "Good idea." She watched the world pass by out the window, the streetcar passing through downtown. Watching all of the shop windows zoom by through the window pane. "Can we peruse downtown though? I would so love a few more ammenities for my little apartment! Maybe a minifridge, a beanbag chair, what about a hot tub?"

"Keep talking like that and I'll downsize you from a closet to a shoebox." Stella rolled her eyes again, stifling a laugh with her hand. Which only frustrated Bloom further, the tiniest wisps of smoke trailing out of her clenched fists. "Don't giggle, I'll do it! And I'll shake it from time to time too!"

><><><><><

The bottom floor of her house, her new business, was filled to the brim with boxes. Phone nestled in the cradle of her shoulder and neck as she tried to get it all set up. Moving product around trying to put a showroom together.

Picking another box up off the ground, it was clear it was Bloom's- her name in black sharpie scrawled on the side. Luckily it wasn't too heavy, though she wasn't loving having to carry it all the way to Bloom's room on the third floor despite that. Putting it to the side until she cleared a space for it.

Her husband Mike was on the other line, the connection spotty. Vanessa trying to contain her exasperation as the two went back and forth. "Well when are you going to be home?" She frowned as she arranged several orchids and planters in the front window, her attention split between her husband and her store. "I know that you're busy, but your daughter would like to see you sometime soon." Her daughter. She sighed, finally picking up her daughter's box.

There was a brief pause, waiting to get a word in before going up to the third floor. "No I'm not saying what you're doing isn't important I know it is. I know your job means a lot to you! But Bloom seems to be not loving things here, and I think she'd appreciate if both of us were around."

The floorboards creaked. Her legs aching a tad as she stepped onto the second flight of stairs, getting used to living in a townhouse rather than a bungalow like she used to. Entering Bloom's room. Taking notice of how messy it was despite how little was in it. Her bedding thrown all over the place. Desk chair overturned. Side table drawers opened though empty.

She dropped her daughter's box on her mattress, happy to finally let go of the load. Still on the line with her husband- speaker crackling as she picked several of Bloom's clothes up off the ground, walking over to her daughter's closet. "I know I know, I knew what I was getting into when I married you I'm well aware. It's just-" She opened her daughter's closet. Dropping her clothes to the floor. Brow furrowing as she looked at the almost dollhouse like diorama sitting at her eye level on a shelf. Picking up and passing tiny doll sized clothes through her fingers. "...Just come home as soon as you can, I think something weird is going on with Bloom."

Vanessa sucked in a breath of air through her teeth as she closed the closet door. Walking briskly out of her daughter's room. Taking her phone in her hands now that she didn't have to hold it with her shoulders. "Did you get Bloom anything...interesting recently? Like a move in gift or toys or something?"

From below, the sound of a doorknob rattling. She stopped stock still partway down the stairs. Vanessa's heart falling out of her chest. That's when she heard two distinct sets of footsteps following her front door creaking open. Suddenly guarded, arms close to herself. Slowly bringing her phone away from her face. "Hun I gotta go. Just...come home sooner than later if you can."

Thundering up the steps was her daughter, backpack slung over just one arm. Another girl, truthfully a young woman, if Vanessa was going on just looks alone, following close behind her. No schoolbag, or anything really, in tow. Her fashion sense nearly identical to Bloom's own.

Bloom spoke so fast she barely understood her, barreling past her and shouting back down from above. "Hey mom! School sucked, got homework, gotta get to work so call me when dinner is ready!"

She bristled, quickly becoming stern. Slipping her phone into her pocket and widening her stance. She was left standing in the middle of the stairs, separating Bloom and Stella. Eyeing the blonde- the tall blonde who was looking her right in the eye despite being two steps down- refusing to let her through. She was tall, voluptuous, an air of maturity radiating from her despite her juvenile yet familiar outfit. If Vanessa was forced to guess, she'd have assumed she was a university student, a proper young woman, not a high school senior like Bloom. "Hold on Bloom, back down here right now. Who's this? Are you really not going to introduce me to your new friend?"

"Oh, right, yeah. This is Stella. Alright we've got homework bye!"

As fast as she'd brushed past Vanessa to begin with, Bloom reached past her own mother and ripped Stella by the arm up the stairs. Both girls vanishing into her room before Vanessa could ask any other questions. The blonde and her exchanging the briefest of confused glances before she disappeared and the sound of Bloom's door slamming filled the house.

><><><><><

Bloom was pacing back and forth. Closing her curtains. Locking her doors. Shoving her blankets into the crack under her door and turning off all her lights. Stella just watched her new friend's frantic attempts to shut out the rest of the world, making sure there would be no interruptions. She just lied on her back on the floor, kicking her legs in the air. "Not much of an introduction. So what's for dinner?"

Just as she was about to sit down, Bloom found herself stunned. Trying to process what she just heard. "What's for...ugh I have to feed you if you live here for real don't I."

"We'll figure all that out later. Let's concentrate on our 'homework' okay?" She laid the pieces of her sceptre out on the floor. The one piece Bloom had shining from within her pocket, prompting her to do the same. "So look at this. These are our five pieces right? And this-" Stella placed her flip phone face down, the camera on its back painting the empty space of Bloom's room like a canvas. Brilliant yellow rays like the sun rearranging themselves into a holographic map. "is your town. I'm not much of a techy, but even I can work Magix Max Maps. All those little stars are other spots that match the magical signature of my sceptre. So best case scenario we spend a few weeks collecting them, and then I...um..."

The technological display should have had Bloom awed, but after killing a shadow monster with fire magic she was finding herself harder and harder to impress. "Hold on, how do I give your magic back to you?"

"Oh believe me if I knew I'd have already taken them back." She paused, only to wave her hands in front of her face embarassed. "Oh not like by force! Just like we'd figure it out y'know?"

"You're really playing this by ear huh?" Bloom said, nonplussed.

There was a somberness in Stella's eyes, looking at her phone. One of the last remaining ties to the magic universe she had left. "A week ago I was preparing to enroll at Alfea finishing school for guardian fairies, and now I'm surrounded by people who've never heard of magic and fighting evil monsters after you stole my winx Freckles- something I didn't even know was possible. So forgive me if I haven't really thought things through."

Bloom's instinct was to be defensive in kind before thinking better of it. Letting go of her knees, stretching out as she leaned back. "No it's okay. I'm just frustrated. I shouldn't be so short with you." She brightened up looking at Stella's magic map. A particular twinkling star catching her eye. "Hey, look, one of them is back at school."

"Easy peasy. We'll have this thing rebuilt in no time. The faster the better."

"Hey...why is there a piece moving around the neighbourhood? It's like it's about to walk right into my house."

"One of you magicless humans must have picked one up." Bloom definitely didn't love the 'humans' comment, even if it was technically true. Staring disapprovingly as Stella walked over to their bedroom window, Bloom watched the princess push it open and lean halfway out of it. With all the subtlety of a brick. "Look, down there, the girl with the gross horn rimmed glasses! Doesn't she know those make her look like the dowdiest little bore? Ugh and the box dye job! Your undertones shouldn't be so black they're blue."

The redhead stood on her tiptoes and peered over Stella. A dirty look came over Bloom's face, lip pouting and nose scrunched up. "Your point? Or do you just want to confirm fairies have superior fashion sense too?"

"No look! Her movements line up with the map. She's got a piece." Stella turned back to Bloom, a look of determination flashing across her face. Pumping a fist in front of her. "Let's go tell her to give it back."

Bloom shut her down quick. "Uh what! You can't just go up to other humans who don't know magic exists and start talking about it!"

"Then exactly what do you suggest Freckles?" Stella huffed.

Bloom pulled Stella back inside, one hand on her the other pointing down at the black haired girl. Clutching a book to her chest, walking right up to the stoop of the house next to her own, stepping inside. "Look. She's my neighbour! We're the ones with the magic powers, we'll figure it out."

"Okay fine. We'll play by Earth rule- what smells so good?" Stella was roused from her catty smack talk by a spicy, invigorating aroma.

The sigh from Bloom was palpable. The smaller girl grabbing her arm and yanking her to the stairs. "Dinner. You wanted to be fed after all, miss moocher."

><><><><><

"Thank you for letting me stay for dinner."

Stella was sitting at the far end of the table. Sniffing the food with equal parts curiosity and suspicion. Pushing it around with her fork, trying to sus out exactly what it was. Earthy, spicy, savoury, undertones of smoke and sweetness. She had no idea what curry was, but it was most definitely not Solarian at the least. Worried she'd regret taking such a large portion, sizing her plate up in comparison to Bloom's.

Having guests over was a new experience for Vanessa, at least guests that Bloom herself had invited over. There was a warmth Bloom hadn't seen in a while radiating off her mother. Playing hostess clearly a fun novelty for her. "It's no problem. At least now we get to talk. I was so worried moving was going to be a massive adjustment for you Bloom, but you've already settled in nicely. I didn't think you'd have a friend over for dinner after your first day of school."

"Yeah I guess you're right." Bloom said plainly, almost trying to ignore her mother.

A fact Vanessa clocked immediately but chose not to dwell on. "So Stella, tell me about yourself." Vanessa offered, shaking some pepper onto her plate.

Bloom and Stella both froze up, glaring at each other. Silently screaming at each other with their eyes. Arching their eyebrows, subtly mouthing words back and forth.

Stella raised her hand to her collarbone preparing to speak, only for Bloom to stab her food with her fork as she suddenly started stammering. "Stella's in my math class! We started talking because we're deskmates!"

The confusion on Stella's face was dismissed by Bloom almost immediately. Trying to calm herself down after making a nervous fool of herself. Her mother just tilted her head, interrogating Stella by pointing her fork at her. "Well, I hope the two of you have more in common than math."

Bloom opened her mouth to speak again, but Stella beat her to the punch this time. "Oh believe me we so do. Today was club day, and wouldn't you know it both of us are in the paranormal investigators club now! We just- love- the supernatural and magic and monsters and that sort of stuff you know!"

Cold beads of sweat were dripping down Bloom's brow, the colour draining from her face. Dark circles around her eyes as her intense owly stare needled at Stella.

There was a minor, crestfallen look on Vanessa's face. Though not one of surprise. "You know I never really loved your interest in all of that make believe stuff Bloom. But as long as you're connecting with other people over it..."

"Mom it's just for fun, obviously I know that stuff isn't real!" Stella sneared and rolled her eyes at her, Bloom almost gnashing her teeth as she mouthed a 'what?' back at her.

"As long as you know honey." Was all Vanessa could say in response.

The three ate in silence for the next few minutes. Tension thick like fog swirling around their heads, binding them up. It was Bloom who broke the silence, pushing her chair back and her plate forward. "Mom, is it okay if Stella and I go upstairs? I'm not really hungry..."

"I am!" Stella pouted.

"Relax you can bring the food upstairs." Bloom cut her off right away.

Vanessa sighed. "I suppose. I know you two still have homework to do."

Both the girls stepped away from the table. Bloom dumping her plate in the sink as she left, Stella taking hers with her, eating even as she climbed the stairs behind Bloom.

Vanessa pushed her own plate forward. Suddenly losing her appetite.

><><><><><

"What was that about?" Stella said, stepping over Bloom's bedding into her room. Her vision drifted to Bloom herself rooting through a cardboard box and pulling out books and papers strewn across her bed.

It took a moment for Bloom to register Stella was even speaking to her, snapping out of her rummaging. A big sketchbook and a big hardcover book placed to her right. The latter with a peeling barcode on the front, Bloom's old town written above it.

"What? Sorry, I just don't like talking about that stuff with my mom." Bloom said, sitting on her bed leafing through her old sketchbooks.

Stella cocked her head. Her hair spilling down to the floor as she bent at the waist. "What stuff? You mean like magic? I thought there was no magic on- Earth right?"

"Yes, Earth. Good job you should probably know that while you're here." Bloom turned through page after page, tossing her sketchbook behind her. "There is no magic on Earth. That's why my mom doesn't like that I like all of this stuff. She says it makes me weird, that I shouldn't be so focused on it if I want to fit in." She gestured around her to all of her books and drawings.

Stella picked one up, dusting it off. "Mythical creatures and magical monsters...oh this is just not right at all. Dragons don't have leathery wings like this. And elves? Elves wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like this."

She glanced through all of Bloom's books. Eager to see what a magicless planet's idea of magic was. Brushing aside the absurd inaccuracies. The depiction of fairies was particularly insulting. Tiny girls wearing nothing but flowers as clothes dancing atop toadstools.

Until she got to the last of the books, blood freezing as she picked it up. No barcodes or price tags on this one. But a big butterfly wing insignia at the top of its cover.

Flipping through its pages, she was overcome with confusion. Confusion and a deep feeling of unease. Every picture she saw, she saw realms she recognized from her mother and father's trips, her diplomatic excursions. Lynphaea's towering trees. Zenith's lavender skyscrapers. Andros' beautiful reefs. They weren't labelled as such, but undeniably they were all here.

Her mouth was hanging open, but she thought better of saying anything. Bloom was confused enough, and she didn't actually have any answers for her. All she could do was set it down, deep in the bottom of the box again. Just thinking about it made her skin crawl.

