Sunlight Halation: No one ever said that the Specialists are the brightest bulbs in the drawer. They are talking to two headstrong fourteen-year-olds, though the way they chose to do so is a bit idiotic, to say the least. Let's see how badly this backfires on them when the girls end up fighting to save the Magix Dimension.

Enjoy the story.

"Ahh, it's finally over!" Tiara whooped in joy as the six girls each raised their glasses of tea or juice to the middle of the rounded table the Magix Club were seated around. The glasses clinked together, the rowdier of the girls — Tiara, Harmony and Naida, that was — bursting into another round of cheering. The brunette giggled, almost drunk with the glee she was feeling as she sipped her apple juice through the curly straw in her glass — hey, she was allowed to indulge herself with silly things like that sometimes, wasn't she? Teal eyes sparkling, the fairy placed down her glass. "So, what's next?" she asked cheerfully, tilting her head to a side as she regarded each of the others.

Lilliana was silent as she stirred some sugar into her tea, the dark blue-haired girl looking contemplative as she raised her cup to her lips and took a tentative sip of the sweetened golden liquid. "I... I guess it's back to our normal lives," she said uncertainly, almost seeming to hide behind the curtain of her dark hair that fell over one eye. She placed down her cup carefully and raised her gaze to look at the other five girls with an uncertain jade gaze. "It's almost the end of Alfea's first semester too, and with the Trix, witches incarcerated again, I think it's time for Naida and me to start our applications for Alfea College."

The aforementioned Fairy of Oceans brightened up at the statement. "Hey, yeah, that's right!" she exclaimed with a smile, clasping her hands together. "Next year is going to be awesome — we can skip the otherwise-mandatory introduction to transformation classes too since we've already got experience with our magic." She pumped a fist into the air with a laugh, leaning back in her seat and taking another drink from her fruit juice, which had somehow miraculously not spilt out from the glass despite how much Naida had been moving up until then.

Tiara figured it had something to do with the older fairy's powers and didn't press on it, though she was certainly still curious.

"I'm sure that either way, you two will be doing well," Maho said, primly setting down her cup of hot lemon tea as she smiled at the group, her sunglasses hanging from the neckline of her off-white blouse. "As the firstborn children of the Winx Club, we can't afford to not do well." She frowned a little as she absently traced circles on the polished wooden surface of the table. "If we didn't all attend Alfea College, it would be an outright scandal too." She shook her head, tossing her shoulder-length silver hair back over her shoulder. "But I'm sure that choice—" she looked over at Harmony and Raven with a meaningful look in her eyes, "—comes later."

Harmony and Raven shared a glance from across the table, both seeming to be holding some sort of information that only they knew, trading looks that seemed to indicate they were having a conversation through their looks at each other. It made the Fairy of Weather a little uncomfortable — Harmy had never had a secret she would keep from Tiara, and the last two members of the Magix Club hadn't exactly gotten along earlier on. Had they mended their relationship during the last fight/flee against the Trix? Tiara was glad if that was the case, though she still didn't like the fact that Harmony was apparently keeping something from her.

Harmony broke the held gaze, surrendering to whatever it was that she and Raven were talking about. "Okay, so there's a thing," the petite girl finally said, her arms folded across her chest as she ignored the glass of orange juice in front of her. "You girls remember how the Trix were talking about their Master? You know... when we were eavesdropping on those good-for-nothing witches and they mentioned that they were doing whatever they were for their Master?" She waited, getting a nod from each of the other girls, save Raven, who just remained silent. "There might be another threat to the entire Magix dimension again."

Raven picked up the story, the girl brushing a strand of her strawberry blonde hair out of her left eye and towards the fringe that covered half of her face. "We were told to inform you not to pursue this threat as it comes up eventually and allow the Winx Club to take care of it as they always have, but I think we can all agree that that's a stupid request," she said blandly, picking up her coffee and giving it a sip. "Harmony and I decided that we weren't going to stand down and let the adults continue to fumble around like they did when it came to this case. Let's admit it, we did a lot more than they did in this regard — they simply arrived in time to save us when an unexpected wrench was thrown into the equation."

