post #1025784 post #787378 post #1809713 post #1135408 post #1724315

A twinkling, sparkling, glowing grain-sized substance imbued with magical properties that is often seen around fairies. Fairy dust may be seen constantly emanating, trailing, or falling from a fairy's body, sometimes localized to their wings (similar to the powdery scales of moth and butterfly wings). Further, a fairy's body or clothing may sparkle or glitter, which strongly suggests fairy dust that has not yet fallen loose. Also called pixie dust.

When depicted with magical effect, fairy dust may passively fall from a fairy and incidentally alter things in the fairy's wake (e.g., spontaneous plant growth). Fairy dust can be jarred or bagged and later sprinkled on people or objects or perhaps mixed into potions. A fairy casting a spell may have their magical energies depicted with sparkling fairy dust, perhaps issuing from a wand or hand. Characters other than fairies can possess or use fairy dust, but proving that such substances are specifically fairy dust and not some other generic magical item or effect is exceedingly unlikely for tagging purposes (see post #2834770).

Like magic in general, fairy dust magic on e621 can seemingly be used for anything imaginable although it lends itself well to transformation, but classical effects involve¹:

• application to the eyes causing temporary blindness, inducing sleep, or influencing dreams
• granting the ability to see supernatural creatures or phenomena hidden from normal human sight
• granting access to "dreamland" or "fairyland"
• granting the ability to fly, seen from Peter Pan's Tinker Bell

1. A History of Fairy Dust