Nivara was sulking, and she was in top form today.

Faerie City was a bustle of activity. Fyora had just started her plan to try having Neopets come to them for quests. It had sounded like a good idea to most – more opportunities to obtain vital items, and less chances of approaching a Neopet for a quest only to have them dismissively turn it down. But even Fyora was having to rethink things, because all those grubbing Neopets wanted blessings and there just weren’t enough faeries that had things that needed to be done to keep up with them. So now Faerie City was positively overrun

She could have gotten in on the action, of course. Neopets would be lining up to fetch her anything she asked for. But she was just a young faerie, and she had no reason to give quests. She’d entertained the thought; anything to break the boredom, after all. But what was the point of blessing Neopets for junk? She did not have any experimental spells in progress or plans for Neopian domination in the works.

That last part was actually a sore spot with her. She just... Nivara sighed. She had never quite fit in among her peers - not ambitious enough for a Dark Faerie, and too sulky and brooding for everyone else. Oh, sure, she had the general demeanor down pat, but the heart (or lack of one, she wasn’t really sure)… she rolled her eyes. She never heard the end of it. But really, why were all the other Dark Faeries so stupid? It was always the same – they made their little vicious cantrips and schemed their schemes, and when they went too far, Fyora came with her stern hand and pushed them back into line. Nothing important they tried ever worked.

And really, what was the point of trying to take control of Neopia? Neopets were annoying. Exerting power was annoying. Why anyone would want to be at the helm of that, she had no idea. And Nivara understood revenge as well as any Dark Faerie did – something to be pursued with the fiercest, most burning of hungers. But attacking random Neopets for the thrill of it? Again, that was stupid. Making enemies for no reason was stupid. In fact, if so many of her kin weren’t so stupid, none of them would have to put up with Balthazar these days.

But whenever she tried to voice her thoughts to her kin, they all just sneered at her. “Oh, look at Nivara, going soft,” they’d titter to each other. “Why she’s not an Earth Faerie, I have no idea.”

Delina had the right idea, she thought – doing something actually productive for society, something that wasn’t going to end with Fyora coming after her like the Chia Police. Except that faerie was so stupidly cheerful and happy that sometimes she wondered if the Crafting Faerie was really just another type of faerie in disguise.

Not that she was one to talk, according to just about everyone else she knew.

…Then there was that other Dark Faerie, the one that had collected a swimming pool full of toys from questing Neopets that she liked to play around in. At least Nivara could feel normal in comparison to her.

A leaf fluttered down onto her nose, and she sneezed. One snap of her fingers later and the offending leaf exploded into purple sparks.

Yeah, Earth Faerie that.

Dark Faeries were too stupid to see the bigger picture, everyone else was too happy to put up with, and trees didn’t even have the decency to hold onto their leaves. She sighed again and traced a circle in the dirt with one of her nails. Everything seemed so pointless. She was almost considering talking to Fyora to see if the Faerie Queen had any ideas on what she could do – but only almost. Heavens knew she’d be a laughingstock among her peers if she ever did that.

Another leaf landed on her head, followed by two more. She growled, looking up. The branch directly above her was shaking. She had half a mind to zap it off and save herself the trouble, but a flicker of intuition stopped her. None of the other branches were disturbed… and she thought she saw a patch of pastel blue among the leaves.

A couple more leaves fell, and the faerie squinted, brushing aside the leaves in her purple hair. A second later, a head poked out from the leaves, giggling, and she blinked. A baby Aisha was up in the tree, gleefully smiling down at her…

Nivara rolled her eyes, and without even looking toward the noise muttered “Please, go away. I don’t want the company today.” The baby Aisha ignored this and approached the faerie, stopping short a few inches away. Then, it started to sing. Neopian lullabies were like claws on a chalkboard to dark faeries and Nivara was no exception. She tried to plug her ears but it did not help. “Okay, you win!” She exclaimed. “What in the world do you want from me?!”

