Welcome back! The beginning of season 5 finds our plucky heroine without her magic and destined for a boring year... at least part of it.
Timeline note: I decided to put Magical Adventure here, at the beginning of season five, and MotA at the end of course. Mirta is powerless through Magical Adventure and most of season five before... well, you'll see. Anyway, the point is, there is no really good way to do this timeline, so I did my best!
And I decided, just for fun, that Magix is on a sixteen-month system named for the fairy astrology signs. I have not decided when Mirta's birthday is- what sign should I give her?
37 Year Without Magic
Month of the Chimera
Mirta found a blackboard, one of the ones on wheels, outside her room. Professor Palladium had started writing a list of every healing, uncursing and magic-restoring spell he knew, and other people had added to it. It was a long list. Palladium had added, "potions in the fridge, more to be delivered anon, don't drink all at once!" Concorda had left a stack of books on Mirta's desk. Mirta smiled, touched at her friends' kindness.
She was startled out of her reverie by a sudden burst of noise from outside. Hexen's yowl of annoyance was drowned in lots of barking. Mirta went out and found Hex balanced on top of a topiary, taking no-claws swings at a brown dog bouncing happily around.
"Artu! Artu, the kitty doesn't want to play..." A slender girl came running up, her watermelon-pink hair swinging. The dog bounced over to her and sat down, glancing frequently back at the treed cat. Hexen glared.
Seeing nobody was currently in danger Mirta slowed down. She waved at the girl. "Hi!"
"He just wanted to play, he wouldn't have hurt the cat."
"I know. Hex would've been a lot madder. You're Roxy right?"
"Mmhm. This is Artu."
Mirta offered her hands to the dog, who sniffed her and wagged his tail. "Hi Artu. I'm Mirta, I work here. This is Hexen, and he might want to play if you don't come running up."
Indeed, now that things were calm, Hex jumped down and he and Artu traded sniffs.
Roxy smiled shyly and said, "Flora mentioned you. You... work here?"
"Yeah, I help the teachers. Want me to show you where everything is?"
Roxy nodded, looking relieved. "I can find my room, and the cafeteria, but there are so many hallways... Bloom said there's a library?"
"Sure, want me to show you now? I'll draw you a map. So what was your school on Earth like?"
Month of the Hippogriff
Mirta hadn't had any of these 'real dreams' since losing her magic, and for a moment she hoped Hecate had forgiven her. But this wasn't Hecate's forest. It was somewhere in the real world, because the moonlight was shining down on a tree that...
It looked like a tree with glowing fruit, but it was a lot more than just a tree. Looked at long enough the tree seemed to fade, leaving its true form: lines of light and shadow that stretched off into the distance and all converged here. It was a tree that was also a tree-shape made of some seriously powerful energies.
Mirta looked down at herself. She was just a faint outline, her dream self as invisible as a ghost, but a faint line of shadow came out through her chest towards the tree. What did that mean?
She didn't have time to figure it out because the Trix flew out of the forest and Mirta ducked behind a bush and tried to wake up.
Icy and Stormy floated up and put their hands on the tree, cackling.
"This is the Tree of Life, it keeps the balance of energy in the universe. Ah, what power!
When Darcy touched the trunk she yelped and jerked back. "Ow! It burned me! Are you sure about this? It's a very powerful spell and..."
"We have the power of the Ancestral Witches! And now we'll drain the positive energy from the universe and summon them here!"
Mirta yelled, "No, don't!" but she wasn't really here so no one heard her.
The Trix joined hands and chanted a spell. The tree lit up, veins of light sparking up and down its branches and the Trix flinched away.
"It's so strong!"
"But it's working."
Dark vines rose out of the ground around the tree and wrapped around it, strangling its light. The bright fruits dimmed and colorful leaves rained to the ground.
Even Darcy looked impressed. She started to laugh and the other two joined in—
—only it wasn't laughter, it was yelling. Lots of yelling.
Mirta rolled out of bed still half asleep and fumbled for the lights. Hexen was huddled on top of his cat-perch, fur puffed out and eyes round. And everyone in the dorm seemed to be yelling. Mirta grabbed for her robe and slippers.
In the hall Alyss and Clarisse grabbed her, wailing. Everyone was crying and hugging and some students were huddled in terror.
"Our powers are gone!" Anjita cried.
Mirta tried to say, "I'm sure it's all right, it's just..." She didn't actually know what. But one thing she did know, because the teachers had told her so often, "It'll be all right, there's always some way to get your magic back. Do you feel sick? No? I'm sure Miss Faragonda will tell us what's going on soon."
She didn't want to hang around, partly because she didn't want to remind the fairies that her magic had been lost all summer and partly because she wanted answers. She escaped back into her room for her phone. "Vecta, are you online? What's going on?"
"The balance of magic has shifted. There is less positive energy for fairies to use. The effect is universal."
"Oh no... thanks, Vecta. I have to talk to Miss F."
