THE HORNLESS UNICORN
By: Jennifer Karpf
Once there was a beautiful unicorn named Penny. She had all of the magic you could possibly imagine. This magic, just like the magic of every unicorn, came from her horn. The magic in her horn let her fly around wherever she needed to go. She was a very happy unicorn.
Flying is all that Penny ever knew. She flew with her friends. She flew to find food. She flew to travel places. She flew to play and race. In fact, Penny was so good at flying that she won most of the races she flew in.
One day, while Penny was flying over a forest, a storm hit. Penny did not know that the storm was coming or she would have stayed home. Penny tried to fly to safety, but the wind from the storm was so strong that it pushed Penny around.
Penny tried to fight the wind, but she grew tired quickly. She was not able to fly against the wind. She grew so tired that she just stopped flying. When she stopped, the wind kept blowing her around and around until it threw her right into a tree in the forest!
Penny hit the tree with her horn. When she landed, she felt a little dizzy. She decided to lay under the tree until the storm was over. Then she could sleep and rest her head. As she fell asleep, she could not stop thinking about how much her horn hurt.
The next day when Penny woke up, she felt a little better. The storm was over and she could see sun through the trees. She stood up and went to fly up in the air to see where she was. When she jumped up, something terrible happened!
Penny could not leave the ground! She tried and tried, but she just could not fly. She did not understand what happened. She looked around in the forest to see if she could find someone to help her. Instead, she saw her horn! It was lying on the ground next to her. It must have broken off when she hit the tree.
Penny stared at her horn for a little and then she began to cry. She did not know what she was going to do. She was never going to be able to fly without her horn. Her horn gave her magic and without magic, she cannot fly.
Penny tried to pick up the horn with her hoof, but she could not attach it back on her head. She just felt so helpless. After she was crying for a long time, some of her unicorn friends flew overhead. She shouted to them and they came down to her.
Her friends saw her crying and tried to cheer her up. They invited her to come race with them because they knew she loved to fly and race. Penny told them how she could no longer fly and showed them the horn. They did not know what to say. After saying sorry, her friends flew away. They did not know what to do to help.
This made Penny so sad that she grew mad and frustrated. She could not fly. She could not play and race with her friends. She could not do anything. She could not even move from her spot because she did not know how. She was a unicorn and she was supposed to fly!
Soon, some horses ran by. They saw Penny sitting there and walked over to her. They asked her what was wrong. Penny showed them her horn and told them she could not fly like a unicorn is supposed to. She told them that she could not do anything because she did not know how.
The horses looked at each other and then at Penny. They told Penny that she looked like them and she could learn to run like they do. Penny just cried and said that unicorns are supposed to fly, not run. The horses told her she could still do everything she wanted to, just in a different way.
Penny did not understand, but she wanted to be able to play and race her friends again. She told the horses she would try. So Penny and the horses spent many hours together. The horses taught Penny how to run. They taught Penny how to travel on the ground. They taught Penny how to race on the ground. They taught Penny how to do everything on the ground.
Soon Penny was running through the forest and through the fields like she had done it her whole life. One day, when she was running, her unicorn friends saw her and came down to her. They asked her what she was doing. She said that she had learned a different way of doing things.
The unicorns were happy for Penny, but they were sad that she could not race with them like she used to. Penny said that she could. She told the unicorns to start their flying race on one side of the field. She said she would start at the same side of the field on the ground.
The horses had heard what was going on and they all gathered around to watch. Other animals heard the commotion and came out to watch too. In a few minutes, the whole forest was in the field ready to watch Penny race the unicorns.
When the race began, Penny took off running and the unicorns took off flying. At first, the unicorns went far ahead of Penny. Penny was not discouraged though. She ran even faster. Soon, she was neck and neck with the unicorns.
All of the animals were holding their breath. As the unicorns and Penny reached the other side of the field, the animals grew quiet. They got closer and closer until, at the very end, Penny bolted across the end of the field and looked up. The unicorns were coming in right behind her. She had won the race!
All of the animals cheered. The unicorns came down to congratulate Penny. They could not believe it. Penny was beaming. She was so happy. She was so proud of herself. She had won the race like she always used to. She did it in a different way, but she still succeeded.
From that day on, Penny never gave up. Whenever she wanted to do something, she learned how to do it a different way. She did not only stay friends with the unicorns, but she made friends with all of the animals. She never went a day without saying, "It does not matter how different we are; it only matters that we believe in ourselves and we will learn how." She became known as the hornless unicorn that could do anything!