If Wishes Were Horses

by Sibley Miller

His magic butterflies drank the nectar so hungrily, in fact, that they crowded the real butterflies out! Before long, almost all of the real butterflies got fed up and flew out of the bush altogether.

  Only the butterfly who’d first spoken to Sirocco remained.

  “Sorry!” Sirocco said to the butterfly. “I guess that was kind of rude.”

  “It was more than rude!” the butterfly said. “Don’t you know what you’ve done? If butterflies don’t drink nectar, they don’t pollinate flowers. And do you know what happens when flowers don’t get pollinated?”

  “What?” Sirocco asked, not sure he wanted to know.

  “Next year’s flowers don’t grow, that’s what!” the butterfly answered.

  “Oh, no!” Sirocco said. “What do I do?”

  “You’re the one who made this mess,” the butterfly replied. “You figure out what to do!” Then he flew away.

  Feeling guilty, Sirocco gazed at his butterflies flitting around the bush.

  “Okay, guys,” he commanded. “It’s time to come back into my halo.”

  But instead of obeying, the magical creatures flew out of the bush and began searching for more sweet nectar.

  “Oh, no!” Sirocco said again. “What do I do now?”

  CHAPTER 5

  Up, Up, and Away

  Meanwhile, Brisa found herself with her head in the clouds! One moment, she was talking to Kona, the next, she was wrapped in cotton candy.

  “Ooh, lovely!” Brisa cried. The cloud felt wonderful—airy and watery, all at once.

  I think Kona should stop worrying about why we have magic, Brisa thought, and try riding on a cloud. I’ll go tell her.

  But when Brisa emerged from the cloud, Kona had disappeared!

  “I wonder where she went,” Brisa said. She gazed across the meadow, but the group’s leader was nowhere to be seen.

  Brisa did see something else, though.

  Something amazing.

  It was a huge band of colors, arcing out of a distant cloud—a rainbow!

  “It’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen!” Brisa cried. “Besides myself, of course.”

  Thinking of the rainbow and her pretty self, Brisa remembered the question Kona had asked the horses: “Why are we here?”

  “I think we’re here to add beauty to the world!” Brisa decided. She combed a hoof through her mane. “Now, as I see it, the only thing more beautiful than a magic horse or a rainbow is a magic horse and a rainbow! So, I’m going to go see it up close!”

  Brisa began flying with all her might.

  The thing was, no matter how far and fast she flew, she didn’t seem to get any closer to the rainbow!

  Brisa desperately wanted to reach it.

  But she was also getting tired.

  “Maybe,” she murmured to herself, “I could stop and rest for a minute.”

  At just that moment, another fluffy cloud bobbed by. It looked as soft and inviting as the first one. Brisa didn’t think twice—she hopped onto the new cloud and sank into it with a grateful sigh.

  And before she knew it, she’d fallen fast asleep.

  * * *

  Brisa didn’t know how much time had gone by when she awoke with a dainty snort. All she knew was that she felt great—rested and ready to seize the rainbow!

  “I just have to figure out where the rainbow is!” she said. “I can’t see a thing with all this cloud in my eyes.”

  About to take flight, Brisa fluttered her wings gently. But she stayed right where she was!

  “Okay, cloud,” Brisa said sweetly. “This has been lovely, but I have to go find my rainbow now.”

  This time, she kicked her legs and flapped her wings at full speed ahead. But—

  “Oof!”

  Brisa was stuck!

  “What’s going on?” Brisa cried. Not that it did any good. The cloud had her completely fogged in. She couldn’t see anything!

  But she could still feel. So she poked around the cloud with her hooves. They tapped up against the jewels of her magic halo. But her jewels didn’t feel quite right. Usually, they bounced around her. Now, they were absolutely still.

  “Caught … in the cloud!” Brisa realized suddenly. “I’m trapped here! And I don’t know what to do!”

  “Hello? Helllllp!” she neighed out, all of a sudden afraid. “Can anybody hear me?”

  CHAPTER 6

  All Tied Up

  As Sumatra flew across the dandelion meadow, she whinnied in excitement.

  On her right was a farm with a red barn.