"Not to be the wet blanket," Maho interjected as she took another sip of her tea, "but I do believe that making a decision like that without a clear majority is violating the rules of the club—"

"Since when did we have rules?"

"— but I have to admit that I agree with your assessment," the Solarian princess finished, ignoring Naida's question for the moment. "That said, I would appreciate that you two don't make any more decisions in this vein. Especially when it concerns all of us at large. Not without a majority, or in an emergency situation, I mean." She set down her cup of hot tea. "However, I do believe that Raven and Harmony are correct. We've done a lot for this case, and while I'm sure our parents have been trying their best, they're also restricted with their royal duties. If we're to carry on and improve the legacy of the Winx Club, step out of their shadows, we'll have to step up to the plate and take on the mantle of protectors, no matter what path we choose. Fairy, witch, Specialist, or otherwise."

The Magix Club fell silent momentarily at the declaration by their oldest member and de facto leader, each letting the words sink in and nodding one by one in agreement.

"We'll step up when we're needed to answer the call," Tiara said in as confident a voice as she could muster up.

"We'll serve as protectors of the ones who need it," Lilliana offered softly, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"We'll be the heroes that the Magix Dimension needs," Naida piped up, a smile on her face as she raised her glass in a mock toast.

"We'll be the light that the masses look to when in times of need," Maho stated with a smile.

"We'll fight and we'll win," Harmony added with a cocky smile and a grin, her head tilted slightly.

"Because we're the Magix Club," Raven finally concluded, "and we don't back down."

With their impromptu oath over, the six girls dissolved back into chuckles and laughter, the tense mood shattered now and replaced by a hearty and cheerful atmosphere as they settled back into their seats, picking up their glasses and cups as they began to continue their conversations.

"Say, speaking about what we're going to be doing," Naida spoke up, as the conversation was steered back towards Alfea College, with both the Fairies of Muse and Oceans wanting to know what the school atmosphere and courses were like to the older fairy. The dark-skinned girl turned her gaze onto Harmony and Raven. "You two were having trouble when it comes to what you're going to choose for your schools, right?" she asked, resting her cheek on her palm. "Have you two, well, you know, reached a decision yet? You don't really need it now, but it'll be great to make your own job easier when you eventually have to apply for the schools."

Tiara watched as Raven's lips pursed together. "It isn't exactly a big decision," the strawberry blonde said with a frown. "I mean, sure, it'll decide where we are in the next few years, but..." She shrugged. "I know it sounds like I'm being spiteful, but I don't think I want to change my decision from Cloud Tower. There's something about Alfea College that makes me wary of staying in it, and something else... I can't place it. Call it what you want: Fate, Destiny, or guidance from the dragons," the girl said, picking up her cup again to drink her coffee. "It's telling me to stick to what my heart is saying. Still, that's a decision left for next year at the very least. I'll see what my choice is then." She set the cup down with a light 'clink' on the table.

"Fair enough," Naida conceded, swirling her drink around in the glass — how was it still staying in there with how much she was swinging her wrist?! It had to be magic! — as she turned to face Harmony. "So what about you, Harmony? You were having some trouble with your decision, right?" she asked with a bright smile, finally stopping her constant swirling as she took a sip from her juice and set the glass down, the liquid inside still sloshing around and most definitely cresting over the rim of the glass and yet somehow now spilling onto the table. "Have you come to any decisions yet yourself?"

Tiara's attention was now on the best friend she'd ever had in her entire life as she waited to see the magenta-haired girl's response. She hoped that Harmony was going to be coming to Alfea College for Fairies in the future — she'd wanted to keep her friendship with her best friend intact, and both of them in the same classes and school, even same dorm if possible, would be one of the best ways to do so. If her friend really decided not to go to Alfea, sure, they could still video call all the time and probably see each other on weekends, but Tiara was really worried about the possibility that Harmony would end up going to one of the local Melodese institutions instead of one of the 'Big Three' schools.

