The Ice Enchantment Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Introduction

  Map of Aura

  Map of the Castle of Destiny

  Meet the Melowies

  Chapter 1: A Magical Morning

  Chapter 2: The Art of Powers Teachers

  Chapter 3: The Adventure Begins!

  Chapter 4: An Icy Beginning

  Chapter 5: A Visit Home

  Chapter 6: Rainbow Milk Shakes

  Chapter 7: The Forbidden Book

  Chapter 8: Cleo’s Power

  Epilogue

  Sneak Peek

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Imagine a magical land wrapped in golden light. A planet in a distant galaxy beyond the known stars. This enchanted place is known as Aura, and it is very special. For Aura is home to the pegasus, a winged horse with a colorful mane and coat.

  The pegasuses of Aura come from four ancient island realms that lie within Aura’s enchanted oceans: the Winter Realm of Amethyst Island, the Spring Realm of Em­erald Island, the Day Realm of Ruby Island, and the Night Realm of Sapphire Island.

  A selected number from each realm are born with a symbol on their wings and a hid­den magical power. These are the Melowies.

  When their magic beckons them in a dream, all Melowies leave their island homes to answer the call. They must attend school at the Castle of Destiny, a legendary castle hidden in a sea of clouds, where they will learn all about their hidden powers. Destiny is a place where friendships are born, where Melowies find their courage, and where they discover the true magic inside themselves!

  It was a beautiful, warm morning at the Castle of Destiny. The gentle breeze blowing off the sea of clouds made the air fresh and fragrant. It was an excellent start to a new day.

  “Ew!” Maya cried. Her usually perfect mane was a complete mess. It was time to get out of bed, but she still had her blanket pulled right up to her nose.

  “What are you ewwing about?” asked Cora, who was always up first. She was already dressed and her mane was styled beautifully.

  “Today is our first Art of Powers class,” Maya groaned, burying herself even deeper under the covers. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”

  “Of course I haven’t forgotten!” cried Cora. “I’m so excited. I can hardly wait for it to start!”

  “Lucky you. I’m terrified!” Maya mut­tered, finally sitting up in bed. “I’m so nervous that I didn’t sleep at all last night.”

  Selena groaned and stretched. She hadn’t slept very well, either.

  Art of Powers class was very important for Melowies. Not only because it was some­thing they had been dreaming about since they were little fillies, but also because they couldn’t become true Melowies unless they learned to use their powers properly. Getting a bad grade in Art of Powers meant being expelled from the Castle of Destiny.

  Electra yawned loudly. She had slept like a log and had only just woken up. She lay with her head hanging off the side of the bed, and her tail rested on her pillow.

  “You’d better get a move on, sleepyhead,” cried Cora. “You don’t want to be late today!”

  “Why? What is so special about today?” Electra mumbled, rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

  “It’s the first day of Art of Powers class,” sighed Selena. “As if we don’t have enough schoolwork already … I still haven’t gotten over our survival challenge in the Neon Forest.”

  “But we all did really well!” said Electra. “Even though I went off after that egg. This class is going to be great. I can feel it. I ­already know how to use my power a little. I realized that the other day.” Electra winked at her friends and concentrated hard. Her face turned orange and was hot to the touch. Melowies from the Day Realm, like her, were connected with the sun’s energy and light.

  “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Selena asked. “You look like you’re going to burst into flames.”

  Electra was getting hotter and hotter. Sparks started to fly off her mane.

  “No problem! Everything is fine! Don’t panic … but I can’t seem to stop it!” Electra cried, waving her arms to cool herself down.

  Cora rushed out of the room and came back a moment later with a bucket of water.

  Splash!

  She threw the water at Electra, soaking her entire mane. Things stopped heating up as Maya and Selena laughed and laughed.

  “Thank you!” Electra snapped, annoyed. “Thanks so much, Cora. You really know how to help out a friend.”

  Maya stopped laughing. “Speaking of friends, has anyone seen Cleo?”

  They all flew over to Cleo’s bed and ­looked under the pile of blankets. The bed was empty.