Rather than dwell on it she chose to peek over Bloom's shoulder instead. Drawings and paintings in a second sketch pad of magical creatures. Trading cards with ugly little monsters and fanciful wizards on them. Were they hers? "I don't get it, your planet has no magic, but you seem very infatuated, if ill informed, with magic creatures." The comment made Bloom gasp, covering her sketchbook in a desperate scramble. The giggle Stella let out only grated on Bloom's nerves even more. "Oh! Don't be embarassed! They're good! They remind me of children's books I'd read on Solaria."

Bloom just groaned. "I used to wish I was magic all the time. Because I'm weird, and sad, and stupid. I've always been treated like I'm different, I just wished I was different in a good fun way not a weird gross girl way."

The look on Stella's face screamed dumbfounded. "You're joking right? You're all melancholy about how you used to wish you were magical and now you are magical and you're still moping."

The irony wasn't lost on Bloom, but she wasn't moved by the observation at all. "It's your magic, princess."

"Oh whatever! You give it back when you're good and ready!...I'm kinda counting on you."

"Oh, no pressure! Thanks a lot!" She groaned, tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Yeah okay maybe that was a bit much. So tell you what. You might be magic, but I know magic. Which means I'm gonna do the coaching, get you prepared for whatever the hell comes our way." She moved to put a hand on Bloom's own. "And hopefully that means you having a lot of fun finally getting to be one of the fairies you've spent all your time reading about."

"Thanks. Uh, awkward, but my mom probably isn't gonna let you stay the night. Not without asking if it's 'okay with your parents' at least." She half expected to see Stella become wistful again at the mention of her family, but instead she held on and kept a chipper tone. Perhaps trying to keep herself calm.

"Oh perfect, time for our first lesson then!" Stella was standing tall, arms crossed, smug and self assured. Looking down at Bloom, slipping into a sudden mentor role. "We're gonna set up a portal to come and go as we please!"

><><><><><

A shadow laid across the moon by forces unseen to the naked eye. Falling out of the sky, a sword cutting through the clouds. Slicing through space. A black stain smeared across the night.

A single red eye, darting around behind a cage imprisoning its visage. The haunting scarlet light flickering as it disappeared behind the bars masking its face. Searching. Frantically searching. Searching for anything it recognized. Anything it could take. Take back to whence it came.

A spark. A tiny little spark down below. Another. Another still. Blinking into existence. More and more clustered together. A beacon of light only it could see coming into view. Gaining speed, showing up faster and faster.

It braced for impact. Seconds from the ground. Mere feet from one of those tantalizing lights it desperately needed, like a moth to a flame.

Not a crash but a shriek. There was no impact crater. No deafening blast. It simply emerged from the ground, a sliver like the darkness had gouged the Earth with a knife.

Standing, a lone figure in the dark of dusk. Autumn leaves whirling past it in the night's wind. A black monolith corrupting the quaint suburban landscape.

Inside, at the back door next to the porch, Mitzi strung a curved piece of black metal shaped like the sun onto a gold chain, holding it to her neck.

Chapter Text

"Mom?...Dad? Oh whatever."

Another night alone. She was sure they'd come home soon, but wasn't going to wait around for them at all. She'd already gotten dinner downtown, a take out bag sitting on the kitchen island.

She looked down at her cellphone. Three missed outgoing calls to her parents each. Hours ago. They were just busy, she kept telling herself. They had important things to do after all. Jobs to do. Otherwise how else would they afford such a nice house she mused, eyes glancing around the state of the art kitchen.

Instead, she just rummaged around in her pockets, searching for what she wanted. The trinket, placed on the countertop with a soft clink. A small, black, sun shaped pendant. Like a coin or medal. She rolled it over in her hands, an ethereal shine escaping its surface and dancing across her face. Hopelessly tacky in some regards, but nonetheless captivating in others. It filled her stomach with butterflies, like it wasn't just jewelry. If it was jewelry at all.

She took off her gold necklace. A simple, thread thin chain, a tiny screw based clasp in the back. There were no holes to thread the chain through on the sun, but she simply bound up the piece of metal in a stranglehold. The little black sun caught taut in a net of gold chains.

Mitzi pulled it up to her neck, pleased with her handiwork. Admiring herself in the reflection of the glass cupboard doors. At first she'd thought she'd need to take it to a jeweller, but seeing her little necklace like this, it was already growing on her. Even if it was a tad kitchy.

Once more, she looked down at it. A faint glow trickling through her fingers, a warmth in her hands and a weightlessness in her stomach. An otherworldly light headed sensation racing through her synapses.

Her concentration was broken as her kitchen was cast in a deep crimson light. Like blaring warning lights, a hellish hue that screamed danger. Drawing her eyes to the backyard.

Throwing the backdoor open she ran out onto the porch, then gingerly down the steps in her heels, standing in the short trimmed grass. The rustling of massive maples and willows beyond her own backyard like a deep red and yellow ceiling over the world, infinitely shifting and undulating.

There, in the center of the yard, was the source of the disturbance. An eerie pounding bass pumping through the air and the ground alike as a deep red light glared at her. Disappearing and reappearing behind unseen black bars like a strobe.

It was a gangly thing. A perfect black silhouette, like a hole in space. A place where there was nothing. Yet undeniably a presence. Far taller than her. She only came up to its elbow, if that's what it was.

A massive serrated appendage on its left, a vent on its right erupting some sort of inky black smoke. It was altogether mechanical ethereal and organic all at once.

She stepped backwards, trying to inch away from it. Only to be bathed in that harsh crimson light again, a single point of light looking deep into her soul. Long shadow cast upon the side of her house lit up a deep red.

It took a step forward. Then another. Its 'eye' if it was one, snapped to her necklace, diffusing a blinding flash of red in all directions as it bounced off her jewelry. Thin sharp legs walking towards her. Bringing its massive blade to its center.

Mitzi fell backwards, tripping over the back steps to her deck. Wincing in pain as she tried to clammer up them back to the house, only to collapse as a knot in her leg made her grimace. She yelped, a sharp hot pain running through her. A twisted ankle, she had to assume.

It advanced on her, a torrent of black smoke, perfectly opaque swaddling the world, burning out from its other arm. A nauseating whirr releasing from its bladed arm as it brandished it right in front of Mitzi's eyes, mere feet from her.

She closed her eyes, panting heavily, on the verge of tears. Trying to convince herself this was a nightmare. This can't be happening, it can't! she thought to herself, a deep silent sob escaping her lips as her stomach lurched.

She waited for the end. Trying to calm herself down just before things were over. A deep coldness creeping through her lungs.

Only to be met with a burning sensation rippling across her skin. Her eyes bursting open.

Two women, standing in front of her in a burnt circle of singed grass, separated her and her vicious attacker. On the right, a tall blonde. On the left, she wasn't sure. It had skin, and wore a skirt, and was definitely more feminine, not a man. Petite and lithe, especially in comparison to the hyper feminine figure of the blonde to its right, but still undeniably a woman's figure. Though still not necessarily human from what she could see.

It was shorter. Shorter than she was. Adorning its back was a roaring flame that parted in the shape of butterfly wings. Reds, peaches and pinks coalescing together like a sunset bursting out of it. Hair, if it was hair, it looked more like a wildfire whipping back and forth, the same myriad of colours as its wings were. It turned, and she caught a glimpse of its face. Or rather its lack of one. Its head wrapped in the same blazing fire of pinks and scarlets like a streaking comet. Where a face ought be instead there was a black decal in the shape of butterfly wings and yet slick and sharp, like a motorcyclist's visor.

"Does this look stupid? Oh I bet it looks stupid!!" It spoke. Or she spoke. It was definitely a woman's voice. Maybe even just a girl's voice. It sounded nervous, scared even. Not what she wanted to hear from her apparent rescuer.

The blonde spoke next. Clearly human, though Mitzi couldn't deny something was off about her. Even ignoring how tall she was. She was far too excited and jovial for the situation at hand. Without even acknowledging Mitzi she turned to the maybe human maybe not thing. "Oh relax it's a good look! Not what I would have ever chosen, but you do you! You're definitely a natural at this! I just don't know why you need to protect your 'identity' or whatever."

"I can't go around using magic in public! What would happen if I showed up at school tomorrow and everyone went 'hey you're that girl who's a goddamn fairy'?" Her voice was warbly, distorted by the fire wreathed around her. Stamping her foot and pointing a finger accusingly at the blonde who seemed decidedly nonchalant about it all.

It wasn't until the two stopped speaking that Mitzi could focus on the monster that had invaded her home. A massive gaping hole in the left side of its torso, the giant harpoon that used to be its left arm melted in slag on the ground.

And yet it kept coming. Walking towards them still. Its other arm pointed at them, black fog seeping out the sides with a hiss.

The taller girl just rolled her eyes as it turned and trained its sight on her. "Oh please big guy, what're you gonna do fog machine me to death? It's not a concert."

"Stella wait!" The girl with the fairy wings lept, flying towards the other girl like a rocket, pushing her out of the way as a sharp black blade shot out of its arm. Then another and another, all embedding in the deck behind them.

The two were on the ground, trying to get to their feet. The fairy snapping at the taller girl. "Don't taunt the killer monsters! That's the dumbest thing I've seen you do so far."

"Point taken. You really saved my butt Bloom." Stella let out a groan, getting to her feet.

The fire swirling around the fairy girl's head- Bloom's- dissipated in sparkling embers and smoke. The black fairy wings in front of her face shattering like glass into nothing. "Great. No point trying to keep our identities secret if she knows our names."

She snapped her fingers, sending out a blast of fire from her fingertips that glanced off the towering sentry's frame.

Stella's eyes narrowed watching Bloom relentlessly fire wave after wave of fire that ineffectively tickled the creature, then to the molten mass that used to be its arm splayed out on the ground. Why is...she keeps wavering. When her magic is weak it's like she's a normal human, but when it's strong it's like a...it's stronger than a guardian fairy's.

More and more black smoke seeped out of the creature. Creeping across the ground, a hideous fog that crawled up and around the world. The ground invisible as the opaque black smog climbed up to knee height. Stella's skin ran cold as it felt like they were wading through a deep icy bog. The smoke climbing high into the sky, arching over them forming a dome. Cutting them off from the world just as the other had when it subsumed Bloom's room in darkness.

Bloom was hyperventilating. Trying to focus as her arms tremored. The next few blasts missing the demonic knight entirely. Until she felt two arms thrown around her. Stella rested her chin on Bloom's shoulder. Right hand on her sternum, left hand gripping Bloom's left forearm tight. Holding it firm and still. "Deep breaths. You're still new to the whole magic thing. Just remember, you already know you can do it, so don't worry."

It raised its hand at them again, rapidly blasting shards of ichor black magic at the two. Bloom gasped, closing her eyes as she grit her teeth.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the sharp black blades on the ground, burning with an otherwordly magenta flame. A sparkling midnight blue smoke spiraling off her fingertips.

"Holy, you've got some recoil on you girl!" Stella beamed from behind her. It took a moment for her to put it together, but Bloom realized she'd let loose in desperation, while Stella had aimed her shots for her. Puppeteering her like a marionette, directing her where her magic needed to go. "Now try this!"

Without any more warning, Stella's grip on her tightened, feeling the flames surging from Bloom's back tickle her neck. Warm like a fireplace, not devastating like an inferno. For just a moment Bloom's fire took on an irridescent quality, sunrays shining from between her fingers. But the magic that erupted from her palm was still undeniably the fire she'd become familiar with.

The creature collapsed, a hole in its chest a near perfect circle. Sparks twinkling around the edge of the wound. Falling to its knees, right arm burning up and bursting off at the shoulder just like its other appendage. Its eerie red eye still glaring at the two. Even on its knees it was nearly as tall as Bloom was.

Stella simply walked up to it. The gaudy crimson light illuminating the deep darkness the girls found themselves in. Covering Stella head to toe in that awful deep red hue for a brief instant before it flickered and went dark. Slain. She kissed her fingertip, and with a nail to its forehead pushed the entire thing over. Sinking beneath the thigh deep sea of ichor with a deep soft crash.

Her attention turned to the girl with the blue-black raven hair. Beginning to walk over to her.

Serrated tendrils burst into the air. Erratically bending in an instant at sharp odd angles, converging on Stella.

"Stella!"

The princess turned. Razor sharp tips inches from her face. Heart racing, only to realize they were grazing her by a breath, gently cutting her cheek, slicing her hair. Perfectly surrounding her face. If it wanted to, it could have pierced right through her skull. It could have ended her instantly. And it didn't.

And then they fell. Sinking deep into the fog just like their wielder's body. A sizzling purple smoke burning where they fell. The same purplish blue smoke and peachy magenta embers dancing on the tips of Stella's hair.

Bloom stood, arm's outstretched and ablaze, sweating and wide eyed. Seconds too late to save her friend. Yet she was alive despite it all.

"Thanks hot stuff." Stella said with a relieved sigh.

Bloom felt wounded. There was nothing to thank her for. She didn't save her. If she'd put anymore force into the blast she'd have roasted Stella alive herself. And Stella had to know that too, didn't she?