Harmony frowned as she thought on it, looking at the fairy. "Well," she finally said after a pause, "I... I don't really know?" She shrugged a little, rubbing the back of her neck kind of nervously. "To be honest, I don't know what I want," she admitted sheepishly. "I always wanted to be a fairy, just like mum, but I've been getting ready physically to face challenges as the Specialists do, and I know that if I want to become one of the elite Specialists, I have to go to Red Fountain." She made a vague hand motion with a conflicted expression. "I don't really know what I'm going to be doing in the meantime. I guess we'll see, just like Raven said."

The two girls shared a glance, Harmony and Raven once more looking like they were sharing something that Tiara wasn't privy to, much to Tiara's consternation.

Almost as if she sensed the tension, Lilliana broke the silence to ask Maho about how her classes were going, and the silver-haired princess played along, starting up a new discussion about the merits of letter grades over numbers.

Still, Tiara was starting to feel a bit left out now. Was she losing her bestie?

"Bye, Tia!" Harmony called, waving to her best friend as Tiara boarded the ship headed for Zenith, the brunette smiling and waving back to her as the doors shut. The petite girl placed her hands on her hips with a small huff as Raven stood next to her, checking the schedule for the next trip to Domino. The two girls were the last two left in the transport centre since everyone else had left to head home or on Maho's case, back to Alfea's dorms, leaving the two of them standing at the station and waiting for their respective ships.

"So, did you really mean it when you said you'd see?" Raven asked her, not really looking down at the magenta-haired girl as she looked up at the large clock that proclaimed the time for the entire station. "I won't claim to have any sort of understanding about you, Harmony, but something tells me still that you have strong feelings about this. Call it a gut feeling. Perhaps I'm in no situation to give you advice on this, but I do feel like I should at least try and tell you something on it." The strawberry blonde ran a hand through her fringe, restyling her short hair over her face. "Follow your heart, not what your mind tells you to do. In the end, no matter if you become a fairy or a Specialist, your end goal is the same — to become a protector of the dimension, right?"

Harmony let the question hang in the air as she stared briefly at the girl that, up until a few days ago, she had hated completely. Maybe they weren't exactly friends, but they were people in similar situations. "Yeah," she finally said after a short pause. "That's right. I guess you've got a point, Raven — your ship is here, by the way — I'll think about it, I guess. Why are you heading to Cloud Tower, anyway? If it's not out of spite for your... parents," she said slowly, not wanting to get the strawberry blonde irked by the manner of reference.

The taller girl shrugged. "Something about it draws me to it," she said, hands in the pockets of her black pants. "And it's not the Gothic style either. There's something about it that I feel drawn to, unlike Alfea, and Red Fountain doesn't hold any kind of draw to me at all. There's something special about being a witch to me, but as I said — we'll see about what it is when it comes time for it." She pulled her hood over her head as she began to walk to the direction of the platform the ship was leaving from. "I'll see you next time we have a meeting, Harmony. And one last thing, no one ever said you can't have the best of both worlds."

The girl just stared after the Dominese girl in mild surprise at the strange piece of advice, watching the black-clad girl disappear into the crowd of people looking to get back to their homes from their workplaces in Magix. She sighed, glancing back at the schedule, seeing the next ship for Melody due to arrive in a few minutes at the next platform down from where she was standing. "Best of both worlds, huh?" she asked herself as she made her way through the crowd of people, trying to avoid getting bumped by anyone or mistaken for a lost kid thanks to her small stature. She'd have to think about that on her own time.

Well, there was plenty of time for her to think on the ship, considering it was an hour's trip home.

Harmony left the ship as it arrived at the platform of the station in Aria, the closest town to the palace of Melody. Melody was more of a self-sustaining planet than others, and few people actually left it to work elsewhere after they finished their education. Most who did had attended one of the schools outside the realm, but the Melodese were a bunch that valued filial piety. They stayed close to home, no matter what, and few, if any, had ever actually moved away from Melody and cut all contact. Melody was just like that, though that didn't really make it the best tourist site.

