Third Time's the Charm
A few days after the incident in the Golden Auditorium, Marion and Oritel announce they're crowning Daphne as the Crown Princess of Domino - Bloom feels a massive weight lift from her shoulders at the announcement, and fully plans on playing 'bodyguard' for Daphne until the ceremony is over and all the guests have left. Anybody tries to hurt Daphne, she will personally stop them - killing them, but you know - she's had enough of coronations going wrong in her lifetime.
Meanwhile, in Cloudtower, Diaspro, Selina, and the Trix are working out how they're going to destroy Bloom for good - all of them agree they need to get Bloom out of the picture for good, but none of them know how they can actually pull that off.
It's the very definition of 'easier said than done' - fighting Bloom never works out in any but Bloom's favor, Bloom and anyone else on her side.
Selina has a story in the Legendarium about the Vortex of Flames, a place under the palace of Domino with power so strong not even the Fairy of the Dragon Flame could withstand it. Stormy thinks that's boring until she also mentions the Fire Eaters that live in the Vortex - now that might actually work, fight fire with a Fire Eater. Diaspro has an exclusive invitation to a ceremony happening on Domino, making her the perfect inside agent.
Icy says "Well, looks like we have a plan. Diaspro, you find a way to destroy Bloom and you will have a future with us."
The Trix are all thinking back to what Valtor said so long ago, how Diaspro would make a perfect fourth Trix - they were insulted at the prospect of a fairy working with them, now they'll take anyone who hates Bloom as much as they do; and nobody but Diaspro comes even close to sharing the burning hatred they have for the fire-haired fairy.
On Domino, Bloom's encouraging Daphne, and gets her to laugh when she half-seriously cracks a joke about keeping an eye out for Frost Giants and assassins.
When Daphne manages to get her laughter under control, she asks "Hey, where is everyone anyway?"
"I don't know, let me check." Bloom runs out to the balcony, and sees Sky and Thoren walking through the courtyard. Ember comes out with her, and jumps up onto the stone after Bloom. "Hey guys! We're up here!"
Thoren looks up and waves, Sky's too engrossed in his phone to answer. Bloom sends him a text saying 'look up and wave!' to him, and he does after a minute. They have to keep going though, but they'll meet up after the ceremony.
When they're out of sight, Bloom is suddenly hit with a wave of dizziness, pain, and it feels like all the warmth has left her body. Bloom's had so few experiences with feeling cold that it's basically a foreign feeling, but this is so not good.
Ember thrums worriedly and sniffs at her face as Bloom gasps for breath and tries to keep her feet under her. The whole world is receding from her, she can hardly hear Ember's thrumming or feel the breaths on her face. Suddenly, she feels a rush of heat and sucks it in as fast as she can - Ember's doing, she breathed a steady stream of fire onto Bloom.
When Bloom can focus on the world again, she gives Ember a grateful smile and says "Thanks, girl. Quick thinking." Ember thrums and sniffs at Bloom's face again. "Yeah, I know, that was weird. Maybe it has to do with giving the girls pieces of the Dragon Flame."
She shakes her head, then looks out at the courtyard when she realizes there's someone out there. All she can see is a flash of red fabric walking away though, she can't make out what magic they have. That alone sets off alarm bells in Bloom's head, only a disguise spell - and one worked so that it disguises their magic trail at that - could hide a person's magic from her. She doesn't have any time to track down her mystery-person though, because Flora comes out right then and tells her everyone is inside.
When they get in, Stella's looking at all their dresses with the look that Bloom's come to know means they're going to be standing six feet in the air on platform shoes. What they end up getting is so top-heavy with the hats and stuff Stella gives them - she said they needed to take their looks up a notch, because a royal coronation is so official.
Bloom rolls her eyes, thinking of the last one she was at - hopefully this one goes better.
Stella's next modification for the dresses replaces the hats and extra fabric with delicate-looking wings attached to the backs where their real ones would be. Stella gives Daphne's dress ruffles, and all six girls say it looks perfect - and then Bloom and Daphne have to go while the other girls head to the front of the crowd with Ember.
Bloom focuses more on the crowd itself than the speeches being made, but she breaks out in a relieved smile that could split her face in two when Marion puts the Tiara of Domino in Daphne's hair.
Daphne's officially the Crown Princess.
In the ballroom, Bloom's scanning the crowd for any sign of a red dress, but Roxy comes over and interrupts. "Hey, Bloom! You look fantastic!"
