A dark figure stood atop a tall roof. Their long black and purple cape fluttered in the slight breeze. The figure’s gaze looked out above the horizon to the massive tree that was twisted up through the roof of a small apartment building. Its roots were plowed through the street and sidewalks around it, while branches and vines wrapped around and through the building, sticking out of windows and holes that had been forcefully created. The tree itself was a beautiful sight. Its large leaves swayed and shone a flashy green in the sunlight. It was an abnormal view in the middle of winter. The caped figure felt it was in some ways truly a shame that the city was planning to have it removed today. 

---

Lizzy woke up feeling exhausted and with a pounding headache. She rolled over from her face-down position, only to land on something sensitive. 

“Ow!” The gothic princess shot up, stroking her crushed but otherwise fine wing. Right, the moth-girl thing. She was still getting used to it. She could theoretically hang upside down from the ceiling to sleep. According to the other pixies, that was how their last queen had slept. Lizzy wasn’t brave enough to try it yet, however. 

Looking around her, Lizzy found Heather’s living room to be an utter disaster. Had they had a party or did someone rob Heather? Furniture was knocked over. The TV lay broken on the floor. Pans, plates, and cups from the kitchen were scattered across the floor, many of them broken. Most of Heather's wall decorations and shelves were knocked down. 

If not for the fact that Heather, Scarlett, and a dozen pixies were scattered around the room snoring, she would have been worried about a break-in. Instead, she worried about Heather’s reaction upon waking. Lizzy grabbed the cup in front of her and put it to her lips. The smallest drop of liquid trickled out of it and met her tongue. It was sweet with a strangely bitter aftertaste, but nothing like alcohol. Even from the small drop, however, she could feel a trickle of magic run through her. Her head felt just a little lighter, and a smile creased her face. 

“No!” 

A hand pushed the cup from her fingers, making it roll across the floor. Lizzy looked up to see Heather wide awake and panting. 

“No more… pixie alcohol,” she said and then groaned while grasping her head in her hands. 

“Are you okay?” Lizzy asked her. 

“I’m fine. Typical hangover.” She looked up to meet the fairy girl’s eyes. “How are you feeling?”

“The same. Was there,” she looked around the room, “a party?”

“Unfortunately. It was the pixies’ idea, but at least it seemed to work.”

“Huh?” Lizzy looked at her in confusion.

“Lizzy, you’ve been walking about the house for two days in a dazed stupor. And that’s when you haven’t been sleeping for far too many hours.”

“Oh… I don’t remember.”

“It’s okay.” Heather tapped a hand on her shoulder. “As long as you’re feeling alright.” 

From the corner, Scarlett moaned. “I feel sick,” she mumbled and flopped over to her back. “Whatever we did last night, let’s not do it again.” 

“Don’t worry,” a pixie said while rubbing sleep from their eyes. “That’s all the golden nectar we had.” 

Lizzy stood and made her way to Scarlett, sitting down beside her. “Hey.”

“Lizzy, you’re okay again,” the bunny-eared girl said with a smile. She wrapped her arms around the moth-girl, pulling her down to the floor in a hug.

“I’m okay.”

As the two embraced, Heather got up to her feet and made her way to the kitchen. “I’m going to try and make some breakfast. Why don’t all of you try to get this room back in order while I’m cooking.” She eyed the pixies in particular, half of whom were awake already. 

Several hours later they sat around the somehow intact living room table. Heather and Scarlett were still sipping on coffee, while the pixies were all on and around their princess. Pip, who Lizzy had found out was a boy, stood off her right shoulder. 

“So, fun,” Scarlett commented. “The fae really live off of having fun.”

Bloom sat down in the middle of the table and nodded. “Fun.”

“Well, that should be simple then,” Heather said. “What do you like to do for fun, Lizzy?”

Everyone turned to look at the moth princess. 

“Umm. I don’t… know?”

“Well, surely there’s gotta be something you normally do. A hobby or something?”

“I suppose sometimes I like watching TV?”

Heather shrugged. “Sure, let’s try that then.”

They made their way to the living room and piled onto the couch. Heather pushed the power button on the remote and handed it to Lizzy. They sat in silence as Lizzy began channel flipping. After a minute, they ended up on a news channel.

“This is boring,” a pixie said. 

“Yeah, I guess this isn’t actually all that much fun,” the gothic princess admitted. “Moreso a habit.”

“Well, there’s gotta be something else you do?” Heather pressed. “Like games you play, or reading, or anything really?”

Lizzy paused to think again, and then shrugged. “Not really...”

Scarlett sighed. “We’ll just have to come up with something together then!” She bumped her fist down onto the table. 

“And now for the talk of the town,” the television newscaster said. “I’m here with Director Saltera from Vezz Inc. We’re taking callers today to discuss the large tree that appeared in the city several days ago. Director, what do you think of the city’s new plantlife?”

“I’ll admit it looks nice, but ultimately I’m glad the city has hired us to take it down. The building isn’t structurally stable. It’s bound to come crumbling down and hurting someone at some point.”

