Anthology of Graybles

by Str8aura

Fae (Trixie; Slice Of Life)

Equestria is magical. This much is very obvious to anyone who spends more than 30 minutes within it's borders, which is likely because they are very big. Even if the flying horses, Moreauian beasts, furries, tramp stamp identity crises and casual creation of life to ace school tests can be cast aside as standard procedure, there is bound to be something that makes the most stoic of men bite their lip, nod, and say 'ok, yeah, that's kinda weird'. Much like Lord English, you simply can't escape it. It's going to find you.

Luckily for you, we have other things to do besides make Homestuck references all day, so let us return to the second entry of our very specific list; Moreauian beasts, the like of which have probably lost a great number of State Alchemists their licenses and daughters. It's hard to walk for very far in the horse land without running into a chimeric fusion straight out of the Mystery Shack, and while occasionally they're chill dudes who you could call Steve and share a beer with, the majority want to kill you.

This is something they do not feel the need to share on the brochures.

It doesn't seem like something you'd often forget about, but sometimes people have more pressing matters on their minds, such as the preppy bookworm who totally embarrassed you a few hours earlier. What a sack of G-rated fertilizer, much like the manticore currently ripping into her flesh. She should probably get checked for ADHD, given how often her thoughts strayed off track.

Trixie Lulamoon supposed it didn't matter anymore. As she rapidly lost the ability to differentiate between external and internal bleeding, she certainly didn't want her last thoughts to be 'wow, I'm kinda stupid'. Even if she was.

A shrill noise cut through the haze, and she felt her body suddenly dropping, hitting the dirt hard. Whimpers faded as the manticore shrunk back into the wood, and her visions constantly fading in and out began to stabilize. Feeling in her leg returned, and her skull and ribcage began to painfully bend back into shape. Nerves began relighting and connecting, sending information to let her once again feel the snapped horn as it slid back into place.

As her strength returned, she paranoidily rolled onto her back, tail pointed straight at the new presence. A mask of gnarled wood greeted her, suspended in the air by a lime green thaumic aura, catching stray leaves as it rose into the air above her. A bright sphere of light lay behind the mask, shining out through holes carved into the mask. As she watched, more twigs and branches began to roll towards their clearing, coming together in midair to form powerful limbs pulling together like Bionicle pieces.

As she watched the transformation of the savior before her, her mind short circuited, and she blurted out the first thing to come to her mind;

"How dare you interrupt the Great and Powerful Trixie?"

---*---

"Then those idiots somehow found a real Ursa. Like, an actual Ursa Major. Don't ask me how! But they expected me to be able to fight it off, even though those stories were obviously fake! In fact, I told them they were fake beforehand."

"You seem to be changing up a lot of story aspects as you go."

"Yeah, well, I'm remembering things incorrectly. Give me a break, Sprigg, it's been a while."

Trixie grumpily crossed her forelegs, leaning forward to balance out the weight on the front end of her body, currently draped over on top of the Spriggan's head like a wet blanket. The bipedal tree had grown themselves considerably, head reaching just below the tree cover as they journeyed together through the forest, mutually agreeing to follow the same path. As they traversed, several woodland critters and Everfree beasts they had passed began lumbering alongside them, laying aside food chains in the presence of the titan faery.

"You ever have someone who you thought looked up to you just betray you without a second thought?"

"When the fae created the race of changelings, we built them to serve as our eyes and ears in the equish world, but when Queen Chrysalis rose to power, she betrayed our entire race by taking control of the changelings, and slaughtered her creator with an iron horseshoe, using a spindle to become immortal and immune from our reach, creating a civil war that has lasted thousands of years."

"Yeah, it's exactly like that." A lone wasp flew out from the swarm of insects that had begun amassing around them, landing on her shoulder. Trixie absentmindedly began lightly patting its tiny head.

Spriggan furrowed his wooden brow, glancing up to the form on his head quizzically. "You are very vain, mare. Such vices will be your death, or worse. I cannot interfere with mortals, but I dearly wish you salvation on your path. Too many have been lead astray by more wicked fae than me. Our kind often finds humor in toying with those below us."

"Yeah, alright man. Just drop me off at the next Super 8. And, uh, thanks for helping me out back there. I really appreciate it." She wiggled her legs behind her, pushing forward to better look into Spriggan's eyes, clumsily pushing down on the rest of his face.

"These forests are home to much more than meets the eye. I believe it should be our job to peacefully guide wayward travellers, rather than push them away or lure them into our traps."

He pushed away a tree in front of him, walking out onto a civilized road. As he reached the end of the wood, he stopped, reaching up to pluck Trixie off of his head and letting her sit up on his palm.

"A great battle will occur in these woods this coming winter, when Frau Holle begins to make her bed. I advise you to stay out when that happens."

"Didn't catch that last part, but I'll wait until next summer to come back here. See you."

Spriggan gently placed his palm on the grass, and she hopped into the road, waving a quick goodbye to him before trotting off, head held high and mightily as if she hadn't come within an inch of death thirty minutes earlier. The tree spirit furrowed his brow once again, lightly huffing, before turning and marching back into the Everfree, seeming to turn invisible as he blended in with the woods.

Author's Note:

The picture that prompted it

Comments

[ArceusFan493]

I've always loved benevolent and big ol' softy lug Fae like this, and this scratched that itch quite finely :D

[Str8aura]

10341536
fuck dude same