Threads of moonlight poured in from above. The black fog that snuffed them out from the world at large falling to pieces. Thick pitch bands of tar falling to the ground with a muffled thump as the roiling black fog dissolved into the ground.

"Are you alright?" Bloom asked Stella.

"I am, thanks to you." She replied.

Thanks to me. I almost killed you stupid. The fairy walked up to the girl on the ground, wheezing and sweating. Looking down at her. "Are you okay?"

"Who the hell are you!"

A deep blush came over Bloom's face, pursing her lips and batting her eyelids as her brows shot up. With a nervous wave of her hand that same surging hood of pastel flames and butterfly wing insignia wreathed itself around her head again.

She spoke in a faux deep voice, distorted almost like she was underwatered. "Uh, nobody! Just here to save civilians from...uh"

"Take it off Bloom, she knows your name and saw your face."

"Bloom. This is Stella." She looked down at Mitzi again, eyes trained on her neck. "The necklace. If you don't want to be attacked again, give it to us. They're after it, and that means after you."

Mitzi simply clutched her necklace. A surge of coldness blustering through her hands and head. Even as she tried to inch backwards she couldn't, hands slipping.

Confusion quickly gave way to anger. Wincing as she pulled her sprayned ankle up onto the deck. "That doesn't answer any of my questions! Who are you people?" She spat, hands trembling as her eyes darted between the two.

"Uuhhhh hellooo? We just saved your life!"

"Stella those things are only here because of you!" Bloom gasped, exasperated.

"She doesn't know that!" Stella shot back, stamping her foot.

Mitzi was dumbfounded. Trying to regain her composure. Suddenly thankful that she was home alone tight. "Tell me who you are, now!"

Her heart began racing as Bloom stepped up to her. Shrinking back from the fairy. Putting her hand on Mitzi's ankle eliciting a yelp.

"Stella, can magic fix this?"

Stella tugged at her collar, worry coming over her. "Can magic fix it? I mean if I still had mine sure."

"So what now?"

Stella knelt beside Bloom, gaging the fear in Mitzi's eyes. Leaning in close, scrutinizing the other girl. With nothing but a mindful little tilt of her head, she ripped Mitzi's necklace right off of her. The raven haired girl shellshocked and reeling from the sudden attack.

"That's!-"

"Rightfully mine. Especially seeing how you've dressed it up so gauche." Stella chided, holding a palm out to the girl.

Walking over to Bloom, she glommed onto her again, fingers intertwined with Bloom's own. Moving them gently. "Stella what are you..."

"Relax, just put your hands like this, and three two one..."

A flash erupted from between Bloom and Stella's hands, the whites of Mitzi's eyes going glossy as she rolled backwards. Passed out on the deck, slack, breathing lightly.

"What did you do!?"

Another dismissive wave from Stella. Both of the girls looking down at their neighbour. "She won't remember any of this when she wakes up. We'll just come up with a story. Easy as pie." She smiled. Looking up at Bloom's balcony from below.

><><><><><

"Thank you so much for having me, I'll see you again soon I hope!"

Stella was standing on the stoop to Bloom's house. Vanessa and Bloom standing in the doorway, saying goodbye to their guest.

"You don't need a ride home? It's dark out." Vanessa offered. Stella simply shook her head. Trying to keep things simple.

"I'm okay, but-"

"I'll walk you to the corner at least!" Bloom suddenly blurted out, stepping out of the door. "Don't worry mom, I'll be right in."

"Oh-okay?"

Both girls walked down the stairs, past the houses to the right, ducking around the corner beyond what Vanessa could see. Face to face with a brick wall in the alley down the second street.

Stella stood in place. "Okay stop, perfect." It was just a plain red brick wall, just behind a dumpster, hard to see from the sidewalk. Stella seemed far more satisfied with the location tham Bloom did, the Earth girl confused by what she was supposed to be seeing.

"It's a wall, Stella." Bloom said unimpressed.

"It's a canvas! Okay, hand out, touch the wall, and think of your room okay?" Once again Stella had grabbed Bloom's arm, standing behind her and leaning in. Touching Bloom's fingertip to the brick. "Now just like, use magic! Turn it on girl!"

Before she knew it, Stella had commandeered Bloom's hand, drawing a rectanglish shape across the wall. Just as she was about to close it off, the entire thing rippled with a golden sheen. Both girls falling forward through it, the entire world flipping around.

They somersaulted through space, only to tumble out into a heap on the floor, emerging from Bloom's closet.

"See? Come and go, whenever you want!" While Stella admired her handiwork, Bloom held her arm. Walking to the window. Cellphone in hand as she looked out at the backyards of her and her neighbours.

Three beeps and a dial tone, bringing her phone to her ear. "Emergency? Yeah. I need a paramedic. Let me get you the address first."

><><><><><

Her bed.

Why was she in bed? What time was it? Was that sunlight shining in through the window? She'd thought it was night time.

Bandages. Why was her foot covered in bandages? Why did it hurt so badly? Why was there a pad and gauze on her head?

The squealing yawn of her door slowly opening revealed her parents, finally home, so late at night it was nearly morning. "Hey, you're coming around. We were worried about you."

"Worried about me? ...What happened?" Mitzi eyed her own mother suspiciously, but couldn't understand why.

Her mother sat on her bedside, eyes drawn to her daughter's injuries. "The paramedics called. They said you passed out and sprained your ankle after slipping on the deck. Honestly, what were you doing out on the porch so late?"

Mitzi looked down, pulling her covers up. "I...I don't know." She brought her hand to her neck. Feeling her bare skin. Nothing. Wasn't there something? Where was her gold chain?

><><><><><

He stood. Not deep in the catacombs of the darkness drenched palace. But atop its roof, bathing in the rich blue of the moonlit night. The black of the roof extending in every direction.

He watched above him, as a blood red tinge fell upon the full moon. Hanging supermassive overhead. Like a deep scarlet ceiling as the sun moved into position on the other side of the planet. The sky like a deep blue ocean burning up into a fearsome dusky red.

Cast upon its surface, visions of Earth flickered upon the celestial body. Pulsing crimson lightning crashing across its face. The visage of Stella dyed deep red sending a shiver of anticipation through his heart.

"So, that's where you're hiding, Daphne. You're as stunning as the day you spurned me." He smiled to himself. "I wonder what they call you now."

The moon's surface shifted once more. His piercing eyes leering, his pupils tightening, unsure what he was looking at. A pair of wings, to who he didn't know, far in the background behind his bride the star child.

Descending through the darkness, delving into the epicenter of his fortress, he came face to face with Luna, his captive. Her silver blonde hair disheveled and draped across her face. Body held up bound in black chains. Flanked on all sides by a dozen glaring ruddy eyes. With a wave of his hand, they faded to black, snuffed out and returning to darkness. Luna falling to the floor as the chains disappeared like ink blots smeared away with a brush.

"Your daughter. Who did you send to rescue her?" He snarled at her. The look of disgust she gave him in return made him flinch. Not the look of utter hatred reserved for a malevolent adversary, but the petty disgust felt looking at a spoiled child, the judgment one feels looking at a tantrum being thrown. The moment their eyes met, his heart skipped a beat, his demeanor becoming more composed without another thought. "She's sought refuge on Earth, of all places. And yet another fairy assists her, despite the fact that planet has not had magic for centuries." He grabbed her by the chin, pulling her closer, fingers pushing in her cheeks like he was trying to squeeze the answers out of her mouth. "So who did you send?"

"You're mistaken. My daughter is dead. Even if she wasn't, Solaria is yours, I have no one to 'send'. Be satisfied with my kingdom and put away these delusions."

"Satisfied? With this sun bleached sty?" He gnashed his teeth on the last word, teetering between suave condescension and unhinged anger. "The one thing Solaria can offer me is no longer here. This planet means nothing to me." The sea of clouds below them turned to black, a gutteral rumbling rolling through their bones as storms brewed. Thunder building in anticipation of the torrential deluge below. "So tell me again, who did you send?"

"Nobody! Stop this now!"

He grabbed her by the neck, rushing upwards into the air, bursting through the dank darkness of the fortress. Coming face to face with the blood moon once again. Grabbing Luna by the scalp, forcing her to look skyward. Leaning in, voice dripping in her ear through his sneering lips. "You see her, don't you? Behind your daughter. Who is she? Who is assisting the star child?"

Luna was unable to speak. Blood ice cold. Forcing out the words as she collected her thoughts. "Darling...you are alive."

The fingers digging into her head relaxed. For only a moment, before tightening up and heaving her to the side. Body sliding across the roof.

He gazed upward. Arms slack, the slightest bend in his knees, lips parted as he tilted his head back. The visions of the other world fading as the moon's bloody tinge waned. The eclipse finally over.

The slightest exhale escaped his nose, holding in a laugh. "...So you really didn't know. Then-" he watched, eyelids lazily drifting shut as the final remnants of the moon's facade became bright white again. Hand closing around the distant fairy wings. "-who are you?"

Chapter Text

The wood lots on the edge of town were a familiar sight to Selina. Far too massive to trace every nook and cranny of herself, every time she visited she went places, saw things she'd never seen before.

Step after step, every board let out a gastly creak. The parks department hadn't updated the staircase that took visitors from the top of the trail down into the ravine below the viaducts in years. Rotting wood and splintered stairs shuddered underfoot, railings threatening to give way at any moment. The whole walkway shrouded in the red and orange foliage of maples and beeches emerging from the red clay hillside.

She stood on a landing, overlooking the river below. A deep narrow ravine smothered in several years of leaf litter fed into it. A sharp gouge carved into the ruddy cliffs. Fallen logs, long dead trees, heaved and upturned out of the hillside ran from one side of the ravine to the other like scaffolding.

Selina sat, cross legged, breathing a sigh of relief as sad grey clouds blotted out the sun, the air pressure dropping like a stone. She swung her backpack off, placing it in front of her. Retrieving a cloth mat and deck of tarot cards. Flipping the top card over one after another. The tower. The fool. The lovers. All upright. Foreboding. But not helpful.

She took a deep breath. Then slid the cards to the side. Reaching deeper into her bag. The same slim black piece of metal she'd used to find her paranormal activity club members, gleaming dimly in her hand. She placed it atop her cloth mat, and let it spin, slowly, in place. "Like dowsing rods. I should have known all along. Show me where the spirits are. Reveal your secrets."

It swung, slowly, lulling back and forth. Its tip eventually pointing out at the canyon behind her. The outcome resulting in a predictable groan escaping Selina's lips. Of course she wouldn't be able to just use the stairs. But what kind of chairman and founder of the paranormal investigation club would she be if things came easy?

Hastily stuffing everything back into her bag and slinging it on her shoulders, she climbed up onto the railing. The weak wood groaning underneath. She didn't dare look down. She knew she'd chicken out if she did. Instead she inched along, approaching the corner of the landing furthest from the stairs downward. Eyes focused on the closest fallen tree. Maybe a few feet from where she stood.

She lept, landing on the log with a soft thud. Hand resting on one of its larger branches sticking up towards the sky. She took her trinket out of her bag again, holding it aloft. Feeling it weakly pull her arm wherever it wanted to go. Pointing deeper into the valley.

From tree to tree she hopped, walking up and down the natural catwalks. Deeper and deeper into the woods. Just a few feet above the gently running water of the valley. Until eventually she stepped down on a larger flat rock the stream diverged in two halves around.

The black metal began to shine. Dimly, but it shone nonethless. The creases in Selina's palm casting more distinguished shadows in the presence of its light. The further into the woods she walked- skipping from rock to rock avoiding the babbling water- the brighter its glow seemed to grow.

It was nearly an hour, down at the very bottom of the ravine. Far far away from the park service's official trails and walkways. A dead end, steep slick walls of clay, worn down by heavy rains, encircling her. She looked up, a spiderweb of fallen trees and branches criss crossing everywhere up above. Nearly a foot of crumpled leaves and pine cones at the bottom of the ravine that rustled under her feet.

The shard of Stella's sceptre, not that Selina knew that's what it was, was so bright it was nearly white now. A shimmering haze glaring through the running water. Drawing her to the end of the ravine. Kneeling down, with less grace than she'd liked, she whimpered gently feeling the cold running water. Light dancing on her fingers. Feeling something familiar and pulling it out. A second piece of metal, then a third, both of them shining brightly now. One in one hand. Two in the other. Some sort of markings, perhaps ancient runes by her estimation, inscribed on the new ones she'd found.

She brought them to her face, scrutinizing them. Just what were they? "You're something special aren't you?" Selina mused.

Even as she rolled it in her hands, inspecting every inch of it, the world shuddered. A storm of leaves swirling around the crevasse. Water in the creek running murky like smoke.

><><><><><

Elsewhere, Earth's only fairy blew a strand of hair out of her face. "This isn't how I want to spend a Saturday."

Bloom and Stella were downtown. Not shopping or sightseeing, but searching. The princess, modelling one of Bloom's first purses from middle school, looked through her bag at the shards of her sceptre. The girls had spent their after school time trying to find the rest of them, with a sizeable 12 to their name at this point. Her phone indicated another was somewhere downtown, but so far the two had had no luck sussing it out.

