Twig was watching Stomp when the white magic hit. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, and was shocked to see a minotaur as big as a house. Her fur was the same dark brown as her skin had been, and her baggy clothes fit snugly now. She towered over him in a terrifying fashion.

The spell went wrong, Twig thought, gaping upwards. How did it do that?

Then the loudest roar ever shook the ground, and Twig was suddenly far away in the sky, fluttering on wings that left a glowing trail of stolen magic in his wake.

How did—? He looked at his hands, which were glowing a familiar gold, and the trail, which was blue.

Twig figured it out. “Ohohoho,” he chuckled aloud. “They’re never gonna catch me now.”

He zoomed back down to where the excitement was, faster than a pixie had any right to be. Stomp wasn’t enormous after all, but Razorscale sure was. Good thing there was that grassy lawn outside the wall. Amazing he hadn’t stepped on anyone with all that roaring and spreading his wings and looking scary. Vivid blue coloring that tapered to black at the ends, and wow so many teeth!

Twig circled around his friends in a heartbeat. There was Beak spreading her own feathered wings (a lovely speckled brown) and using them to flap backwards away from the dragon who was giving the guards a reason to keep their distance. Windmane was already off among the carriages, prancing on her own four feet. Silver kept watch at the hole in the wall. Magicians inside the arena were just starting to get over their surprise.

Those five mages in the center looked particularly flustered. And their clothes didn’t fit right. Like they’d just been returned to human form unexpectedly.

Twig glared. He zipped forward with his new speed and poked every one of them in the eye.

That’ll keep them busy for a second, Twig thought as they shouted and clutched their faces. What next? Oh, guards!

There sure were a lot of humans aiming things at Razorscale. And at the other smaller people on the ground. Twig realized that the gorgons were nowhere to be seen. They must have skedaddled as soon as the spell was broken.

Good call. They did their part, and Razorscale even admitted he owed them a favor before we got here, so they’re all good. The rest is up to us. Onward!

Twig blasted forward, leaving a trail of blue magic and swearing humans in his wake. Healing magic was popular among humans, and anyway he didn’t jab them hard enough to do serious damage. Just enough to give his friends time to do whatever came next in the plan.

Somebody must have a plan. He sure didn’t.

Razorscale’s plan seemed to involve shouting accusations at the bad guys and threats at the guards. An amplified human voice was shouting back at him from somewhere. The crowds were panicking and trying to get away. Everybody was shouting, basically. Twig kept his head down and went after anyone who looked like they might cause problems for his friends.

Some of them started aiming for him instead, but they hadn’t caught him yet. He did have to watch out for the web spells that were starting to pop up, though. And that hex just missed him, whatever it was. It crackled as it passed by.

=STOP,= said the loudest voice in the world.

Twig was frozen in place, caught by one of the glow-balls the unicorns had used. His vantage point from this high up made the stadium look like a fountain that someone had poured glow-soap into. Just full of bubbles. There was a particularly big one over Razorscale. The unfolding chaos had stopped.

Oh, there they are. Twig spotted the small herd of unicorns who’d appeared out of nowhere to stand on a glowy platform in midair, right up in the center of the arena where everyone could see them. They had their own swarm of pixies, though none were as fast as Twig.

Hey, I wonder if I can break out of this.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

But before he got a chance to really try, the lead unicorn started talking. Twig was pretty sure that it was Harmony, though he couldn’t say for certain.

=Several of your magicians have committed a grievous crime,= the loud voice declared, =Which has incurred the wrath of half a dozen cultures, if not more. The way your leaders respond now will determine whether you have war on your hands. Proceed wisely.=

It was a good speech. Twig didn’t want to be on her bad side.

And neither did the humans, by the looks of it. As Twig watched, the five jerkfaces in the middle of the field were lifted up to where the unicorns could glare at them directly, and a few other glow-bubbles soon joined them. Those came from the highest viewing booth where Twig thought the reigning king/emperor/whatever had been watching the show. When the unicorns were satisfied that they had all the relevant enemies, they started gathering up allies.