  Cleo had woken up before everyone else and quietly left their room in Butterfly Tower. She was worried, and she knew a solo flight was the only way to clear her head.

  All the students were nervous to start Art of Powers classes, but Cleo was even more nervous than the rest of them. When she was a baby, the principal of the Castle of Destiny had found her on the front steps of the school. Cleo had been raised there and had no idea what realm she was from or what her power was.

  Hovering over the clouds with her pink mane flowing in the wind, she saw some of the other students below starting to make their way to class.

  “Hey, Cleo!” cried Melanie, a lemon-­yellow Melowy.

  “Hi, Cleo!” called Lycia, a purple Melowy.

  “Hello,” Cleo called back, and followed them quietly to the school’s main entrance.

  “I’m so nervous!” Lycia exclaimed.

  “Me, too!” said Melanie. “I wonder what the teacher will be like.”

  Cleo sighed. As they walked toward the stairs, she saw a whole lot of nervous Melowies, but she felt different from all of them. She felt unique, and not in a good way. At least they all knew where they came from.

  “There she is!” cried Electra from across the hall. “Where did you disappear to?”

  “The first class is in the assembly hall,” said Maya. The friends all walked together.

  The assembly hall was on the second floor of the castle’s main tower. The students all looked a little ­scared as they walked in. After their Defense Techniques class with the terrifying Ms. Ariadne, they couldn’t imagine what their Art of Powers teacher, Mr. Zelus, would be like.

  “I bet he will be a big and scary Megas!” Selena whispered with a shudder as she ­entered the hall with her friends.

  There were rows of padded stools surrounding a stage in the middle of the room. The ceiling above them had paintings of scenes from the history of Aura.

  “What if he is even worse than Ms. Ariadne?” Maya wondered aloud as she sat down.

  A buzz of nervous whispers and giggles filled the room. Even Eris didn’t seem as smug as she usually was. Neither did the two new friends she had been spending all her time with lately, Leda and Kate. Leda was laughing nervously, and Kate’s face was tight with worry.

  “I think he will be tall with fiery eyes and enormous wings,” Electra whispered, beat­ing her own wings together dramatically.

  “Hey, look out!” Cora growled with a glare when one wing whacked her. Just then, she noticed that everyone else in the hall had fallen silent.

  Cora and Electra looked up, expecting to see the scariest teacher ever. Instead, they saw an elderly, skinny Megas. His mane was thinning and had lots of wrinkles. He was wearing a woolen cardigan that was too big for his small frame. “Ahem. Good morn­ing, girls. I am Mr. Zelus, and I teach Art of Powers.” He noticed that the Melowies were staring at him and took the opportunity to surprise them a little bit more by creating a lovely snowfall with his wings.

  “Wow!” all of the Melowies exclaimed at once.


  “As you may have been able to guess, I am from the Winter Realm. My three col­leagues and I will be teaching you how to use your powers. Ms. Iris, Mr. Hector, and Ms. Diane, please step forward. We will all be your Art of Powers teachers, one from each realm.”

  Ms. Iris, a Melowy from the Spring Realm, had a flowing green mane and a sincere smile. Mr. Hector, from the Night Realm, was a jolly Megas with a purple coat. Ms. Diane, from the Day Realm, was a slender Melowy with a beautiful golden coat.

  “Please follow me to the middle of the hall,” Mr. Zelus continued. “Divide your­selves into realms behind your teachers.” Everyone stood up and quickly organized themselves into the four groups. Everyone except Cleo.

  “Good morning, Cleo,” Mr. Zelus said, tilt­ing his head slightly to one side. “I used to catch you spying on classes now and then when you were younger. I am so happy to see that you are finally in one!”

  “Umm … good morning, sir,” Cleo mumbled. She could feel the eyes of all the other first-year students on her. Standing behind Mr. Zelus, Eris, Kate, and Leda were pointing at her and giggling. “What should I do?” Cleo asked nervously, feeling very embarrassed.

