Bloom tossed and turned in her bed as she dreamed.

There was fire.

Fire was everywhere.

Smoke was surrounding her, the walls were crumbling, she could hear the screams and cries of people around her...

"What? What's happening?!" she asked, obviously alarmed.

"Bloom! I need to get her away from all of this before they find her!" she heard another female's voice as clearly as if the speaker was right next to her, even through all the din.

"What? Who wants to find me?" Bloom looked around wildly.

"Bloom..."

"Bloom..."

"BLOOM!"

Bloom awoke with a start and let out a yelp.

"Bloom, are you okay? You were tossing and turning plus your magic was flaring up in your sleep..."

"Wha... hwa?" Bloom spoke sleepily. "What?"

"You were flailing about a lot and you were kind of releasing small waves of energy as you did..." Flora explained calmly.

"Ah." Bloom nodded, finally understanding. "Did I fuck up anything?"

"No. Just raised the temperature of the room a few degrees is all." Flora shrugged. "Anyway, it's about time we got up. Don't want to be late and miss breakfast again, now do you?"

"Absolutely not!" Bloom exclaimed. "The school food around these parts is actually good!"

They continued talking as Bloom did her best to get ready quickly and not look like a homeless person at the same time.

"That was one of my reasons for choosing this school, albeit a small one. Flexible meal plans and lots of food options, even for my kind of diet!" Flora led the way out of the dorm's door.

"You're a vegetarian, ain't cha?" Bloom remembered. "I can't imagine living like that. I like my meat!"

The two of them ended up having a brief amicable debate about dietary choices as they made their way down to the hall for breakfast.

"Okay, Stella. We're all here. You ready to get started on this little project of ours?" Bloom asked as she and the others sat together in their living room.

"I'm ready. You got the stuff?" Stella asked.

"Oh yeah. I've got the stuff." Bloom reached into a bag she was carrying and pulled out a small chunk of silvery metal and a few loose gems.

"Where did you even get this stuff?" Musa raised an eyebrow. "Is it actually real?"

"As if I'd want to give those three anything valuable." Bloom scoffed.

"But where-?" Musa continued to press before Bloom cut her off.

"It's best not to question that too closely. Just trust that I have my sources and let's leave it at that."

The other fairies glanced at one another.

"How are we going to pull this off?" Musa asked. "How do we know that the Trix will fall for... whatever it is that you and Stella are up to?"

"Ever the doubter, my musical friend." Bloom chuckled. "Shooter down of fun ideas. I thought it was Tecna's job to do that and pick apart every potential flaw of every situation."

Tecna rolled her eyes.

"You see, ladies, this here scheme all boils down to the fact that the Trix are not only vicious and greedy, but also overconfident." Stella said.

"Well, they are known for that sort of thing." Flora shrugged. "Just try to leave me out of the inevitable carnage that's bound to ensue when they find out that you're planning... whatever it is that you're planning."

"No guarantees of that, Flora darling!" Stella exclaimed cheerfully.

"What did I get myself into?" Musa groaned, putting her head into her hands.

"You see, with this metal," Bloom held up the chunk of it in one hand. "and these gems," she held those up in another hand. "we're gonna give 'em what they want. Only, it ain't gonna be exactly what they want, now is it?" she cackled.

"We're giving them a fake Ring of Solaria!" Stella cackled like a demented schoolgirl.

"But there's a catch, right?" Tecna queried, raising an eyebrow. "I don't think you two would be laughing like that if there wasn't..."

"Let's just say that in my short time knowin' about magic and my even shorter time studyin' magic, I discovered a small talent for making things explode..."

"Small talent?" Musa scoffed.

Tecna put two and two together quicker than the others.

"You... you made... you're going to make this fake ring into a bomb?" Tecna raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that illegal even in your home world?"

"So?" Bloom shrugged, indifferent. "It don't stop people there from doin' it though..."

"You could kill them!" Musa exclaimed, horrified. "Or suppose they set it off at their school if they try to drain it there? Would you really risk blowing up Cloud Tower and all the other witches there?"

"I have to agree," said Flora. "The Trix are a nasty piece of work, but this..." she looked quite perturbed.

"Relax, Flora. It's gonna be contained." Bloom assured her.

"Yeah, it's not like we're going to kill them" Stella said. "Just warn them off. Letting them know that they won't get the Ring that easily!"

"It's great!" Bloom cackled. "I learnt to limit the strength of my explosions since the last incident we had in class..."

"I don't think Ortensia's forgiven you for that yet. Or Alice for that matter, either..." Stella remarked.

"Alice is alright. A bit too prim and proper for my liking, though." Bloom said.

"And Ortensia?" Flora asked hesitantly.

"Screw her. I don't like the bitch." Bloom nearly growled.

