Almost three years.

That's how long I've been working on Sisters in Flame. I'd actually attempted a few Winx Club x Ever After High crossovers a long time ago (all of them failures) and when I got around to publishing this story in late 2018, I thought that was the finalized version. But it turned out I was too quick to officalize it.

Winx Club and Ever After High are two completely different universes, with characteristics that are far from similar (with the sole exception of magic). I wanted to write a serious crossover (not one of those "character from Universe #1 wakes up in Universe #2 plots) but with their vastly different storylines, I had trouble finding an equilibrium between them. I rushed into the story without actually having a clear picture of how I was going to combine the two universes. For example: if Bloom and Raven are the focus of the story, how can they constantly interact with each other if they go to unrelated schools? With them being too different types of sorceresses (fairy and witch), I couldn't even send Raven to Cloud Tower because they'd still be separated. And what about the rest of the EAH cast? Most of them aren't even sorcerers, so there's no way they'd have reasonable proximity to Raven or Bloom. I wanted the EAH cast to be just as relevant as the Winx Club cast but at first glance, there's no easy way to merge them thanks to the school situation. The EAH characters are strictly dependent on the setting of Ever After High and the Fairytale World, while the Winx crew is dependent on Alfea and Magix. To settle on the traits of just one universe would be to neglect the other and if that happened, what would even be the point of a crossover?

My initial plan was to disregard both the Winx and EAH storylines all together and put the characters in a brand new one, but that felt…bland. Without the vastness of Magix, the glittery nostalgia of Alfea, the royal-rebel drama of Ever After High, and the enchanting dream-like feel of the Fairy Tale World, there was no story. So I had to scrap my initial plan for Sisters in Flame.

That happened in 2019. I've tried to add on to the story several times between then and 2020, but nothing "fit." Thus, I spent the entirety of 2020 creating the perfect formula for this fic. Using Winx Club's Season 6 as a foundation, I was slowly but surely able to put together a plot that doesn't compromise the uniqueness or beauty of either series.

So that brings us to the beginning of 2021. At that point, I was ready to start on my finalized version of SIF, but it was…hard. I never really finished my prologue for the first version, so writing the prologue for the new version was unnecessarily hard. It was difficult to write without being reminded of my past failures. Despite being at a better place, the same frustrations would enter my headspace, slowing down the writing process. I can and have written other parts of the story with girlish enthusiasm but whenever I work on the introduction, I just…shut down. It's September 2021 and I've finally overcome this obstacle. I've written all of the prologue and will hopefully release chapter 1 in the near future. I was going to wait until I wrote chapter 1 and 2 to post but I wanted to see if people are still invested before I go any further. Thanks to the Netflix series, the Winx fandom has been renewed, so I'm hoping people will tune in to this story again.

You can skip Bloom's bit of the preface. You guys have probably read it enough over these past 2 and a half years, so don't even bother. Just skip to the end where I switch back to Raven's POV.

I'm aware that it says this story was updated this year already. I never deliberately "updated"; the staff made a change to the website so whenever you delete a chapter it automatically bumps it up on the 'recently updated' list. Or maybe it's always been like that. It's been so long since I've updated anything I don't even feel like an author anymore. For those of you wondering about O Wondrous Wielder of the Winds, I haven't abandoned it; I just brushed it and all my other stories aside to brainstorm for Sisters in Flame. There are other crossovers I want to create/publish on my other account as well (I have a separate account for my anime fics), but I haven't gotten to those since 2019. I told myself that I wasn't going to do anything until I've overcome the introduction for SIF, so here it is. At long last.

For those wondering: this is my LAST time restarting the story. If it doesn't work I'll just scrap the idea altogether. But I'm confident that won't happen. I'm more confident about SIF than I've ever been.

Thanks to everyone who's stuck around this long. You mean a lot to me, and I'm thankful for all the chances you've given me. I hope updates will be frequent because I feel like we all need a little cheer in our lives. The world has changed significantly since I first published in 2018 (the invasion of the COVID-19 pandemic) and I want Sisters in Flame to serve as an innocent distraction from all the crap we've been through, both physically and mentally.

I didn't expect this to be so long, but just detailing my struggles on paper is therapeutic. Thanks to staying tuned; the wait will be worth your while, I promise. With those words, I bid you a temporary farewell. May you have peace, health, and safety in all future endeavors.

~ Rosalite.