Following the Lullaby

The little brass music box sat right in the center of Moonship’s shiny navigation panel. Click-whir, click-whir, went the tiny golden cogs. Plink, plink, chime! went the notes. It sounded like warm honey dripping into a cup of milk, or like the softest bell tucked under a pillow.

Knut leaned his heart-shaped pink head close to the box. His warm glow grew a little brighter, casting a rosy patch onto the polished dials. Next to him, Dinkabel smoothed the front of her favorite blue tunic. Her rainbow skin shimmered with green and sunny yellow as she tilted her neat, square head from side to side.

“Listen,” Dinkabel whispered, tapping one purple fingertip on the rim of the console. “It is not just playing to be polite, Knut. It is talking to us!”

Sure enough, whenever Knut steered Moonship’s white nose toward a great pink puff of cloud, the chime grew louder and faster. Plink-a-plink, chime-chime! But when he nudged the steering wheel toward a bare patch of purple sky, the music slowed to a sleepy, lazy crawl. Plink... plink... clack.

“It is a compass song!” Knut said with a happy wiggle of his toes inside his boots. “The music knows the way through the spun sugar.”

Knut unrolled the old star chart across the dashboard. He held it down with two round thumbs while Dinkabel checked the marks. The little drawn stars seemed to hop in time with the bells. Each time the melody rose into a high, sweet chirp, the star chart showed a bend around a drifting island of mist. Moonship’s bubbling thrusters purred like a giant, happy cat, nudging the ship deeper into the sky where the air smelled just like strawberry cotton candy.

Outside the circular viewport, the clouds rolled and tumbled. Some looked like great big pillows. Some looked like fat, woolly sheep taking their afternoon naps. Moonship slid between them without making a single scrape, guided by the plinking brass gears.

“Left a little bit, captain,” Dinkabel hummed, her braided hair bouncing against her shoulder. “Listen to the chime. It goes high, then middle, then hop-hop-hop!”

Knut turned the wheel gently with his pink hands. His spacesuit shorts rustled comfortably as he settled into his pilot seat. Straight ahead, the pink mist parted like curtains opening for a puppet show. Floating in the middle of the purple air was a wide, quiet landing place. It was not made of stone or wood. It was woven out of pure, silver mist, braided together like wool yarn to make a sturdy dock.

Resting in the center of the silver cloud-dock was a quiet shape with a glowing pearl-white mane. The second unicorn lay curled up like a sleeping pony, surrounded by the cool, soft mist.

Moonship’s bubbling thrusters gave one last soft burble and clicked into dock mode. Knut reached into his pocket to make sure their warm magic blossom was safe and snug, ready to help their new friend wake up.