Granted, they weren't walking the streets down on the ground. The two were up on the roof, trying to use their existing pieces to hone in on whatever lost ones they could find. Walking across the flat top roofs of the downtown strip, ducking behind store signs and air conditioning units, trying to stay out of sight of people walking down below.

"Stella I think I see it." Bloom said, frowning. Far up 20 feet in the air on a satellite dish, she squinted her eyes and saw a glint of black teetering upon its edge. "No way I'm gonna be able to get up there, even with a boost. Any ideas?"

"...Uh Bloom? You have wings silly. Just fly?"

Bloom balked, staring at Stella like she had two heads. "Those things work?"

Stella's mouth was agape. Not quite angry, but clearly annoyed Bloom wasn't using her newfound powers 'the right way'. "They're wings! Of course they work! What sort of self respecting fairy can't fly?"

"No offense, but no animal on Earth uses fire to fly. I thought it was just for show!" Earth's only fairy shot back. Unwilling to shift into her magical outfit. Eyeing the people on the ground, hoping they wouldn't look up.

"The coast's clear, just do it!" The princess had shocked Bloom, looking over the edge of the building, all but sneaking up behind her.

With a huff, Bloom threw her hands down and walked to the center of the roof, at the base of the tower with the satellite and radio signals. Balling her fists and shutting her eyes, she was enveloped in a maelstrom of power. The almost psychedelic flames of pinks and peaches and rose swirling together into brilliant burning wings once again. The billowing plume of fire that was her hair swathed around her head, the same sharp black butterfly silhouette donned in front of face.

To her surprise, even her clothes had disappeared, deep blue cloth twirling around her in their place. Ribbons of otherwordly fabric, silky and alien, draped across her. Looking down, feeling it on her skin, it was the unmistakably ethereal clothing Stella was wearing when she'd first appeared. Shimmering like glass in some places.

"Okay. So, how do I fly?" Was all she could ask, looking over her shoulder trying to see her own wings. Voice muffled by her transformation.

Stella's brow furrowed. Clearly unimpressed by the question. "How do you fly? How do you walk? You move your wings!"

"I don't even know what muscles to flex." Bloom sighed. Twisted around trying to look at her back.

Stella put her hands on Bloom's shoulders like she was going to give her a massage, only to run her fingers over the edge of her fiery wings. "Flex your magic muscles. Move them with the same instincts that you use to cast magic! Not that you use to wave your arms or wiggle your butt with!"

"Okay so like..."

The ensuing explosion knocked Stella backward onto the roof. A small shockwave radiating out as a line of fire trailed behind Bloom, who was surging upward like a rocket. There was an incidental twitch or two of her wings, but she was propelled primarily by the fiery explosion beneath her feet.

Just above the tower she lost her momentum, hanging in the air. Reaching a hand out to swipe the piece of Stella's sceptre. For just a few more moments she hung, suspended, before a feeling of weightlessness overtook her. Her stomach doing flips her throat caught shut as she started falling faster and faster.

Just before she hit the ground she was jolted back to reality. Looking up at Stella's face gazing down at her, blocking the sun. Before she knew it she felt herself pushed against the princess' chest, squeezed tight in a hug. "Oh em gee I thought I wasn't going to catch you! Glad you didn't totally go splat!" It rattled Bloom a bit, but Stella sat her down and let her catch her breath.

The air was heavy. Bloom barely able keep herself steady as her flames disappeared. "Oh god I almost, I almost- oh my god."

Stella knelt down, hands perched on her knees. "It sounds like I'm gonna have to teach you how to fly." An incessant beeping from her purse startled the both of them. Stella's bright pink flip phone, buzzing with static.

"What's up? Another piece nearby?"

"Bad news firestarter. We've got company."

"Again? I thought you said we were done with these freaks. Isn't that why we destroyed that thing building the base inside of- eugh inside of the toilet?" Bloom asked, gagging as she spoke.

"I don't know how they're getting here. But we gotta go. Look." The holographic map they'd used to track the pieces of Stella's sceptre blared red. Deep flashing lights in one tiny sector of it. "Dark magic, centered right on top of three more pieces."

A hint of nervousness ran through Bloom's voice. "That's a hiking trail. It goes right under the bridges that lead out of town. What's one of those monsters doing there?"

"Let's go."

"Right."

It didn't take long to get off the roof. Finding a ladder, sliding down the sides feet placed on the outside of the beams. Not bothering to climb down the rungs. Sprinting out of an alley they rounded the corner and hopped onto a street car, waiting anxiously as it pulled up to corners to stop for more passengers.

It wasn't until the third stop that Stella had started getting frustrated. She tugged at Bloom by the sleeve, desperate to get her to cooperate. "This is taking too long, we have to go now."

"I don't have a car, this is the fastest way to get there!" Bloom spat back.

"Not the fastest way." Stella said with a wink, making a butterfly shape with her hands, fingers spread apart.

"I don't know how!" Bloom said, trying to keep her voice hushed. Seeing how other passengers were casually glancing at her.

"I'll teach you!" Bloom just stared disapprovingly at Stella. The princess just pushed through. Doubling down. "On the fly- as we fly!"

"You can't fly anymore though!" Bloom shot back, trying to rationalize staying on the street car.

Stella just kept pushing. Pleading with Bloom. "Then shrink me down! Put me in the purse or something!"

As soon as the tram pulled up to its next stop, Stella dragged Bloom right out the rear door into the streets. Ducking behind the back side of the buildings away from the roads and sidewalks. Making sure no prying eyes could see them.

She placed Bloom's purse on the ground, and stepped into it, feet in the center. "Okay, just make me little and then I'll be your copilot."

"You're joking right?" Bloom said, deadpan. She could tell by Stella's expression she wasn't. In a flurry of flames, Bloom had shifted into her flaming wings and secretive mask, before miniaturizing Stella small enough to fit in her purse. Picking the bag up off the ground, she held it tight, close to her chest. "So what's next?"

"Just, jump, and beat your wings."

"And try not to be seen?"

"If you insist." Stella said. "Personally, if I had wings this nice, I'd want everyone to know."

With a running jump, Bloom found herself bounding off the ground. Feeling herself losing momentum, the weightless feeling at the apex of her jump, she pictured herself flying. Thinking of the way she cast her magic, shot bolts of fire. And she pictured her wings beating making the exact same movements.

To her surprise, the weightless feeling was never replaced with the sensation of falling. Trying to contain herself. "It's...it's like swimming! Not what I imagined."

Stella pulled herself out of Bloom's purse. Arms perched on the brim, head looking over the side. Her own stomach aching and hollow looking down at the ground from so high up. Made all the higher from her relative smallness.

"Just listen to my advice girl, you've got this."

><><><><><

All three pieces in the palm of her hand. She poked and prodded them with her fingers, moving them around, watching how their light waxed and waned. How they ebbed and flowed, pulling at each other like magnetics, as though they wanted to be together. The runes etched in two of the three seemed to line up. The third piece not fitting together with the other two at all. There must be more, she thought to herself.

It wasn't until she forced the three together and saw how they shone that she heard it, a bizarre shrieking. Not from the fragments but from something else. The sound of water, rushing faster, louder than before. Crashing like someone was splashing around in it.

She turned. And excitement and terror rushed through her all at once. Finally. What she was waiting for!

In the center of the stream, an enormous tendril emerged. Rushing water coalescing into a towering spike. A ten foot tall surge of might, currents crashing over its form. A titanic monolith, fading from clear to black, from water to tar, a single glaring red light upon its apex.

It circled around her. Studying her. Moving close to and far from her, over and over. Approaching and retreating. Searching and spying. She was giddy with excitement. Pulling a camera out of her bag. Trying to capture it, to get as good a picture as possible. This was so going in the club newsletter. She lowered her device, reaching out to touch its 'face' with a hand. Getting closer and closer.

It got closer, its red eye inches from her fingers. Moments away from letting her touch it. Until they reacted. Her fragments, shining brightly, making it hiss and lunge backwards, rearing up into the sky. She gasped and cursed under her breath, shoving them into her bag as she tried to take some more pictures of it.

It wasn't until the creature shrieked again, huge sharp barbs piercing out of its surface. The water rushing even faster as its surface shuddered. Her blood ran cold, the realization of just how much danger she was in finally kicking in. She ran, clammering up the walls of the ravine. Caked in mud as she slipped down the slopes, clinging to one of the broken logs. Crawling from tree to tree. Pulling herself into one of the logs, this one thankfully hollow. Well outside the reach of the inky black monster.

Or so she thought. Through knotholes in the wood deep red light flooded the log. Drenched in crimson light. Barely able to see anything. Selina held her breathe, staying perfectly still. Watching as the light drifted across the confines of her space. Listening to the sound of running water drift from one end of the wooden pipe to the other. Desperate not to move a muscle as she felt the log squeak and squeal, swaying gently.

The red light subsided. And she allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. The log groaning as she relaxed and stretched out.

It ripped right through the wood. Another barb, piercing right through the tree like a spear. Running it through completely, tearing through Selina's jacket. Shredding off lockes of her hair. Missing her body by less than an inch. Her heart beating out of her chest as it sunk back and pulled out of the wood.

She redoubled her efforts, army crawling across the soft rotting wood. Bursting into a cold sweat as she saw the light at the other end of the tunnel get closer and closer. Until she felt it. Her knee, plunging right through the rotten floor. Stuck, leg dangling more than 30 feet up off the ground. Yanking at her own body, desperate to unhitch herself.

The tense red light returned again. Harsh spotlights flooding in through holes in her hiding place. Before it suddenly stopped. Vanishing entirely. All she could hear was a violent crash. Maybe one of the trees had fallen.

She dared peer out the cracks in the wood. Gazing down at the bottom of the ravine. Still there was that creature, but what she was most startled by was that there were now two creatures down in the crevasse. The living water and some sort of burning winged creature. Like an angel, she mused. Watching as the two fought. Unsure exactly what the angel was going to do to defeat nothing but a bunch of running water. It seemed disoriented. That's when she heard it speak. English, of all things. Talking aloud, exasperated, to no one in particular she could see. "You couldn't teach me how to land better?" It snapped in a warbling sing song pattern.

Selina leaned in closer, bringing her camera to her eye. Snapping picture after picture of the two locked in fierce combat.

Another sharp blast, this time a lash of fire, ripped through the log. Singeing her fingers, her camera destroyed by the burst of flames. In a frenzy she gasped, clutching her burnt ruined camera. Pulling her film cartridges out of the remnants of the ruined device. Hopefully salvagable. She let the camera fall, watching it splash down into the creek below. With one last look at her film cartridges she breathed a sigh of relief. Shoving them into her bag she ripped her leg back up into the log and kept crawling.

Near the top of the ravine she emerged. Wanting to stay and watch, but choosing to run instead.

Oh yeah, this was definitely going in the newsletter.

><><><><><

"I have absolutely no idea how to fight this thing!" Bloom shouted at Stella, who was clutching Bloom's ribbons trying not to be blown away.

The monster circled around her like a serpent. Spikes pointed inward at Bloom as it tightened, closing in on Bloom from all sides. A gutteral roar coming from its pure black form.

It lowered its head, leering at her with its one unflinching eye. Gaging just what she was. Stella latched onto Bloom, holding on by her neck, finger pointed at the creature. "Just blast it!"

Bloom looked down, the exasperation in her voice obvious even though Stella couldn't see her face. "It's made out of water, and the entire forest is full of leaves. I feel like I shouldn't be burning everything up out here!"

It reared up again, the flowing water that composed its body suddenly going still. Then it constricted. All of the sharp barbs that lined its body converging on Bloom, who lept into the air and flew up above the creature. Its serpentine form flattening out like a manta ray, bounding up with wings of its own drawn. Raining down needles at Bloom. Forcing her to duck beneath another of the fallen logs that made up the ravine.

She looked down as she tried to catch her breath. Stella was tugging at her, pulling on the cloth of her outfit. "I've got an idea. Get all those pieces we found today out. Blast it just like that one in your bedroom."

Bloom rummaged around in her purse, pulling a handful of the pieces out. All of them glowing deeply. "Like...this!?" She slammed both her hands together, a nova of light stretching out in all directions. The same familiar surge of power rushing through her as when she stole Stella's magic.

The monster let out one last gutteral wheeze, falling to the ground. The water it was composed of stiffening. Its form contorting and convulsing. Bent and stretched, mangled into an awkward mess. Turning into a pile of mud on top of the damp flat stones at the bottom of the ravine. Single eye dimming with a weak flicker.

"Nicely done Bloom! Bloom?" Stella was looking down at the creature, but felt herself get hotter. Bloom's skin was burning up. Her face covering burnt up and shattered away, revealing herself. Stella flinched seeing her. Eyes glazed over, glowing with power, a loathsome expression on her face. The world around her burning up and melting like a mirage, twisted by the sheer heat coming off her.

She moved methodically, robotically, arm held aloft as she let loose blast after blast at what remained of the creature, until there was nothing left. Standing in a shallow smoking crater.

That's when she broke out of her trance, falling to the ground as her concentration broke, wings and flames disappearing. The water she collapsed in sizzling and steaming from her residual heat.

