The Unicorn Who Made Grey Rainbows

On a drizzly Saturday, Daisy looked outside. A rainbow stretched over the garden, but something wasn't right. It wasn't red, orange, yellow, green, blue… It was grey. Grey, grey, grey, all the way through! "That's the oddest rainbow I've ever seen," whispered Daisy. Then a little voice shouted, "Oh, BOTHER!"

At the end of the rainbow stood a unicorn, small and lilac, with a pink nose and a very grumpy frown. "I'm Clementine," she huffed. "And I've ruined everything!" She stamped one hoof. A grey cloud puffed from her horn. "It's my very first rainbow, and it looks like soggy porridge!" Daisy blinked. "Rainbows aren't supposed to look like breakfast." "EXACTLY!" cried Clementine.

"I practised all week," said Clementine. "I stretched my neck. I polished my horn. I did seventeen star-jumps and ate three lucky daisies!" She shut her eyes, scrunched her nose, and tried again. PFFFFT! Another grey rainbow curled across the sky. It looked like porridge poured over a very long hill. Clementine's ears drooped. "I'll never make a proper rainbow."

"Perhaps you need to concentrate," suggested Daisy. Clementine stood tall. She held her breath. She squeezed her eyes shut until her nose went wrinkly. She thought about red. RED! RED! RED! Then orange. ORANGE! ORANGE! ORANGE! Then… PLOP! A grey blob landed on her own head. For one tiny moment, neither of them spoke. Then Daisy snorted. Clementine tried not to laugh. She failed.

"Maybe you're trying too hard," said Daisy. "When I try really hard to whistle, I just spit." "Surely not," said Clementine. Daisy took a big breath. PFFFFT! A little blob of spit landed on a daisy. Clementine's mouth twitched. Then she giggled. A tiny pink sparkle popped from her horn. "Oh!" she whispered. But the sparkle vanished before she could catch it.

Then the rain came tumbling down. Pitter-patter. Splish-splash. DRIP-DROP! Clementine stared at the muddy garden. "Oh, no! Now everything is wet AND grey!" But Daisy was already pulling on spotty wellies. "Good!" she cried. "Rain is for puddles!" Clementine looked horrified. "Puddles? But my hooves will get muddy!" "That's rather the point!"

Daisy ran to the biggest puddle in the garden. "Splish and splash and splosh and spray! Let's laugh the grey clouds right away!" Then… SPLOOOOOOSH! Water flew up like a fountain. Mostly onto Clementine. The unicorn stared at her dripping pink nose. A raindrop slid down her horn. Then another. Then she made a funny little snorting sound.

Clementine looked at Daisy. Daisy looked at Clementine. Then they both burst out laughing. Clementine jumped into the puddle. SPLASH! Then another. SPLOSH! They stomped, splattered, spun around, and made a puddle so enormous that a frog came to investigate. "Lovely weather!" he croaked. Clementine laughed until she had to sit down. Right in the puddle.

And then, while she was laughing, something warm began to glow. Clementine's horn shimmered pink. A tiny stripe of red curled out. Then orange. Then yellow. Clementine gasped. "Daisy! Look!" The colours grew brighter as the raindrops sparkled around her. She wasn't squeezing her eyes shut. She wasn't holding her breath. She was just laughing.

Green unfurled. Blue followed. Indigo swirled. Violet danced. Up, up, UP curled the rainbow, arching over the garden, the rooftops, and the whole wide town. Every colour shone brighter than the last. The clouds glowed silver at the edges. The puddles glittered like tiny mirrors. Clementine stared in wonder. "My rainbow!" she whispered. Then she grinned. "My VERY FIRST REAL RAINBOW!"

Far above the clouds, unicorns poked their heads out of Cloudland. "Clementine!" they called. "How did you make such a marvellous rainbow?" Clementine thought for a moment. "I tried and tried and tried," she said. "But the colours came when I stopped worrying and had some fun." She turned to Daisy. "And when I had a friend to splash with." Then she gave a happy little snort. A pink sparkle popped from her horn.

From that day on, whenever rain fell and sunshine followed, Daisy ran to the window. Sometimes a rainbow stretched across the sky. Sometimes it was small. Sometimes it was so bright it seemed to tickle the clouds. And if Daisy looked very carefully, there was always one tiny pink sparkle at the end. Somewhere in Cloudland, Clementine was laughing. Perhaps she was jumping in a puddle. Perhaps she was making another rainbow. And perhaps, just perhaps, she was still a little bit muddy.