Mirta didn't want to pass anybody without trying to reassure them, so progress was slow as she stopped to tell the students all the things everyone had been telling her all summer. Before she reached Faragonda's office her phone had received "I'm ok." posts from everyone but Lucy. Lucy had posted a request for help. She was the only witch at Madame Glissade's academy and she couldn't keep that many scared fairies calm. Selene had replied that help was on the way and everyone else should stay put.
The headmistress' door was closed and people were talking loudly behind it. Mirta hesitated, not wanting to interrupt, but the door swung open. "Miss Faragonda..."
The teachers were there too, Professor Avalon was dressed and Professor Palladium was wearing some kind of elf bathrobe. Miss Barbatea had at least ten books open across Faragonda's desk.
"Mirta! Hi!" said a chirping voice. A whole crowd of pixies were fluttering over a little table. Lockette was up to her knees in ice while Chatta tried to melt her free with a hairdryer.
"Are you all right?" Mirta asked in some alarm, but Lockette smiled and waved damply.
"We're fine! It was the Trix. They messed up the magic."
"I know, I had a dream about them. Miss F, everyone's freaking out. I've been telling them it's temporary."
Miss Faragonda looked up from the several holograms projected above her desk. She looked frazzled. "Thank you. I'll make an announcement." The headmistress silenced the holograms and turned on the intercom. "Attention students, this is Headmistress Faragonda. I've been speaking with the other schools, and the change in magic is affecting everyone. It is temporary! Your powers should return sometime in the next few days. Please try to stay calm, go back to bed if you can. We are not in danger. If you need anything, Nurse Ofelia is in the infirmary and the teachers will be coming around to check on you."
When she'd finished Mirta asked, "Will everything really go back to normal in a few days?"
Professor Avalon answered, "If it doesn't, we'll have real problems. I'm going to go reassure the students. Wizgiz, transform into something silly and come too. Hopefully the girls will see that some of our magic still works before someone realizes the witches could attack right now.'
"A wise idea." Professor Wizgiz said, and the two teachers left together.
Miss Grizelda was looking at the screen on her phone. "The mayor made an announcement and emergency calls are dropping off. It looks like peace is returning to the city."
"Um, is Bloom coming back?"
"The Winx are on earth." Professor Palladium said distractedly, "Red Fountain is sending a ship to get them. They'll go after the Trix. I expect we'll only need to hold the fort a day or two before everything goes back to normal. Do you feel any different?"
"What? Oh, since I'm a witch." Mirta hadn't expected the question. She closed her eyes and tried to connect to magic, any magic. A faint hint of something vast and dark, she couldn't touch it but she could feel that it wasn't supposed to be like that. "I can't do anything. It's all off balance!"
Chatta chirped, "The magic is sick!"
Digit looked at her watch, which was flickering with data. "By my calculations all pixies have sixteen days before suffering ill effects."
Mirta looked around the office. Miss Faragonda was still talking to people on her holograms, but Professor Palladium closed his phone, commented that he was going to get dressed and stand guard, and headed out. Mirta looked at the droopy, and in one case wet, pixies. "Your beds are in storage, I saw them. Let's find you somewhere to sleep. Do you want to see the nurse Lockette? You were frozen after all..."
Lockette sneezed.
They visited Nurse Ofelia for a pixie tonic, then recruited Alyss and Lindy to carry the pixies' beds out of storage and get them set up in an empty dorm room. Then Mirta went up and down the hall making sure everyone was ok. Some of the students had gone back to bed, but most were still up, calling friends or checking the news on the internet. Nobody seemed to be freaking out now but nobody was very happy. Mirta told everyone that Bloom was going to take care of things, which was good news. Everyone believed in Bloom.
It was almost dawn and the rest of the student body was dozing off when Mirta got back to her room. She considered taking a shower and getting up... but it wasn't like there would be classes or anything normal in the middle of a crisis. And she was so tired. She closed the curtains and crawled into bed.
Month of the Mermaid
The universe's magic had returned to normal after a few days, and King Oritel gave all of Alfea a party to celebrate his daughter and her friends saving the universe. With a king footing the bill they got Charmed Life to play a concert, and the food was great. Half the pixie village attended and Mirta overheard Tune telling Lindy she had princess potential.
Princess potential or not, Lindy decided it would be a good idea for the fairies to learn how to adventure without magic, and there was a place right in the city where she could get teachers: Red Fountain. So she cornered Mirta and Orion in the library and asked Orion if she could get lessons.
"Don't see why not. I'll ask Master Codatorta." Orion said casually. And he did.
Which was why, on a bright Saturday morning, half the Alfea student body was in the courtyard whaling away at each other with borrowed phantoblades. Mirta did her best, but she wasn't very good, and after several tried of continuing not to be very good, master Codatorta suggested trying a ranged weapon.
A week later on another Saturday morning they ended up at Red Fountain with Orion enthusiastically describing the feeding and exercise schedules of Red Fountain's dragons. These were common dragons, and no smarter than very intelligent dogs. Intelligent dogs that could bowl you over and were carnivores. Friendly, but carnivores. Alyss was scritching the ears of a dragon named Roary. Lindy, whose idea this had been, was starting to look uncertain about the whole thing.