Chapter 1
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Bloom. Bloom!
I groan, glancing around.
I’m standing in some kind of black void.
Bloom. Bloom!
I frown, scanning the darkness. I know that voice.
“Daphne? Daphne, is that you?” I call out, noticing my voice echoing like Daphne’s did.
Suddenly, the darkness becomes a myriad of images moving too fast for me to see, the sudden change from black nothingness to the bright colours making everything blurry.
Bloom, you must stop her! The future is in great danger!
“What? Stop who? What future? Where’re the rest of the Winx? What happened to the real Bloom?”
You must stop her, Bloom! If you don’t the future that follows will be doomed!
Soon as Daphne finishes speaking, a cruel sounding laugh echoes around me as all the images return to darkness and a blue flame with glowing eyes appears in front of me, growing larger and brighter until I can’t see anything else.
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“Daphne!” I cry out, sitting up.
I blink, feeling very confused.
It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust, before I realize I’m in crystalline room… that’s pretty sparse.
Aside from the bed I’m laying in and a small bedside table, there’s nothing else in the room.
“Oh my gosh! You’re awake!”
I glance down to my right to see there is, in fact, something else in this room.
Or, rather, someone else.
The young orange dragon is looking at me with awe, before she blinks and blanches. “Sorry. I’m supposed to tell the pony princess as soon as you’re awake. Wait right there, okay?”
With that, she moves over to a door I hadn’t noticed on the wall a little to the left behind her and rushes out through it.
I just blink… not entirely sure what just happened.
Glancing down at myself, I feel very uncomfortable as I realize I’m not wearing the clothes I was when I found myself in the Dragon Lands. I’m wearing a large white, puffy nightdress that’s too big for me.
Someone undressed me, while I was unconscious?
That is so many levels of wrong, especially now I’m not even in my own body anymore.
In my original body, well, it would still be bad if someone undressed me while I was unconscious, but in this body, Bloom’s body?
There are too many reason for why this is wrong.
After a few moments, I calm down, another thought occurring to me.
When… did I become unconscious in the first place?
Last thing I remember I was swinging the Bloodstone Sceptre at the shadow ponies who were about to kill Dragon Lord Ember and Torch and then…
My eyes widen. Ember! Torch! If I passed out, what happened to them? What happened to all the other dragons?! What happened to Smoulder— ?
I blink.
Hold on. Wasn’t that Smoulder just now? If I passed out, how is she okay? How am I okay?
My musings are cut short by the door to the room quickly opening, several beings rushing in.
“Miss, thank goodness you’re awake,” the purple pony known as Twilight Sparkle says, sounding both relieved and anxious. “We were so worried when we found you after answering Former Dragon Lord Ember’s summons for aid against those shadow ponies. You fought them? Can you give us an idea what they really were? How’d you get to Equestria without going through the portal? How do you know fire magic?”
“Twilight, stop!” Spike says loudly, pulling on her right wing. “She literally just woke up. Give her a moment to process before asking her a bijillion questions she might not even have the answers to.”
“Twilight is being a bit hasty, but she does have reason to, darling,” Rarity says, looking at me. “You are a human, yes? From the other world?”
It takes a moment, before a shake my head and look around at all of them. “What’s going on? How come I’m not in the Dragon Lands anymore? Are the dragons safe? What happened with those shadow ponies? Are Ember and Torch safe? And… wait. Did you say Former Dragon Lord Ember?”
THREE DAYS AGO
“Move it, will you, ponies?!” Garble shouted angrily, glancing behind him.
“We’re going as fast as we can, Garble!” Spike yelled from Twilight’s back as she, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Rainbow Dash flew behind him.
“Then go faster!” he shot back with a snarl. “If those ponies take my sister, I swear, there will be price to pay!”
Garble had arrived several hours ago in Ponyville, claiming Dragon Lord Ember had sent him to get help from Twilight and Spike, much to his disagreement.
According to Garble, shortly after five that morning, the Dragon Lands had been invaded by ponies seemingly made of shadow, that started attacking the dragons and capturing all the younglings.
The fact they were ponies made of shadows was alarming to the Alicorns, but it was the fact all of the shadow ponies were Alicorns too that puzzled and terrified them more.
How could there be so many Alicorns just suddenly in existence and none of them know about it? Why were they all seemingly made of shadow? And why were they attacking the dragons and taking their young?