“Take it down? They can’t do that!” a pixie shouted.

“And what do you think of the criticism that it goes against the Fae Preservation Ordinance?”

“I don’t have anything against the fae. The fact is that the pixies who created it seem to have abandoned the tree. If it was important to them, they would have surely stuck around. What’s important here is that the structure is a danger to the city. Fae or not, something needs to be done.”

 “Princess, we’ve got to do something!” Bloom said and floated up to her.

“What’s important about the tree?” Heather asked.

“That’s where new pixies are born!” 

Another pixie said, “It’s the Tree of Life.”

Scarlett stood. “Don’t worry Bloom, we’ll figure out something. We won’t let them take your tree down.”

“Let’s take our first caller of the day. Andrew, what are your thoughts on the tree?”

“I think he’s right, the tree’s gotta go. Who knows how many kids probably walk through there on their way to school. It’s a danger to everyone nearby.”

“What can we do?” Lizzy asked.

“We’ll go down there and make a stand,” Scarlett asserted, her hands on her hips. “We’re supers now, Lizzy. We can do this, for sure!”

“What about that fae girl that people saw recently?” a different caller said. “If there was ever proof that the tree might be important for something, it would be her. I think we should leave it up. The fae are nearly extinct as it is. Who knows how important this tree might be to them?”

A blurry image of a naked Lizzy flying through the air came up on the screen. Lizzy turned beet-red. “There’s -- there’s pictures?!”

The Director replied. “We have no reason to believe that any such faerie girl actually exists. The images are clearly fabricated to create controversy.”

---

Costumes were hard, Lizzy decided. Thanks to Heather’s endless closet, everyone but Lizzy had scraped together a cool disguise, even a few of the pixies. Scarlett had on a dark red dress, a black crop-topped faux leather jacket, and a bunny-themed metallic mask that she had, unknown to Lizzy, been designing for several days. She even had on some studded knuckle gloves and a weird metal gadget around her wrist. 

Heather had put together something as well. A tight white and red spandex suit went up her body to her upper neck followed by a white and somehow cute gasmask. It was a superheroine outfit she’d made for a convention a couple of years ago. Over that was a utility belt with several pockets that included some pepper spray. 

Lizzy meanwhile had on the only dress that Heather had which would fit her. Because of her large wings, she needed something with a very low back, which meant either cutting it out of an outfit or taking the small black dress that fit. Even with that, they still ended up cutting out holes for her second pair of arms. In addition to the dress, Lizzy had on a simple black masquerade mask. Considering how cool it was outside, she felt underdressed. The only upside was that due to her exoskeleton, she didn’t feel temperatures the same as she used to. 

She looked around the room. Were they actually doing this? Despite the cool outfit, Heather didn’t even have powers. And Lizzy had no idea what magical things she could do, if anything. Part of her felt that this was a terrible idea. But wasn’t this also kind of like a protest, in a way? Perhaps she was worried over nothing. 

“Do I have any cool powers, you think?” She looked to everyone in the room.

“I’m sure you’ve gotta have something,” Heather assured her. “What could the last Queen do? She had to have some kind of fae magic right?” she asked the pixies. 

The pixies nodded eagerly. “She was very powerful,” Bloom confirmed. “What she wanted to happen just… happened.” She snapped her fingers.

“Okay, but how?” Lizzy queried as she leaned forward towards the pixie.

Bloom shrugged. “She was centuries old. I think she figured it out over time, long ago.”

“Oh.” Lizzy slumped over in disappointment. She would have to figure out what she could do the hard way. 

“Alright, now how are we getting there?” Heather asked. Everyone looked at her questioningly, and she sighed. “We can’t just bust in and out the apartment building looking like a bunch of supers. People will figure out where I live.”

“Let’s fly!” a pixie, Lizzy was pretty sure her name was Leaf, said. 

When no one had any better ideas, and the pixies assured the group that they could carry them all, Heather gave a resigned, “I suppose we can take the elevator up.” 

Thus the two costumed humans, a fairy princess, and a dozen pixies snuck out into the hallway and to the elevators. Heather pressed the button to the highest floor, and they were off at a slow elevator pace. 

As everyone settled into the wait about halfway up the building, the elevator stopped. The doors slid open to reveal a tall gentleman in a suit. He stared into the crowded elevator, confused to find it full of pixies and… whatever it was the other three were. Slowly he stepped a foot inside, and then as though he wasn’t certain the elevator was stable, carefully moved in his other foot. He stared at everyone a moment longer, before turning to press the button for his floor. No one spoke a word.

Two floors up and they all breathed a sigh of relief when he stepped back off. They made it up to the roof and stepped out into the cool but sunny air. 

“So how are we doing this?” Heather asked. 

“Like this!” Leaf grabbed Heather’s arm and pulled her up into the air. Another two pixies grabbed Scarlett’s shoulders, while Pip gave his hand to Lizzy. Then they were all soaring through the air, the largest three individuals of the group screaming the whole way.