The Aisha stopped singing and smiled. She pointed to a small cave to the left, obscured by a thick overgrowth of wild Faerie Flowers.

Nivara reluctantly stood and approached the spot where the Aisha pointed.

“So, what?” she scoffed. “It’s just an old abandoned cave. Faerieland has loads of them.”

The Aisha continued to point, unblinking.

Nivara shot a spark of light into the dark cave and gasped. “Woah…” was all she could manage to say.

In the hazy light that filled the cave, Nivara could make out what appeared to be no less than a hundred baby Neopets of varying species staring back at her…

The Aisha blinked back, innocently.

"Oh...oh!" exclaimed Nivara, wheeling back and forth, ready to catch whoever had thought this would be an amusing prank. "This is rich! Which one of you sad excuses for a Dark Faerie thought this would be even mildly funny?"

Not a leaf stirred, this time. The woods were quiet, save the incorrigible Beekadoodles, of course.

The Aisha remained, smiling, blinking, like Baby pets are all wont to do.

No way was she buying in to this. Nivara took a step back from the cave, still facing the Babies, half expecting them to disappear in a cloud of smoke while some immature dark faerie stood in their place, snickering at her wit.

But no...there they remained, pacifiers and big eyes.

Nivara turned away, determined to head straight home and stay there for the rest of the day. And yet...the sound of small paws shifted behind her.

She turned around, and there they were -- all of them -- following her out of the cave, looking at HER expectantly...

However, something still nagged at the back of her mind. The Dark Faerie was almost sure that it was the doing of one of her evil sisters (Nivara believed them to be more lame than sinister though). Her intuition wasn't exactly always on-the-spot, but there was no rational explanation as to why a hundred or so Baby Neopets would congregate in a cave. She knew how the brains of Dark Faeries worked all too well (she is one minus ambition, after all) and this - this was definitely something they would pull off.

Then, another suspicious thought came to Nivara as she thought about the baby Aisha whom had disturbed her. Its actions were rather ... mature ... for a baby. How could it have climbed up on to such a tall tree without a single noise or injury? It was also a wonder how the baby could have found its way back so easily to the cave, as if it had memorised the route. Could the Aisha be a Dark Faerie in disguise? Could it possibly be one elaborate set-up to frame her, make her the scapegoat of some Faerie's brilliant plan?

All these possibilities were brainstormed in around a minute but her attention was snapped by the babies when a few of them began climbing on her. "Get off!" she exclaimed, irritated as she pulled them off of her one by one. What should she do? Notify Fyora or catch the suspect herself? She had seen Fyora for the past few days, and she looked as if she was extremely busy with her plan, so that would mean ...

"No," groaned Nivara. The baby Aisha, who was among the closest to her, cocked her head to one side, giggling and grinning at the Faerie. That Aisha really IS suspicious, thought Nivara. The other babies were not even paying attention to her, yet this Aisha ... it seemed more observant and careful than the others.

Nivara made up her mind. She decided to stick with the babies for a bit to keep an eye out for any unusual activity ...

Well if there was anything less unusual than this Nivara had yet to see it.

"What are you guys doing now?" she asked them halfheartedly with an edge of skepticism.

The Aisha, unsurprisingly, had taken the helm. And then it started to march, with its army of baby Neopets behind it.

"Wait where are you going!" The dark faerie chased after them. They weren't moving quickly, but quick enough to give her something of a workout.

Then again exercise was stupid.

At last, they neared the outskirts of Faerie City. "I don't know where you're going but I know where I'm going -- to get the Palace Guard!"

Then, the babies stopped. The Aisha turned its head toward Nivara. "Are you kidding? We are the Palace Guard..."

“What?” Let it not be said that Nivara was without the usual Dark Faerie skills. For instance, boundless exasperation. She was on fire with that one right now. “You just – what? You can talk? What are you even supposed to be?”

That was a rhetorical question. You were not supposed to answer rhetorical questions. Especially if you were a baby Neopet, and lacked the basic intelligence to know what the word ‘rhetorical’ even meant.

