Pegasus Princesses 6, page 1
The Pegasus Princesses series
Mist’s Maze
Aqua’s Splash
Flip’s Fair
Star’s Gaze
Rosie’s Rhythm
Snow’s Slide
The Unicorn Princesses series
Sunbeam’s Shine
Flash’s Dash
Bloom’s Ball
Prism’s Paint
Breeze’s Blast
Moon’s Dance
Firefly’s Glow
Feather’s Flight
The Moonbeams
The Wing Spell
For Phoenix and Lynx
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Teaser
About the Author and Illustrator
Pegasus
Princesses
SNOW’S SLIDE
hat should we name it?” Clara Griffin asked her younger sister, Miranda.
The two girls—wearing matching light blue snowsuits and green winter boots—stood side by side on a white sheet spread over their living room carpet. Together, they admired the snow-covered mountain they had built by draping five white sheets over an enormous mound of cushions, pillows, coats, stuffed animals, sleeping bags, beanbag chairs, towels, and balled-up blankets.
“Mount Snow?” Miranda suggested. She frowned. “That’s too boring. Can you think of a more creative name?”
“Hmm,” Clara said. “Mount Mongolopticus?”
Miranda laughed. “Mount Mongolopticus,” she repeated. “That’s perfect. Do you think the snow leopards are ready to go mitten-sliding?”
Clara turned to the coffee table, which she and her sister had pushed into a corner to make space for their mountain. On the table’s glass top lay four snow leopards the sisters had made out of twigs, string, dandelion fluff, and glue. The leopards were napping while their glue dried. “I bet they’re ready now,” Clara said. “Should I go get them?”
Miranda paused. She let out a long sigh. “The only problem is I’m really, really hot in my snowsuit.”
Clara nodded. She had to admit she was also feeling too hot. After all, it was a sunny, warm spring day. “Let’s take them off for a little while,” Clara said.
Miranda scrunched up her nose. “We can’t play Snowy Mountain without wearing snowsuits.”
“What if we just pretend to wear them?” Clara suggested.
“It’s not the same,” Miranda said, shaking her head.
Clara sighed. Miranda was right that wearing a snowsuit and pretending to wear a snowsuit weren’t exactly the same. But Clara noticed drops of sweat forming on her forehead, and her shirt felt damp against her back. The sisters needed to cool off somehow. And then Clara had an idea. She hopped from one foot to the other. “I know what we can do!” she exclaimed. “I’ll be right back!”
Clara raced into the kitchen, leaped across the tile floor to the refrigerator, and opened the freezer door. On one of the shelves was a clear plastic bin full of reusable ice packs that she and her sister put in their school lunches to keep them cool. Clara grabbed the entire bin, swung the freezer door shut, and rushed back to the living room. She placed the bin on the floor between her and her sister.
“What are those for?” Miranda asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Watch this!” Clara said. She unzipped the top of her snowsuit. Then she picked up an ice pack and dropped it right inside her suit. The ice pack settled next to her left knee. She picked up two more ice packs and dropped them into the back of her suit. Her damp shirt instantly felt cool.
Miranda giggled. She unzipped her snowsuit and dropped one ice pack into the front and one into the back. Her eyes widened and she grinned. “Good idea, Clara,” she said. “I’m starting to feel cooler already.”
Clara and Miranda giggled as they dropped ice pack after ice pack into their snowsuits. When the bin was empty, they both zipped themselves back up.
“Let’s roll on the floor to move the ice packs around,” Clara said. She flopped down and rolled across the white sheet, enjoying the feeling of the ice packs shifting across her stomach, legs, and back.
Miranda crouched down and did two somersaults. She did a cartwheel. And then she rolled over to Clara. “Now I’m the perfect temperature,” she said.
“Me too!” Clara said. “Are you ready for leopard mitten-sliding now?”
Miranda nodded. “I’ll go wake up the snow leopards while you get the mittens,” she suggested.
