“It’s absolutely perfect. Thank you, Ernest,” Cressida said. Then she looked at Breeze. “How do I look?” she asked.
“Ready to fly!” Breeze exclaimed.
Cressida looked at her reflection on the marble floor and smiled: she thought she looked just like a superhero. She made a fist and extended her hand up into the air, as though she were about to fly up into the sky.
“What are you doing?” asked Flash.
“I’m pretending to be a superhero!” Cressida said.
“A superhero?” Breeze asked. “What’s that?”
“Well,” Cressida said, “a superhero is a human with magic powers who solves problems. They aren’t real, but it’s fun to pretend to be one.”
“Huh,” Breeze and Sunbeam said at the same time.
Then Breeze shrugged and said, “Let’s go!” She kneeled down, and Cressida climbed onto her back.
Breeze turned toward the other unicorn princesses and said, “We’ll see you in the Windy Meadows. Make sure you bring Moon!” And with Cressida on her back she raced out the palace’s front door.
Cressida gripped Breeze’s silky, light blue mane as the unicorn raced along the path of clear stones that led away from Spiral Palace and into the surrounding forest. Cressida turned, and for a few seconds she watched the tall, glittering white palace, shaped like a unicorn horn, fade into the distance.
“The only thing we really need to do to get ready for the Blast is to make sure the kites are lined up and ready to fly,” Breeze said, jumping playfully as she galloped. “That means we have time for me to show you my two very favorite parts of the Windy Meadows first.”
“What are they?” Cressida asked, feeling her heart beat with excitement.
“It’s a surprise!” Breeze sang out as she turned down a narrow path that cut through a thicket of pine trees.
“I can’t wait,” Cressida said, grinning. She loved surprises, and the Rainbow Realm was always full of surprises that were even better than anything she could imagine.
Breeze followed the path across a patch of blue mushrooms, up a fern-covered hill, and over to a grove of willow trees.
“We’re almost there!” Breeze said. “Close your eyes!”
Cressida squeezed her eyes shut as Breeze turned sharply to the right, slowed down, and stopped. “Okay! You can look now,” the unicorn said.
When Cressida opened her eyes, she saw that she and Breeze were standing right in the middle of a meadow so full of large orange ball-shaped flowers that she could hardly see any grass.
“Welcome to the Windy Meadows!” Breeze said, kneeling down as Cressida slid off her back. “This meadow is just our first stop. It’s called the Meadow of Metamorflowers.”
“Are these metamorflowers?” Cressida asked, looking more closely at the flowers. As they brushed against Cressida’s knees and the bottom of her cape, she noticed each orange ball was made of what looked like hundreds of tiny feather-shaped petals.
“Not only are they metamorflowers,” Breeze said, shuffling her hooves with excitement, “but they’re magic metamorflowers. I’ll show you!”
The unicorn pointed her blue horn toward the sky. The aquamarine on her ribbon necklace shimmered. Glittery light shot from her horn. And then a blue, comet-shaped gust of wind appeared. First, it bolted straight up into the air and did three somersaults. Then it plunged down to the flowers, where it circled Breeze and Cressida, faster and faster, until Cressida felt as though she were in the center of a small tornado. Thousands of orange petals lifted off the flowers’ stems and into the air, and soon Cressida felt as though she were standing in an orange blizzard.
Then the petals fluttered into a large pile right in front of Cressida’s feet and Breeze’s hooves. Cressida reached down and grabbed a handful of petals. To her surprise, they stuck together, almost like clay or snow.
“Now watch this!” Breeze said, and she used her hooves to roll a clump of petals into what looked like a snake. Then, with her nose, she tossed it upward. To Cressida’s amazement, in the air, it transformed into what looked like a real orange snake, slithering above them.
“Yikes!” Cressida said, jumping backward.
“Don’t worry,” Breeze said, laughing. “It can’t hurt you!”
As Cressida watched, fascinated and a little scared, the snake wiggled, slid, and hissed. And then, as suddenly as it had seemed to come alive, the snake turned back to a shower of petals that fluttered to the ground.
“My sisters and I can spend hours here at a time,” Breeze said. “The only problem is that since my sisters and I have hooves, the only things we can do are roll and flatten the petals. Since there aren’t very many animals that look like pancakes, we end up making a lot of snakes, eels, and worms. And once I even managed a caterpillar.” Breeze’s eyes filled with excitement. “But I bet, since you have fingers and a thumb, you could make all kinds of animals. Try it!”
Cressida picked up two handfuls of petals and smushed them together. Then, she shaped the petals into a rabbit with long ears, large paws, and a small, fluffy-looking tail.
“Throw it into the air!” Breeze said, bounding from side to side.
Cressida tossed it up, and the rabbit seemed to come alive, hopping, sniffing, and scratching its ears.
Then, right in the middle of a jump, it fell apart, and the petals fluttered to the ground.
“Wow!” Cressida said, laughing with delight as she grabbed more petals and sculpted a cheetah. “This is much more fun than regular modeling clay!” After she used her fingernail to give the cat’s body spots, she launched it into the air and watched as it sprinted in circles over her head.
“That cheetah is an even faster runner than Flash,” Breeze said with wide eyes. Flash’s magic power was to run so fast that lightning bolts crackled from her horn and hooves.
After the cheetah turned into a shower of petals, Cressida made an eagle that soared and swooped, an elephant that swung its trunk, a monkey that hung from its tail, and an alligator that snapped its