  On her left was a duck and fish pond.

  And ahead of her was a lush forest.

  For a moment, Sumatra felt overwhelmed.

  “I want to see everything right now!” she exclaimed. If she’d been standing on the ground, she would have stomped her hoof. “How do I decide what to do first?”

  Just then, a tiny butterfly fluttered by.

  “Hey,” Sumatra said to herself, “that looks like one of Sirocco’s magic butterflies.”

  The little insect flew toward the forest.

  “Maybe it’s a sign,” Sumatra said, her mood brightening. “I mean, if a magic butterfly wants to explore the forest, it must be an exciting place.”

  So, Sumatra zipped as fast as she could toward the woods, as well.

  When she ducked into the forest, she gasped. It was beautiful! But as she flew deeper into the woods, it grew dark. The cool air felt heavy. And it was very quiet, but for a few bird squawks.

  “Maybe,” Sumatra whispered to herself, “it wasn’t such a good idea to dash off without my friends.”

  No sooner had she uttered these words than she heard a cry from the direction of the dandelion meadow.

  “Hello? Helllllp! Can anybody hear me?”

  Sumatra reared back, neighing in fright.

  Her first impulse was to fly away fast. But something stopped her. It was the thought of Kona asking, “What’s our purpose?”

  I bet helping those in need is what a magic horse is supposed to do, Sumatra realized all of a sudden.

  So, even though she was scared, she called out, “Help is on the way!”

  Then she began to race toward the voice. As she flew, it was all Sumatra could do to keep her little horse knees from knocking. That was, until she was distracted by a pretty glimmer of green!

  Then she saw a blue shimmer and a purple gleam.

  “Ooh!” she cried. “What are all those beautiful colors?”

  She slowed down to look around.

  “Those are my magical ribbons!” she realized with a laugh. “Flying fast sure makes them flutter!”

  “Oooh! Heeeelp!”

  The shriek was louder now. Sumatra jumped.

  “Whoops, I can’t forget why I was flying so fast,” Sumatra reminded herself. “Somebody needs help!”

  As she picked up speed again, Sumatra’s halo of ribbons made her feel a bit braver.

  My ribbons must look pretty amazing, Sumatra thought. She held her head high as she flew on. She imagined herself joining up again with her friends, her ribbons streaming out dramatically behind her.

  “What have you been doing?” they’d ask.

  “Oh, not much,” she’d reply. “Just saving someone from great peril!”

  “Wow!” Brisa, Kona, and Sirocco would say. “You’re a hero!”

  Sumatra was just starting to imagine what a medal might look like dangling from one of her pretty ribbons when, suddenly, something stopped her in mid-air!

  “Eeek!” Sumatra shrieked as she screeched to a halt. Her legs scrabbled at the air, but something was yanking her back. “What’s happened?”

  She looked down at her chest, which only a moment ago had been puffed out with pride. It was now crisscrossed with … her own magical ribbons! They were tying her to a tree!

  “Oh, no!” Sumatra cried. “I guess I was so caught up in my pretty ribbons that I didn’t watch where I was going. Now my ribbons have caught up me! How am I going to be a hero
now?!”

  CHAPTER 7

  Flower Power

  As her friends dashed out to explore nature, Kona decided she wanted to see the farm at the edge of the dandelion meadow, about a mile from the horse paddock.

  Kona loved the white curtains in every window of the yellow farmhouse, the clean red barn, and the rows of garden vegetables.

  She sighed with happiness as she flew toward the farmhouse windows to take a peek inside. When she did, she gasped. A sunny-looking woman with floury hands was piping icing out of a pastry bag, putting the finishing touches on a beautiful layer cake.

  Thrilled to be invisible, Kona flew inside the house for a closer look. The woman was decorating the white-frosted cake with orange icing.

  That must be a carrot cake! Kona realized.

  Kona loved carrots. She longed to taste the dessert.

  But I have no right to, she scolded herself. I’m not an invited guest. And I don’t want to risk messing up such a pretty cake.

  On the other hand, Kona remembered, she was invisible to people. And very small, at that. One bite of cake from her would be tiny. Undetectable, even.

