Sparkleton #3

by Calliope Glass

  Behind him, Willow and Gabe both squeaked as well.

  “Ugh!” Gabe said.

  “Back up!” Willow yelled. “Back up, back up, back up!”

  The worm wiggled a little and oozed slime along the wall of the tunnel. Sparkleton backed up so fast he almost fell head over hooves.

  The three friends galloped down the other branch of the tunnel. After a while, they stopped, panting.

  “Meeting that worm almost made me miss Booger,” Sparkleton said. “At least Booger is pretty.”

  Willow laughed.

  “Maybe we should find our way back up again,” Gabe said.

  “Do you think we’re going in the right direction?” Willow asked.

  Sparkleton shrugged. “I don’t really care anymore,” he admitted. “As long as we’re going away from that worm. Did you see how gross it was?” He did a wiggly little wormy shimmy and made the grossest sliming noise he could manage.

  Willow and Gabe cracked up.

  Sparkleton grinned and kept a stream of jokes going as he led his friends through the tunnel. And pretty soon—

  “Light!” Willow cried.

  They had reached the far end of the meadow.

  Sparkleton, Willow, and Gabe scrambled up the tunnel and popped out into the fresh air.

  “Phew,” Gabe said. “That was too dark and too dank. And I like dark and dank.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Sparkleton said. “I’ve been to your cave.”

  He looked around. No hawks. They were surrounded by high grass, but he could see the big old oak tree nearby.

  Nella’s secret spot was close to that tree. Soon they’d be back to their normal size. And then Sparkleton could start working on his act for the talent show so he could win the Pixie Cap.

  “We’re almost there,” he said. He pointed his horn toward the pine. “Maybe we can just make a break for it—”

  THA-DA-BOOM!

  The ground shook violently. Sparkleton scrambled to keep his balance, and Willow actually tumbled over.

  Gabe helped her up. “What was that?!” he squeaked.

  THA-DA-BOOM!

  THA-DA-BOOM!

  The ground heaved and trembled. Was it an earthquake? A volcano? Was Shimmer Lake being attacked by goblins?

  And then the screaming started. Great, deep voices were howling in rhythm.

  It almost sounded like . . .

  “Is that singing?” Willow said, her eyes wide.

  “Yeah, I think it’s—run!” Gabe yelled.

  Three mountain-size unicorns thundered toward them. Their hoofbeats struck in time with each other. They were singing in earsplitting voices. It was the most horrible thing Sparkleton had ever seen—or heard.

  “And walk-two-three and trot-two-three,” one of the giant unicorns said. Her voice sounded like a thousand rocks breaking at once. “Then turn, and rear up.”

  Suddenly, Sparkleton understood what was happening.

  The huge unicorns were Britta, Zuzu, and Rosie. And they were practicing their song-and-dance routine for the talent show. If Sparkleton and his friends weren’t careful, they were going to get trampled in the dance.

  Sparkleton, Gabe, and Willow hightailed it away from them. Sparkleton wasn’t paying any attention to where they were going—he only knew they had to get away before they got stomped or went deaf—or both.

  Finally, with the dancing unicorns well behind them, the three tiny friends slid to a halt. They were panting and worn out. And Sparkleton had no idea where they were.

  And then they heard it. A unicorn was crying.

  But who was it? And where were they? Sparkleton looked around. If he could find another spider web trampoline, maybe he could bounce high enough to see. Then Gabe pointed with his horn—“There!” he said.

  They scrambled up the trunk of a nearby tree, using some shelf fungus as stairs. And once the three tiny unicorns were high enough, they could see who was crying—

  “It’s Twinkle,” Sparkleton gasped. The pink unicorn was all by herself in a clump of ferns. She was crying as quietly as she could. But to the ears of the tiny unicorns, it was as loud as a raging river.

  The three friends scrambled down the tree and galloped over to their classmate. Huge tears rolled down her nose and splashed onto the ground. Sparkleton dodged one right before it hit him.

  “Twinkle!” Willow yelled at the top of her lungs. “Twinkle! Down here!”

  Gabe joined in, then Sparkleton did, too. The three friends yelled as loudly as they could.

