The Moonbeams

by Emily Bliss

  Cressida smiled. She put the hat on her head. And then she stepped back onto the stage, ran over to the owls, and got in line with them.

  “Are we ready?” Sunbeam asked, looking at the Moonbeams.

  “Yes!” called out the raccoons, the frogs, the owls, the dunes, the cacti, the unicorn princesses, and, of course, Cressida.

  “Fantastic,” Moon said. Then, she looked at the audience and smiled. “Welcome to the Moonbeams’ very first concert,” she said. “We’re so pleased you’re here.” Even though Moon was using her loudest voice, the Glitter Canyon was so big that the audience couldn’t hear her.

  Moon looked worriedly at Sunbeam. “I don’t think anyone can hear me,” she whispered.

  “Uh oh,” Sunbeam said.

  And that’s when Cressida remembered the gift from Ernest. “Just a second,” Cressida said. “Don’t panic yet.”

  She pulled the purple microphone from her pocket and put it in the center of all the Moonbeams. The microphone shimmered.

  Cressida cleared her throat and said, “Testing, testing. One. Two. Three.” Her voice boomed and echoed against the canyon walls, as giant, ribbon-like rainbows sprayed from the top of the microphone.

  “Yet again, Cressida saves the day,” Prism said. “And I love those rainbows!”

  Moon and Sunbeam smiled at each other and nodded. The two unicorns counted, “One and a two and a one, two, three, four.”

  The raccoons began to play, and the sounds of their instruments filled the canyon as even more rainbows shot from the microphone. Soon, the frogs croaked. The dunes began to sing, “Doo, doo, doo, doo.” The cacti sang, “Sha la la la la.” The owls and Cressida hooted to the beat. And the unicorn princesses sang the song Cressida had heard them practicing in the palace.

  As the Moonbeams sang song after song, the audience clapped to the beat, and rainbows filled the sky. When the concert ended, the audience cheered and clapped as the unicorns stepped forward and bowed. The Rainbow Realm creatures kept clapping as the dunes flattened themselves to bow and the cacti tilted forward. The frogs and the raccoons bowed. And finally, Cressida and the entire owl family stepped forward to bow.

  When the audience finished clapping and yelling, “Bravo! Bravo!” Cressida smiled and took a long, deep breath. Hooting with the owls in the Moonbeams’ concert had been a lot of fun. But her adventures in the Rainbow Realm had also left her feeling ready to go home, sit down at her desk, and tackle her math homework. She wanted to see her father and Corey. And, as her stomach grumbled, she realized she was ready for dinner—and especially ready for the lasagna her father had been cooking.

  Cressida turned and looked at the unicorn princesses. “I have had such a good time with you today. It was amazing to be the Moonbeams’ special guest. But I think it’s time for me to go home,” she said.

  Sunbeam nodded. “Thank you so very much for coming, Cressida.”

  “Yes,” Moon said, “and thank you so much for saving the Moonbeams’ concert.”

  “It was my pleasure,” Cressida said. Then she kneeled down and smiled at the owl chicks, who were yawning again. She bet that in a matter of minutes, they would be napping in their strollers. “Goodbye, Oliver, Owen, Orion, Odetta, Olivia, and Orly,” she said, grinning at them.

  “Goodbye! Goodbye!” the owl chicks called out.

  Opal and Otto smiled at Cressida. “It was great to meet you,” Opal said.

  “Yes, it sure was,” Otto said.

  “It was wonderful to meet you, too,” Cressida said.

  She looked again at her friends, the unicorn princesses. “Goodbye!” she sang out, and she held up her jazz hands on either side of her face.

  The unicorns princesses laughed.

  “Come back soon!” Sunbeam sang out.

  “You’re always welcome here!” Moon sang.

  Bloom and Prism grinned and nodded.

  Breeze and Firefly winked.

  And Flash and Feather, in their enthusiastic, off-key voices, belted out, “Goodbye, Cressida!”

  Cressida giggled as she pulled her key from her jeans pocket. She pressed the crystal-ball handle between her palms and closed her eyes. “Take me home, please,” she said.

