by Tracey West
“Back to Adora already?” Swift Wind asked. “There could be more robots out there.”
“We can go robot hunting later,” she replied. “There’s a meeting of the Princess Council in a few minutes, and I need to be there.”
“She-Ra is a princess,” Swift Wind said.
“Yeah, but I fit in the chair much better than she does,” Adora said. She began walking toward Queen Angella’s palace, and Swift Wind followed.
“Can I come to the meeting, too?” he asked.
“I don’t think so,” she replied. “I think it’s a princess-only thing, and you’re, you know, a flying horse.”
“Bow isn’t a princess, and he gets to go,” Swift Wind pointed out. “Also, I’m part of the Rebellion! And if I can’t hang out with the princesses, who can I hang out with?”
Adora shrugged. “What about other horses?”
Swift Wind snorted. “In case you haven’t noticed, I am not like other horses. I am the only magical, flying, talking horse in Bright Moon! Regular horses just don’t get me. I’ve been trying to start a revolutionary movement to convince them to leave their masters and be free. But they’re content to eat hay in their warm, cozy stables.” He shook his head.
They had crossed into the village and were passing a barn with a fenced-in field. A brown horse stood by the fence, munching on a hay bale.
Swift Wind stopped in front of her.
“Hear me, sister! Break free of the chains of servitude that bind you and join me in the glorious freedom of revolution!”
Neeeeeeeigh, the horse whinnied in reply.
“What did she say?” Adora asked.
“She said it’s Alfalfa Tuesday at the farm, and she’s been looking forward to it all week,” Swift Wind said. “Such a shame. She is a puppet of her overlords!”
He flapped his wings. “I’ll see you at the castle, Adora!” he said, and then he flew off.
“Hey! Can’t I get a lift?” she called after him, but he didn’t turn back.
Adora sighed and continued her walk. She looked around, marveling at how happy and peaceful the kingdom looked. During the battle of Bright Moon, it had been plunged into darkness. The Horde had found a way to attack the Moonstone, the magical runestone that protected the kingdom and gave Queen Angella and Princess Glimmer their powers. For one scary moment, Adora had been sure that Bright Moon would be lost forever.
Catra had been sure of it, too. Catra had been her best friend when they were growing up in the Fright Zone together, trained to become soldiers of the Horde. Then Adora had found the Sword of Protection and transformed into She-Ra. She’d met Glimmer and Bow and realized that everything she’d learned in the Fright Zone was a lie. So Adora had joined the princesses, and Catra had become a force captain in the Horde—and her sworn enemy.
Adora reached up to touch her cheek. The mark was gone, but she could still feel where Catra had scratched her with her sharp claws during the battle. She could still hear Catra’s cruel taunts inside her head.
It won’t be over until your friends find out that you’ve failed—that you were too weak to save them.
Catra hadn’t counted on the power of the princesses, and how strong they could be. Adora still got chills, thinking about all the powerful energy she had felt when the princesses had banded together. It had filled her with more hope than she’d ever known—a feeling that no matter what the princesses faced, they could overcome it.
That powerful energy had been too much for Catra. She and the Horde army had retreated, but Adora knew that Catra wouldn’t stop until she’d defeated the princesses for good.
Part of her still hoped she could get through to Catra and bring her over to the princesses’ side.
That will never happen, she argued with herself. She is too filled with hate. Too loyal to the Horde.
And then a thought chilled her. What if she had never found the sword? She would have been the one leading the charge against Bright Moon, with Catra by her side. There would have been no She-Ra to defend the kingdom. In that scenario, the Horde would have won, and Bright Moon would have been lost …
“Adora!”
Glimmer appeared in front of her in a shower of pink sparkles. The sparkles settled into her pink-and-purple hair.
“You’re late for the meeting!” Glimmer said.
“I know, but there was this robot, and then Swift Wind …” Adora began.
“No time!” Glimmer said. She hugged Adora, and poof! They transported in a glittery cloud.
Tracey West has written more than 300 books for children and young adults, including the following series: Pixie Tricks, Hiro’s Quest, and Dragon Masters. She has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list as author of the Pokémon chapter book adaptations. Tracey currently lives with her family in New York State’s Catskill Mountains. She can be found on Twitter at @TraceyWestBooks.
Copyright © 2019 DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved. SHE-RA and associated trademarks and character copyrights are owned by and used under license from Mattel, Inc. Portions of text based on screenplays by Noelle Stevenson.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First printing 2019
Cover art by Amanda Schank
Cover design by Carolyn Bull
e-ISBN 978-1-338-29842-0
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.