Unicorn Princesses 8 Read online

  Cressida slid off her back. To her delight, the cloud felt soft and springy under her feet, like a cross between a mattress and a trampoline. She hopped back and forth and giggled. Feather laughed and jumped from side to side.

  “This is really fun,” Feather said, “but flying is even better. You’re going to love it. And I can’t wait to teach you!”

  “I can’t wait to learn,” Cressida said, touching the two wings on her back to make sure they were still there.

  “We just need a little help from a cloud,” Feather said. “And that reminds me—we need to send one down to get my sisters.”

  Feather whistled, and two clouds that were as big as Cressida’s bedroom rug turned and floated toward them. Each one had round teal eyes, a cauliflower nose, and a grinning mouth.

  “Hello, Princess Feather,” one of the clouds said.

  “Welcome back,” the other said.

  Feather smiled. “This is my new friend, Cressida Jenkins.” Then, she looked at Cressida. “And these are my cloud friends, Cleo and Cloe.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Cressida said.

  “It’s lovely to meet you, too,” Cleo and Cloe said.

  “Cleo,” Feather said, “is there any chance you might be free to go pick up my sisters? We’re having a sleepover tonight.”

  “Absolutely!” Cleo said, bobbing up and down with excitement. “I love any excuse I can find to drift down to Spiral Palace! And unicorn princesses are my very favorite passengers!” Cleo hummed as she turned and floated away.

  “Thank you,” Feather said. Then she looked at Cloe. “I’m about to give Cressida her very first flying lesson. Would you like to join us?”

  “Definitely!” Cloe said. “How can I help?”

  “I wonder if you could float under her while she’s getting started,” Feather said. “That way, if she falls, you can catch her.”

  “Sure thing!” Cloe said.

  Feather looked at Cressida and grinned. “Are you ready?”

  Cressida’s heart pounded with excitement. “I can’t wait!” she said.

  “The first thing to do,” Feather said, grinning, “is close your eyes and imagine lifting up into the air.”

  Cressida closed her eyes. She visualized herself rising upward, above the clouds and mist. But she couldn’t feel anything happening. After several seconds, Cressida said, “It’s not working.” Her heart sank. What if she couldn’t fly after all?

  Feather and Cloe giggled.

  “Open your eyes!” Feather called out.

  Cressida opened her eyes to discover she was hovering in the air, twenty feet above where Feather stood. Cloe was right under Cressida, grinning.

  “You’re a natural,” Cloe said.

  Cressida laughed.

  Feather’s ruby sparkled. Glittery pink light poured from her horn. And then she flew into the air and joined Cressida. “I can’t believe you did it on your first try,” Feather said. “Shall we try flying forward and backward?”

  “Sure!” Cressida said. She imagined herself speeding forward, and, to her delight, she shot out ahead of Feather. “Whee!” she cried. She stopped and imagined flying in reverse. She bolted backward.

  “I can barely keep up!” Cloe said, laughing.

  “You didn’t need me to teach you anything!” Feather said. “Want to do some tricks?”

  “Definitely,” Cressida said.

  “I’ll be right here in case you need me,” Cloe said, floating under Feather and Cressida.

  “Watch this,” Feather said. She flew straight upward, stopped for half a second, and did three somersaults.

  “My turn!” Cressida said. She sped upward, paused, and then imagined herself somersaulting. Instantly, she found herself laughing as she tumbled in the air.

  “Now, let’s try doing some loops,” Feather said as she began to fly in a giant circle. Cressida watched her for a few seconds and then joined her. Soon Cressida and Feather were flying in faster and faster loops.

  “I’m starting to get dizzy,” Feather said, slowing down.

  Cressida giggled. “Me too,” she said.

  “I’m getting dizzy just watching you!” Cloe called out. “This is the closest a cloud can get to doing a somersault,” she added, laughing as she spun in a circle.

  “Not bad!” Feather said. Then, she looked at Cressida. “I could do this all day, but I think we’d better head over to the Sky Castle to get ready for the sleepover. But would you like to do something fun on our way back down?”

  “Sure!” Cressida said.