The situation did not sit well with Twilight at all, hence why she’d immediately got in contact with the princesses and had them join her, Rainbow Dash volunteering to come along too because she could keep up.
However, upon arriving in the Dragon Lands, they were all met with a sight they had not expected.
Not only were there no supposed shadow pony Alicorns around, but all the dragons seemed fine.
It was a young dragon that turned out to be Garble’s little sister spotting them and hurrying over that clued them in on what had happened.
A strange creature Twilight immediately figured out to be a human had shown up suddenly and, somehow, a dragon made entirely of fire had come from out of her and obliterated all the shadow ponies in one strike.
When they were taken to where Dragon Lord Ember was, by the human’s side in a cave, they’d noticed something odd. The Bloodstone Sceptre was lying by the human, Twilight’s realized she was a girl’s side.
After some discussion, Former Dragon Lord Torch, who’d been waiting outside the cave, being too big to fit inside, had recommended Garble and his sister go with the princesses and that the Dragon Princess should go too, until they knew exactly what was going on.
NOW
I cock an eyebrow. “Dragon Princess?”
It’s only now, after Twilight finished explaining the events I was not aware of, that I see the Bloodstone Sceptre laying on the floor, previously out of my line of sight.
Smoulder reaches down, picking up the sceptre and handing it to me. “It’s yours now, Your Highness.”
My eyebrow does not move. “Mine? I’m not the Dragon Lord. That belongs to the Dragon Lord, not a random fairy who’s for some reason in the wrong world.”
“Actually, you kinda are,” Spike pipes up. “The Dragon Lord, I mean.”
“See, normally, the Bloodstone Sceptre chooses who is Dragon Lord by if they’re worthy and earned the right,” Twilight explains. “However, ever since you took it and used it to defeat those shadow ponies, the sceptre hasn’t chosen any dragon else as Dragon Lord.”
I blink. “What?”
Smoulder folds her arms, nodding. “At first, a bunch of dragons who hadn’t agreed with Ember being Dragon Lord tried to take it for themselves, but it wouldn’t accept any other them, even though they had managed to take the sceptre before she could get it back from you.”
“And, according to the reports, when Ember took it back, she and Torch could tell it no longer answered to either,” Spike continues.
“Torch then said something about how, as the Dragon Princess, the sceptre was rightfully yours and would never choose another dragon,” Twilight finishes.
Hesitantly, I take the sceptre from Smoulder, at once feeling a rush of energy flowing through me.
I frown, looking down at the sceptre so small it’s more like a giant baby rattle in my hands.
“I don’t… understand. I might be the Fairy of the Dragon Fire, but why does that make me a Dragon Princess?”
I mean, yes, Bloom is the princess and heir to the dead (though not really, since there are still living creatures there) planet, Sparx, but… I’m just in her body. I’m not Bloom herself.
At once my vision flashes with a blue flame and I remember that dream I just had.
I shake my head, frantically. “We don’t have much time! I have to find out why I’m in Bloom’s body, why I’m here and what’s threatening the future!”
This is met with blanks stares.
I sigh, before quickly giving a very short summary of the history of Winx Club and Bloom herself, though I only go as far as what 4kidz dubbed of the series. Going into everything after that would just make matters more confusing right now.
By the time I’m finished, everypony and dragon seem more confused than anything else.
“Interesting,” Twilight scratches her chin. “So, this Daphne is Bloom’s sister, yet she spoke to you.”
“Well, I think she’s Bloom’s sister. It’s… kind of hard to explain, honestly,” I say, not liking how my uncertainty is clear in my voice.
Truth be told, it’s been so long since I was able to watch beyond the first three volumes of the first season of Winx Club that 4kidz dubbed, I can’t remember if it’s ever established in the 4kidz dub that Daphne is Bloom’s sister or if they just ignored that detail altogether throughout the three seasons.
Though, Twilight does have a point in that question. Whether or not 4kidz Daphne is Bloom’s older sister or not, the fact she was clearly trying to reach out to me in that dream is strange.
Does she not realize I’m not the real Bloom?
It’s so confusing and, unless the Winx can be contacted, I’m not really sure what we can learn.
With Daphne’s warning however, I’m certain whatever’s coming isn’t good.
For all I know, what Daphne warned me about could be what put me in Bloom’s body and brought me here, trying to get rid of Bloom due to her being an obstacle to its plans.