Thank you for choosing my story to read. Just know that I don't own this world or these characters. I hope you enjoy!

~Inkblot

The arrival of a new fairy didn't happen as often as one may think and was considered a glorious occasion. They could not bring in new fairies all the time in order to protect Pixie Hollow from overpopulation. It was a rare and sad occasion when a fairy died. Among many other gifts the pixie dust tree gave them long and healthy lives. Mostly only fairies with dangerous talents, such as the scouts, or not so cautious fairies, died young.

Tinker Bell had never seen the arrival of a new fairy, so when the horns sounded on that completely inconspicuous day, it initially gave her a great fright. She banged her head on the frame of the wagon she had been repairing, disturbing Blaze, who had been napping inside. He leapt up and buzzed an indignant circle, but Tinker Bell didn't notice, she was busy throwing off her helmet, and flying up to see what was going on. She had never heard this horn before, but nobody around her seemed alarmed. On the contrary, in fact, most seemed excited.

"Oh!" Clank cried, as he and Bobble flew up beside her. "I can't believe it!"

"What's going on," Tinker Bell asked.

"Oh that's right!" Bobble exclaimed, his eyes growing wider-if possible. "You've never seen the arrival of a new fairy before!"

"Oh you're in for a treat!" Clank assured her, clapping his hands in excitement. "It's so wonderful! There will be a festival to celebrate! And every talent selects representatives to bring an offering to the talent selection."

Tinker Bell barely heard. Her mind was spinning. A new fairy! The prospect was thrilling. She had been wondering when such a beautiful event would happen again. Once she had asked Dewey but he had only chuckled and told her that many seasons passed between the arrivals of new fairies.

"-it's such a surprise to see it happen again so soon though." Tinker Bell started from her thoughts, and turned to see that Fairy Mary had joined them.

"So soon?" she repeated.
"Why yes," Fairy Mary agreed. "It has only been six seasons since you came to us. I had to wait twice that before another fairy followed me." Twice that? And Tinker Bell had already begun to grow impatient herself, not that plenty of other interesting things hadn't happened in her six seasons. But still, a new fairy. "And I assumed it would be much longer this time, since there were two of you."

"You think that would make a difference?" Clank wondered, scratching his head.

"Well I suppose I'm not certain. I've never seen it before...it's so rare…" Fairy Mary trailed off into a mutter.

Tinker Bell turned suddenly, smiling at her in that big, inspired way she had. "Oh Fairy Mary! Can I please be a representative? I just really want to get to see it in person!"

Fairy Mary tapped her chin. "Well," she started, frowning deeply. "Normally I don't let younger fairies go, but you have been such a great asset to the tinkers…" Tinker Bell clasped her hands under her chin. "Oh well, alright… we do want the best of the best representing us."

The younger fairy did a spin, cheering and wrapped her mentor in a tight hug, before racing back to her house to get ready. She threw on her best outfit, a cute green dress with beautiful strands of color lining the neckline, sleeves and hem. She had been saving it for the spring festival, but this was a much better reason to bring it out. Then she spent several minutes pulling her hair up and back down in the mirror, trying to decide, but in the end, up was the best. After all, a tinker needed their hair out of their face. Once that was decided, she hurried out and was zooming in the direction of the pixie tree, when she ran face first into Fairy Mary. The woman had been hovering over a group of baskets, taking inventory.

"Goodness!" she cried, barely catching her clipboard and pen. "Tinker Bell, where are you going in such a rush!"

"To represent the Tinkers…?" she hadn't meant for it to come out as a question, but somehow it did.

"Oh dear!" Fairy Mary clicked. "That won't be for a whole twenty four hours!"

"Twenty four hours?" Tinker Bell's brows furrowed. "How do they know there's a new fairy coming if it's not for twenty four hours?"

"Oh well," Fairy Mary looked as though this was quite a sore spot for her. "No one really knows how exactly. Queen Clarion just sends out word and twenty four hours later a new fairy arrives. It is good though. It gives all of the fairy talents time to get prepared for the new arrival."

"Prepared?" At first the statement confused her, but then she remembered her arrival, and how they already had a house and even clothes made for her. "Oh, of course!" she looked around for where the construction was being done. "Where are we setting up in case she comes to us? I would love to help!"

"Oh we won't be wasting any time with that dear!" Fairy Mary chuckled waving her hand. "We have far too much to do with spring coming, and it's not as though the new fairy will be a tinker."

"How do you know?"

"Well because you're a tinker dear!" She was finished with the baskets now and was making her way to the paint shop to oversee the testing of the spray painters. "One talent never gets two newcomers in a row!"

"Why not?" Tinker Bell paused to let cheese pass with a wagon of acorn kettles.