It was several minutes until she came to. Stella, still tiny, pulling herself up to Bloom's face by her hair. "Hey, you're awake. Guess using all that juice took a lot out of you."

"I...yeah. Hold on you probably want to be full sized again. Lemme just-" with a groan and a wiggle of her fingers, Stella found herself properly sized yet again, happy to be so. She offered a hand to Bloom, pulling her up and out of the stream. Both of them dusting themselves off. "So where are these three sceptre pieces we came here for?"

Stella just shook her head, walking around and holding up her phone. Pulling up her map. "Not here anymore. Which means maybe someone or something found them."

Kneeling down, Bloom pulled something shiny catching her eye out of the creek. Hoping it was a fragment of Stella's wand. The reality though made her heart skip a beat.

A camera, with a big burn hole seared through it. Its compartment for film open and empty.

"Stella. I think we've been caught on film."

><><><><><

"Where are you going?"

She didn't care that he wouldn't answer her. There was nothing to lose. Too tired to cast any magic of her own. Too weak to get up and stop him. But at the very least she had to do something.

Luna took labored steps towards her captor. He stood on the precipice of her- of his palace. Face bathing in the sun as he descended the steps, walking downward to the end of the royal realm. Every step as graceful as they were intimidating. Each subsumed in black fog as he left them behind. Until finally he stood at the end of the world. Power raging forth in a cyclone of hatred. Coat wuthering in the wind threatening to fly away. Hair slicked back by the sheer force.

Her resolve returned. Hands forward a ray of light, that same beautiful opal sheen, glanced off his back. She asked, demanded, again. This time with a scream. "Where are you going!?"

He closed his eyes and gave her a bemused glance. Like he was smirking with just his eyes and ears, even as his mouth didn't move. Nothing but spite in his glare. He brushed a hand over his coat gently. Barely touched by Luna's magic. An overpowering glow coursed in his palm. Knowing he could end her with a single spell, seeing the fear in her eyes, his magic summoned forth a rift within the swirling force instead. "I'm going to take back what's mine."

He walked into the portal. Dropping into the pit. Like he was wading into a pool of tar, deeper and deeper and deeper still, disappearing as he was buried in it, enveloped in its horrid embrace.

She allowed herself a sharp sigh of relief now that he was finally gone. Only to catch herself. Clutching her chest as tears welled up in her eyes. Disgusted by her selfishness. Realizing that she was relieved he'd left, when he'd left to go find her daughter. To put her in danger once again.

She let out one more deep sob, and fell to the smooth sterile cold floor. Dragging herself toward the raging portal on the ground. Several steps away, it closed shut. Quietting down. She slammed her hand down into the floor as her tears dripped in front of her.

"I'm sorry Stella. Please forgive me."

Chapter Text

He gasped for air.

Bursting from the ground, buried in cold, clammy soil, he emerged. Hands digging into the dirt as he heaved himself out. Smothered in sediment, clothes torn and tattered, hanging off of him. Sputtering for air, dragging himself upwards. A pale imitation of a shark breaching the water's surface. His pale skin letting off the briefest of glimmers in the moonlight.

He pulled himself upward, out of the ground. Like a ghoul leaving a shallow grave. Falling to his knees, arms slack. Gasping for air still.

It wasn't that he couldn't breath. Something was missing. Something he didn't even know was there. He felt himself grow feeble. His arms and legs restlessly thrumming with a sensation of hollowness. Heart pounding, and yet sinking inside himself. His body trying to fill a hole that didn't exist.

Deep bags sunk under his eyes. His lips, cracking and dry. A brittleness in his nails.

Magic. There was hardly any magic here. Tiny wisps of it he could feel on the ends of his fingers. The tip of his tongue. The ridges of his ears. There was just enough to force himself to his feet. Stumbling through the darkness under the cover of spindly bare branches. Trampling inelegantly through the leaves of trees that had long shed them. Collapsing against one of their trunks trying to right his footing.

He looked down at his hands. Still some remnants of mystical energy. Of the darkness that sustained him. And yet he could feel it burning away, seeping out of him. He gnashed his teeth. Doubled over like he could vomit. Draping his coat on his shoulders and discarding his shirt beneath it, the black garment framing his well chiseled though slender alabaster chest. Cursing as he tried to brush the dirt off of his face and body.

"Daphne. My darling. How can you possibly persist here?" He muttered to himself between gasps. Wandering through the woods until he came to a gravel path. Overhead lights flickering out and their wrought iron poles meekly groaning as he stepped out of the fields and onto the path. He pulled his coat closed, his form becoming a towering shadow. Face hidden by his collar. Nothing but two piercing red eyes peering over a murky black monolith.

His breathing was ragged, barely able to keep himself together. His gaze drifted down the path. A silhouette crossing his. A man, from what he could tell. A man with no magic. A man who had barely registered his presence. Unfortunate for him. He approached, his heeled boots clacking against the rough rocks of the trail, a burst of speed that left him struggling closed the gap between the two. Cold sweat beading on his brow as he tried to retain his wits. Fingers digging into the gentleman's face as he pushed him into a tree. Deep red-black waves radiating out of his hand. A sharp V shaped mark forming betwedn his palm and his victim's face. "Please don't take this personally" he choked out.

His eyes went white. His mind flooding with visions of his pathetic victim's life. His name, his identity, his role in the world. None of these were necessary. He just needed the basics. Let him understand the world. A name. Where was he? Who lived here? Just enough to blend in.

The glow in his eyes faded. A deep sigh coming from him as the man he held captive collapsed, drawing shallow breaths. He closed his eyes, savouring what little information he could glimpse from the man who was like a ragdoll in his clutch. Dropping him to the ground.

The last of his magic crackled in his hands. A deep sense of weakness in his arms. Shambling along the gravel path, stumbling out onto the sidewalk. The monoliths of red brick and wrought iron bearing down on him under a chilly autumn moon. "Dear Daphne. Wherever have you found yourself?"

><><><><><

What the hell was she supposed to feel about Stella?

Bloom had never been normal. Ironically, the 'normal' kind of 'not normal'. Moody, weird interests other kids made fun of, clumsy and awkward, questionable fashion sense. She was sure there were thousands and thousands of 'not normal' kids just like her around the country. Hell, she was probably more normal than plenty of them.

Now though, she was a decidedly different kind of not normal. Playing host to an even less normal kind of not normal.

Stella was...Stella was irritating and frustrating and confusing. And nothing like Bloom. But something about that felt comforting. Felt correct. Felt fortunate and miraculous and relieving.

She realized after a moment she was staring at the princess. The two of them sitting across from each other at a school cafeteria table. Watching the magical fairy princess fruitlessly fail to comprehend how a juicebox worked. Studying the plastic straw as though it held deep arcane secrets.

She breathed in and closed her eyes, centering herself. "There's a carnival in town for the long weekend. Do you want to come with me?"

Where did that come from?

Stella's concentration was broken. Holding her unopened juice box in her hands staring back at Bloom. Was she perplexed? Confused? Just surprised? "A carnival?"

Bloom's brow furrowed. Gesturing with her hands trying to find the words. "Yeah, you know. There's rides, and games, and sometimes music and-"

"I know what a carnival is Bloom! I've just...never been to one." The look on the princess' face made Bloom second guess herself. "It sounds kind of fun, but you want to take me?"

"Well you know it's just, we're trying to save the world- save our worlds- together. We spend all our time together, but I don't really...know you." She wasn't wrong. The only things Bloom knew about the princess were whatever she told her to help her get home. She was more like a charge to be protected than a true companion.

"What's there to know?" Stella said. Finally stabbing her juice box with the straw. Forcing it down on the table, a shot of juice splattering everywhere, including Bloom's sleeves. Bloom lowered her gaze glaring at the princess, a deep blush on Stella's face looking at the purple stains on her clothes.

"You're joking right? You're a princess. You're royalty. From another planet. And we never ever talk about that!" Bloom whisper shouted, trying to avoid talking about magic in such a public place.

><><><><><

It wasn't a real amusement park. Just a little traveling midway. Set up in the parking lot of the local community college. Some sort of welcome back celebration, no doubt actually for the student body but of course open to the public. Cast in the twilight of fall.

Bloom had kept Stella close through admissions, making sure both of them got their red wristbands. Exchanging a small fistful of bills for entry. The princess frowned as they walked through the turnstile, picking at the annoying little plastic bracelet. Not fashionable in the least, but according to Bloom it wasn't for accessorizing. She spoke up seeing Bloom stow her wallet in her jacket pocket, much lighter than before she'd paid for admission. "I hope you know that the second we save my world, I'm going to pay you back 100% in full. I want a list of every single little thing. It's so not fair you should have to foot my bills just because I can't pay right now."

A pause. Bloom looking the slightest bit bemused. "Stella, I don't think your money is any good here."

Stella's mouth was agape, her pace slowing a tad. Trailing behind Bloom. Trying to process what she'd just heard. "What? Solaria's one of the most deeply respected planets in the magic dimension! I'm sure the crown and Earth's can work out an Earth/Solaria exchange rate! A good one too, in honour of the world that showed Solaria's heiress such wonderful hospitality."

That realization hit Bloom like a ton of bricks. That Stella had discovered Earth. That this girl from another world with magic and royalty and interplanetary travel had found Earth. And whenever she finally went home people were going to ask where their princess had been, and she'd say Earth. Because blondie being a princess meant she was a diplomat. A public figure. An entire planet of people were going to have questions for a world that didn't know that their own was real. Learning that they aren't alone. "Stella, people here can't know magic exists." She said, wistful.

The princess clearly wasn't on the same wavelength Bloom was. Aghast, scandalized, hand on her collar bone in a faux huff, a mocking gasp. Was she being sarcastic? Or was she genuinely this naive about it all? "Wh-? But why not? How am I going to repay Earth if- when we fix everything and save Solaria?" Her voice trembling, catching herself as thoughts of her world in trouble rushed through her.

"Princess, learning magic exists has turned my entire life upside down. We can't do that to an entire planet. Plus like, even if you did show Earth magic is real, we still wouldn't have any magic."

Stella opened her mouth to speak but found herself befuddled. She hadn't even considered Earth's...unique circumstances. Being positively marooned here, without her powers or her sceptre to boot she realized, had pushed Earth in the context of the interplanetary community far from her mind. Like no other worlds existed while she was here.

The two wandered through the main aisle of stalls and rides. Watching as other people passed by them. A cacophany of blaring lights and bombastic games going off all around them. Stella taking in the sights a tad stunned. People of all ages with garish novelty hats and painted faces. Food on sticks and in cones. Hollering and cheering, chanting and jeering as they threw rings and sprayed jets of water at stalls lined with prizes. Stella was simply trying to soak it all in, head on a swivel, while Bloom seemed significantly more focused. Her eyes looking far ahead, walking faster than the princess.

Stella's frow furrowed and her tongue hung out as a gaggle of young girls ran by, leaving a face painting booth behind. A simple collection of animal face prints, lions and cheetahs, several different birds...and a girl bringing up the rear with two big black butterflies with pink flames around them on her cheeks. A coincidence, right?

She was shirked out of her thoughts when Bloom reached out and pulled Stella ahead. Leading her to a line of people in front of a big parked truck. Paintings and boards with information on its side. Watching as her little Earth friend's eyes lit up as she got to the front of the line. "A funnel cake to split please. Peaches, not strawberry please."

A strong scent spread through the air as Stella watched the cooks inside. Dressed far more colourfully and casually than any chef in the palace. Pouring some sort of liquid through a funnel into bubbling and splattering liquid. "I guess I see your point." She relented. Realizing just how different Earth was to Solaria.

Whatever Bloom had ordered, it smelled good. Like nothing she'd ever smelled before. Well, maybe once or twice on Magix, but even the more exotic fare she'd had on excursions off of Solaria wasn't a perfect match. Whatever the case, it was a far cry from Solaria's cuisine. Bloom was handed a paper plate and plastic forks. Taking the funnel cake in both hands and leading Stella over to some picnic tables. Away from the busiest stretch of the fairground.

"Well? Gonna have some?" Bloom asked as she took the first bite.

Stella was having trouble figuring out what she was looking at. It was like pasta. Almost. Not really. But puffier, and darker. Like what should have been a perfect bed of noodles had all fused into a single puck of pasty dough. The white scoop of something slowly melting atop it. At first glance it reminded her of a sauce that had congealed into a solid and was beginning to separate. Not one that was smooth and perfectly coated the back of a spoon, that lightly spread atop an entree. By all accounts, it was like someone had attempted to prepare one of Solaria's most bog standard dishes, and somehow everything had gone wrong.

An assumption that was dashed the second it touched her tongue. Her eyes going wide and her lips puckering the slightest bit. Drumming her fingers on the table as she nodded at Bloom. Eyes shut tight as she swallowed. "This is- oh my stars this is incredible! It's hot and cold and soft and crunchy all at the same time! It's sweet, and savoury, but not savoury like meat it's savoury like, oh it's like my mouth is buzzing!"

Bloom cocked an eyebrow, play fighting with Stella using their forks over one of the peaches. "You're giving me the impression food on Solaria isn't very good Stella."