On her way back from the station to the palace, Harmony walked past an old theatre, one that she could vaguely remember having just been shut down a few months ago. There was a plaque on the side, saying that the rickety wooden theatre would soon be demolished to build a new auditorium for the concerts that were being held by the Golden Auditorium students in Aria. In Harmony — and her father's — opinion, it was a waste, since the space for the theatre could be used for so many other things, but the nobles were insisting. And they were ridiculously insistent.

The sound of a soft, operatic voice reached her ears, singing a song in old Melodese dialect, though Harmony was from too young a generation to recognise anything beyond the words 'Magic' and 'Dragon' in the lyrics. Someone was inside the building and with the way the old and rickety wooden theatre was looking, it seemed like the floorboards or ceiling might give way randomly. Harmony began to make her way in, deciding to talk to whoever it was and ask them to get out of the theatre for their own safety. The singing didn't stop, though, a slow-paced melody that rose and fell in a harmonic rhythm that resonated deeply within Harmony, though the girl couldn't quite pinpoint it.

Harmony walked down creaky wooden stairs and arrived at the old carpeting of the theatre, seeing a person in the front row. Walking closer, the person was revealed to be a woman, wearing a red and white dress made for flamenco dancing, her long crimson hair tied back into an elegant bun that was secured with a white ribbon. The woman was looking up at the stage as she sang, red-painted lips pulled into a warm smile and soft purple eyes glimmering warmly. Oddly, over her dancing dress was the metallic sheen of golden armouring, a shoulder pauldron engraved with a music note on her left shoulder and metal bodice around her waist.

"Um, hello?" Harmony called, interrupting the woman's song. "Sorry, not to be rude, but the building's up for demolition and it looks like it's about to collapse at any moment. For your own safety, you'd better get out of here," she said to the woman as she walked up next to her. The woman was actually quite petite, Harmony noted inwardly, probably only a little taller than the Queen of Melody when standing, and that was provided that her dress just brushed the floor if she was not in heels.

"Demolition?" the woman sighed, her voice silvery. "What a pity. This theatre has been here since the first royal family of Melody, you know. It has seen many grandiose performances, from the artisans of the realm to the finest duels of the greatest warriors, retold in a magnificent opera. Such history, and yet people now will tear it all down to the ground because they want to replace it? Pity that is, but I suppose there is nothing that can be done about it. Tell me, young one, are you a student of the Golden Auditorium?"

"Not me," Harmony deflected with a shake of the head. "My mother's the Fairy of Music, but I'm not really into all that. The Golden Auditorium is about as far from where I want to go as is possible."

"And would that be Alfea College or Red Fountain, young one?"

That caught Harmony's attention. "How did you know that?" she asked, a frown on her face.

The woman just chuckled. "I've been watching you for a while, young Harmony. You're younger — and perhaps brasher — than I would have liked, but your heart is the one I've been looking for," Camena — because it could be no other person — said to the girl. She patted the seat next to her, motioning for Harmony to sit down and talk to her. "Come here, Harmony. I believe that it's been long overdue for us to have a talk, no?" Purple eyes glimmered with mirth as the Dragon spoke, clearly indicating that she was having some fun.

Wary, but relenting, the petite girl sat down next to the Dragon. "Is this how it went for the others too?" she inquired, half-serious, half-joking. "I don't... really understand why you're asking me to sit down and talk with you. It's just my choice of schools — not really that important, is it?"

Camena chuckled warmly. "Did you know that I was Magix's first warrior?" she inquired. "Indeed, not Machinosus, not my darling Draco... me. I was the first warrior, and at the same time, I was one of the most powerful magic wielders in the entire dimension. We were all second to only Draco back in the say, but that's of no import." She waved it off dismissively with a hand. "There were no distinctions then, no choices of fairy nor witch, enchantress nor sorceress, paladin nor wizard, but ah, those are stories for another time. I was a warrior and a magic user both at the same time. Schools no longer teach this art, so it's been lost to time. A pity, too — Draco loved that art."