"That's just how it is." Fairy Mary answered her, turning to face the younger fairy as she opened the door to go into the shop. "There will be much celebration in the square, which you're welcome to attend, but only after you've finished your assignments for the day. Then when they call for the representatives, I will give you the hammer." And the door closed firmly behind her.

"What's the point of giving me the stupid hammer if it's not going to glow anyways," Tinker Bell muttered, landing on the ground and kicking up dust.

There was a celebration to look forward to though. She was nearly done with her daily work anyways-she usually finished early-so she could still go celebrate with her friends. Maybe Periwinkle would even get to come! The thought cheered her up a little, and so she went back to where she had left the wagon. Instead of wasting time changing, she threw on a cover she had made for herself. Overall the fix was simple and took all of ten minutes. Once finished, she lowered the wagon and took it back to sit with the others before hurrying to get cleared by Fairy Mary.

The celebration was every bit as spectacular as she had anticipated. Everyone was there, it seemed. Music fairies played cheerful music and fairies danced together, cheering and singing. The garden fairies had decorated the square with fresh-bloomed flowers of all colors and littered the ground with petals and the water fairies had created gushing fountains that danced with the colors of the flowers and the rainbows that the light fairies had arced over their heads.

Just as Tinker Bell had hoped, the winter fairies had made it indeed. She had designed new machines to help keep their wings cool, which they could wear on their backs so everyone had their own personal little touch of winter. The downside was you couldn't hold as much ice, but they had brought a whole stand of the stuff which they kept under the protection of the big machine set up near the pixie tree. It was the first time she had seen the packs in action and was thrilled to see that they seemed to be working.

When her sister saw her she hurried to meet her in an embrace. Tinker Bell took a moment to admire her dress, which was similar to hers, funnily enough, except without the touch of color, but instead had sleeves with intricate, beautiful patterns, like a snowflake. She was also wearing little white cotton balls on her shoes, which made Tinker Bell smile. "Isn't it amazing!" she exclaimed. "A new fairy!" Tinker Bell smiled, her disappointment from before now banished by having a reason to see her sister. "I've heard getting to see it is magical! I wish I could be there!"

"You don't get to come?"

"No," Periwinkle's face fell a little "Lord Milory says I'm still too new. He has to let someone with more seniority go."

"Oh well, there will be another time to go," Tinker Bell assured, patting her shoulder.

"Wait a minute." realization lit up Peri's face. "Do you get to go?"

"Well yeah." She blushed, feeling a little sheepish admitting so, since Periwinkle was so disappointed. She didn't want to rub it in. "Fairy Mary said she normally wouldn't let me, but since I represent the tinkers so well…"

"That's amazing!" Tinker Bell sighed, happy that her sister didn't seem jealous. "You must tell me everything!"

"I will!" Her friends arrived then, first Fawn, smelling as though she had just left skunk training, then the rest one by one. Everyone was dressed up. Iridessa had done her hair in a beautiful braid that meandered around her head and cascaded over her shoulder. Rosetta wore a long dress with flared sleeves and a belt of what appeared to be small white seeds. Everyone was more beautiful than she had ever seen them, even for the autumn Revelry.

They all danced all night. The music fairies never lost their pace and no one seemed to grow tired at all. At one point, as the sun faded over the horizon and colors painted the sky and danced off the fountains, Tinker Bell was whirled around, and found herself facing Terrance. Her face burned as she took him in. He had put away his acorn cap and replaced his autumn colored work clothes with a well-fitting suit of yellow that seemed to glow like pixie dust.

For a moment he faltered, as though he had lost his nerve, but he managed to say, "You look beautiful!" To which she blushed and returned the compliment. They danced until the moon was high, and she barely noticed anything else that went on.

Queen Clarion didn't make an appearance until the sun was back again and nearly at its height. When she did, the square erupted into great cheers. That was when Fairy Mary found Tinker Bell and placed the hammer in her hand with a warm smile. "It's time my dear."

Tinker Bell smiled back and pressed the hammer to her chest. Two fellow tinkers joined her on either side and when Queen Clarion announced that it was time, they rose into the air together, as did many other fairies of all talents. Tinker Bell saw Periwinkle near the tree, standing in the cover of the big snow machine. She gave her a thumbs up and Tink smiled broadly.

Inside it looked exactly as she remembered it. They gathered on raised seating areas with other representatives of their talent. She noticed there were two new platforms this time. One for the winter fairies, which included Periwinkle's animal talent friend. They each had on one of their small machines, leaving patches of snow on their seating area. The other seating area had only one representative. Tinker Bell smiled at Zarina, who waved back sheepishly. She hadn't thought that Pixie dust alchemy would get to be represented, since it was merely a sub-talent of dust keeping, but she supposed it was pretty special.

