Author's Note: Yes, this story is AU. No, it is not in my normal AU universe. It stands alone quite well. The rating is due to language, and may very well increase as the other chapters get written out. If you don't want to see Stella, Bloom, or Roxy as witches, this is definitely not the story for you. If you do want to see them, keep reading.

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this story. It is written purely for my own amusement and no profit is gained from it.

Summary:Alternate universe. After getting kicked out of Alfea, Stella was on her way to start her first year at Cloud Tower when she met two interesting girls on planet Earth.

The Ripple Effect

Chapter 1: When Worlds Collide

Stella was not a happy princess.

It all started last year, when Daddy decided to let his long-time girlfriend (gold-digging tramp, more like, but Daddy adored the trollop…) and her brat daughter move into the palace. To console herself, Stella decided to put what she learned in her freshman-year potionology class to good use and mix up something to make her feel better. Unfortunately, this attempt (made after hours in an empty lab) resulted in the complete and utter destruction of the entire Potions Lab and her expulsion. No amount of money from the Solarian treasury could buy her back into Alfea, where Daddy wanted her to be. And she point-blank refused to lower her standards by going to Beta Academy, especially not Brat-Child happened to be accepted to the same school. It was bad enough she had to share her palace with the little upstart!

Mom, Dragon love her, decided to help Stella get into her alma mater, Cloud Tower. Though definitely not her first choice, Stella knew it was the only other magical academy with the prestige she was looking for. Tomorrow should be her first day of class, and she should have been at early check-in for dorm space now.

But the ogre and the creepy little demon thingies attacked, forcing her to take a slight detour. Instead of the police-protected realm of Magix, she was stuck on some backwater planet called Earth which hadn't had any sign of magic in eons. Sure, she had the staff of Solaria, but there was no way she could take all of these uglies by herself.

So, yes, Stella was having a rather bad year. However, her year was about to become much more bearable.

Bloom Peters had never been accused of being a logical person. She daydreamed about fairies and magic during her high school classes, rushed headlong into fights, and tended to become more destructive than not when angry. So, all things considered, running toward a magic fight instead of away from it wasn't all that out of character for the redhead.

Roxy Klaus, on the other hand, was a bit more level-headed. She dreamed of one day becoming a veterinarian. Or a pet shop owner. Anything that put her working with animals instead of serving people at the Fruitti Music Bar, she would be pleased with. Her father sometimes teased her about getting on better with animals than people, which wasn't too far from the truth. People, and especially high school girls, tended to be mean and cruel. They made fun of her hair and eye color. They teased her for not having a mother in the picture. Everyone seemed to find something to hold over her head.

Everyone, that is, except for Bloom. The two met in the first grade and had been inseparable ever since. One girl was rarely seen without the other. This was the case today, when Bloom decided to test out her new bicycle (complete with a basket for her rabbit Kiko to ride in) by taking it through some wooded trails in the park with Roxy (and, by proxy, her dog Artu) along for the ride.

They heard the fight before they saw it, but it was pretty hard not to notice the flashes of light in the dim woods. A model-esque blond teen in an odd orange dress (very skimpy, but much more expensive than either girl could afford) valiantly fought off one large thing and several smaller, nastier things. Logic would dictate that the two turn the other way and run.

As mentioned earlier, logic was not one of Bloom's stronger traits.

Desperate to help the blond (who, awesomely, could shoot lasers from her hands), Bloom ran up behind the big thing and swung a large stick at it, catching the beast off-guard.

As the creature turned to face her, Bloom tried to kick it in the shins. Effective against a human, not so much against the tough leg bones and sinews of a full-grown ogre. It didn't take long for the creature to wrap its large hands around Bloom's seemingly small wrists and lift her off her feet.

Meanwhile, Roxy had been unwillingly dragged into the fight when many small creatures came after her, Kiko, and Artu. Her attempts to bat them away with sticks were proving ineffective when one of the monsters decided Bloom's beloved bunny would make a nice snack. "Get away from him!" Roxy screamed, feeling a tingly sensation spread down her arms and through her fingertips. The stick in her hands glowed a pale green as it made contact with the gremlin, knocking it away from the rabbit. "No Rabbit Stew for you!"

Bloom didn't notice Roxy or her glowing makeshift baseball bat. Instead, the redhead focused on getting free from the ogre's hold on her. Desperate for an edge to help in the fight, she reached down into herself in search of some kind of inner strength. In that place, she found fire and a whole lot of it. Fire that raced through her veins and pulsed out away from her body in a violent blast of heat.

The ogre was not pleased with his newly burned hands or the fact that two newcomers had turned the tables on him. "Retreat!" His booming voice (not sounding all that bright) called over the battle, and he and the creatures disappeared in a flash of light.