  Kona was so hungry. What’s more, the lady had just finished frosting the cake—and had walked out of the room.

  This was Kona’s chance. She fluttered down to the counter and tentatively swiped one hoof through the green frosting at the very bottom of the cake.

  “Oh, yum! That was delicious.”

  Kona wished there was a way she could thank the lady for the taste.

  “But I can’t very well go neigh in her ear,” Kona told herself. “I’d scare her to death!”

  So, reluctantly, Kona got ready to leave. As she fluttered into the air, she took one last, longing look at the cake. And gasped!

  Because the spot where she’d filched the frosting had suddenly … sprouted flowers!

  The flowers were purple, blue, and pink, just like the ones in her magical halo.

  “Oh!” Kona squeaked. “Did I do that?”

  Kona hurried back to the carrot cake. The flowers in the frosting bobbed and winked at her, as if they were saying, “You’re right. This cake is delicious!”

  “This must be my magical power,” Kona realized. “I can make flowers grow on things that I touch!”

  Tentatively, Kona pulled at one of the little flowers. It didn’t budge.

  “Uh-oh,” Kona whispered.

  She yanked harder at her flowers. Finally, she pulled a few of them off the cake.

  “Yes!” But a moment later, Kona realized that frosting had come away with the flowers.

  “No!” she wailed. She used her hoof to try to smooth the surrounding frosting over the small hole, but that only made more magical flowers pop on to the cake.

  “No, no, no!” Kona cried. “My magic is out of control!”

  The sound of footsteps made Kona jump.

  “And now the cake lady’s coming back!” Kona cried again. “She’s going to see what a mess I made of her cake.”

  Kona desperately wanted to repair her mistake. But she didn’t know how. In fact, she was pretty sure that if she tried to do anything more, she’d only make the cake worse.

  So—feeling very unhappy with herself—she flew out the window.

  “I think I’d better come back after I’ve learned how to use my powers,” Kona told herself.

  With that, she hung her head low and flew away from the pretty farm.

  CHAPTER 8

  Mastering Magic

  Sirocco was flying above the dandelion meadow, sweaty and out of breath. He’d spent the last hour trying hard to catch his mischievous runaway butterflies. But they’d refused to be caught. And the real orange and black butterflies? They were nowhere to be seen.

  “What do magic horses do?” Sirocco said, remembering Kona’s question. “Well, I’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to hog all the flower nectar and crowd perfectly nice butterflies out of their favorite meadow.”

  Sirocco was also certain that Kona would be disappointed in him when she found out what he’d done.

  He heaved a big sigh. As he did, one of his butterflies flew up and landed right on his nose! Sirocco gasped. Then he tried to swipe the butterfly back into his halo. Of course, it dodged his hoof and took off for the forest.

  “Hey!” Sirocco called after the butterfly. “You’ve got some nerve! Get back here!”

  The butterfly turned and winked at him with its wings. Then, it darted off again.

  “That does it!” Sirocco said to himself. “If I don’t catch any other butterflies today, I’m going to nab that one!”

  He took off after the butterfly.

  It zipped toward the sky. Sirocco followed.

  It dove to the ground. Sirocco did the same.

  Finally, the butterfly flew through a low-hanging cloud. Sirocco chased after it.

  “Ow!” Sirocco’s head had butted right into something warm and silky, and not at all cloud-like. Sirocco heard a tinkling sound, and then, a voice!

  “Oooh! That hurt!”

  The cloud was so thick and white that Sirocco couldn’t see whom he’d hit. But that didn’t matter—he recognized the voice!

  “Brisa?!” he exclaimed.

  “Sirocco?” said Brisa’s voice. “You’ve come to save me! My hero!”

  “Um, actually, I came to find my escaped butterfly,” Sirocco said. “Have you seen it?”

  “I haven’t seen anything for a while now,” Brisa complained. “I’ve been trapped in this cloud. My magic jewels have got me pinned! Hey, did you say one of your butterflies escaped?”

  “Yeah!” Sirocco said. He sat down in the comfy cloud. “Only, it wasn’t just one. It was more like a hundred.”

  “A hundred?!”