  At first, nothing happened. Then Twinkle sniffled. She opened her eyes. She looked around, confused.

  “TWINKLE!” Sparkleton, Willow, and Gabe all yelled. And she looked right at them.

  “Sprinkles and sparkles!” Twinkle gasped. She seemed to have forgotten all about whatever was making her so sad. “What happened to you guys?!”

  “What happened to you?” Gabe demanded. “I’ve never seen you cry before. You’re always so—so—”

  “I’m not sad,” Twinkle said. She sniffled again. Her breath shuddered a little in her chest. “I’m afraid.”

  Sparkleton was so, so confused. “Of what?” he asked. Twinkle was never afraid of anything.

  Twinkle squeezed her eyes shut. “Of the talent show.”

  Twinkle had stage fright?!

  Sparkleton had never been so confused in his whole entire life. Twinkle was the most confident unicorn he knew. She was annoyingly confident. Plus, everyone loved her! Well, everyone except Sparkleton. How could she have stage fright? He didn’t understand it. And he wanted to.

  Sparkleton found himself hating Twinkle a little less—it was hard not to like someone you wanted to understand better.

  “Can you explain—” Sparkleton started. But Twinkle brushed away his questions. “Forget about me,” she said, shaking her head. “We have to get you guys fixed up! Here, make a wish! I’ll get you back to normal in no time.”

  “Okay,” Willow said. “I wish we were all back to our usual size.”

  Twinkle began the wish spell. First, she stamped her front hooves: left, then right.

  Then she lowered her nose to the ground and snorted three times.

  Finally, she carefully traced a circle in the air with the tip of her horn. It began to glow. Twinkle looked deep into Willow’s eyes. Willow stared back at her. For a long moment, neither of them blinked. Then—

  “Thy wish is granted,” Twinkle said. She tapped Willow on the nose with her horn.

  BOOP!

  Suddenly, Sparkleton, Willow, and Gabe were—

  Even tinier?!

  “Whoa!” Sparkleton yelled. His voice sounded like an angry ladybug.

  A huge shape cast a shadow over him, and he jumped, frightened.

  It was a firefly!

  Sparkleton let out a big, relieved sigh. Fireflies were harmless. But this one was definitely on its way to the talent show to help light the stage. And that meant time was running out.

  “I’m so sorry!” Twinkle said in horror. “I did a circle instead of a figure eight! I messed up the spell!”

  “Do it again,” Gabe said. His voice sounded like a cricket. “I wish we were all our normal size again!”

  Twinkle did the spell again, and this time she traced a figure eight instead of a circle. Then she very, very carefully tapped Gabe with her horn. It still almost knocked him over.

  “Thy wish is granted,” Twinkle said in a voice like a thousand elephants yelling.

  PING!

  Now they were the size of trees! Big trees! Sparkleton peered down at Twinkle. Suddenly, she looked like she was the size of a mouse.

  “Yikes!” Twinkle said. Her voice sounded small and squeaky to Sparkleton’s giant ears. She raised her horn and tried one more time.

  This time Sparkleton made the wish.

  POOM!

  Sparkleton, Willow, and Gabe were finally back to normal. Sparkleton was so relieved that he almost wasn’t mad anymore that Twinkle had wish-granting power
s and he still didn’t. He almost wasn’t mad. But not quite.

  “Phew!” Twinkle said. “That’s a relief. See, this is why I didn’t want to grant everyone a wish this morning. I’m still learning!”

  “Sure, sure,” Sparkleton said impatiently. “You’re so responsible. We know. But why are you afraid of the talent show, Twinkle?”

  Twinkle stamped one hoof uncomfortably. She looked down. “I don’t know.” She sighed. “I guess . . . I love helping others. That’s why I’ve always wanted wish-granting magic. And now I have it, which is so amazing! But I can’t use it at the talent show. And the thing is . . . I don’t actually have any talents.” Twinkle sighed again. “There’s just nothing special about me.”

  Sparkleton turned to stare at Willow and Gabe. They seemed as amazed as he was.