"That was totally awesome!" The strangely dressed blond girl said with an exuberance that seemed misplaced in reference to her drained facial expression. "You two totally have magic! Uh…" She swayed on her feet a moment, before promptly passing out.

"Oh my God!" Bloom shouted in panic. "Omigod! Hey! Hey, you! Can you hear me?"

"Uh, I think she's out cold." Roxy suggested as Bloom knelt beside the mysterious girl. "What do we do?"

"We can't just leave her here…" The redhead sighed, running a hand through her hair. "And I don't think a hospital would be smart either..."

"Why don't we take her back to your place? It's more cozy than mine, and you parents are working today so she can rest in peace and quiet." Roxy suggested. Bloom sighed.

"Yeah. I guess you're right."

"I usually am, now let's get her onto your bike and get her out of here."

Stella awoke with a groan, dim light from a table lamp illuminating the room.

Wait. Room? She was just outside in the woods!

"You're awake." A redheaded girl about her age came into focus. The same girl from the woods, Stella realized. One of the two magical girls. "You scared the crap out of us!"

"Oh, I'm fine, thanks to you and your friend." Stella said, slowly sitting up as another girl came into the room with a glass of water. This one had pink hair with the front strands tipped yellow. "You two totally saved my ass back there. And here I thought Earth didn't have any magic left! You two are both shoe-ins for scholarships to Cloud Tower!" Screw Alfea, she was going to take her new friends with her to witch school!

"Whoa. Hold on. Magic?" Bloom asked as the front door opened and a woman with brown hair and tanned skin entered. "We have magic?"

"Absolutely! What? You though heat pulses and glowing sticks were normal for you two?" Stella scoffed.

"You saw that?" Roxy blinked as she handed Stella the glass of water.

"I didn't need to see it; I could sense it." The blond said as the older woman stopped in her tracks.

"Bloom, Roxy, what's going on?" The woman asked. "Who is this girl?"

"Oh. We found her being attacked in the woods." Bloom explained. "After we scared the creeps off, we brought her back here."

"For the record, my name is Stella, princess of Solaria." Stella put in. "I'm guessing you're their mother?"

"Just mine." Bloom said. "Roxy and I aren't related. We're just really good friends."

"A princess. Really?" Bloom's mother placed her hands on her hips. "How come I've never heard of this 'Solaria'?"

"Because we're part of the magical dimension and your planet hasn't shown any sign of magic in decades." The princess shrugged the question off. "And now there's two witches! Or, you will be once you start your training at CT with me!"

"Witch?" Bloom asked. "How do we know how…"

"Bloom, sweetie, a witch does not need to know how to be a witch. She just does it. My mother told me that, and she's never been wrong. Which is why I should have left with her when she divorced my father." A brief flash of anger appeared in the girl's golden eyes. "But that's in the past. This is the present, and you two girls should totally come with me to Cloud Tower! If your folks get dodgy about the magic thing, just tell them it's a prestigious boarding school, which is totally true, by the way." Stella smiled at Roxy. "Best school for witchcraft in the whole magical universe!"

Bloom looked at her mother, silently begging her to consider letting her go. Gardenia had never been a good fit for her or Roxy. To go somewhere else, somewhere magic was real, might just be the change both of them needed.

"Prove it." The woman stated, earning odd glances from all three girls. "Prove that these two have magic, and I'll talk to their fathers."

"Easy peasy!" Stella grinned, looking at Bloom. "I don't suppose you have any pens or pencils lying around?"

"They're in that cup over there." The blue-eyed girl pointed to a plastic cup with half a dozen pens and pencils sticking out the top.

A wild smirk formed on Stella's lips. With a flick of her fingers, the pens and pencils levitated into the air, twisted, and merged into a single oversized writing utensil.

"Wow…" Roxy breathed.

"Now, I want you to try to separate them." Stella smiled serenely. "Who wants to go first?"

Roxy glanced dubiously at the still-floating pen and gulped. With a shaking hand, she reached out toward the pen, amethyst eyes squinted intently. A pale green glow surrounded it, but the pens didn't separate. "I…I can't do it."

"But you locked onto it, which is still cool and still proves you have magic." The blond pointed out. "Okay, Bloom. Your go."

Bloom made her best squinty face and glared at the pen, her hand reaching out in front of her. An orange-hot glow covered the pen….before it spontaneously turned to ashes.

"Well, I'd say you are definitely a Fire Witch." Stella observed, looking at Bloom's mother. "Believe me now?"

A sigh escaped Mrs. Peter's lips. "I'll talk to your dad, and to your father, Roxy, but I can't guarantee anything with him."

"You don't need to." Roxy said. "I'll just do like Stella suggested and tell him Bloom and I got accepted to a boarding school in another state. It'll be easier to explain than magic."

"We can invite him over for dinner tonight to make it sound more legit." Bloom smiled broadly. "Can't we, Mom?"