This baby hadn’t gotten the memo. “Guard Captain Aisheeva, standing at attention.” She made a clumsy attempt at a bow.

Nivara stared some more.

“You know what?” She shook her head dismissively. “I was willing to believe somebody had, for some unfathomable reason, dumped a bunch of babies in a cave for some hapless faerie to deal with. And I was willing to believe that a certain Aisha was attempting to make my life miserable on purpose. But now? I think I’m going to go back to my tree. Whatever’s going on, this ceased to be funny before it started. Get a new act and bother someone else.”

“I’m afraid we can’t do that.”

“Uh-huh. Look, say I believe you. I’ve wasted an entire hour of this pointless day watching the lot of you act like the brainless drooling morons you are, and now you start talking? It’s not just you, right? You’re all in on this?” She pointed to a baby Quiggle in one of the nearer formations. “Name and rank, or I’m turning you into a Frogarott.”

“Private Jenkins, at your service, ma’am. Might be preferable to being a baby. Ma’am.”

Huh. They’d been being serious. Or their inane babbling was sounding improbably close to a correct answer. She wasn’t ruling that one out.

“I assure you, there’s no need for that.” The Aisha stepped forward. “You have before you one-hundred and eight soldiers of the Faerieland Palace Guard. Or what used to be the Faerieland Palace Guard. It’s been a… trying day.”

“Then what was all that – playing dumb?” Just when she’d settled into the idea that maybe somebody wasn’t trying to pull one over on her, and maybe there was a cave of abandoned baby Neopets in Faerieland that maybe somebody ought to do something about – it turned out that yes, somebody had been playing her the whole time.

Dark Faeries really, really did not like being played, and this was making Nivara just a tiny bit peeved.

“Observation. Reconnaissance. Take your pick – we’re the royal guard. We do all of them.” The Aisha held a paw to her chest. It might have been a salute on a properly sized Neopet – as a baby, the Aisha was only able to hold it for a few dangerously wobbling seconds before she tripped. She quickly stood, brushing grass from her coat, eyes calm and dignified. “We’ve heard the rumors. But we had to be sure…”

“Sure of what?” Nivara wasn’t sure she liked where this was going. She certainly didn’t like where it was, but things could always get worse. Even if current events had her being down-talked by a baby.

“That you weren’t like other Dark Faeries.” The Aisha shook her head. “No offense meant to you, of course, ma’am, but given how we ended up in this situation, we can’t be too cautious.”

“Can’t be too – wait.” Nivara clapped a sharp-nailed hand to her forehead. Of course. Of course. Her stupid peers couldn’t keep their pointless schemes off for one day – of course they were going to try something while Fyora was preoccupied. It was elementary. It’d fail, of course, because they were all too stupid to realize that nothing ever worked, because they’d driven their reputation into the ground with a million and one other failed plans and everyone else always saw it coming.

“Who was it this time?” she spat. “Vindiara? Wait, no, this isn’t her style – this might have taken a few more brain cells than she’s in possession of. Mordica? Taelann?”

Aisheeva shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t know her name, ma’am. I never saw her at all – only a few of the recruits caught a glimpse, and the only descriptions I’ve heard were… well, that of a Dark Faerie. We were knocked out – when we came to, we were miles from the city, and… transformed. The palace has been unguarded since then.”

“Of course.” Nivara sighed. It didn’t matter. She’d be able to find out on her own; she might be an outsider in most Dark Faerie circles, but a plan put into action would be a hot topic for weeks. She drew herself up and stared haughtily down at the assembled babies. “So what do you want, Neopets? A hug and a ‘there, there’? Sorry, but I’m fresh out.”

Aisheeva clucked her tongue. “Nothing of the sort. We’re Neopets of action – I’m sure somebody like you can appreciate that.”

She folded her arms. As much as she disliked Neopets in general, she couldn’t argue with that. Still, they wanted something from her, which she could, and would, argue with. Nivara didn’t do favors. She didn’t do deals. Come to think of it, she didn’t do very much of anything these days.