"Huh? Oh, it's fine. It's great actually! But everything on Earth is just, I'm blown away. It's so so delicious for something that looks so...improper, so messy."

"A funnel cake is the best thing the fairy princess has ever eaten. If you say so." She just let the comment hang in the air. Speaking up again as Stella's mouth was full. "So...what's the magic dimension like?"

"That's kind of an enormous question."

With a flick of her wrist Bloom swiped the last piece of their dessert from under Stella's nose. The princess seemed distinctly disappointed, pouting and batting her lashes at Bloom. Not that it would get her anywhere. Bloom stuffing the last bite in her face. After all, she paid and Stella had eaten more of it than her anyway. She deserved it more. Stella wrinkled her nose at her, trying to suppress a giggle. "Why don't we go on a ride next?" Bloom offered, pushing the greasy paper plate into a garbage can buzzing with bees.

"What about that one?" Stella asked, pointing directly behind Bloom. The ferris wheel. Ugh not the ferris wheel. Nothing as hopelessly cheesy as the ferris wheel.

"No thanks, the ferris wheel is kinda for like, moms and their little kids, or couples, or..." she trailed off, clicking her tongue quietly as she looked for a better ride. Finding it directly behind Stella. "Ah ha, sometimes they don't even have this one! Ever rode the Zipper?"

Bloom was pointing ecstatic right through Stella. Prompting the princess to turn around, and her heart stopped just looking at it. Cages suspended along a spinning rotating bar, covered in neon lights flipping over and over on itself. "You're...joking right?"

"Don't worry, they have to load the cars one at a time, so you'll get plenty of time to psych yourself up. Besides, you fly. You can handle a carnival ride." Bloom said with a devilish grin. Grabbing hold of Stella's arm and pulling her right out of her seat. The princess grimacing as she was dragged along, the little red head much stronger than she looked to her. "Come on let's do this! There's like no line!"

The two were guided into a swinging cage by the attendant. Bloom eagerly hopping in and sliding to the far side. Stella gingerly stepping in after her, the tall girl having to duck her head just a tad. Stunned by the flashing lights running up the sides reflecting off the chrome bars in front of their faces. "It's like being trapped in a dungeon and a party at the same time!" The princess squealed nervously.

She let out a startled 'eep!' that quickly devolved into a dirty look. Eyes drifting to Bloom, next to her, hands on the bars rocking the cage back and forth. Each lurch to and fro becoming just the slightest bit more severe with each turn.

There was a whirring. A weightless sensation, a heaviness in her feet but a lightness in her arms and stomach. Like she was being gently thrust upward by the floor. The cages rotating around to load more people. The cage lurched once again, so deeply she was lying on her back, looking up at the sky. "Bloom what are you doing?"

"Okay check this out, just one more back and forth." The Earth girl laughed. Stella could feel the blood rushing to her head as they rocked backwards, flat on her back yet again. Expecting to feel the cage rock back upright. Only to hang, and hang, and hang. And then keep going. Flipping entirely upside down, before getting stuck that way. She was screaming on the inside as the whole ride whirred again, lifting them higher into the sky. Bloom giggling to herself and shaking the cage on purpose all the while. "Having fun yet?"

"Is it almost over!?" Stella whimpered, eyes shut tight.

Bloom snorted, letting go of the bars and holding Stella's hand. The princess opening an eye to peep at Bloom. "It hasn't started yet, they're going to finish loading right about-" the whole machine jerked. The sound of motors and chains louder than ever. The weightless feeling returning to both of them, worse, or better, than ever. "-now" Bloom smirked with a knowing look up at Stella.

Stella had never felt this way before. Completely unable to tell what direction she was facing. One moment, looking up into the sky. The next, hurtling towards the ground only to be ripped away. On more than one occassion she'd be looking out at the horizon, only the world was upside down. The sky on the bottom of her vision the world up above. She swore her insides must have been a puddle in her feet.

She flipped around, and around, the weightless feeling of freefall whiplashing into being pushed through the back far into the sky. A tightness in her throat as her stomach went queasy. Oh gods, a princess was not supposed to vomit let alone in public.

Luckily, she could feel the sheer force, its speed and torque, relenting. Coming to a halt. Only, they were stuck at the very top still upside down.

There was an exhilarating feeling surging in her chest. Even though she'd flown hundreds of times in her life, this was, it was different. The only thing that came close was...falling down to Earth.

"Hold on." The princess said, matter of factly. There was a look of determination on her face, pale as it may havd been. Indignantly grunting as she shut her eyes and rocked the cage just as Bloom had. The Earth girl becoming more and more enthusiastic watching Stella get into it.

They flipped around again, Bloom pushing the messy hair out of her face as she smiled at Stella impressed. "See! So much better than the ferris wheel!"

The attendant cycled through the cars until Bloom and Stella stumbled out, their equilibrium still off kilter. Stella grabbing hold of a metal fence set up around another ride's perimeter to keep her wobbling legs up.

She sensed Bloom reaching a hand out for her, no doubt worried she was breathing so heavily, bent so far over. Only she turned her head, her pristine hair gliding up in a flourish, flashing a giddy grin to a surprised Bloom. "Want to go again?" It was an earnest question. Stella was panting, and sweating, and thought she was going to throw up for a moment. And also she felt alive.

Bloom smiled, putting a hand on Stella's back making sure she didn't heave. "Can I ask you a question Stella?"

"Of course." She said, looking up.

"Do you like Earth?"

"What?"

Bloom led her over to one of the benches. Stella slumped over as her stomach tried to settle itself. "On day one you were freaking out like this place was hell, only now you seem like you've mellowed out. But like, going from being magical royalty to living in a closet after some Earth girl literally stole your magic, doesn't sound like a lot of fun."

"I mean I'm not happy about it. But you saved my life. It would be pretty tacky of me to trash talk your little rock even as you're playing hostess to me." She took another grasp, the colour returning to her face.

"So you don't like it."

"I didn't say that! Tonight is kind of really winning me over actually." Only a half true statement. The carnival was wonderful. And exciting. And it made her excited and alive and guilty. She should be rushing around, busting her ass, spending every second of every day looking for the rest of her sceptre. Sparing not a single moment not working towards freeing Solaria. But she was just so exhausted mentally. It wasn't that she needed her mind taken off her world. Just that she needed to pace herself. Besides, she was in this with Bloom now. She couldn't work the younger girl's fingers to the bone for her sake. She was already doing too much, infinitely more than she owed Stella, which was nothing. Stella owed her in fact. "Solaria is beautiful and familiar and immaculate...and stuffy. I like that nobody knows my name here. I like that I don't have meetings or hearings or lessons or have to practice etiquette and diplomacy."

"When we get you home, and save your world...do you think you'll ever come back and visit?" The question blindsided her. She'd gone from life as she knew it, all of her family and friends and colleagues, to just Bloom. her life firmly divided in two halves. Her life, her real one, and whatever this interlude was. Bloom hadn't even felt comfortable enough to tell her mother about Stella, the real Stella. It was just them, neither willing or able to expend their situation to include anyone else.

"I don't know." And she didn't. She truly didn't. The distance between Earth and Solaria was as much a metaphorical gulf between the two halves of her life as it was a literal one. It felt...icky. the idea of almost sneaking off to see Bloom in private, like she was her little secret. The same way she was Bloom's little secret right now. Her voice trembled, but her smile beamed. Her chipper tone coming through all the same. "Sorry, that's oh so rude of me, I can already feel myself dying of embarassment. But right now I don't know. I don't even know how I got here! What if I can't get back?"

Whatever turmoil she was feeling over it, Bloom either hadn't picked up on or hadn't wanted to mention it. The redhead just choosing to tease her instead. "So I guess I'll have to teach you how to make funnel cake before you go." She smirked.

"Ugh yes a million thank yous!" Stella beamed. Eager to prepare one for her next royal ball.

Before she knew it Bloom was already pulling her to another attraction, the very last of her money in hand. If Solaria's currency was no good on Earth, perhaps Stella would have to pay her back with some jewelry or dinnerware or something else she could exchange for her bizarre paper Earth cash.

In that split second Bloom had already dragged Stella to a counter lined with hundreds of glass bottles, swapping her cash for fifty little red rings about two inches across. Throwing one at the field of glassware and listening to it bounce and clink around before falling deep between them all.

Stella took one tentatively, a ginger little toss that bore the same result. "You know, when you stole my magic I was worried I was stuck with you. But now I'm kinda relieved I am." She threw another ring, watching it clatter down to the floor right away. "It's nice having someone around who sorta doesn't like me."

The words made Bloom hesitate. Her next ring sailing clean through the tent and onto the pavement. "I like you! Even if you're super annoying!"

"See just like that! Nobody's gonna tell their princess she's annoying." Stella's next ring circled around a bottle's neck for w brief moment before jumping off like it was alive. "Or flip the cage around and try to make her throw up."

Bloom's smile was outright capricious as she threw a handful of rings at the same time, the stall worker frowning a bit as she did so. "Oh my god no way, am I your only friend? Is this the first time you've ever just got to hang out and have fun with someone?"

"Oh shush! Of course I have friends! But they're you know royalty. Which comes with certain strings attached." They were down to their last two rings. Stella tossed hers, and watched it circle around and settle on a bottle. Clapping and a few cheers from onlookers filling the air. She didn't acknowledge any of it, instead turning to Bloom. "I changed my mind. I'll definitely come visit."

Bloom took the last ring. It going sailing through the air. One part of it hanging off the same bottle Stella had hit precariously. "Can I, can I go with you sometimes too?"

"What are you going to tell your mom when you do?" Stella said. Watching Bloom's ring slide onto the floor off the target.

"Oh damn, right." Bloom frowned while she gestured to one of the prizes hanging from the stall rafters. A big plush stuffed animal. Handing it to Stella. She'd won it after all. "I've got one more question."

"Spill girl, anything at all."

"Okay. Don't get mad." She twiddled with her thumbs. "If I hadn't ended up with your magic, and you could still do all of this yourself, would we be friends?"

"I can't believe I have to say I don't know a second time but I don't. Like on one hand, you slapped the lights out of me, and on the other, you let me stay in your house, free of charge. Oh! Speaking of, I'm definitely tallying up all the rent backpayments I owe you."

"I keep telling you, your money's no good here." The two sat down, watching the sun set. The world becoming black for the slightest second as it slipped behind the tree line, only for a world of neon lights and colourful flashes, the midway, to take center stage. "But back to my question."

Stella put her hand on Bloom's thigh. Looking her in the eye. "Let's not ruin a nice night Bloom."

><><><><><

why did she stray so far from home?

This was stupid. She was stupid. She'd never made a mistake so stupid in her life.

Her big sister had told her, over and over, not to stray too far from the village. Not while she was still young. Not before she had a pair of her own wings.

She'd gone foraging for seeds and mushrooms. Tired of her usual repetoire she'd ventured far far beyond her usual stomping ground in search of exotic new specimens. Well beyond the treetop town of her village. Further than the ladybugs deigned to take its inhabitants. So far she couldn't see the willow or its waters. Through forests and meadows, across gorges and lilypads. Into the briars that strangled the land and twisted like a labyrinth in on themselves. She'd never gotten the oppportunity to venture this far. Never seen what treasures the soil held this far away. She reached a hand out to touch the broad side of one of the thorns. As big as her forearm. Sinister serrations running along its edge. A rose red tinge to the blade, and yet no roses themselves to be found.

The briars themselves weren't the problem. Navigating dangerous terrain came with the territory when you were a forager. An explorer. No what had her so perplexed was that she quite literally could not see anything but endless thorns. The bramble wasn't just a maze unto itself, but one content to rearrange itself at the drop of a hat, the vines, like all of Linphea's plants, startlingly alive. Paths forward tightened shut. Shafts of light above shriveled into dark mats of tendrils. Her sense of direction, her sense of progress, both effortlessly thwarted.

People were already so small compared to the world's plants. A unique quirk of her home- according to her sister at least. But these wilds, they made her feel truly insignificant.

Beneath a spiked root she knelt, hoping to see light on the other side. What she saw instead made a pit form in her stomach. Footprints. Her footprints. Facing her. Tears welled up in her eyes as her heartrate quickened, clutching her chest and dropping her seeds as her hand trembled.

That's when she heard it. A sound she'd never heard with her own ears in the flesh, but her sister had diligently warned her to run from. Crackles and bangs atop a dull roar. Like the whole world was snarling at her.

This was fire.

She smelled it before she saw it. An awful acrid smell. Strangling her throat and sinuses. Dark, suffocating, hearty and stinging all at once. She never knew something could smell so bad. The putrid scent wafted in from her left, her brain screaming to turn and run in the opposite direction. Only the opposite direction was nothing but thorns. Where was she supposed to go?

A flickering light crept into view. Growing brighter, moving towards her. This must be fire. Like light, and yet there was a darkness as well. The deep orange and red hues it cast the world in, it was like the flames only burned bright because they sucked the light out of everything around them. The embers reflected in her eyes.

She yelped. A dry piece of twisted wood falling right in front of her. Black with ashy white bark, its ends glowing bright orange. The heat lashing off of it making her wince, feeling the intense discomfort of heat on her skin. Like spending too much time in the sun, only hundreds of times worse.