"Yes, we can." Her mom nodded wearily. "But we don't get to lie to your father like that. He deserves to know."

"Of course. Yeah." Bloom answered, wrapping her mother in a big hug. "Thanks, Mom! This is the greatest birthday gift ever!"

Dinner that night had been going as well as could be expected. Mr. Klaus was suspicious of the sudden "scholarship" to a far-away boarding school (and of Stella, but she was weaseling her way onto his good side), but Vanessa and Bloom were slowly winning him over to the idea. Mike Peters had been quiet, still reeling from the shock that his daughter was a witch. The girls were talking and laughing and getting to know each other.

And then everything froze. Vanessa froze in the middle of serving Stella some green beans. Mike stopped cold with a fork halfway to his mouth. Mr. Klaus was lifting a glass of water to his lips when he stopped moving. Stella swore.

"Shit, shit, fuck, this is so not good!" She grumbled as Bloom and Roxy stared quizzically at each other.

"What's going on?"

"Level one temporal freeze spell. Only affects non-magical beings. Which apparently does not include your familiars." Stella glanced briefly at Artu and Kiko, who had come into the dining room to investigate. "We probably have about thirty seconds before that stupid ogre comes crashing through here… Roxy, catch!" Stella tossed a device that looked like a mobile phone to the pink haired girl. "Third number on speed-dial. Inter-realm magical cops called Specialists. Let's hope they get here before we kick ogre ass, or they're likely to think we summoned the stupid thing."

Just then, the front door was kicked in by a large creature that definitely was not the ogre the girls fought in the park. Stella swore again.

"Change in plans. Bloom, look in my bag. Get the chalk and candles. You two will bind it in a circle." Stella said, golden energy dancing at her fingertips. "Send a tracking troll after MY staff, will you?" Energy like sunlight poured from her fingers and struck at the large, ugly, blue creature as Bloom ran upstairs in search of Stella's bag and the items inside it.

With each second she spent searching for enough chalk and candles, Bloom felt her anxiety growing. Could she and Roxy cast a circle, whatever that meant? Could they stop the troll, or die trying? Before she turned to go back downstairs, she stopped and closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths and trying to center herself like Vanessa always taught her to do. Warmth spread all over her body, along with newfound resolve.

The troll was going down in flames, she would make sure of it.

"For the last fucking time, that is a binding circle, not a summoning circle!"

Roxy closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose with her right hand as Bloom and Stella continued to swear and scream. Stella, it turned out, had been right about Specialists. They arrived on the scene after the three girls had the troll contained, and assumed Stella had talked them into summoning it. This, of course, set Bloom off and lead to one Specialist receiving second-degree burns on his arm whenever he tried to physically subdue her. Which was still better behavior than Stella displayed, having physically taken a swing at one of them.

This, of course, left Roxy the only on not in magical handcuffs yet. "I'm sorry for this misunderstanding." She told he young man in front of her. "We only just met Stella this afternoon, when we saved her from an ogre trying to get her staff. Whoever sent the ogre probably sent the troll and cast the distortion spell."

The Specialist, clad in the same ridiculous blue and white outfits they all seemed to wear, raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "That's your story?"

"It's the truth." Roxy folded her arms across her chest. "Listen, this is the first conscious spell Bloom or I have ever cast. I barely registered on you scanner thingy, and you think we have the juice to summon a troll? We barely bound the stupid thing before it destroyed her house!"

"Spencer! Let the girls go!" The captain of the Specialist unit called out to the rather pompous man who'd taken it upon himself to argue with Stella. The captain been on the phone with somebody checking the girls' identities. "They are who they say they are. The Solarian court is threatening to press charges against us if we keep their princess detained any longer."

"Finally!" Stella shouted as the handcuffs came off. "And just so you know, my lawyers will be suing you!" She glared at the man she'd tried to punch earlier.

"Can we just start packing now?" Roxy groaned. "We all start as students at Cloud Tower tomorrow morning, and would like to be packed and well-rested before then."

"Of course you can, miss." The captain smiled at her. "The troll's already been shipped out, so you girls should have nothing more to worry about." He either ignored or didn't hear Bloom's snort of disbelief. "Goodnight."

"Good fucking riddance." Stella grumbled as the costumed men gathered onto their spaceship and took off. "Dragon, I hope we don't have to deal with those idiots anymore."

"I don't care if we do. I don't care if the freakin' Teletubbies show up on the front doorstep. I want to go finish packing and get some sleep!" Roxy grumbled.

"Oh, I can help with that." Stella said. "Seriously, with a little magic, we can have both your closets packed in like ten minutes, tops."

"Is the start of the magical school year always this crazy?" Bloom inquired of the taller blond.

"Nah. Usually stuff doesn't get destroyed like this until midterms. So, who wants to get all packed up first?"