  “Oh, I bet I know what you’re thinking, Feather,” Cloe said, laughing. She floated so she was right under Feather and Cressida. “I’m ready when you are.”

  Feather looked at Cressida. “Imagine you’re not flying anymore,” she said, with a playful smile.

  “Really?” Cressida asked. “But won’t I fall?”

  “Don’t worry,” Feather said, winking. “Cloe will catch us. And she’s the softest cloud I know.”

  Cressida took a deep breath. She imagined she was no longer flying. Suddenly she and Feather plummeted down and landed on Cloe. Sure enough, Cloe felt like one giant soft, fluffy pillow. Cressida laughed. “That was almost as much fun as flying!” she said.

  Feather smiled. “I agree!” she said. “Thanks so much for catching us, Cloe.”

  “My pleasure,” the cloud said. “And now that you’re my passengers, shall I take you to the Sky Castle?”

  “Yes, please,” Feather said.

  “Here we go,” Cloe said. She made a sharp turn to the right and floated through a patch of mist so thick and pink that Cressida couldn’t see anything. After several seconds, they came out the other side, and right in front of them was a sparkling palace made of giant rubies and pale pink pearls. Two feather-shaped turrets reached up into the sky, and a fuchsia flag with a giant white feather on it hung over the magenta front door.

  “What a beautiful castle,” Cressida said.

  “It’s a lot smaller than Spiral Palace,” Feather said. “But it’s the perfect place for a sleepover.”

  Cloe stopped in front of the door, and Feather and Cressida slid off her.

  “Thanks so much for the ride,” Feather said.

  “And thank you for your help during the flying lesson,” Cressida said.

  “My pleasure!” Cloe said. “I hope you have a great sleepover.”

  Cloe winked, turned, and drifted away.

  “I can’t wait to show you the inside,” Feather said. She used her mouth to open the front door, and she and Cressida stepped into a grand foyer. Gleaming rose-colored tiles covered the floor. Chandeliers made of pearls and rubies hung from the ceiling. Threads of mist floated in through the windows. On the floor was a large brown paper bag with red, glittery wings.

  Feather peeked into the bag and smiled. “I asked Ernest to make my sisters magic pajamas that will allow them to fly for a few hours, and it looks like they made it here safe and sound!” Her eyes widened, and she grinned. “Let’s go see the Adventure Room!”

  Cressida followed Feather down a hallway made of shiny coral-and rose-colored stones. They turned left, through a pearl and ruby archway, and into a room with more pictures hanging on the walls and more shelves crammed with interesting objects than Cressida had ever seen. In the far corner of the room, next to an open window, was a magenta armchair.

  Feather danced over to a wall covered in pictures. “Want to see the pictures from my most recent adventure? I just hung them up this morning. I can’t wait to show you and my sisters!”

  “Definitely,” Cressida said, grinning as she rushed over to Feather.

  “These are from the Aqua Realm,” Feather explained, nodding to the pictures of her with some mermaids, drinking a bottle of green liquid as they lounged on a rocky shore, swimming with rainbow-striped dolphins in a shallow cove, and wearing an air bubble over her head as she danced with an octopus. “That green stuff is seaweed juice,” Feather explai
ned, wrinkling her nose. “It tasted absolutely terrible, but I pretended to like it.”

  Cressida grimaced. “It was probably very healthy,” she said.

  Feather laughed. “I bet you’re right! I still have the bottle. It’s on that shelf right below us.”

  Cressida looked down and saw a glass bottle covered in a seashell design. Next to it on the shelf sat a red flute and silver cauldron.

  “These are my pictures from the Reptile Realm,” Feather continued, pointing with her hoof to images of her flying with winged orange turtles, hopping with red frogs, and sunbathing with more purple iguanas than Cressida could count. “That red flute was a gift from the frogs. They told me it’s magic, but to be honest, it’s hard to play a flute if you have hooves.”

  Cressida giggled.

  “And here are my pictures from the Witches’ Realm,” Feather said, glancing at two pictures of her hiking up a mountain with silver witches wearing tall black hats and bulging backpacks. “They gave me that cauldron as a souvenir. I’ve always wanted to make a magic potion.”

