A Rainbow Realization 

A Rainbow Realization

by Olivia Chen

Long ago, above the clouds and on the rainbow, there lived the crystal fairies. The crystal fairies were named after every crystal there is, and their queen was Queen Diamond. Queen Diamond ruled Mineral Mountain with fairness, justice, and loyalty. She also gave each and every crystal fairy a unique power. For example, Ruby’s power was to control fire, and Sapphire’s ability was to control the skies, Emerald’s was to control plants, and Aquamarine’s power was to control the oceans. 

All of the crystal fairies loved their own power, well that is except for one - Opal. Opal’s power was to control weather, but Opal was still convinced that her power was weaker than all the other crystal fairy powers. 

One spring morning, when Opal was playing in the palace gardens, Emerald came prancing by. Her soft green eyes were gleaming and her mouth was curved into a big smile. She also had a spring in her step as she skipped by. 

“Good morning, Opal!” Emerald said, “It’s a beautiful morning! Can’t wait to hear your crystal power presentation! I need to go and check on all the plants I grew to see if they’re all nice and healthy. Well, see you tonight for your last crystal power presentation practice!” 

But before Opal could reply, Emerald spread her wings and flew off. Opal hurried back to her room and sat down on her soft bed. She had totally forgotten about her crystal power presentation! She was now very nervous, for she still needed help with her presentation, and she was presenting tomorrow!

The crystal power presentation was the day before a crystal fairy turned nine years old! And whoever that fairy is, they will have to go onto the Smiling Stage and tell everyone that lives on Mineral Mountain the importance of their power and how they can use their power to help the world below better. 

Opal hurried over to her bookshelf, and grabbed the script of what she would say in her presentation. Then she walked over to a rehearsal room, started saying her presentation. Opal hadn’t finished the script yet, so she had to bring up the courage to ask Queen Diamond if she could skip her presentation.

When it was 5 o’clock, Opal went to rehearsal room number 117, and there Emerald, Sapphire, and Ruby were waiting for her. They all gave her a gentle smile. 

“ Good afternoon, Opal!” Ruby smiled.

“ Hi, Emerald, Sapphire, and Ruby!” Opal replied, “ So, I wonder if you could help me? As you all know, my presentation is tomorrow, and I’m not even done with my script! But I’m also not allowed to bring my script onto stage, so I don’t know what to do.”

All three fairies shook their heads. They all didn’t know what to do. So Opal knew that she had to figure out herself.

So Opal sighed and sat down in a soft chair. She took a pencil from a music stand beside her and started to think of what else she could say during her speech.

My power is so useless! Why did Queen Diamond give this power to me?!?! She said that she had a very special reason for each power she gave to me and all my sisters! But what can I do with my power other than stop storms and fight with my lightning strike and wildfire and blizzard and all that? Opal thought. 

Opal sighed and wrote (but then crossed out because she thought it was too embarrassing to say it during her real crystal power presentation) : My power is pretty useless to me, so I don’t have much to say about it. I mean, can you think of anything else that I can do with my power other than stop storms and fight wars with my disasters? If you can, well… maybe I can talk a bit more about my power. But for now, I just can’t! Well, I’m going to end my presentation here. Have a good rest of your day! Bye for now! 

But as she thought of what she would actually be able to say during her presentation, she heard Aquamarine shriek! She looked out of the palace window, and there was Aquamarine - standing face-to-face with Gabriel, an evil enchantress who always wanted to rule Mineral Mountain. Gabriel had long purple hair with red eyes and pale skin. And as usual, she wore her regular violet dress with her long black cape trailing far behind her. Her silver wings glistened in the sunlight as she smiled at Aquamarine with a threatening glare.

“It’s nice to see you shriek like that, Aquamarine,” Gabriel laughed, “It looks like your friends are coming to help. But I don’t think you’re gonna win this time. Meet my daughter, Harou! She’s gonna help me out today and we are gonna win, right, Harou? Harou! Where are you? Ugh. Not surprising.”

Just then, Opal, Emerald, Sapphire, Gold, Silver, and Ruby came hurrying out the back doors of the palace. They all hurried over to Aquamarine to protect her. 