But if the assembled morons she called kin were trying something… well, somebody had to do something. And normally she’d be quite happy to let that somebody go about and save the day while she sulked and internally complained about the state of the world, but fate – or a cadre of bite-sized guards, whatever – had apparently decided she was going to be that somebody. Well. She might have something to say about that.

Or… not. She didn’t really have a choice in the matter; when this all got cleared up, because it would get cleared up, the guards would doubtless let Fyora know they’d approached her, and that she’d turned them down. Either Nivara could lose some favor with whoever was behind this – and that was a joke, her reputation was already bottomed out – or she could get Fyora’s personal ire. And that was not something she ever, ever wanted to be on the receiving end of, because unlike most of the faeries she knew, Nivara wasn’t an idiot.

She could wipe their minds of ever having met her, of course, but… what was the point? She just… Sure, she was annoyed, and this whole situation was ten kinds of ridiculous, but when it came down to it, she just wasn’t that mean-spirited. “I’m listening.”

“We’re all under a curse, and the other faeries we’ve approached have all said the same thing. It was dark magic that did this to us – it has to be dark magic that brings us back…”

Whoever cast this spell had to be pretty powerful... Nivara cast a wary eye over the hoard of Baby Neopets the Faerie Guard had been diminished too. It would take an awful lot of magic to turn this many, so quickly. So it would take at least that much magic to unravel the spell. Was she strong enough for that? The most ambitious spell she'd done recently was enchanting Mordica's shoes to grow teeth and bite her every time she tried to put them on. Which had been highly entertaining. This looked like a substitution spell, somewhere a dark faerie had a hundred or so plushies that all looked exactly like the Faerie Guard.... All she had to do was break the link and they'd swap back into their bodies and leave the offending Dark Faerie with a pile of disgustingly cute Baby Plushies.

"For a spell that big, we'd need a lot of ingredients... I don't know how long it would take to gather them all."

She mused out loud and Aisheeva cleared her throat and gestured to the city.

"Excuse me Miss, but I'm sure the Neopets visiting would be happy to help."

Nivara narrowed her eyes because she loathed the idea of using simple minded pets, the kind that dribbled all over the city in eager anticipation for a blessing. Still, she hated haggling at the shops more.

"Fiiiiiiiiine. But they better not be a disappointment!"

She said sharply and clicked her fingers towards a Spotted Uni lurking nearby who trotted over obediently.

"You there -Hey look at me not the babies!- bring me a "Salt Mote""

The Uni didn't ask questions, just sprinted off into the Marketplace and Nivara wrinkled her nose at the dust cloud that appeared.

Within minutes the overly enthusiastic Uni was back, clutching the Salt Mote. Nivara had to admit she was impressed at the speed, sweeping it off the Uni and dropping it into her bag. The Uni was stood staring at her, as if it wanted to be turned into a Puppyblew and Nivara frowned down at it.

"The blessing?"

The Uni asked meekly and Nivara groaned before reaching out and tapping a finger on the Uni's mane, letting the dark magic flow from her and enhance the Neopet.

The moment the blessing had been given, more Neopets arrived on the scene, jostling for her attention, begging for a task. Good, because she needed a lot of things for this spell and they were running out of time.

She'd declined to mention to Aisheeva and the rest of the Guard that if they didn't reverse the spell soon, they'd be stuck as babies forever...

"You, a Flaming Scroll."

"I've got one in my SDB!" said the excited Kyrii.

There were only a few more left. Good. Nivara was running out of ingredients she needed.

"OK," she started after turning to face a Ruki, "an Electro Sword." He saluted her and dashed off.

"And you," she barked at a little kid Usul -- she didn't like little kids with their snot noses and their constant whining how "grown up" they were in comparison to their baby brethren -- "I need anything with the word 'chocolate' in it."

He took out a half-eaten Baby Cybunny Chocolate Egg. "Will this do miss?"