When Bloom focuses on Roxy, her hair is done up in a complicated braid and she's in a teal dress - and she's got a man with light brown hair and a tuxedo close behind her. "You to, Roxy. And who is this? Or have I met him already?" She's got a teasing smirk on her face, knowing the magic radiating off Roxy's partner.
"Well, seems your as sharp as ever, Bloom. Are we ever going to take you by surprise ever again?"
Duman smirks under his disguise spell, and Bloom says "No. Actually, I was looking for someone else. You wouldn't happen to have seen someone in a red dress around here, would you?"
Roxy says "I've seen about five of them. Why?"
"One of them is under a disguise spell. I couldn't sense their magic, only caught a glimpse of their dress."
Duman crosses his arms and asks "So how can you sense my magic?"
"Because your magic is to transform. It's different." She scans the crowd again, and her hand twitches at her side - right where her knife hilt usually is, Duman seriously hopes that's just an old habit.
Sky comes over, and says "Hey, Roxy! Good to see you. Bloom, what's wrong?"
She smiles as she looks at him, and says "Nothing, just playing bodyguard for Daphne."
"I thought that was a joke."
"Half. I really didn't want this coronation to go as badly as the last two I've been alive for."
Roxy and Duman share a look, and Roxy asks "Two? What happened with the first?"
"Frost Giants broke into the Weapons Vault. Nearly took the Casket of Ancient Winters."
Sky says "Well, third time's the charm right? C'mon, let's show these royals how it's done."
They head out to the dance floor, and Duman whispers "Bloom knows how to dance?"
Roxy shrugs, and says "She usually doesn't dance, but Stella said she and Sky taught Bloom. Something about her not knowing how when she first came to Magix."
"Right, Asgard. Why would they dance?"
Duman nearly bursts out laughing when he hears two royals commenting on how Domino has two poised, kind, brave princesses, and how lucky the planet is for the fact - the Bloom he knew on Earth was less 'poised' and more'kick-their-butts-until-they-were-gone.'
They end up dancing alone on the floor with Daphne and Thoren, and then the two couples start floating midair as they dance - but it's not Bloom's magic, and Roxy points Amorae floating there and smiling dreamily. The magic is definitely coming from her, if her expression is anything to go by at any rate.
Suddenly, Roxy grabs Duman's arm in a hard grip and whisper-asks "Remember when Bloom said she was looking for someone in a red dress?"
"Yeah…why?"
"Does she look familiar at all to you?"
When Duman looks where she's pointing, he sees a blonde girl in a red dress - a familiar blonde girl, and the sight of her makes Duman's whole body ache in memory. "You have got to be kidding…"
"What is she doing here?!" They suddenly look down when they hear a low growl coming from around Roxy's feet, and see Ember standing there and looking mad - quite the feat, given the overall lack of expressions most animals can make. "I know, Ember, she's definitely up to something."
Diaspro gives Bloom and Sky one very dirty look as they sink back down to the ground, and starts forcefully making her way through the crowd.
Roxy mutters "Who put her on the guest list anyway? Last I heard, she'd been disgraced from the royal court last year. Acting out and abusing her post, I think it was."
"Ogron said he found Bloom in a quarry one day, destroying everything in sight, because of something that girl said - while she was…what was it? King's Special Liaison, she was apparently in charge of Sky. And she was doing everything she could to get in between them. Including saying all communication to Sky had to go through her."
Roxy's jaw drops, and she stares at Diaspro in shock. "Whatever it is she's going to try, she deserves whatever Bloom's going to do to her."
Ember growls again, just as the dancing partners land on the ground. Sky thanks everyone for coming, and they see Bloom's eyes rove the crowd again - but with a lot more concentration than before, Ember must've told her. They see her gaze stop dead, and then she suddenly stumbles and faints.
AN: I know, I haven't updated in a while. Got a new idea and wanted to work on it before it was gone - and I've been really busy with school stuff. Massive amounts of Math homework, chemistry, etc. Promise I'm not abandoning this, I just get ideas out of nowhere and this ends up being the result - I get so into one idea that people start wondering if I'm still working on the others. The answer: YES. Absolutely, yes. I'm not giving up on a story just because I get an idea for another. Also, been writing for the Spin-off story a lot, I'll post another of those chapters tomorrow. Enjoy! Hope you all want to see Diaspro get her wings handed to her again!