She whimpered. She sobbed. Her throat ached as smoke meandered around her head. How could she have done this? Her sister, her parents, they'd never see her again.

He crashed in through the briar from above. Splintering burning fragments of wood everywhere. Cinders and embers flaring up around him in a flurry of fantastical heat.

She hadn't seen anything like him on Linphea. Which is to say she hadn't seen anything like him at all. Her older sister the only one in her family who'd ever been to another realm. He was tall, but not that tall she reckoned. Dirty blonde hair messily swept back. A dusty tan coat with dark sleeves and trail, edges singed and burned. Ragged and torn. Hanging off his shoulders rather than actually worn.

"You okay kid?" He turned to her. Why wasn't he scared at all? It was like he hadn't even realized there was a fire all around them burning the world down. Serene. Jovial almost. A chin touched with a shock of blonde stubble. A smile that made her feel safe amid the inferno.

"No I'm, No I'm- I want to- I'm not okay." Tears stained the ground beneath her. Trying to keep herself together. Barely able to hold in a scream as even the ground was burning hot.

There was a hiss, a squealing whistle, a jet of steam. A damp damp coolness low to the ground. She looked up, the entire briar deep white and grey, slick and ashy. Steam wafting off the pasty grey remnants of the bramble. Water up to her ankles, splinters and clumps of wet ash floating around her. Mist hanging low in the air.

Splash. Splash. Splash. Every one of his steps lightly pushing water around. His shoes ruined, totally soaked. A hand extended down to her, helping her up off the ground.

"Are you okay?" His voice trailed off, waiting for her name.

"Miele." Was all she could barely choke out.

"Let's get you home Miele. I'm sure somebody is worried about you."

"Who are you?"

He let out a soft chuckle, kneeling down so the girl could ride on his back. Looping his hands below her legs, feeling her rest her chen on his shoulder.

"I'm a fire fighter."

Chapter Text

"You seriously couldn't handle a few carnival rides?"

Early monday morning. Still dark outside. Moonlight pouring into Bloom's bedroom from her windows. What should have been a routine morning getting ready for school had decided to be anything but. The redhead waking up to the pathetic bellyaching of a tiny magic fairy princess clutching her stomach in her closet. Watching as Stella tossed and turned, trying to lie comfortably even as her stomach ached and head pounded.

The princess clearly couldn't handle her sweets, or a simple roller coaster ride. There she was, curled up on a pin cushion in her 'apartment', trying to soothe her nausea. Bloom almost felt the slightest bit bad for her. Though she had to resist prodding her with a finger.

"You can't be serious princess. One little funnel cake and you have to take a sick day?" The situation had Bloom torn. On one hand, Stella did seem genuinely sick. She needed to sleep this off. On the other hand, that meant leaving her alone, in her house, with just her mother home. And the absolute last thing she needed was even more people knowing that magic was real. She could already see her mom snooping around her room, finding Stella in her closet, and promptly swatting the princess like a bug.

A groan, something that sounded like words but weren't quite there escaped Stella's mouth. There was the sound of retching, a wet cough, but nothing came of it. The princess thankfully able to hold her dessert down. Bloom sighed, draping an old T-shirt over her closet shelves. Stella's room cast in soft red light shining through Bloom's tee, the noise of the outside world lightly muffled. Bloom's voice, quiet through the fabric, touched Stella's ears as the world faded to black. "Fine, stay home. But please please please do not make any noise. If my mom finds out you're living here it's gonna be like the French friggin revolution princess." There was a soft clap, and Stella found herself in perfect pitch black darkness. The closet door closed.

Bloom's morning, however, just proceeded as normal. Slipping downstairs, having a simple breakfast of toast. Dipping out the front door just as the sun was coming up. Happy to have left before she saw her mother. Watching as the streetlights finally flickered off as she was well on her way to school.

What she had hoped was going to be a normal day had decided to throw her yet another curveball. First period, second period, at her locker, in her homeroom, in the bathroom and portables, she was mortified to see the same thing everywhere she went.

Whether freshmen or seniors, boy or girl, nerds or jocks or theater kids, she saw the same thing in everyone's hands. A poorly xeroxed zine, clearly done on the library photocopier. Grainy, but full colour. She must have seen a hundred of them today at least.

Written right on the front, in block letters clearly drawn with photocopied coloured pencil, were the words 'Gardenia High Paranormal Watch'. And right beneath it on the front page, a big fat picture of her. Wings ablaze. Face cloaked in fire fighting the water monster in the woods from last week.

Shit.

><><><><><

Pop.

Her gum had lost its flavour ages ago, but she kept chewing it. Elbows up on the cafeteria table, taking an extended lunch since she was in absolutely no mood to go to gym. Faculty most definitely wouldn't let her run track in her fishnets and skirt. Wearing her PE clothes always made her cringe.

She blew another bubble, bigger this time, as she looked at her manicure. Surprised as it popped after a slam behind her shook the lights out of her.

"What the hell is this?"

It was that fiery redhead from club day. What was her name? Bloom. Bloom the weird tomboy who fell out of a bathroom stall macking on her girlfriend, she'd cataloged her in her mind as. And yet here she was, raggedy pamphlet waved in her face under her nose, slapped on the cafeteria table.

She crossed her arms, blowing a bubble with her gum. It popped, and the two sat staring each other in silence for moments before she glanced down. Suddenly her fake club member wanted in on her very real paranormal evidence. "The monthly club newsletter?" Her pride and joy. The 20th edition. The first ever iteration of the paranormal club's newsletter that literally anyone besides her wanted a copy of. It turned out all you needed to drum up interest in the supernatural was outright proof of it.

"You have a monthly club newsletter!?" She seemed pretty angry about how the club conducted itself for a member who hadn't come to a single meeting. Hadn't even been on an excursion. Shrill, angry, but also a tinge of confusion in her eyes. Selina just kept chewing her gum, drumming her leather gloved fingers on the table. Doubling down on her poker face. If she wanted credit now, she wasn't going to get it.

She traced a finger overtop the pamphlet, looking around at some of the other kids carrying additional copies of the news. "Uuuuh yeah? What do you care, it's not like you know about magic or fantasy or the supernatural. You and that blonde bimbo are just in the club so I don't get my funding cut."

She took a seat across from her, but she hadn't become any less intense. Unfurling the paper and looking at Selina like she was going to absolutely throttle her. "Yeah okay besides the point. What the hell is all of this? What is this thing? Where did you get this?"

Selina caught herself, realizing she was absolutely swooning. Head resting on her hands elbows on the table. Tracing the picture of the creature with a fingertip as if she were fondling the real thing in front of her. "I saw it in the woods! Some sort of angel. Isn't she mesmerizing?"

"She?" Her lips parsed. Why was Bloom so surprised by that?

"Duh it's got boobs."

The redhead ripped the pamphlet out of her hands, nearly tearing it in half. "Do you think it's a good idea to be circulating all of this?"

"I run the paranormal club. This is a real, actual paranormal creature. This is what I live for!" Selina shot back, arms crossed.

"What were you doing in the woods anyway?"

This was beginning to get on her nerves. She'd let the redhead and her weird amazon girlfriend join her club purely to keep her funding, and now weeks later she was being bossed around like this nobody was in charge and she was the new recruit! "What do you care, you don't like this stuff."

"Oh I don't?"

That was when Bloom reached for her bag, dumping it upside down out on the cafeteria table. A treasure trove of supernatural research resources piled up for Selina to gawk at. Books and sketchpads and journals full of superstitous ramblings. Selina sifted through them, reaching for a sketch pad full of Bloom's drawings. Shockingly good from her perspective, though obviously drawn from her imagination. Not real evidence like Selina's photos. Or her magic runes for that matter.

"You drew these? They're good. Fairies are super not real unlike angels, but they're good drawings."

Just as soon as she'd started leafing through the pages Bloom had already snatched it back away again, clearly possessive of her work. "I've always liked fantasy stuff. I just didn't think it was, y'know, real."

The one day she didn't consult her tarot cards had to be the one day fate decided to make things interesting. The redhead might have some paranormal investigator chops after all.

"Okay, keep this on the down low. Look at these." She looked around making sure no eyes were on her and reached into her bag. Her hands cupped, proudly displaying her own treasure trove of supernatural wonders. The special stones she'd found in the woods. "Look at the way they glow. And they point at each other. Girl magic is real. These things are friggin weird."

Bloom cringed, putting on a shoddy fake smile. Playing as coy as she poasibly could. "Haha, ha! Oh I don't know if that's true! Couldn't these just be pretty rocks?"

That familiar sensation. It was like being in the woods again. Even without consulting her tarot cards or ouija board she could feel a distinct, occult sensation in the air. Ears burning as her mind flashed back over and over to the woods. The rocks gently spinning in her hands, their tips creeping until they were pointed at Bloom. "That's weird, they're pointing at y..."

"Nope! That's alright! I'm sure it's a coincidence!" Bloom said, pushing them back towards Selina.

Bloom's face scrunched up watching Selina lose focus. No longer looking at her but through her. Bloom turned around, training her eyes on what Selina was looking at. Through the Cafeteria windows, a taller gentleman. Both young and old, plain and unique, wise and yet bewildered. Someone Bloom had never seen at school before.

He stopped, peering into the cafeteria. Making eye contact with Selina and frowning. The goth girl panicked, shoving all of the pieces of Stella's sceptre back in her bag before he could see them. Breathing a sigh of relief as he simply kept watching.

Bloom was totally befuddled looking at Selina who seemed like she saw a ghost (well, Bloom mused, Selina would frankly be much happier if she had seen one.) "Who was that?"

Selina rolled her eyes. "That's the new guidance counsellour. Mister uhhh, Valentine I think. No idea what happened to our old one, but he's who we've got now. I already got chewed out by him for putting the newsletter out." Selina breathed a sigh of frustration. "He wouldn't stop asking about where I took the pictures. He's friggin' weird."

"Sounds like hell. Anyway I've got classes. Put your rocks away Prez." Bloom put her backpack on the table to collect her books, and that's when Selina saw them. A dampened shine through mesh fabric of another compartment in Bloom's bag. Angular imprints bulging out against the side of the section. That's why they were pointing at her. Sneaky little junior club member.

But before she could say anything, Bloom had already left. Damn it.

><><><><><

The office door squealed open, and he collapsed into his chair. A far cry from Luna's throne. But one usurped from its rightful ruler all the same. No matter how diminished his magic was, even the slightest arcane ability was enough to completely dominate these feeble people who had literally none. He had known this world' people, Earth, had lost its magic centuries ago. Though he assumed the planet itself would still have some even if its inhabitants didn't. The way it suppressed and quelled him, it made him seethe with anguish.

He sat at his desk. Silent fury burning beneath his expressionless face. Looking dead ahead, through the fogged glass of his office window dividing himself from the rest of the building. Through this prison of concrete and wood. This coffin of ignorance and social changes. Bound up in chains of expectations and bureacracy and prying eyes.

He took a deep breath, his eyes shifting from a pale blue to a piercing red. The world reflected in his vision a deep grey, subdued and insignificant. He looked down, ethereal black smoke and twinkling orange lights like fireflies dancing in the air. Invisible to everyone but himself. He was made of magic, and this world, there was almost none of it here. It was like it didn't exist. No matter where he went, Solaria, Magix, the Omega dimension, even his memories of Domino. His vision burned with the ambient magic of whatever realm he walked through. The chilling blue crystals of Omega. The errant lander ribbons of Magix. The burning cinders of Domino. His own world was always filled with spectacle, no matter which world he walked through. And yet here, there was nothing. Nothing but deep pathetic greys, like looking at a world of tv static.

But there were strands of real magic. Crumbs. Dust motes that lingered in the air, catching stray rays of light. They'd led him here. And he would find hunt down these tiniest most pathetic shreds of magic on this magicless world, so long as they would lead him to the star child. To Stella. To Daphne his bride. He would find her, and he would find whatever final pathetic font of magic this world still had leading him astray. And take it for himself.

He looked down at the paper confiscated from some students. Starting with this burning fuchsia fairy. This unknown helper protecting the star child. She was here. He could feel it. See it.

><><><><><

She shouldn't snoop.

She knew that, but Vanessa still did. She was worried about Bloom. Happy she'd made at least a single friend, this Stella girl, but still she was so distressed with how blase and secretive she'd been. She did her best to tell herself that all teenagers were like this, that Bloom was just goimg through a rough patch.

A lavender glint caught her eye as she was picking up Bloom's dirty laundry. Over on her desk. That godawful book. She must have been looking through it again. Why did her daughter have to be so obsessed with these sorts of things?

There was a hum in the air. A dull whine that wormed its way into her ear. Stifled, fuzzy, like it was being suppressed. Not Bloom's alarm clock or lamp or computer. A droning whir that only felt louder and louder as Vanessa stood still, being as quiet as possible. Her closet.

Her hand was on the doorknob, and she felt herself shudder. Like a bass line vibrations pushed through her palm and up her arm. Barely noticeable, but distinctly there. Sweat bead on her brow as she tried to work up the nerve to open the door.