Quickly, but with no effort to hide her disgust, she agreed it would. "Fine, come here and be blessed." She put her hand on his head and he trounced away practically levitating.

"My first faerie quest, my first faerie quest!" the Usul sang out.

She actually almost smiled at that. More of a non-frown, but still.

"You lucky Neopet getting to fetch me the last item," she told the remaining Wocky. "I need a Shadow Usul Lunch Box."

"You bet!" the Neopet said as she clapped her hands.

The faerie rubbed her hands together. This was hard work.

And then she stared down to see a young Moehog sadly walking away. "I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough miss."

Nivara frowned, but out of... no, not spite. Pity?

"Look, kid," she started, "how about you get me a... a codestone? Yeah." Yeah. She could sell it later or something. "Any one will do."

He practically beamed. "You mean a plushie?"

"No."

"Why don't you ask for toys like the other dark faeries?" he inquired with an innocent face.

"Why don't you shut up," Nivara retorted, folding her arms.

He looked like he was ready to speak when she snapped her fingers and said, "And yes that WAS rhetorical."

The Moehog quickly ran off.

There, she was back.

***

The Neopets had returned and Nivara blessed them all. It was a difficult task, as she wasn't used to it, but she supposed it was kind of nice, if only because she was being nice. She could gloat about it later, but she really wasn't the kind to gloat.

The dark faerie had since fused all the necessary objects together into an orb, which she held safely in the lunch box. She could not touch the orb lest it absorb her dark magic as opposed to that of the linkage spell.

Aisheeva asked her, "Do you need us to walk behind you?"

"Nah, you'd only get in the way. And if the one who did this to you saw you she'd probably just increase the strength of the link spell." She paused and gazed upward. "This mission needs to be stealth. For now, I must go alone."

"Then so be it," the Aisha replied. "Best luck Navira." She put up her arms, looking like she was going to hug the faerie.

The faerie quickly stepped out of reach. "Nivara, but... er, thanks," she replied, now staring into the Aisha's eyes. "I promise I'll follow through with this."

"And we promise we'll leave you alone, for now."

She walked off towards her village.

***

"Hello?" she called out when she neared the outskirts. Her village was never bustling, but she had never seen it so quiet. "Ruuri? Taelann?"

She then thought she heard faint screaming. Slowly, quietly, Nivara walked towards it.

It was coming from Mariyah's home...

Gingerly she walked towards it and peered in through the window.

Fyora was strapped to a chair, all the dark faeries in the village surrounding her, keeping her there with their magic. She was muzzled, and grunting.

Well, this certainly was a new one. Maybe they actually succeeded, for once.

Nah.

Admittedly she couldn't be bothered to get involved but she had promised the babies she would restore them to their former selves, and she wasn't one to break promises. She wasn't really one to make them, either, but she supposed she was bound in this case.

The dark faerie tiptoed around to the back entrance of the home and opened the door a crack. Nivara peered into the storage room.

There stood Mariyah, giggling to herself, all the plushies of the Palace Guards surrounding her. "And a pinch for you and a pinch for you," she chanted as she sprinkled a fine green powder on the plushies.

Oh no, Nivara thought to herself. This was the last stage in the spell, the one that would permanently transform the guards into babies.

Mariyah giggled some more.

Ugh, she looks as loony as the toy questing dark faerie.

Nivara decided it was time to spring into action.

Picking up a twig from the ground she exploded it into a hundred purple pieces, a hundred little crackling sounds rapidly accompanying.

Mariyah stopped and turned her head towards the door. "Who's there?"

In response, Nivara did the same with the stalk of a Faeriewing Plant growing naturally outside the Neohome.

As soon as she heard footsteps approaching Nivara floated upwards.

Mariyah walked out of the house and took a few steps around, making sure nothing was amiss.

Meanwhile Nivara dashed inside and slammed the door behind her, locking it with dark magic.

"Get out of there whoever you are!" came Mariyah's voice on the other side. "Or I'll turn you into a Lurman!"