The Dragon stood, her dress flowing with her movements. "Appasionato!" she exclaimed, conjuring a blade in her hand as she flourished it through the air. "Potenza! The wars we fought in, ahh, they were truly magnifico! But those are times long past, I would suppose. You young ones segregate yourselves so dramatically it almost seems funny. Believe me, young Harmony. There is no difference to be had between a fairy and a witch." She dispelled her blade and sighed as she sat back in her seat. "But all things must come to a head eventually. You will understand someday soon, I would hope. I have nothing more to tell you, Harmony, except this: Listen to your heart, not what people tell you."

That was the exact same advice Raven had given her.

Harmony frowned. So maybe the blonde had a point. Her shoulders slumped, knowing that she was going to have a hell of a time thinking about it that night. The glow of light next to her roused her attention, and when she looked up, Camena had dissolved into the form of a magnificent armoured dragon that rushed at her, enveloping her in a bright, warm light that was the spark of magic deep inside her. Her eyes widened as the words left her before she could even properly register it. "Harmony Magix Winx!"

The light washed over her as she held out her hands, the form of a curved blade appearing in her hands. Slashing it through the air, the sword so sharp the sound was audible as it cut through the air in front of her. The sound distorted the area around her body, a white glow merging with the distortion before it burst in a shower of sparks, forming into a short top and shorts. Harmony tossed the sword up into the air, dropping onto the ground in a breakdancing routine and kicking her feet in the air, forming her boots onto her feet. Jumping back onto her feet with a somersault, the shape of her wings blazed in place onto her back, and the new fairy soared up into the air as the sword fell into her hands, cutting through the air to form two bands around her arms.

"Harmony, Fairy of Sound!" she exclaimed to herself as the sword vanished from her hands. The pigtailed girl looked at herself in awe, realising she was flying — flying! She was a fairy now! Garbed in an outfit much reminiscent of her mother's first transformation, the Fairy of Sound felt herself stop breathing. Her ensemble was hot magenta, a single-strap crop top going over her left shoulder, and short shorts, along with knee-high wedge-heeled boots. The whole thing was sparkling like a galaxy. Her wings, like her mother's at this age, were dragonfly wings, fluttering quickly to keep her in the air. With a delighted cry, Harmony flew up closer to the ceiling of the theatre, knowing there was a broken skylight there, and shot right out, looking down behind her at the wooden theatre below.

Her worried pushed aside for the moment, Harmony flew towards the Palace of Melody, towards the balcony that opened from the royal suite. She had to tell her parents at once! She just knew they would be so happy and proud of her—

Harmony arrived at her parents' room, still transformed and hovering, and knocked on the door.

"Harmony, is that you?" her mother asked.

"Yeah! I've got something really cool to show you and dad!" Harmony called, elated.

"Well, come on in," her father told her.

With a grin, Harmony threw open the doors, flying up to the window where her parents were. "Look!" she said with a wide smile. "I'm a fairy now!"

Queen Musa Melody-Chang smiled enthusiastically, pulling her daughter into a hug. "I'm so proud of you, Harmony!" she praised with a smile, and even the usually stoic king was smiling at the princess as well. "Good job! You're going to do so well in the future."

"Speaking about the future," King Riven Harmony-Song said, looking meaningfully at his wife. "Muse?"

"Right." Her mother took a deep breath, releasing the girl to take her hands. "Harmony, what do you think about having a baby sister?"

Harmony's eyes widened as she let out an uncharacteristic cry of delight, flying forward to hug both her parents as well.

Yeah, her worries could wait for a while. This was a happy moment, free from deliberation.

Questions for the chapter:

1) The story is wrapping up soon; how many of you have been waiting for this to finally be done with?

2) Can anyone decipher the complete mess of Camena's ramble? I promise it'll be important.

3) Who's your favourite next-gen girl?

Read, review and provide constructive criticism.