She threw it open. A red top of Bloom's draped over the shelves. Lit up like a projector screen. A silhouette of a girl moving just beyond it. Frantic and jittery. Reaching out, Vanessa tore the top straight off the shelves.

"Ahh!"

A tiny blonde girl. Kneeling in front of some sort of device, as a brilliant pink projection of dots and lines danced across the ceiling. She screeched, shutting it off immediately. Prompting Vanessa to yelp and double back in kind.

"Oh my goodness!! Holy crap." She tried to catch her breath, in disbelief this was all real. She leaned in closer, eyes narrowed. Her hollowed out expression reigniting into shock. "Who are y- You're Bloom's friend! Stella!"

"...Surprise!..." the fairy of the sun and moon eeked out as her magic map of Gardenia whirred behind her, projected on the ceiling.

"What is...what are you...what in the hell is happening?"

Stella walked over and closed her phone with a soft clap. Standing with her hands behind her back, gently kicking the floor. "Okay, this is so not the way I wanted this to go down, but at least we finally get to rip this bandage off!"

"You're- you're a tiny little- why are you-"

"Before we start, could we maybe take this downstairs? It's kinda awkward having someone peer into my room like this. Sorta private you know?" Stella was standing on the edge of the closet shelf, looking up at Vanessa's bewildered face. The young woman's eyes bearing down her, staring, trying in vain to scrutinize exactly what she was seeing in front of her. Stella let out a sigh, taking a step back. A sort of quiet optimistic exasperation on her face. Less concerned with what Vanessa would think and moreso concerned with what Bloom herself would say. "Maybe you could put me on the kitchen table or the counter."

Vanessa felt herself growing more and more confused. Her heartbeat quickening. Barely able to keep her hands from trembling. Her throat tightening and head thrumming. A powerful nauseating pressure behind her eyes. Her refusal to believe what she was seeing and her desperate need to know what the hell was happening pulling her psyche apart in different directions. "What...are you? What in the hell is going on?"

Stella blew her bangs out of her eyes as she rolled them, arms crossed taking another step back. The whole disbelief thing was getting a little irritating. First Bloom and now her mother. Why couldn't Earth people just accept things the first time they saw them? "Can you take me downstairs first? I'm sorta stuck up here."

Looking up at Bloom's mother, Stella could tell today was going to be a problem. The princess saw a hand bearing down on her, gently inching closer and closer, fingers twitching. Her voice wavered just as her hand stopped short of Stella, and the princess reared up, leaning back away from it. "Am I...Am I allowed to touch you? Can I just..." Vanessa whispered, a pensive look on her face.

Stella shut her eyes, hands on her hips. Shaking her head like she couldn't believe what she was experiencing. As if it was she and not Vanessa who ought be befuddled by the situation. "Mmmm It's a little crass to grab a miniaturized person. I'd much prefer you put your hand out like this please!" She held her hand out palm up, walking around like a waitress. As if someone of her stature had any experience at all doing something like that.

"Okay, okay, just like this." Vanessa's hand acquiessed, flipping over to reveal her palm, fingers tight together. Then the other. Two hands cupped together.

Stella walked up to the woman's hands, hovering just above the floor of her room, stepping onto them. Like boarding a boat or climbing a stair. The moment she had both feet on the 'ground' she felt herself rising into the sky rapidly. Dropping to her knees. Trying not to be sick as her stomach lurched with a feeling of weightlessness. She peered over the edge of Vanessa's hands. Watching how quickly she was zooming away from the floor. The equivalent of over a hundred feet up easily. "Oh this is high up! Are you okay? Your hands are totally shaking!"

Vanessa's answer was curt, clearly equally as annoyed as she was anxious. "I'm a little shocked, thank you!"

Vanessa hurried down the stairs to the ground floor, Stella holding onto her for dear life. Sweating bullets trying to keep herself calm. Oh she wished she could still fly. She breathed a sigh of relief realizing they were at the bottom of the stairs, Vanessa ducking into the kitchen.

"Just put me down right here please!" Stella dusted off her lap, taking deep breaths. Her legs felt like jelly, needing to regain her composure before she could get to her feet. Happy to be on solid ground, even if it was a kitchen counter. "Thank you very much for all of that. Much appreciated! Now, let's get down to-"

clink

She could hardly believe what she was seeing. What she was hearing. Or not hearing. Bloom's mother had put a glass overtop of her. The tiniest little prison cell she'd ever seen, barely able to hear the outside world as her own voice reverberated back at her. Staring through her own reflection up at Vanessa. Her face lightly warped by the curved glass. The princess was absolutely fuming, rapping her knuckles against the side of the glass with a klink. "Excuse me? This is so so so tres rude! Do you have any idea how messed up and ridiculous this is? Major faux pas! Remind me to never ever introduce you to pixies or nymphs. I see where Bloom gets her manners."

She fell backwards on her bottom as Vanessa leaned in, her scowling face filling the glass entirely. "Stop it! I'm going to ask the questions, and you're going to answer them!" There was a pause, the older woman trying to regain her composure. She opened her mouth to speak, only to grit her teeth in frustration. Pacing back and forth for a moment before finally exploding. "First of all, who are you!"

Stella sat mouth agape, eyes rolled back, hands thrown up in outrage. "Who am I? You've already met me! I'm Stella! Your daughter Bloom's new friend?"

Vanessa tapped on the glass. Stella forced to grit her teeth in response as she cringed. "You already know that's not what I mean! You're not a normal person, who are you? Why are you so small!?"

"Uuuuh I'm small because I asked your daughter to make me small. As for-" That was clearly the wrong answer.

"Bloom did this? How?" Panic flashed across Vanessa's face. For just a split second she considered the absurd, the unthinkable. Maybe Stella was normal. Maybe it was Bloom who wasn't.

"If you take this glass off me I'm more than happy to start from the beginning. But I kinda don't want to talk to someone who goes around treating houseguests like prisoners!" She was biting her lip as she reared up. Eyes drifting between the ground and Stella, back and forth. Eventually caving and taking the glass off of Stella. The princess standing up and tugging at her clothes, making sure she was prim and proper. "Thank you! Now was that so hard?"

"Right. The beginning. Let's hear it."

Stella was tight lipped, an insincere smile pressed onto her face as she eyed Vanessa's big brown eyes up and down. "The beginning, the beginning. Where do I begin? Okay so, I'm the fairy princess of Solaria." There was absolutely no response from Vanessa, which frankly Stella had anticipated. "Yep, you don't believe that just like Bloom didn't, that tracks."

"Who would?" Vanessa cocked her head sideways, but her gaze remained as serious as ever.

"Where I'm from? Everyone. I'm sorta famous you know." Her hopes that her humour might cut through the tension sadly fell flat. Unable to break Vanessa's harsh glare. "Still not buying it, okay! So, I came to Earth by accident, running away from a monster. By pure coincidence I met your daughter, and she proceeded to hold me down against the pavement and slap the hell out of me demanding answers and to know 'what' I was."

Vanessa seemed both taken aback and yet also strangely proud, perking up and becoming the least bit approving the moment Stella mentioned Bloom had smacked some sense into her. Weren't mothers supposed to be caring and nurturing? And yet here this lady was who appeared to be quite pleased that Bloom had been roughhousing with a princess. "I- the apple doesn't fall far from the tree I suppose. She's got good instincts."

"And a mean grip on her! So I'm here, on this weird little uncharted planet, and I get attacked by evil monsters! So I'm all like 'oh no it's hopeless I'm done for!' And Bloom is all like 'aaahhh take this!' And takes a crack at it so I go 'what're you doing you're not magic!' And then she grabs me, and takes all my magic! Now she's the magic fairy and I'm stuck he- hey! Hey! Put me down!"

The light fell from Vanessa's eyes. Both her hands planted firmly on the countertop, leering overtop Stella before she snatched her up in her grip. Holding the princess tight up to her face. "Something attacked my daughter? And you think that's something to joke about!?"

"Stop! Stop shaking or I'm going to spew all over you!" She was still held in Vanessa's grip, but the woman had relaxed her fingers. No longer squeezing Stella, the princess' organs relieved the pressure on them had relented. "Bloom is A-okay! She's all good! Totally unharmed!"

"Why weren't you small the other day I saw you?"

"Well like, I'm supposed to be normal sized! Bloom makes me little so I can live in the closet!...so that like, you don't know that I'm here..." Stella trailed off, realizing just how bad her story sounded.

Vanessa was clutching the side of the countertop, hair hanging down stewing as she digested everything that had happened. "I can't believe this. My daughter finally makes a friend, and she's the fairy princess of the sun and moon."

Stella's ears perked up. Now it was her turn to be confused. A suspicious look crossing her face as she gave Vanessa some major side eye. "I didn't say I'm the princess of the sun and moon." She and Vanessa glanced at each other. The two of them too stunned to speak, a deep suspicious feeling brewing in Stella's chest.

Vanessa threw her head back. Staring at the ceiling. "...oh damnit."

Stella stood at attention, hands on her hips, bent forward at the waist glaring daggers at Bloom's mother. Who the hell was this woman? Had she misspoke? Had she mentioned the sun and moon and simply forgot? Had Bloom made an offhand comment about it talking about her fantasy drawings? Whatever it was, Stella wanted to get to the bottom of this. "Now I want some answers please! It sounds like you know something!"

Before Stella knew what was happening, Vanessa had grabbed her again, taking her upstairs to Bloom's room again. A finger overtop her face, muffling her mouth as she pushed and scratched at Vanessa's fingers. By the time Bloom's mother's grip relented and Stella could get her bearings, she realized she was in the closet again. Vanessa positively boiling with anger, whispering through grit teeth, trying to keep herself from bursting. Pushing Stella back onto her butt with her index finger. "You and I are going to talk later, and until we do, neither of us are going to tell Bloom about this."

The closet door slammed shut, and Stella found herself in darkness once again. But she could hear Vanessa still. A faux-polite tone to her voice. Was she on the phone?

 

"Hi honey! I know you're very busy with work, so just call me back whenever you get a chance. I'm wondering if you know anything at all about a girl claiming to be the princess of Solaria living in our daughter's closet?"

~~~

The end of the day. Thank god. Bloom had spent the entire day agonizing over what the rest of the student body thought of her debut in print. With any luck, this would all blow over as soon as possible. Her stomach churned thinking of the worst case scenario, pictures of her with her face exposed doing magic, putting a name to the 'angel'.

Just as she rested her hand on the door's push bar, she felt herself get yanked backwards. A tight grip on her arm.

"I saw them." Unbelievable. It was the end of the day, and Bloom had wanted to get home as soon as possible to see Stella. Make sure she was fine and hadn't caused any problems. And instead, here was Selina, holding her by the upper arm from behind, huffing and puffing, not letting her leave. Caught in the vestibule between the hallway and outdoors. The two of them sequestered in the elevator sized space.

"Excuse me?" Was all Bloom could offer the weird goth girl.

Selina didn't budge. Her grip tightening. Voice quiet but urgent. "I saw the rocks you've got. I figured you must've had some, because mine just won't stop pointing to you. But I saw them! You have even more than I do! And they glow so much brighter than mine are."

"Selina, I don't know what in the world you're-"

She forced herself between Bloom and the door. "You're a bad liar! What are these things?"

"What makes you think I know? I just picked them up because I think they're cool!" Not a lie, technically. Bloom hadn't known what they were when she'd picked up her first one, and she most definitely did because it looked cool.

"Well, deputy junior paranormal investigator, that makes us partners. You and I are going to figure out exactly what these things are." There was a fire in Selina's voice that made Bloom nervous. "And then we're going to find that angel and figure out what her deal is too."

"Wh-what makes you think the two are even related?" The redhead said, desperate to defuse Selina's eagerness.

"When I was in the woods, I was looking for these things, and that water monster in the photo? It attacked me when I picked them up. And then the weird fire angel came down immediately after. I bet she's looking for them too. These things have special ancient power I'm sure of it."

"Uh, so you know that this fire angel and apparently also water monsters are after these things, and you want to get as many as you can anyway. Aren't you painting a giant target on your back?" An ironic statement coming from Bloom. Said knowing full well that Selina had already made herself Bloom and Stella's target. Was she pre-emptively justifying jumping this girl for her sceptre pieces to her face? Priming her to come running to Bloom the next day going oh Bloom you were right! That beautiful powerful awe inspiring angel girl just took all my cool stones why didn't I listen?

Selina flashed Bloom a snickering grin. Clutching her stones to her chest. Rocking on her feet. "Oh you don't get it, that's the dream! To come face to face with her and maybe even speak to her!" Well, that made things at least a little easier Bloom thought. Maybe she could just ask Selina politely for the pieces. No need to smack her around or scare the hell out of her.

"You think she's going to just strike up a conversation with you?" The girl was just gazing off into space, a stupid smile spread across her face as she imagined her fated meeting with the supernatural. Maybe Bloom should smack her around a bit anyway, even if asking politely worked.

A thought she would have to shelve as she went to push the door to outside open, only for it not to budge. She looked up, only to see black tar, corporeal darkness dripping down the windows. The vestibule now cut off from the rest of the world.

The two were trapped.