The Christmas Tale of Troll the Dependable

No one ever trusted Troll the Dependable. “Clearly it’s a scam”, they would say. “You can’t fool me with that ‘dependable’ nonsense, the blasted pony’s name is Troll!” And so for millennia, Troll was a riderless pony. He wandered the Elysian Fields for days on end, looking for someone to believe in him, to count on him. At night he would lie in the soft grass and dream of finding a rider that would recognize him for who he really was: a true and loyal steed.

But one morning, Troll woke to find a strange path of snow that led out of the fields and into a nearby wood. He thought it odd and followed the path, curious to see where it would take him. “Perhaps there is a rider in need, waiting for a good pony to come along”, thought Troll. As he entered the wood, snow began to steadily fall, quickly filling in the hoofprints that Troll left along the ground.

The snow grew deeper as the wood grew thicker, the entire forest caked in an endless white. In the distance, Troll could hear the sounds of bells and laughter, the clanking of mugs and the crackling of warm fire. He pushed through the deep snow, which was now up to his neck, determined to see what was on the other side of this white void.

But he could go no further. Troll tried to lift his leg, but his muscles were frozen stiff. He suddenly realized that he was very cold, colder than the snow that he was now buried in. His vision began to blur and dim as more flakes gently fell. A darkness crept in around the edges of this wintry world as Troll’s eyes grew heavy. Before he drifted off, he thought he saw a fat, round, bearded figure dressed in bright red robes and coal-black boots, standing before him on top of the snow…

A great heat poured across Troll’s muzzle as he woke to find the snow melting around him. Before him now stood a motley group of wizards. Some were human, some were hybrids, and some were completely otherworldly. They were decked in robes of all different colors and carried all sorts of trinkets and props—staffs, books, potions, feathers—there seemed to be no one wizard that looked exactly alike.

“You must be freezing!” one wizard cried out.

“Let’s warm you up!” another wizard suggested.

“Don’t move!” a third wizard exclaimed.

Red flames burst out from the hands of a wizard whose head was a flaming skull. The fire encircled Troll, quickly vaporizing the remaining snow without singeing a single hair on his body and vanishing without a trace of smoke. Troll tried lifting his leg and found that he was able to move again. He felt warm, and he felt good.

“Now, let’s get you to the party!”

“It’s Christmas!”

“Someone get this pony some ale!”

And so Troll joined the crew of wizards as they made their way down the path and across the treeline and into a wide and open clearing. There were hundreds of wizards here, maybe even thousands, playing games and opening presents and drinking ale beneath a massive Christmas tree. There were other ponies in the clearing too, eating and racing and watching cool movies in 3D.

“What’s your name by the way?” a wizard asked Troll.

Troll lifted his hoof and traced out his name in the snow, T-R-O-L-L.

“Troll! What a wonderful name!” the wizard shouted.

“A magical name!” another wizard chimed in.

“A name fit for a true and loyal steed!” a third wizard stated as a matter of fact.

And so Troll spent this magical day with wizards and ponies alike, celebrating his first Christmas with his new family in a new land that he would now call home.

Entered by: 0x5065…a7ad and preserved on chain (see transaction)