Or we’re at least witnesses, Twig thought as his own glowball coasted over to join the group by the wall. The humans who had helped were still there too.

Twig wondered if the unicorns would whisk them off to some secure location for glaring and threats in privacy, but nope. They settled everybody on the grass right there, then threw a glowy bubble around the whole area. While the frozen stampede inside the arena waited, Harmony got right down to business.

She separated one old human from a handful of others, and bared her diamond-capped fangs at him. =You are, at the moment, the highest authority in this human realm. Correct?=

The man cleared his throat. He was exceptionally old and wrinkly. “Correct,” he said with some dignity. “Though I will be replaced by the winner or winners of the competition you have interrupted.”

Harmony ignored that part. =These five magicians,= she said, pointing her horn at the ill-dressed cluster, =Have stolen a spell core from us. They perverted it towards their own purposes, and used it to steal the natural forms of these five innocents.= This time she pointed at Twig and his friends.

Razorscale snorted, but said nothing.

Twig privately thought it was funny that she’d included the rampaging dragon along with the “innocents.”

The human was starting into what sounded like an insincere apology, but Harmony cut him off. =Let me be clear. This spell will NEVER be cast again. We will be claiming all of these mages’ notes and relevant spell components, and compiling a list of their accomplices to interrogate. You will cooperate fully. If you do not, you will align yourself and your nation with our enemies, and suffer that designation immediately. Do you understand?=

The human cleared his throat again, pursing his lips. “I understand.”

=Good. Your only choice is whether the perpetrators will be stripped of magic and imprisoned, or killed outright. Choose now.=

Twig was glad he wasn’t that guy. What a choice! And with the people watching him, too. The fact that they weren’t pleading for their lives probably meant that Harmony had given them an extra dose of freeze-in-place. Of course the man chose to let them live. From what Twig had heard of the human political shenanigans, some of them were probably related to him.

It occurred to Twig that there was a chance this guy had known what the jerks were doing. He wondered if it had occurred to the unicorns too.

Probably.

“Could their sentencing perhaps be delayed?” the weaselly fellow was asking. “Just until my successor is chosen. They should have a say in such a momentous decision.”

=If you cannot make the decision, we will make it for you. I will happily put them to death myself. Either way, the sentencing happens now.=

“Magical nullification it is, then.”

Without another word, that human’s glow-bubble floated to the side and the unhappy villains were moved front and center. They didn’t look pleased to be there.

Magic sparkled around Harmony, lighting her up in a hiss of glitter that sprang from every other unicorn as well. The sparks glowed brighter, seeming to sear Twig’s vision so that their centers looked black. Then the blackness grew into a malevolent cloud, feeding from all of the other unicorns to make a thunderhead over Harmony, edged in piercing light.

Before Twig could fully process how glad he was not to be on the receiving end of that, the cloud flew into five parts and sank into the humans’ heads. They couldn’t collapse dramatically, held in place as they were by the glow-balls, but they looked more than a little distressed.

Then all the sparkling was done, and the mage lines were gone from the humans as if they’d never been there.

Harmony appeared in front of Twig, to his great alarm. =Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, little one.=

“What?” Twig squeaked.

=You don’t need that extra magic anymore.=

“Oh.” When she started to glow again, he added, “Please don’t take my own with it!”

=Of course not.= Harmony and the herd all lit up a different color this time, closer to his own gold, and he tried not to be overly worried while they removed the connection to the human’s stash of power. It was a different process from when she’d done it with Razorscale. Simpler. The addition of all other unicorns probably helped. Or maybe it was just easier to cut the strands than to move them.

Either way, it didn’t hurt. Twig was a little sad to say goodbye to his time as The Fastest Pixie Ever, but it was probably for the best. Who knew what other human magicians might come after him if he took that link home?

=There,= Harmony said, stepping back. =That’s settled. Now all that remains is to see who wins this competition.= She cast a look at the human king. =And see whether your successor is an ally or an enemy.=