“She’s our sister! Not our friend! And I’m not sure you will not win! I mean, since Harou isn’t here. We’ll just have a regular fight with you! You never won against all of us and you’re probably never going to win. Especially with Queen Diamond. Do you think you can actually beat us when the only powers you have is your evil Dark Art skills? The Dark Arts are no match for our Crystal Powers all combined together, right you guys?” Emerald said bravely.

Emerald was always the first to speak up in a fight with Gabriel. She was also very courageous. Soon enough, Gabriel started laughing. She stomped her foot on the ground and a terrible earthquake struck. The Crystal Palace began to shake as the earthquake cracked the gardens. 

“Oh no! Opal, quick! You’re the only one who can stop this disaster! And you others, take off to the sky before you fall into one of those deep cracks!” Gold screamed over the roaring of the gardens cracking. 

Gold shot a bright flash of light right into Gabriel’s face, and Gabriel instantly shut her eyes tight, but Gold’s light was too strong, so Gabriel fell over with her hands right on her eyes.

At the same time Opal took off from the ground and started zooming across the cracks. One by one, the cracks slowly disappeared, and the ground turned back into the usual beautiful gardens with tall trees and exquisite flowers. The last thing Opal did was spin three circles right above the Crystal Palace just in time before it cracked and broke. 

“Hooray for Opal! You saved our palace! You did it! Good job, Opal!” All the crystal fairies were now all out of the palace cheering for Opal. 

Opal was proud of herself, but her heart was still beating fast, knowing that anytime Gabriel would set another attack on their palace. And Opal was right. As the other crystal fairies cheered for Opal, Gabriel did a swishing motion with her hand in the sky silently and a thunderstorm hit.

Opal was ready this time and she shot a jet of streaming lightning up towards the sky. The lightning shot hit the clouds and the clouds spread. The storm floated away into a very far place.

Another round of cheers erupted from the fairies below. Gabriel was very disappointed. Her attacks failed! So she decided to use her strongest attack. But before she could start creating a massive storm that she knew would break down the palace, Gold flashed a blinding streak of light right before Gabriel’s eyes, and Gabriel fell to the ground. 

Aluminum swiftly sent metal chains holding Gabriel to the ground, and Ruby called five royal guards to send Gabriel to the dungeons. The guards did as they were told, and we’re very glad that they had finally defeated their enemy. 

And that’s when Opal realized that she had saved Mineral Mountain! If it wasn’t for her, Mineral Mountain would be scattered into 1 million pieces! So she found out that she was actually very important. They needed her. She couldn’t keep thinking that her power was useless.

Then Queen Diamond spoke up, “All crystal fairies, we have gladly ended our war with Gabriel, but during the fight, we missed Opal’s Crystal Power Presentation.” (a chill ran down Opal’s spine. She had totally forgotten about that. She wasn’t even ready!) “ so we will have to change the date to tomorrow. Now let’s all go to our bedrooms and have a good night's rest. See you all tomorrow at 9 AM for Opal’s Crystal Power Presentation. And well done to you all for your teamwork while fighting against Gabriel and winning, but this time even better. But we still need to fight to fight though! So beware.” 

Opal was happy and very proud of herself. She did it! She used her power and saved Mineral Mountain! She had figured out that her power was really strong. She didn’t have to talk about how useless her power was during her speech. But …she did have to make up a brand new speech before tomorrow morning! But Opal knew that she didn’t have time to make up a new speech, so tomorrow, she would have to ask Queen Diamond if she could just make up her speech on the Smiling Stage. But she was tired, so she collapsed on her bed and fell fast asleep.

Opal skipped to the Smiling Stage the day after and kindly asked Queen Diamond if she could just make up her speech.To her relief, Queen Diamond agreed, and during the speech, Opal gladly explained how powerful and helpful her power was, and shared how she could use her power to stop storms, and keep the climate just right for plants and animals.

And Opal was very happy! She didn’t need to judge how powerful she was by the range of how many things they could do! For example, Emerald could make all different types of plants, but storms could still destroy them! So never again did Opal complain that her power was weaker than all the others. Instead, she happily appreciated her ability, but she never did ever brag about it, for she knew if she did, Queen Diamond would take away her power and replace it with someone else’s!

Illustration by Olivia Chen