The Magical Universe is nothing like you remember…

My name is Edan. My life and purpose can be defined by exactly three moments in time. Three moments that would ultimately destroy the hope of the Magical Universe forever. The fact I was involved in each of these moments, directly or indirectly, has drawn quite a bit of disdain, disdain I have yet to disavow for myself. And so I bear the guilt…

The downfall of the Magical Universe began with a war. Two of the universe's greatest war realms, Eraklyon and Praelium, struggled to prove which of them was stronger than the other. No one is quite sure what the catalyst was that truly triggered the snap of tensions, but it is now known that the force behind it all was Baltor. At the time, the realms were all distracted, focused on the war that would force the realms to choose sides. Baltor used this distraction to bring all the greatest realms of that time to their knees. When the universe finally realized the true evil at work, it was practically too late. So all hope fell on a single fairy, who alone could defeat Baltor, as was her purpose…

Moment one… my conception. That fairy, Princess Bloom of Domino, bearer of the Dragon Fire, leader of the Winx Club, member of the Company of Light, and Baltor's bane, was my mother. Pregnant, scared, and alone… she abandoned the Magical Universe during the early stages of the universe's downfall to protect me. Once Baltor finally made his intentions known, every leader of a free realm was willing to look to her for answers, for hope… but she wasn't there. The universe, vulnerable without its champion, was ready for Baltor to take it.

Moment two… Baltor took it all. Using forces both mystical and vicious, forces like the Army of Decay, minions, and bile creatures, Baltor tore the free worlds asunder. Solaria, Tides, Lynphea, Magix, Isis, Eraklyon, Praelium… they all fell one by one. Billions and billions were slaughtered, incarcerated, tortured… the horrors Baltor inflicted on the universe still bring terror to people to this very day. By the time Bloom returned, only Domino stood, though it wouldn't stand long. The Falling is what we call it, the battle in which the elder members of the Company of Light faced Baltor to allow the survivors and the younger Company members to escape. My grandparents died in that final battle, and Domino was destroyed a second time. Hope's fate once again lay in the balance and on the shoulders of my mother as people looked to her for guidance in the dark times that ensued.

The war ended and Baltor claimed the universe as his. But the fight had only begun for the survivors. The Defiance was founded by my parents, King Sky of Eraklyon and Princess Bloom of Domino. The survivors struggled and those against Baltor's tyranny joined the fight willingly. Under my parents command, a network of bases were set up and my mother developed a plan to bring Baltor down once and for all. The people had their hope again; their faith in my mother had been restored. The future was no longer as bleak as it had once seemed. But this was a short period as the worst blow to the Defiance was yet to be dealt.

Moment three… the death of my mother was like the spark of hope sputtering out for good. The way people describe her last months to me, it was as though my mother had given up hope herself. She became withdrawn and prone to outbursts of anger, took on the most dangerous missions, disappeared for weeks on end, and fought with my father constantly. Then one day she was gone. Weeks went by and my father sent out search teams to find her. It wasn't until a year later that news of her death finally reached us. Several escapees from one of Baltor's torture camps described her execution. Panic and mourning spread through the network and the sense of hopelessness returned. When people asked my father what could be done without my mother, what they ought to do, he simply said, "Nothing. Survive."

Sixteen years later we still survive just beyond Baltor's sight. My father leads what's left of the Defiance himself, though we aren't really defiant in the face of Baltor's tyranny. The broken Sky of Eraklyon is just trying to hold on, to keep everyone safe…to keep me safe. With nothing to challenge Baltor with and no hope to guide us, we're left to fight just so we can live another day. We just do as my father said all those years ago. Nothing. Survive.

With nothing to live for, blame is often cast onto my mother's memory. There aren't many days where I'm not reminded by someone of my mother's failures. I bear the guilt for the lost hope my mother took with her to her grave and I've learned to bear it well enough. But I ask, was all the hope really lost? Is there really nothing we can do? Was Bloom of Domino's Dragon Fire power the only key to defeating Baltor? Or was there something else? Sometimes I can't shake this feeling that my mother left us with something more and that something more has been right in front of us all this time…