No disclaimer here either.
Whoa. This one was... different. This part was where I put some serious distance between my story and canon, and it shows. I had a lot of fun putting in history, mythology, and just generally building my own version of the Winx universe. But with all this stuff, not everything made it in. Here's some of what didn't make the cut.
Artis's death scene. I tried over a dozen different versions of that before deciding on the one I wanted. In the original version, her death was in the same chapter as the reveal that Sasha and Nyssa were the same person. I changed my mind about that and decided to spread things out a bit, which worked fairly well in my opinion. In one version, she stayed dead. However, in that version Perdi basically goes nuclear, so I decided not to use it. In other versions, her suicide attempt merely left her badly injured, forcing the Classix to either dash to Melivon or be saved by Luminé's team.
Speaking of Luminé's team, let me tell you about a charming girl named Viya. Viya was born in Altivix eighty years ago, giving her the physical body of a seven year old girl. She's a powerful healing fairy, capable of restoring someone from the brink of death. She's quiet, shy, and not very self-assured. So, what happened to Viya? She turned into Vivian. I'm not even going to try and explain how that happened, because I don't understand it either.
Speaking of Vivian, I had this idea for her to have an enchantment on her that caused her physical appearance to change based on her mood. That got filed under the "not important" category and never made it in. Pity.
The ending changed dramatically. The original ending had all the Classix making it out of Altivix, and Perdi, Artis, Reyva, and Dhalia all became Enchantix fairies. There was this really weird justification where the Dragon Fire "re-ignited" their old powers (the ones they had before going through Univix), and that giving up their Magix powers was a huge sacrifice to save everyone across the Magic Dimension, and other random weirdness. Needless to say, that didn't happen.
As a result of that change, the epilogue sort of caved in on itself. It was originally supposed to be four chapters, with the first being them waking up in Andros at the portal. There was going to be this odd joke where they didn't like their new Enchantix outfits. ("Why did it give me pigtails? I hate pigtails.") The second was supposed to be a trial (the legal kind), or rather a series of trials, although I was already considering skipping that one. The third was Artis's birthday (August 28th), and her date with Perdi. As you know, that one actually happened, although it was a lot sadder than originally planned. The fourth was Amelia and Nyssa receiving new earrings from Allanya and Eclipsis/Kallise, who, in this version, ended up in Univix with her sister. However, the ending would have left it unclear as to whether they actually took the earrings or just threw them away. ...It made more sense in my head.
Speaking of unclear endings, I considered having the portal activate again, but all that came though was Amelia's broken black earring in a letter addressed to the Classix, leaving it unclear if she had actually died. I decided against it.
Bloom's husband Mark was actually supposed to make a brief appearance in Book Two, but it never happened. As for what happened to Sky, he and Bloom broke up something like thirteen years ago, three years after the end of season four, as a result of various fights they had while the Winx were trying to resurrect Nabu, and it only got worse when they actually succeeded. Then Sky died in the five month gap between Books One and Two. She met Mark eleven years ago and three years later they got married. Two years after that, Cynthia was born. I do wish I'd gotten a chance to explore Mark a bit. He's a very interesting character.
At least Mark made it in though. Another character never even got a cameo appearance. A girl named Sarah, who's a hugely prominent figure in Reyva's back story, was supposed to make an appearance in the epilogue. This didn't happen either, mostly because I couldn't find a good place to put her.
On a more humorous note, this almost happened back in chapter two:
"You're a time fairy. Surely you must have felt it."
"I don't-" Artis paused for a moment, her eyes widening. "You mean-"
"Yes." The fairy said. "People don't age here. If you stay here in Altivix, your bodies will not age a day, no matter how much time passes."
"You mean like Neverland?" Perdi asked.
I almost ended up making a bloopers reel because of that one scene.
Now for a confession. That huge back story about the Ember Blades, the Ember Stones, the Vortex of Flame, and the Dragon Fire? Completely, totally, and utterly unplanned. I was trying to create recurring secondary villains for Sasha, so I gave her some sorcerer knights. Then, to make them an actual threat, I decided to give them pieces of the Dragon Fire. (Making enemies strong enough to threaten the Classix more than once was hard. They're smart, they're strong, they have the power to warp the universe to their will, and they don't make the same mistakes twice.) Then I had to explain how and why they had the Dragon Fire, which resulted in the creation of that whole story. Yay for random ideas!
That's about it. I've had a blast writing this series. Now, I'd like to know what you guys would like me to write next. I have several stories just waiting to be written and I'd like your help deciding what to do next. There's a poll on my profile with the various options listed, so go and vote. Tell me what you'd like to see.