“Perfect,” Clara said. She stood up and skipped to the front hall closet to get the wicker basket her family used to store mittens. But the shelf where it belonged was bare. And then she remembered: Two days before, she had used the basket as a tent for her plastic penguin figures and the mittens as their nests. Clara raced back through the living room, up the stairs, down the hall, and into her bedroom.
Clara stepped over a climbing dome she had built for her popsicle-stick pegasus figures out of metal forks and masking tape. She sidled around pictures of polar bears and arctic foxes she had made by gluing white azalea petals onto black construction paper. She smiled at her puppy, Quack, who was fast asleep in a pile of clean laundry on the floor. And then she walked along a winding trail of wooden train track pieces, books, dominoes, animal flash cards, and ceramic coasters. At the end of the trail was the penguin tent she had made by turning the mitten basket upside down, so its handle propped it partway up. On the floor, under the basket, was a row of knit mittens, each with a small penguin nestled inside it. Clara gently pulled the penguins out of their nests and arranged them around a campfire she made from a crumpled red sock. Then she grabbed the mittens and ran toward her bedroom door.
As Clara stepped out into the hallway, she heard a high-pitched humming noise. At first she thought it might be a leaf blower outside or even music playing in her parents’ bedroom. But as the humming grew louder, Clara realized the sound was coming from under her bed.
Clara grinned from ear to ear. She turned around and rushed over to her bed, kneeled, and pulled out a flip-top shoebox she had decorated with glitter, paint, and markers. She opened the box to reveal a large silver feather. Light shot up and down the feather’s spine as it hummed louder and louder. The feather had been a gift from the pegasus princesses—eight royal pegasus sisters who ruled over the Wing Realm, a magical world in which all the creatures had wings. Whenever the pegasus princesses wanted to invite Clara to visit them, the feather shimmered and hummed—just the way it was shimmering and humming right then. To get to the Wing Realm, all Clara had to do was hold the feather in her hand as she ran to a special clearing in the woods surrounding her house.
Clara couldn’t wait to see her pegasus friends. Each one had a unique magic power: silver Princess Mist could turn invisible; teal Princess Aqua could breathe underwater and make bubbles; peach Princess Flip could do a somersault and turn into any animal; black Princess Star had extraordinary senses; pink Princess Rosie could speak and understand any language; white Princess Snow could freeze things and create winter weather; green Princess Stitch could sew, knit, or crochet almost anything; and purple Princess Dash could instantly transport herself anywhere in the Wing Realm.
Clara picked up the feather. It immediately stopped humming. Holding both the bunch of mittens and the feather, Clara ran back across her room. When she got to the door, she paused and looked down. She knew that she should probably take off her snowsuit and snow boots before visiting the Wing Realm. But it always felt like taking off her winter gear took forever, and she didn’t want to wait any longer to visit the pegasus princesses. And besides, she loved the feeling of the ice packs inside her snowsuit. Clara decided that if she wanted to, she could always take her suit off at Feather Palace, the pegasus princesses’ wing-shaped home.
Clara slid the feather into her snowsuit pocket. She ran along the hall, down the stairs, and into the living room. She handed her sister the mittens. “I’m going to go outside to get some pine needles to make beds for the snow leopards after they finish sledding,” Clara said. “I’ll be right back.” Time in the human world froze while Clara was in the Wing Realm, meaning that even if she spent hours with her pegasus friends, Miranda would think she had been gone for only a few minutes.
“Can I go ahead and put the snow leopards inside the mittens?” Miranda asked.
“Definitely,” Clara said. “You can even start letting them slide down Mount Mongolopticus.”
“Okay,” Miranda said, and she smiled as she gently pushed a snow leopard into a red wool mitten.
Clara skipped across the living room, through the kitchen, and out the back door. She hopped in her boots along the slate walkway that led across her yard and into the woods. She pulled the feather out of her pocket as she splashed through the creek where she and her sister liked to play potions. She ran down a hill, turned a corner, and entered a clearing by a large pine tree.