"Wow. What did she do to you?" Musa asked.

"She just... rubs me the wrong way, okay?!" Bloom snapped, a brief image appearing in her mind of Ortensia and Mitzi standing side by side, looking remarkably alike as they laughed at her.

"Possibly because she thinks that you're insane and simply voices what everyone else is thinking," Tecna spoke wryly.

"I'm not insane. I just like to go against the grain." Bloom shrugged.

"You go against it like a hurricane to a lit candle..." Musa stretched as she re-positioned herself on the armchair she had occupied.

"Thank you," Bloom smirked. "But but gettin' back on topic, we're just sendin' a message to the Trix. They're not getting that ring easily!"

"And if they think that beating the Princess of Solaria will be that easy, then they're dead wrong!" Stella exclaimed.

"There's quite the possibility of that being literal if you go forward with this inane scheme..." Tecna pointed out, still sounding disapproving of it all.

"Eh... who cares? It'll be no great loss," Bloom shrugged.

Musa, Tecna, Flora and even Stella looked at her incredulously.

"Relax! They're not going to freaking die, okay! I swear it on my magic and hope to die." Bloom looked exasperated with her roommates.

"Anyway," Bloom started again after a bit of awkward silence. "back to the plan. Exploding bomb ring. The only issue that I can really see here is gettin' them to think that it's the real deal. Any ideas on how to handle that part, ladies?"

Tecna looked pensive. "Obviously, they won't trust that it's real if we just hand it over and they're quite prepared to take it by force, so how do we work around that?" Tecna asked.

Musa rubbed her chin idly as she thought. "Could we make them think that they've taken it from Stella by force?"

"Staging a fight on Stella's part?" Flora asked and Musa nodded. "That might work well, but I have concerns about Stella's safety if we did that. What if they outright murder her in the process?"

"Sending in a fake or having us hide nearby won't work with Darcy's skill set," Tecna pointed out. "I did what investigation I could into their backgrounds and powers. Not only is Darcy a mistress of darkness, but she also has demonstrated a high proficiency in the Mind Arts as well."

Bloom swore. "Well, that's certainly going to be an issue..."

Stella piped up. "Surely there's got to be a way around that, isn't there?"

"Well, if Darcy learnt it somewhere, surely we could learn a bit of it as well, right?" Flora suggested. "Most spells have counter-spells, Mind Arts included. We'd only have to learn enough to conceal our presence if we go as backup for this and as for afterwards... the Mind Arts are always a useful thing to know anyway!"

"Maybe all of us should try learning it and whoever is the best of us at it goes along to give Stella some backup!" Musa suggested.

"My money's on Tecna," Bloom said, with Tecna rolling her eyes.

"Perhaps we could ask Amaya for help." Musa spoke up.

"Who's that?" Bloom asked.

"She's a Senior I met in our Dance Society. She's Androsian, but apparently, her grandma is a psychic and taught her and all of her siblings the Mind Arts. Rumour has it that she's really great at it too. Best part is, well at least, to you, Bloom," Musa shot her a side-eye. "she apparently used it on Andrine and Justine sometime last year when they tried bullying a Freshman that she'd taken under her wing. They don't even look in her direction anymore."

"SOLD!" Bloom exclaimed. "Let's go find her now!"

Musa looked at the others, then shrugged. "Oh, why not? Bloom, come with me and help me find her."

"In the meantime, Flora, Tecna and I can help me out with making this fake ring!" Stella gestured to the raw materials sitting on the coffee table.

"Just so you all know," Tecna started just as Bloom and Musa reached the door. "I never signed up for any of this when I accepted my invitation to Alfea."

"Did any of us?" Bloom snorted as she and Musa left the dorm.

She turned her attention to the music fairy.

"So where is this Amaya chick?" she asked her. "How willin' do ya think she'll be to helping us out?"

"Well, it's not like we'll have to tell her exactly why we want to learn," Musa shrugged. "Although, depending on the strength of her skill, she may just be able to tell, anyway."

"But we don't need anyone else knowin' about-" Bloom started, but was cut off when they reached the stairs and were met with another student coming down them.

"Amaya! Fancy meeting you here! Just the fairy I was looking for?" Musa waved to the caramel-skinned fairy, whose auburn hair was styled in a curly Mohawk that Bloom would have killed to have (but her mother would have killed her for doing to her own hair).

"Musa?" the apparent Amaya raised an eyebrow. "Why were you looking for me?"

"Well, I have a favour to ask you. Well, my roommates and I, actually..."

Amaya glanced at Bloom. "I'm guessing she's one of them?"

"Yeah, I am. We should go back to our dorm and talk..." Bloom turned back towards the dorm, leaving Musa and her acquaintance to follow.