The four ministers entered and turned back to face the front. "Quiet now," Lord Milori's voice resonated through the room, firm and strong. "They are coming."

Tinker Bell turned to the entrance to see, and certainly enough, the doors blew open and in came a fast-flying fairy, guiding a small, white dandelion seed with his wind. With a flourish of his hands, which didn't quite look as skillful as if Vidia had done it, he sent the seed spinning and dancing into the center of the room and joined the other representatives of his talent. One of the dust keeper representatives came forward and poured a small amount of pixie dust over the seed as it landed gracefully.

The seed glowed, sending beautiful rays of colorful light all throughout the room. Tinker Bell watched, amazed, as the seed rippled with light and finally faded. Once the last of the light had faded, the seed had disappeared entirely and was replaced by a fairy, who sat up and stared around at all of them. There was a tense moment as everyone waited for...well none of them knew exactly what. Finally the new fairy found her voice and said, "Where am I?"

The room let out a collective breath and a few even oohed and aahed. Her voice was beautiful and melodic and filled the room like the sound of a harp. Tinker Bell saw the music fairies stirring and thought they must think as she did. This must be a music fairy. A singer no doubt to rival even Melody, who frequently wowed audiences with her effortless voice.

She was beautiful too. Everything about her was elegant from her gently sloping nose to the soft shape of her jawline to the soft curves of her waist, like the sloping shape of an elegant hourglass. Tinkerbell put her hands to her own broad hips and frowned at them, a little jealous.

There was a disturbance near the back and one of the fairies called "Queen Clarion!"

Everyone turned to watch the golden lights of the queen dance around each other, weaving through the crowd before spinning around the ministers and meeting in a blinding ray of golden light. The new fairy covered her face. The queen's melodic voice filled the room before the light had faded. "Born of laughter, clothed in cheer, happiness has brought you here! Welcome to Pixie Hollow!"

The new fairy lowered her hand and something peculiar crossed the queen's face. Tinker Bell squinted at her, but emotion was gone so quickly that Tinker Bell wondered if she had seen it at all. "I trust you found your way all right." There was the slightest quiver in her voice. LIke she recognized something in this newcomer but couldn't place what it was. Tinker Bell shook her head. She must be making things up in her head. Certainly the queen couldn't recognize something in a brand new fairy.

She was so engulfed in her own thoughts that she missed what was said next, but she snapped back to focus when the queen raised her hand and the platform glowed, rising several small pedestals in front of each of the talent guilds. Without hesitation, a fairy from each guild came forward with their offering. Tinker Bell watched Zarina place a bag of multicolored pixie dust on hers. Tinker Bell came forward and placed the tinker hammer on their pedestal. She noticed in passing that there was not one for the winter fairies, but that was perhaps because a winter fairy would have gone straight to the winter forest. Their presence was more ceremonial.

Once all of the pedestals were filled and all of the fairies were returned to their seats, the queen gestured around at all of them. "These will help you find your talent. Please, give them a try."

"How will I know?" The new fairy asked, mimicking the question Tinker Bell remembered asking herself, and just as she had before, Queen Clarion assured her that she would know. Tinker bell smiled, remembering how bright her hammer had glowed.

To no one's surprise, she moved towards the harp of the music fairies first. Everyone leaned forward expectantly. She reached out for it, her eyes filled with wonder...but when she touched it, it made a terrible screeching sound and fell back to the platform. The music fairies' faces fell and everyone in the room looked around with raised eyebrows, shocked. She turned and moved to the next, the petuna of the garden fairy, but when she touched the petal it wilted in her hands. She sat it down sadly and moved on to the feather of the animal fairies, equally unsuccessful. She continued around in this fashion, eliminating talent after talent, until finally she had come all the way around and was staring at the tinker hammer.

Tinker Bell's heart raced. She was a Tinker fairy after all Fairy Mary had been wrong. She was going to break the expectations! She reached out and took the hammer in her hands, hefting the weight of the stone in one hand and the handle in the other….

Nothing happened.

It was strange. There was no reason to think she had failed. The hammer didn't fall apart in her hands or...whatever the hammer did if it wasn't your talent. But it didn't glow either. Sure she knew that they said her hammer glowed really bright and all, but still...shouldn't something happen?

The new fairy turned to the queen, who looked shocked. "I suppose this is me," she said and everyone exchanged confused looks. The new fairy was blushing, sensing that she had done something wrong.

Queen Clarion cleared her throat. "Uh, yes of course. Come forward tinker fairies and welcome the newest member of your talent guild…" There was a moment of hesitation, as though what she was going to say next seemed wrong. "Cadence."

Thanks for getting this far! I hope you enjoyed and stick around for more!

~Inkblot