  “Oh, that’s easy,” said Ms. Iris with a smile. “You’ll just have to do a little more work than the other girls.”

  “More work?”

  “Yes, but you will soon see that it will be worth it.”

  Mr. Zelus, who was a little distracted, agreed. “Yes, like last time … with that other student.”

  “Other student? Do you mean there was another student like me?” Cleo asked excitedly. “A student with no realm? Can I talk to her?”

  Mr. Hector shared a discreet glance with Mr. Zelus, who quickly coughed and straightened up. “What’s that, Cleo? No, you can’t talk to her. She isn’t here anymore.”

  Mr. Hector quickly changed the subject. “Everyone, please line up behind your teacher now.”

  The students all formed lines behind the teachers from their realms, with Cleo bring­ing up the rear. Her heart was pounding. So, she wasn’t the only Melowy with no realm after all! But what on earth would she have to do now?

  The teachers led the Melowies upstairs and into a round room with four doors. Above each door there was a symbol: a sun, a flower, a star, and a snowflake. “This is where we will part ways,” announced Mr. Zelus. “These doors lead to the tower of each realm. That is where you will each learn to use your power.”

  Each teacher opened a door, and the students all looked through, wide-eyed and amazed. The Spring Tower had grass in place of a floor and lush vines with gorgeous flowers covering all the walls. The Day Tower was warm, and a smell of summer air drifted through the open door. The Night Tower was all blue. Its vaulted ceilings were speckled with stars, and the Melowies could hear the chirping of crickets in the distance. The Winter Tower was as chilly as a December morning, with huge chandeliers made of snowflake-shaped crystals hanging from the ceiling.

  “Classes will be held here one afternoon a week,” Mr. Zelus said. “Winter Realm students, who are lucky enough to have me as their teacher, will attend class on Mondays. Tuesdays, Day Realm students will be with Ms. Diane. Wednesdays you will have free. Thursdays, Ms. Iris will teach the Melowies from the Spring Realm, and on Fridays, Mr. Hector will teach the Night Realm students.”

  “What should I do?” Cleo asked.

  “You will attend all the classes. That’s the only way we will be able to find out the nature of your power and which realm you are from.”

  That afternoon, Cleo and Cora went to their first Art of Powers class. “I d-d-don’t think I’m r-r-right for the Winter Realm.” Cleo’s teeth were chattering after just five minutes in the icy Winter Tower.

  “You aren’t cold, are you?” Cora looked at her in amazement. “This is the perfect temperature! Don’t you feel totally energized?!”

  “Well, look who we have here,” came a familiar, cold voice.

  “Eris!” exclaimed Cleo, but that was all she could say. The cold had frozen her ability to crack jokes! Luckily, Eris’s friends Leda and Kate weren’t there since they were from the Spring and Day Realms.

  “I am from the Winter Kingdom, so I feel at home here,” Eris continued. “You, on the other hand … Well, you should get ready to look like a real fool, Cleo.”

  “You are the expert in that, Eris,” growled Cora.

  The other Melowy shook her mane angrily. “Listen, Miss Prissy, you better get ready to lose your place as first in the class.”

  “Enough chatter, students,” announced Mr. Zelus as he came into the classroom. “Everyone gather around. One of the most exciting adventures of your lives is about to begin!”

  Cleo took a look around the room. All the Melowies in the Winter Tower had coats and manes the color of winter, ice, and snow. Her bright-pink coat was completely out of place here. She really doubted that she could be from the Winter Realm.

  “Well, here we are!” Mr. Zelus began. “Let’s get started.”

  Everyone had dreamy looks in their eyes and smiles on their faces. Everyone except Cleo, who was trying hard to keep her teeth from chattering.

  “Don’t worry too much about the cold, Cleo!” added the teacher with a grin. “Once we start our lesson, you will warm up! Let’s get started right away with something that will help me see what level you are all at. I want everyone to make an ice cube. Visualize it as if it were in front of you, and voilà! Concentrate! ”

  Cleo tried to imagine an ice cube on the floor in front of her. She squinted her eyes, stuck out her ­tongue, tensed all her muscles, and wrapped her wings around herself. But nothing happened. Absolutely nothing!