  “Yup,” Sirocco said. “I popped them out of my halo. It was fun … at the time.”

  He perked up.

  “Hey, maybe that’s what you should do,” he suggested to Brisa. “Kick your jewels out of your halo. Then you won’t be pinned anymore.”

  “Oh, no!” Brisa said. “I love my jewels, even if they’re a bit unmanageable. They’re so pretty.”

  “No worries!” Sirocco said. “More will fizz up in their place. I’ll show you.”

  Before Brisa could say anything else, Sirocco jumped up and started bucking and kicking. He enjoyed the sound his hooves made as they kicked the jewels out of Brisa’s halo: Clink! Pop! Clink!

  Within a minute, Sirocco had popped Brisa right out of the cloud! She burst into the air with a joyful whinny. Her magic halo was clear and empty, but only for a moment. Then …

  Fizz, fizz, fizz, fizz!

  A bunch of new jewels appeared around her.

  “Whee!” Brisa cried. “I’m free and still pretty!”

  She was admiring her fresh new jewels when something flew up to admire her. It was Sirocco’s butterfly! As it fluttered around her sparkly halo, Sirocco spotted it.

  “Hey!” he bellowed. “C’MERE, YOU!”

  He leaped at the butterfly. But once again, the magic insect dodged him.

  “Aw, man!” Sirocco said.

  “Sirocco,” Brisa suggested gently, “maybe you need to change your approach.”

  “What do you mean?” Sirocco asked.

  “Maybe instead of chasing your butterflies and yelling at them,” Brisa said, “you should just try talking to them. You know—nicely?”

  Sirocco glowered at Brisa.

  “Well, if you think you could do better,” he offered, “be my guest!”

  “Oh, don’t be mad,” Brisa said sweetly.

  Together, the two tiny horses flew into the forest. As soon as they ducked beneath the treetops, Brisa gasped! There were magic butterflies everywhere—and most of them were dipping into the forest’s wildflowers.

  “Sirocco!” Brisa said. “How many butterflies did you set free?”

  “Hey, it was fun!” Sirocco defended himself. “I didn’t tease you for napping in a cloud, did I?”

&nb
sp; Brisa giggled.

  “Okay, you have a point.” Then she turned toward the butterflies and called out, “Oh, excuse me? Little butterflies? Sirocco would love it if you’d come back inside his halo. You don’t mind, do you?”

  The butterflies ignored her. Completely.

  Brisa was puzzled. “Maybe I should get closer to them.”

  She flew over to a cluster of butterflies circling a tree trunk.

  “Come here, little butterflies,” she crooned. “I’ll take you back to Sirocco.”

  The butterflies flew toward her. Brisa held her breath—until the butterflies flew right past her!

  “Oh! That was rude,” Brisa scolded. She flew after the butterflies.

  They darted away from her again. So Brisa flew after them faster.

  Finally, Brisa screeched to a halt in the air and shouted, “Hey! GET BACK HERE!!!!”

  Sirocco burst out laughing.

  “Haaa-haa-haa! Gee, Brisa. Maybe if you tried talking to the butterflies instead of chasing them and yelling at them…”

  Brisa’s pink-tinged face went even pinker. But before she could retort, a loud voice echoed through the woods.

  “Hellllp!”

  Brisa and Sirocco looked at each other in alarm.

  “That’s Sumatra!” Brisa cried. “I’m sure!”

  “Let’s go!” Sirocco said.

  Together, the magic horses zinged through the forest, following Sumatra’s cries. When they reached her, Sumatra was tied to a tree trunk, her silvery face streaked with tears.

  “Oh!” Brisa cried. “Don’t worry, Sumatra! We’re here to save you.”

  Sirocco immediately began working at the knots in Sumatra’s ribbons with his teeth.

  “Thanks, but as soon as you help me,” Sumatra breathed, “head to the dandelion meadow. Somebody there needs help, too!”

  Brisa and Sirocco looked at each other. Brisa blushed again.

  “Well, that’s very sweet of you to want to help,” Brisa said, “but that voice in the dandelion meadow was kind of … me. You see, my magic jewels got me caught in a cloud.”