Glittery light swirled and flashed. A green armchair with silver wings on its back appeared. “Hello, chair!” Clara sang out. She slipped the feather back into her pocket.
The chair hopped excitedly. It jumped into the air and did a somersault. And then it slid across the carpet of pine needles to Clara.
She smiled and patted the chair’s back before she turned and sat down. She gripped the chair’s arms as the chair soared up into the air and landed on top of the large pine tree. The trunk swayed for a momen
Clara looked all around her. She knew exactly where she was: the front hall of Feather Palace. On the magenta walls hung portraits of the pegasus princesses and their silver pet cat, Lucinda. Rainbow water spouted from marble pegasus-shaped fountains. Pegasus sculptures, with feathered wings outstretched, reared up from pedestals. Light from the chandeliers danced on the black tile floors. In the center of the room were the pegasus princesses’ eight thrones, arranged in a half circle. Next to Snow’s white throne was Lucinda’s sofa—a cat-size silver couch with a back shaped like a cat head and two green sequin eyes. On the cat sofa’s cushion was a small star-shaped pillow that Clara had given to Lucinda for her birthday.
Clara turned to her right and blinked her eyes in surprise. On the tile floor, next to the thrones, was a giant frozen puddle. All eight pegasus princesses huddled in a tight circle by the far edge of the ice. Just above them, Lucinda fluttered her wings as she hovered upside down in the air.
Snow flicked her white mane, swished her white tail, and said, “I’ll show you how to do it one more time. Then we can all practice for a few more minutes.”
The seven other pegasus princesses lined up along either side of the ice and stared intently at Snow.
Snow trotted to the wall farthest from the ice. She turned toward the frozen puddle and stared at it for a few seconds. Then she took a deep breath, furrowed her brow, and galloped toward the ice at top speed. When she had almost reached it, she extended her wings for balance and jumped forward. With a joyful whinny, she landed on her belly with her legs splayed out on either side of her. She grinned with delight as she slid the length of the frozen puddle.
When she reached the end of ice, she stood up on the tile floor and smiled encouragingly at her sisters. “That’s all you’ll have to do,” she explained. “It might be a little harder this afternoon because you’ll be going down a slide instead of across a frozen puddle. But I know you’ll all be able to do it as long as we practice now.”
Mist, Aqua, Flip, Star, Rosie, Stitch, and Dash reared up with excitement. All eight pegasus princesses trotted to the far wall. They turned to face the frozen puddle. And then, all at once, they galloped toward the ice. They extended their wings, jumped forward, and slid on their bellies across the frozen puddle. Clara noticed that Mist, Aqua, Flip, Star, Rosie, Snow, and Stitch whinnied and laughed as they slid. But Dash snorted and frowned. When they got to the end of the ice, Mist, Aqua, Flip, Star, Rosie, Snow, and Stitch called out, “That was incredible!” and, “Let’s do it again!” and, “We should install an ice rink in the basement of the palace!” They stood up on the tiles, reared up, and galloped back to the far wall to slide again. They didn’t notice Dash clambering slowly onto the tile floor and, with her head down and her tail between her legs, trotting over to her purple throne.
As Mist, Aqua, Flip, Star, Rosie, Snow, and Stitch kept sliding across the ice, Dash curled up on her throne, hung her head, and blinked away tears. Clara stood up and walked over to Dash.
“Are you okay?” Clara asked. She gently put her hand on Dash’s back.
Dash looked up in surprise. When she saw Clara, she smiled as tears streamed down her cheeks. “Clara!” she said. “I’m happy you’re here.” She sighed and shook her head. “And I also feel sad and disappointed. I was so excited about going ice-sliding this afternoon with my sisters. But just now, when I practiced on real ice for the first time, I realized I absolutely hate the feeling of the ice. It’s cold and slippery and horrible. Now I’m going to have a terrible afternoon!”