  The Glitter Canyon began to spin, until all she could see was a blur of sparkling purple. Then, everything went pitch black. Cressida felt herself flying up into the air and soaring through space until she landed on something that felt soft and spongy, like moss. For a few seconds, all she could see was a swirl of blue sky, green leaves, and brown branches. But soon, the woods stopped spinning, and she found herself sitting on a green, mossy patch right beneath the giant oak tree.

  She felt her pockets. The microphone and the magic glasses were gone. But there was something else there. Grinning, Cressida pulled out a yellow and black ticket. She stuffed it back in her pocket for safe keeping, stood up, and skipped home, her silver unicorn sneakers blinking all the way.

  DON’T MISS OUR NEXT MAGICAl ADVENTURE!

  TURN THE PAGE FOR A SNEAK PEEK . . .

  In the top tower of Spiral Palace, Ernest, a wizard-lizard, lay in bed under a puffy purple comforter. He stretched and blinked as sunlight streamed through his window. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. And then, with his green scaly hands, he reached over to his bedside table and grabbed a book. In red script across the cover, the title read, Get It Right the First Time: Ten Easy Tips to End Magical Mishaps and Cast Spells with Confidence.

  Ernest flipped the book open to where he’d left a bookmark. He began to read silently from page 38:

  TIP FOUR: Read spells while you’re casting them, even if you’re completely sure you have them memorized!

  Many wizard-lizards insist on trying to memorize spells before they cast them. But attempting to memorize a spell instead of reading it is a leading cause of mistakes. We strongly suggest you read directly from your books while you’re casting spells, especially if your spells often result in magical mishaps.

  “Hmm,” Ernest said to himself. “I don't know about that. I suppose it’s worth considering. Maybe.”

  Before he could continue reading, there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” he called.

  The door creaked open, and in walked a silver unicorn. Around her neck hung a pink ribbon necklace with a diamond gemstone.

  “Princess Flash!” Ernest said, smiling.

  Flash looked at Ernest, still lying in bed. “Did I wake you?” she asked.

  “Not at all,” Ernest said. “I was reading.”

  “What are you reading?” Flash asked.

  “Um, nothing really. Just a book about casting spells,” Ernest said, shutting the book and shoving it under his pillow. He slid out from under his comforter and stood, revealing purple-and-white-striped pajamas. “Might I help you with something?” he asked, looking hopeful. “You don’t happen to need any magical assistance, do you?”

  Emily Bliss lives just down the street from a forest. From her living room window, she can see a big oak tree with a magic keyhole. Like Cressida Jenkins, she knows that unicorns are real.

  Sydney Hanson was raised in Minnesota alongside numerous pets and brothers. In addition to her traditional illustrations, Sydney is an experienced 2D and 3D production artist and has worked for several animation shops, including Nickelodeon and Disney Interactive. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling and spending time outside with her adopted brother, a Labrador retriever named Cash. She lives in Los Angeles.

  www.sydwiki.tumblr.com

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  This electronic edition published in 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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  First published in the United States of America in September 2020 by Bloomsbury Children’s Books

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&n
bsp; Text copyright © 2020 by Emily Bliss

  Illustrations copyright © 2020 by Sydney Hanson

  All rights reserved

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Bliss, Emily, author. | Hanson, Sydney, illustrator.

  Title: The Moonbeams / by Emily Bliss ; [illustrated by] Sydney Hanson.

  Description: New York : Bloomsbury, 2020. | Series: Unicorn princesses ; 9 |

  Summary: Unicorn princesses Sunbeam and Moon start a show choir, inviting everyone in the enchanted Rainbow Realm to join, including human friend Cressida. Identifiers: LCCN 2020021997 (print) | LCCN 2020021998 (e-book)

  ISBN: 978-1-5476-0484-5 (HB)

  ISBN: 978-1-5476-0483-8 (PB)

  ISBN: 978-1-5476-0485-2 (eBook)

  Subjects: CYAC: Unicorns—Fiction. | Princesses—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Choirs (Music)—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.B633 Mo 2020 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.B633 (e-book) DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020021997

  LC e-book record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020021998

  Book design by Jessie Gang and John Candell

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