  “Me too,” Cressida said.

  Feather laughed. “Maybe someday we can make one together!”

  Cressida looked at the pictures for several more seconds. “I love seeing these,” she said. “But I have a question. Do unicorns have cameras?”

  “What’s a camera?” Feather said, looking curious.

  “It’s something humans use to take photographs,” Cressida said.

  “I’ll have to put that on my list of things to see if I ever get to visit the human world,” Feather said. “No, unicorns don’t have cameras. I made these with the help of the Imagibirds.” Feather smiled. “Would you like to give it a try?”

  “Sure,” Cressida said.

  Feather turned toward the magenta armchair. “Have a seat right there, close your eyes, and think of a happy memory.”

  “Okay!” Cressida said. She climbed onto the chair. At first, her mind was blank. And then she remembered the moment she had found Sunbeam’s yellow sapphire and put it back on the yellow unicorn’s ribbon necklace during her first visit to the Rainbow Realm. Immediately, Cressida heard chirping. Then four small pink birds fluttered in through the window carrying in their talons a small, square picture on a thick piece of paper.

  “Thank you,” Cressida said, as she took it from the birds.

  “Our pleasure!” chirped the birds, and they flew back out the window.

  Cressida stared at the paper. There she was, standing next to an ecstatic Sunbeam with a shimmering yellow sapphire hanging around her neck. The cacti and the dunes grinned with relief. And the purple sand shimmered and glittered in the sunlight. “Wow,” Cressida said. “That’s amazing!”

  “Do you want more?” Feather asked. “I know from my sisters you’ve been on quite a few adventures here.”

  “I’d love that,” Cressida said. Next, she remembered crossing the finish line when she ran in the Thunder Dash. Immediately, the Imagibirds fluttered in carrying a picture of her sprinting on the crushed diamond race course, with Flash cheering her on. She made a few more pictures with the help of the Imagibirds: there was one of her grimacing as she tried a froyanana in the Enchanted Garden with Bloom, one of her and Prism painting the rainbow-colored grass in the Valley of Light, one of her and Breeze making an octopus together with metamorflower petals, one of her dancing with Moon while a raccoon played a flarpophone, and one of her casting a spell with Firefly as she gripped a magic stalactite in the Shimmering Caves.

  When Cressida finished, Feather looked at the images. “Those are lovely,” she said. “Why don’t you put them right by the glass bottle I got from the mermaids?” Feather nodded to an empty spot on the shelf of souvenirs. “You can get them before you leave.”

  “Thanks so much,” Cressida said.

  “No problem,” Feather said. “And I think now we’d better go get the Great Hall ready for the sleepover.”

  Cressida followed Feather out of the Adventure Room and farther down the hallway, toward a white door decorated with pearls arranged in the shape of a feather. As they walked, Cressida heard what sounded like soft whimpering.

  “What’s that noise?” Feather asked, looking worried.

  The noise got louder as they got closer to the door. “Oh dear,” Feather said. “After all the stories from my sisters about Ernest’s magical mishaps, I’m afraid to look.” Feather winced and used her mouth to pull the door open. Immediately, she gasped and said, “Oh no!”

  Cressida looked through the doorway and into a grand room with high coral-colored ceilings and tall windows. Inside, she counted fourteen giant purple iguanas curled up in pairs, shivering, and crying. There were iguanas huddled together on salmon-colored velvet sofas. There were iguanas sniffling on a white, feather-shaped rug. And there were iguanas staring longingly out the windows. As Cressida looked more closely at the iguanas, she noticed they looked exactly like the ones in the pictures of Feather’s trip to the Reptile Realm.

  The iguanas turned and looked at Cressida and Feather. Tears ran down their scaly cheeks. And then one called out, “Is that you, Princess Feather?” He got up from the rug and crept toward her.

  Cressida took a step backward, feeling wary of the huge reptile. But Feather galloped toward the iguana. “Ivan!” she exclaimed. “What in the world are you doing here?”