  “Listen,” Sparkleton told Twinkle. “This is hard for me to say. This might be the hardest thing I’ve ever said. But . . .” He took a deep breath. “You are special, Twinkle,” he said. “You’re annoyingly special. You’re so special that it kind of makes me want to barf. You sing fireflies to sleep every morning. You tuck caterpillars into their cocoons at night. You know the birthday of every single unicorn in Shimmer Lake. You’re the nicest unicorn I’ve ever met. And that makes you incredibly annoying, but it also makes you veryveryveryveryvery special.”

  Twinkle looked at him with wide eyes.

  Sparkleton sighed. “And I don’t have an act for the talent show, either,” he admitted.

  Twinkle’s eyes got even wider.

  Stop talking, Sparkleton told himself. Stop talking right now. But it was as though his brain and his mouth weren’t connected.

  “Maybe . . .” Sparkleton started. Oh great glitter and glimmer, don’t do this, Sparkleton, he thought. “Maybe we can team up for the talent show.”

  Twinkle blinked. Once, twice. And then she smiled the sunniest, happiest smile.

  “Yes!” she said. “Thank you, Sparkleton. You’re always so nice to me!”

  “I’m really not,” Sparkleton said. “Mostly I’m super mean to you.”

  “You’re the best,” Twinkle said. She bumped his shoulder with her shoulder in a unicorn hug.

  “No, I’m really, really—”

  “Just let it go, Sparkleton,” Willow said.

  “Okay,” Sparkleton said. “Fine. I’m the best.”

  “So, what should we do for the talent show?” Twinkle asked.

  Sparkleton flicked his ears in a unicorn shrug. “I have no idea,” he said. And that worried him. He needed to win the talent show . . . so he could get that Pixie Cap and finally get wish-granting magic!

  Willow frowned. “Let’s see,” she said thoughtfully, “Rosie, Britta, and Zuzu are doing a song-and-dance routine . . .”

  “We could give everyone earplugs,” Sparkleton joked, remembering how awful their singing had sounded when he was tiny. “We might get first prize just for that.”

  Gabe glared at Sparkleton. “That’s not very nice,” he said disapprovingly.

  Willow tried hard not to laugh.

  Then—to everyone’s surprise—Twinkle giggled.

  “That was a mean thing to say,” she said. “But it was funny, too. Sparkleton, you’re always so funny.”

  Sparkleton beamed. He was really starting to like Twinkle all of a sudden.

  “It’s true,” Willow said. “He is funny. Remember that whole thing where he was pretending to fall asleep in class this morning?”

  Gabe snickered. “And the impression of Nella he did on the spider web trampoline?”

  “And the SPLURCH sound he made when we were in the mole tunnel?” Willow added.

  Twinkle gasped. “That’s it!” she said. “I’ve got it! Sparkleton is so good at being funny . . . We should do a comedy routine for the talent show!”

  Sparkleton’s eyes went wide. “That could be really good, Twinkle!” he said.

  Maybe he would win that Pixie Cap after all!

  “We have to hurry to the talent show!” Willow said. “It’s starting soon! We can get Gabe’s mushroom on our way.”

  “And we can plan our comedy routine!” Twinkle told Sparkleton.

  They all hurried toward the beach.

  When they arrived, the sun was setting over Shimmer Lake. All the unicorns had gathered on the beach. They’d set up a big stage made of driftwood and seaweed. Thousands of fireflies hovered over it, shining down on the stage. Sparkleton wondered which of them was the firefly he’d seen when he was small.

  “First up!” called Gramma Una. “Rosie, Zuzu, and Britta.”

  The three young unicorns trotted onto the stage for their song-and-dance routine. Their singing actually sounded pretty good to Sparkleton, now that he was back at his normal size.

  After them was Nella, who juggled pinecones with her nose.

  Privately, Sparkleton thought it was kind of silly. But he stomped his hooves in unicorn applause when she was done. She was his sister, after all.

  Next, Dale brought out his daisy cake, and just seeing it made Sparkleton hungry.

  But then Gabe presented a stinky, slimy mushroom, and after that, Sparkleton wasn’t hungry anymore.

  Gabe trotted off the stage with his mushroom. Willow was up next.