Nivara knew she had to work quick. She opened the lunchbox and drat the hinge was stuck and--

And came Mariyah's voice, "This is just rich. Navira."

Navira gritted her teeth and kept working; she opened the lunch box just as the door opened.

"What other dark faerie -- a class of faerie whose magic I am fully capable of reversing -- would possibly think to double cross the tribe?" Mariyah floated down to her.

"I didn't double cross you guys," Nivara started. "You guys did another stupid thing and I'm just trying to clean up the mess."

Mariyah then grabbed Nivara by the throat. "Good little Navira," Mariyah spoke softly, her voice like poisoned honey, "so quick to be the first never to be involved in our scheming." She squeezed harder and Nivara started to gag. "Shame Fyora won't be around to see your heroic acts. Because we have her locked up." She started to giggle again. Then she looked down and saw the orb sitting in the lunch box -- and immediately knew its purpose. "Nice orb you have there, mind if I touch i--"

With a burst of purple energy Nivara sent the codestone, in the back pocket of her dark dress, hurdling towards the village's most proficient dark faerie's head.

Out for a few seconds, a few seconds was all Nivara needed. Not even focusing about breathing -- she could breathe again, big whoop -- she flung the lunchbox, and the orb, to the center of the circle of plushies, whereupon all plushies glowed purple for a second before returning to what they were -- plushies.

"You FOOL!" Mariyah yelped.

Nivara just looked at the faerie, frowning. "I'm not the fool here."

From the other room, where Fyora was being held, there was a loud crash.

From outside came the sounds of marchers.

"This place is surrounded by the Palace Guard!" came the rough, elder voice of the one Nivara knew to be the re-transformed Aishaveera.

Fyora floated into the room to greet Nivara -- and Mariyah. "Poor Mariyah." The Faerie Queen shook her head. "Balthazar for you... again."

"But how did you get out?" Mariyah asked, her voice a mix of pleading and defeat.

"I always had the power to," the queen said with a mischievous smile, "but I was just waiting until my guards were free. I could have broken the linkage spell myself but I sensed a dark orb enter the premises and thought I wouldn't break the illusion lest you faeries up your power. Also I'd see if the rumors were true."

"What rumors?" Nivara asked.

"Dark faerie rumors, that there was one among you who was actually... intelligent enough to not scheme?"

Scowling and uttering repeated ambiguous I'LL GET YOU YETs, Mariyah was escorted away by the Palace Guards, as were all the other dark faeries save for Nivara.

"Thanks so much," an adult Aisha said to the dark faerie before giving her a hug.

"Er, I'm not a fan of hugs but... well why not." Nivara hugged back and then pulled away. "You're, er, you're welcome."

Fyora flitted over to her. "You know Nivara I could use someone like you--"

"Nope," Nivara cut her off before wandering away. She had done her part, she really didn't need to do any more. She didn't care to do any more.

"No, really," the Faerie Queen continued, rushing over to the dark faerie. "I think you'd be a great candidate for a position in the Faerieland Youth Wing. Aisheeva was telling me you seem to have a lot of compassion for the young--"

"Look, that was just this one time."

"Well, I can provide you more opportunities." She looked into Nivara's eyes. "Lots of our youth ponder the seemingly endless pointlessness and what roles they are here to play. I believe you can aid them down the right paths."

"But I don't know MY path, Fyora."

"Maybe this is your path, Nivara."

Nivara thought about this. She supposed she could. But... "Eh, I'll think about it, thanks for the offer." The dark faerie smiled. No wait this was more of a... eh, it was actually a smile. Maybe she did like the sounds of this.

And just like that she was alone in the village, Fyora gone, the guards gone, her stupid sister-faeries gone. The turmoil gone.

She walked up to her home and lay on her bed. Maybe tomorrow... maybe, she would go visit Fyora. Probably. Why not. What'd she have to lose?

Nivara fell into a deep, well-deserved sleep.

The End.