  “I’m so relieved to see you,” Ivan said, smiling even though his teeth were chattering. “We were having a perfectly nice time dozing on tree branches and rocks in the afternoon sun. And then, out of nowhere, wind swirled all around us, there was a flash of light, and we were suddenly here in this room.”

  “We’ve never been so cold and scared,” another iguana said.

  “All we want to do is go home,” said another.

  “I’m almost positive we’re in the Arctic Realm,” another said. “It’s freezing!”

  Feather smiled sympathetically. “I can assure you you’re in the Rainbow Realm. But I know it’s much colder than in the Reptile Realm. Especially up here in the Sky Castle.”

  “As glad as I am to see you, do you think you could magically transport us home as soon as possible?” Ivan asked. “We’re really miserable.”

  “Of course,” Feather said. “I’m so sorry this happened to you, and I promise to get you back to the Reptile Realm this afternoon.” She turned toward Cressida. “These are my dear friends, the iguanas.” Then she turned to the iguanas. “And this is my friend Cressida.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Cressida said. “And I’m sorry you’re so cold and unhappy. I’ll do everything I can to help Feather.”

  The iguanas, who had mostly stopped crying, nodded. “Thank you,” Ivan said.

  “If anyone can help us, it’s Princess Feather,” another iguana said.

  Feather smiled reassuringly at the iguanas. Then, she turned to Cressida with wide eyes and whispered, “What on earth will we do?”

  “Is there anything here we could use to help the iguanas warm up while we try to think of a plan?” Cressida asked.

  “Good idea,” Feather said to Cressida. She galloped over to a shelf and pulled down a pile of pink and red velvet sleeping bags. Cressida quickly draped the sleeping bags over the iguanas.

  “Thank you,” Ivan said. “That helps.”

  “Cressida and I are about to come up with a plan,” Feather said. Then, in an anxious voice, she whispered to Cressida, “Do you have any ideas yet? I feel so worried and upset that I can’t think of anything. What if the iguanas are stuck here forever?”

  “I can completely understand how you feel,” Cressida whispered. She knew that feeling panicked and anxious usually made it almost impossible to come up with creative ways to solve problems. She took a deep breath and looked at the iguanas. “You don’t happen to have any magic powers, do you?” she asked, hoping the iguanas might be able to fly.

  Ivan sighed and shivered. “Our only magic power is to turn flowers into cupcakes. Which is
only useful if you’re outside in a meadow and want dessert.”

  “I see,” Cressida said, trying not to giggle.

  “Do you have magic powers?” Ivan asked.

  Cressida opened her mouth to say no. But then she paused. That wasn’t exactly true: the last time she had been to the Rainbow Realm she had used a spell book to cast a spell. And as she remembered the spell book, she wondered if it just might come in handy again. “I’m not usually magic,” Cressida said with a smile. “But occasionally I am.”

  Cressida turned to Feather. “I have an idea,” she said. “The last time I visited the Rainbow Realm, I had a spell book that’s still in the Glow Library in the Magic section. Do you think there’s any chance we could go get it?”

  “The Shimmering Caves are all the way on the other side of the Rainbow Realm,” Feather said, looking unsure. Then, her face brightened. “I know how we could fly there quickly! Why don’t you ride on my back and fly at the same time? Then we’ll go twice as fast.”

  “Good idea!” Cressida said. Feather kneeled, and Cressida climbed onto her back.

  “We’ll be right back,” Feather assured the iguanas. Then, she turned and galloped down the hall, and out the front door. Once they were outside, pink glittery light poured from Feather’s horn, and she and Cressida lifted into the air.

  “Start flying at the count of three,” Feather called out. “One. Two. Three!”

  Cressida imagined herself speeding forward, and suddenly she and Feather were hurtling through the sky.

  After a few minutes, Feather said, “We’re almost there. You can stop flying, and I’ll take it from here.”

  Cressida imagined stopping as Feather landed with a jolt right in front of an orange door in the side of a rocky hill. Cressida recognized it as the entrance to the Shimmering Caves. “That was the very fastest I’ve ever gone,” Feather said.