  “For my act,” Willow said, “I have prepared a goblin magic spell. Now, I know it’s forbidden, but personally I think that’s a very silly rule. Also, I should mention that I’ve never tried this before, but I’m pretty sure it’s pretty safe—”

  “Nope!” Gramma Una said as she whisked Willow offstage.

  “Next!” Gramma Una cried. “We have the comedy stylings of ‘TwinkleTon’!”

  Sparkleton glanced over at Twinkle. She seemed a little nervous, but nothing worse than that. “Are you ready?” he asked. She nodded and smiled. Sparkleton smiled back. It was weird, being partners with Twinkle. He had kind of hated her forever. But this whole strange adventure had made him see her in a different light. Suddenly, her sweetness wasn’t so annoying. It was just . . . sweet.

  Sparkleton was almost glad he was doing the talent show with Twinkle. Weird.

  “Let’s do this,” Sparkleton said. And they walked onto the stage.

  “Hey, Twinkle,” said Sparkleton. He spoke loudly so that all the unicorns watching the talent show could hear him.

  “Yes, Sparkleton?” Twinkle replied, just as loudly.

  “Can a unicorn jump higher than an oak tree?” Sparkleton asked.

  “Of course!” Twinkle said. “An oak tree can’t jump!”

  A few unicorns in the audience whinnied in unicorn laughter.

  “Hey, Sparkleton,” Twinkle said.

  “Yes, Twinkle?” replied Sparkleton.

  “How long should a unicorn’s legs be?”

  Sparkleton looked down at his short, stubby legs. Then he looked back up at Twinkle. “Long enough to touch the ground!” he said.

  This time, a whole bunch of unicorns whinnied. Sparkleton grinned at Twinkle. This was going great!

  “Hey, Twinkle,” Sparkleton said.

  “Yes, Sparkleton?” Twinkle replied.

  “What do you call the unicorn next door?”

  “Your neighbor!” Twinkle replied, grinning.

  The whole crowd whinnied and stomped their hooves in unicorn applause.

  Sparkleton and Twinkle looked at each other and nodded. It was time to finish big.

  “Hey, Shimmer Lake!” they said in unison, looking out at the crowd.

  “Yes?” all the unicorns yelled back.

  “What do you call a group of unicorns?” Sparkleton and Twinkle said in unison.

  “What?” all the unicorns cried—even louder this time.

  “A neighborhood!” Sparkleton and Twinkle said.

  The crowd erupted in whinnies of laughter. Sparkleton and Twinkle bowed and bowed.

  “Sorry for being so corny, unicorns,” Sparkleton called as they left the stage. The crowd laughed even louder.

  Sparkleton’s
heart was beating fast. He hadn’t thought it would go this well! But Twinkle had been pretty good! And obviously, he’d been great.

  Gramma Una stepped out onto the stage. The thousands of fireflies turned their lights up all the way. She smiled out at everyone.

  “What a talented bunch!” she said. “But the judges have spoken, and the most talented unicorns in this year’s talent show are . . .”

  Sparkleton held his breath. The Pixie Cap was about to be his! Soon he would be a wish-granting unicorn! It was all coming together!

  “. . . Britta, Rosie, and Zuzu!” Gramma Una finished.

  Britta, Rosie, and Zuzu shrieked happily and galloped onto the stage to accept their prize.

  Sparkleton slumped. No Pixie Cap for him. Back to the drawing board.

  Second place went to Gabe, but Gabe immediately marched off the stage and gave the goblin gold to Willow.

  “I’m scared of that stuff,” he said. “And I hated being up on that stage anyway.”

  Willow grinned. “I’ll put it to good use,” she promised.

  “Please don’t,” Gabe begged.

  Gramma Una cleared her throat.

  “And third place goes to . . .”

  But Sparkleton wasn’t really listening anymore. He’d wanted that Pixie Cap so badly. He sighed. Another great idea down the drain.

  Then Twinkle poked him with her horn.

  “Huh?” he said.

  “Sparkleton!” she said, prancing happily. “We won third place! Didn’t you hear Gramma Una?”

  Sparkleton felt dazed. “We did?” he said as Twinkle herded him onto the stage.

  Twinkle grinned at him. “We did!” she said. “You’re the best friend ever, Sparkleton.” She bumped his shoulder in a unicorn hug.