Clara nodded. She could understand what it felt like to really want to do something, only to discover she didn’t like it after all. The previous year, she had spent months wanting to take a ballet class.
When her parents finally signed her up for one, she discovered that she hated the feeling of her tights and leotard against her skin, that the music in the ballet studio felt too loud for her ears, and that she enjoyed making up her own dance moves much more than she liked learning ballet steps. She had felt sad, disappointed, and angry—just the way Dash seemed to feel right then. “I can really relate to how you feel,” Clara said. She wrapped her arms around Dash and gave her a hug. “I felt exactly the same way about ballet. I really wanted to do it. And then when I tried it, I hated it.”
“Ballet?” Dash said. “What is that?”
Clara laughed. “It’s just a kind of dance in the human world,” she said. It was refreshing to talk to someone who hadn’t even heard of ballet. “A few of my friends really love it. But I do not. In fact, I can’t stand it!”
Dash nodded. “Well, that’s exactly how I feel about ice.” She paused, and her face brightened. “But I feel a little better already because you’re here.” Dash turned toward her sisters, who were whinnying as they slid on their bellies across the ice. “Guess what!” Dash called out. “Clara’s here!”
Mist, Aqua, Flip, Star, Rosie, Snow, and Stitch looked at Clara. They whinnied even louder. And then they scrambled off the ice and galloped over to her. Lucinda purred loudly as she flew across the front hall and swooped down to her cat sofa.
“My human girl is back!” Mist called out.
“Welcome to Feather Palace,” Aqua said, trotting in a circle around Clara.
“We’re so glad you’ve joined us,” Flip said.
“You’re arrived in time for the best afternoon ever,” Star said.
“You’re going to love what we have planned,” Rosie said.
“Snow will tell you all about it,” Stitch said.
“You’ve gotten here just in time,” Snow gushed, flicking her mane and swishing her tail. “Today is a very special day. We’re all going ice-sliding in the Sky Tundra for the first time. We’ve invited our good friends the snow leopard princesses from the Snow Realm to join us. And we’re really hoping you’ll come too. Will you? Please?”
“Absolutely!” Clara said. Ice-sliding with snow leopard princesses and pegasus princesses sounded like an amazing way to spend the afternoon.
“Fantastic!” Snow said. Then Snow looked at Clara, furrowed her brow, and cocked her head to the side. That’s when Clara noticed that Lucinda and all eight pegasus princesses were staring at her snowsuit and boots.
“Um,” Stitch said. “I don’t mean to be rude, but . . .”
“I’m just wondering . . .” Mist began.
“I don’t know quite how to ask this, but . . .” Flip faltered.
Snow giggled nervously and said, “What we’re all wondering is what in the world is that thing you’re wearing on your body?”
“And what are those weird, clunky things on your feet?” Aqua said.
Clara laughed. “This is called a snowsuit,” she said, touching the fabric of her suit. “And these,” she said, lifting up one foot and then the other, “are called snow boots. Humans wear snowsuits and boots in the winter to stay warm.”
“Interesting,” Snow said, furrowing her brow even more. “How do they work?”
“Well,” Clara said, thinking about it for a moment, “they’re made of a special material that holds my body heat in and keeps the cold out.”
The pegasus princesses nodded thoughtfully. “I’ve never seen anything like that,” Stitch said.
“Is it winter in Gardenview, New Jersey?” Snow asked. Gardenview, New Jersey, was the name of the place where Clara and her family lived.
Clara shook her head. “Actually, it’s late spring,” she said. “My sister and I were playing a game we made up called Snowy Mountain. That’s why we put on our winter gear.”
“It’s a good thing you’re wearing your snowsuit and boots,” Snow said. “The ice slide is in the Sky Tundra. And it’s pretty cold up there.”
Just then, Snow noticed Dash’s sad, disappointed face.
