“I’m glad you thought of that,” Breeze said. And then she called out, “Attention! This is Princess Breeze. Monarch butterflies, could you please go to the Meadow of Melodies for a few minutes?”
All at once, the butterflies lifted off the bats and wildflowers and fluttered away.
Cressida looked at Moon. “Could you make the meadow pitch black?”
“Absolutely,” Moon said, and took a deep breath. She pointed her horn toward the enormous, snoring bats. The opal on her ribbon necklace shimmered. Black, glittery light shot out from her horn. And suddenly, the meadow was pitch black.
Within a few seconds, Cressida heard rustling. Then she heard yawning and giant bat wings unfolding and stretching.
“Is it night already?” a squeaky voice asked.
“I could have sworn I just went to bed a few hours ago,” another voice squeaked.
“How strange! It feels like the sun just came up,” piped a third.
“I guess we’d better look for some food,” squeaked a fourth.
Cressida reached for the mosquitoes on Breeze’s back and quickly threw them into the air toward the bats. Then she tossed the mosquitoes on Moon’s back in the same direction. In a few seconds, she heard the loud, high-pitched buzzing noise of eight large mosquitoes.
“I hear breakfast!” a voice squeaked, and then she heard the sound of eight giant bats flapping their wings, followed by very loud gulping and chewing noises.
“These are the strangest-tasting mosquitoes I’ve ever eaten,” a voice squeaked.
“I swear they taste like flower petals,” squeaked another bat.
“These are tasty! Let’s go find some more!”
Soon the sound of flapping bat wings faded into the distance.
“Moon, I think you can make it light again now,” Cressida said.
“Sure thing!” Moon said. And suddenly the Monarch Meadow was sunny again.
Cressida blinked and squinted as her eyes adjusted to the brightness. She stared into the distance and spotted the bats, which now, with their wings extended, looked even larger than she had imagined they were. She wished she could tell Corey that she had seen bats that were even bigger than the ones he had told her about. But she knew he would never believe her.
“Do you think they’ll be able to find somewhere to go back to sleep?” Cressida asked.
“Luckily, they’re headed straight toward Firefly’s domain, the Shimmering Caves,” Breeze said. “I’ll bet they’ll find somewhere good to rest there.”
The kites slowly stood up, balancing on their tails. They blinked their long, oval eyes and stretched their diamond-shaped bodies. Then, they began to chatter:
“Phew!”
“The bat lying on me smelled terrible!”
“And the one sitting on me was so heavy I couldn’t even move my tail!”
“Plus, they snored so loudly!”
All the kites looked at each other and then at Cressida.
“Thank you!” they called out.
“Yes,” Breeze said, looking at Cressida and Moon. “I feel so grateful to both of you. I’m very relieved I won’t have to cancel the Blast.”
“I was glad to help,” Cressida said.
“Me too,” said Moon. “I’m glad you’ll be able to hold the Blast after all. And I’m excited to watch the rest of you fly up into the clouds.”
As the kites stretched and jumped, Cressida spotted Flash, Sunbeam, Bloom, Prism, and Firefly trotting toward them.
“We’re here and ready to fly!” exclaimed Flash.
“Yes,” said Sunbeam. “We can’t wait.”
“Plus, I’m so hungry I could eat an entire froyanana tree, even the trunk and the leaves,” Bloom said. Cressida heard a loud rumbling noise, and the unicorn blushed. “That’s my stomach!” Bloom admitted. Cressida giggled.
“I can’t wait for the dragon’s special feast!” Prism said.
Cressida noticed that Moon was staring at a kite, almost as though she might want to climb onto it. Cressida decided not to say anything, though—she wanted to let Moon make her own decision, at her own pace, and without any pressure.
“Let’s go!” Breeze said. “I can already smell the feast.”
Cressida inhaled, and sure enough, she could smell food cooking. She looked all around for the dragons and their gigantic vats, but they were nowhere to be seen. “Where are the dragons?” she asked.
“Up in the sky!” Breeze said. “The clouds above this part of the Windy Meadows are special, magic clouds that we can stand and walk and bounce on.”
Cressida’s eyes widened with excitement. She had always wanted to walk and jump on clouds, but she had never thought that might be possible.
“Well,” said Breeze, grinning at her sisters, “are you ready?”
“Yes!” cried Flash, Sunbeam, Bloom, Prism, and Firefly. Moon smiled and said, “I’ll be here cheering you on.”
While Cressida and Moon watched, the other unicorns raced over to the kites. Each unicorn stepped onto a kite so there were two left—one for Cressida, and one that would have been for Moon.
“Come on, Cressida!” Breeze called out. “Climb onto your kite!”
Cressida turned to Moon to say goodbye, but to her surprise, the unicorn had tears in her eyes. “I’ll be right there!” Cressida called out to Breeze. Then she put her arms around Moon’s neck. “You look like you’re having a hard time deciding what to do,” Cressida said.
Moon nodded. “Now that I’m here looking at the kites, I really want to fly in the Blast. Look at how much fun my sisters are already having,” she said. “And the dragon’s feast is always the best meal I have all year. But I’m still terrified of falling off again. It was just so scary last year.”
“I completely understand that,” Cressida said. She looked over at the kites and then up at the clouds above them, where she knew the dragons were cooking. She realized she didn’t feel so worried about falling off that she couldn’t share the cape Ernest had made for her. After all, she wasn’t afraid of heights, and she hadn’t felt afraid the two other times she had soared through the sky in the Rainbow Realm—first on the boulders in Flash’s domain, the Thunder Peaks, and then on the Rainbow Cats in Prism’s domain, the Valley of Light.
“Moon,” Cressida said,