  “Hey! Look at this!” cried Glenda, a little Melowy with a short mane and bangs, as she pointed to a piece of ice that had appeared near her front hooves. It looked more like a tiny, lumpy spike of ice than a cube, but at least it was something.

  “Good job!” exclaimed Mr. Zelus.

  Cleo squinted even more and concentrated as hard as she could, but instead of making ice, she accidentally bit her tongue. “Ouch!” she complained. “This is impossible!”

  “For you, maybe, since you shouldn’t even be here,” said Eris as a little ice cube appeared in front of her. Well, it wasn’t exactly a cube, but it was definitely ice.

  “Well done!” Mr. Zelus exclaimed. He hadn’t heard what Eris said to Cleo. But Cora heard, and it made her very upset. How dare that ridiculous Melowy speak to my friend that way! she thought. Suddenly, a perfect ice cube that glittered like a diamond appeared in front of Cora.

  “Excellent!” Mr. Zelus beamed. “Abso­lutely excellent! The best ice cube I have ever seen at a first lesson.” Cora returned Eris’s angry glare with a pleasant smile.

  Cleo had a difficult week. Every afternoon she went to a different tower and, she thought, made a complete fool of herself in different ways at each one.

  In the Day Tower, she got sunburned on the tip of her muzzle but couldn’t manage to make as much as a spark. Electra was able to start a wonderful little fire, which Ms. Diane had to quickly put out before someone ­burned their tail.

  In the Spring Tower, Cleo got herself all tangled up in the climbing plants on the walls, and she wasn’t able to make a single sprout. Maya made a pretty little primrose appear out of thin air.

  In the Night Tower, Cleo couldn’t put out her candle no matter what she did, while Selena was able to do it after just three tries.

  Cleo felt lower than ever and locked herself away in the library to study. She thought if she could find out more about the realms of Aura and the powers of the Melowies, she might be able to figure out which realm she was from. “I would like to check out The History of the Realms and Their Powers,” she said to the librarian.

  The pegasus with a lilac coat glared at her. “That is a second-year textbook, and if I am not mistaken, you are just a first-year student.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Just because Principal Gia was kind enough t
o take in a foundling like you ­doesn’t mean you should be given any ­special treatment!”

  As much as Cleo loved reading, she did not like the librarian, Ms. Circe. She always seemed to be trying to get rid of her, while Cleo would have loved to look through every book in the library one by one. “But there is no rule that says I can’t read it,” Cleo said quickly.

  Ms. Circe snorted, walked over to a bookshelf, and took down a very big book. “Here,” she said, handing the book to Cleo. “But you won’t understand a thing.”

  Cleo bit her tongue to keep from making a wisecrack and flew straight to the reading room, carrying the big book. She sat down on one of the hanging sofas and buried her muzzle between the pages of the book.

  Unfortunately, the book was just a list of boring dynasties and powers. She was about to give up when a line from the second-to-last page of the book made her jump up in her seat.

  Such a power will not appear for many years—not until the arrival of a Melowy whose realm will be unknown.

  Cleo dropped her bag in shock, send­ing her stuff scattering all over the floor. She turned to read the rest of the paragraph on the next page.

  But the last page wasn’t there. Someone had torn it out.

  “Cleo, my little cupcake!” a familiar voice called. “I knew I would find you here! You always have your muzzle in a book.”

  “Theodora!” Cleo cried. She put her book down and gave the school cook a big hug, burying her face in her vanilla-scented mane. Theodora was the pegasus who raised Cleo after Principal Gia found her on the front steps of the school. Cleo loved Theodora very much.

  “Sorry that I haven’t come to visit,” Cleo said with a frown.

  “Oh, that’s okay, sweetie. You are busy with your classes and homework. And it’s only fair that you get to spend some time with your friends. Remember, they can’t just pop home to visit whenever they are feeling homesick.”