Chapter 5: Princess Stella of Solaria
Bloom's dormitory is the dormitory of Stella and three new students, plus one transfer student.
"Medical student, Sheesh! You do not belong here; you are way too young to be enrolled."
This is Stella, taunting. She has a haughty princess of Solaria who blinds a human, Kimberly so that she is unable to go to prom but her previous crush, Robby the changeling nurses her vision back to normal, upsetting her. As Solaria is the last absolute monarchy of all Winx Realms, King Radius and Queen Luna were obsessed with power, Stella learns to act strong and never show any weakness. She unintentionally blinded her childhood friend, Rikkia, and her parents told everyone that it was done on purpose, which gaslit her emotionally. While her parents and the governesses tutored her and tested her so that her Magic Winx has shown prematurely, they initially use her positive emotions but change to negative ones when Stella's magic is not strong enough. Once her Winx started to form at her puberty, the kingdom held a coming-of-age gala. After that, she pushed herself so much to not to disappoint her parents as they did not pay attention to her to focus on their regal duties. At a young age, she had learnt what it means to be a fairy queen; potionology, magiphilosophy, ettiquete, magic linguistics, invocation(magic via charms), convergence, magiphysics, history of magic, magical law, charms, orbing, divination and cosmomagic. Looks do matter in Solaria, thus Stella has a passion for fashion. As she has to wear formal outfits all her life, Alfea is where she can wear without planning, and studied a degree in fashion design and merchandising. She excelled in every Winx-related subject with magic. Due to her sheltered childhood, Stella has organized fashion shows at her freshie year to make up for her lost time. On the second semester, her anxiety was at a maximum level when she makes a shade of pink for her final project for potionology course, thus she accidentally damages the potions lab and was held back for a semester. This accident causes her parents to be separated as divorce is frowned upon in fairy culture, and Luna is demoted to 2nd rank royal consort. Her dad puts so much pressure on her that even a slightest mistake can throw her overboard. To control her powers, she bought a long magical wand that serves as a limiter. Before she went to Alfea, she played drums in the Solarian Philharmonic Orchestra which gave her a brief escape from her palace lifestyle. She was dragged by the pounding so much due to her suppressed anger, that she goes off-sync. Her bandmates are so scarred and embarrassed by her loud drumming and one of them stopped her.
"I am fine, thank you."
"You do not look fine, you have to tell us."
Stella stood up and quit the orchestra cold turkey. When she arrived home, her father gleamed at her.
"How was the orchestra?"
"I quit, father."
"Good cause you will focus of your princess training to Solarian University..."
"I have an offer letter from Alfea University, I am going there."
"Nonsense, who told you to go there, you have duties in Solaria."
"After college, I will arrange a suitor to be the king of Solaria."
Stella, fed up by his speech, pack her bags hastily and leave her room and the palace.
She does not have other outlets to release her feelings, so she visited a psychologist the first time after her chaos in the potions laboratory. She has her own big room, and she is so afraid that her father will take her room away if she does not perform well. Her father has so many wives as polygamy is legal in Solaria but a woman having so many husbands is illegal. Women in Solaria have lesser rights than men generally, even they are subjected to a perplexing dress code and abortion ban.
"You had a whole room for yourself. I had a roommate." Bloom admired.
"Oh yeah, it will be taken away from me soon by my father." Stella was worried that her father still would not approve of going to Alfea University.