Twilight laughed so much, she spit out some of her muffin, and Sapphire snorted. But Shamrock was totally over the ghost talk.
“Comet, you know you were only dreaming,” he said. “There’s never been any evidence of ghosts. It’s just stories people like to tell.”
“I don’t know, Shamrock,” Twilight said. “I think I believe in ghosts. I mean, if there are so many stories about them, that’s kind of like evidence, right?”
Comet nodded enthusiastically. “Totally, Twilight! Good point.”
Sapphire shook her head. “Honestly, I’m with Shamrock. I mean, I’ve heard sea legends like this all my life, and I love them. But I just think people like to tell stories, and ghosts always make for good ones.”
Shamrock nodded, feeling much better. At least someone was on his side. He stood up and kicked the hoofball. “Who wants to play?” he asked.
“Me!” Comet said, and Shamrock passed it to her. Twilight and Sapphire ran down the beach and drew a goal in the sand. Comet and Shamrock did the same where they were.
Comet and Sapphire were on Unicorn University’s hoofball team and were better players than Twilight and Shamrock, but it was still fun running on the beach and scoring goals in the sand.
After a while, Comet stopped dribbling the ball to say, “Can we break for some more of those seaweed muffins? All this running has made me hungry.”
Shamrock heard his belly rumble. “I wouldn’t mind a muffin break,” he said.
Twilight took the ball from Comet and tried to kick it in the direction of the picnic blanket, but—oh no!—it went zooming toward Sapphire’s head.
“Sapphire, look out!” Twilight squeaked, but Sapphire didn’t seem to hear her. She didn’t even notice when the ball zoomed right by her ear.
Shamrock saw that Sapphire was staring out at the ocean. Her face was so pale that it looked like—well, like she’d seen a ghost!
Sapphire shook her head and looked over to her friends. “You guys, you won’t believe this, but I think I just saw the Glowing Horn.”
4 Follow That Horn!
Sapphire dashed along the beach, toward the direction of the barn. “I think it went this way!” she shouted behind her. “Let’s follow it!”
Twilight and Comet galloped after her, with Shamrock following behind. He hoped his book wouldn’t get soaked by a wave while he was gone. Sapphire was clearly just imagining things because they had talked about ghosts all morning! No way was there an actual Glowing Horn—today, or ever.
They raced back and forth along the water, everyone peering out to see if they could find the horn again, but no one saw anything.
Finally Sapphire gave up the search and stopped running. But she still had a huge smile on her face and a glimmer in her eye. Shamrock, like Comet and Twilight, knew that was her adventure face.
“Operation Sleepover Ghost Hunt, am I right?” Comet said with excitement. It wasn’t quite a shout, but Comet had a naturally loud voice that always sounded a little like she was yelling at a hoofball game.
Twilight laughed. “This better not be a scary ghost.”
“You guys are being way too silly,” Shamrock said. This was totally out of control. “Ghosts are not real. I have tons of books that say so.”
“You aren’t being very open-minded, Shamrock,” Sapphire pointed out.
“You were just saying you didn’t believe in ghosts!” Shamrock insisted.
“Seems like a lifetime ago,” Sapphire said simply. “Not to mention, I just had firsthand experience with one. You know that observation is a basic principle of scientific discovery.”
That stopped Shamrock in his tracks. He bit his bottom lip and nodded his mint-colored head. Perhaps he had been thinking about this ghost business all wrong. Maybe the best way to put this ghost behind them and move on to the caves was to prove to his friends that the ghost was all in their imaginations. He gave his friends a serious look that they all knew as “Shamrock Science Mode.”
“Okay, let’s scientific-method this ghost,” he said with a smile.
Everyone laughed and cheered.
“But after we figure out what’s going on with the ghost, do you guys promise to explore the caves with me?” he asked.
They all agreed and did a group high-U to seal the deal.
Shamrock said, “Okay, well, we have our scientific question: ‘Are ghosts real?’ ” Everyone else groaned, but he ignored them. “The next step is to gather information.”
“Glitter-tastic! We should talk to Uncle Sea Star,” Comet said. “Maybe there’s some information he left out. Maybe he even knows how to talk to ghosts.”
“Let’s go meet him in town,” Sapphire agreed. “You guys will love it. It’s the oldest town in Sunshine Springs!”
They walked away from the water and through the tall beach grasses. Shamrock was excited. He wondered what kind of old buildings there would be and if there was anything about them in 1,000 Incredible and Astonishing Facts.
“I’m thinking we should have a nice, polite chat with the horn,” Comet said as they walked along the winding lane filled with broken seashells.
“How would a floating horn be able to talk?” Shamrock asked.
Comet shrugged, but Twilight said, “There are more ways to communicate than just speaking. Maybe the horn can spell out words or move objects.”
“Very true,” said Comet. “So we’ll figure out how to talk to the horn, and then we will ask it to join us on the beach. Then we will ask it where the treasure is.”
“And we won’t get lost at sea, because we’re luring the ghost to us!” Sapphire said. “Brilliant, Comet.”
“I don’t know,” Twilight said softly. “What if we make friends with the ghost and leave the treasure alone?”
“Let’s take the scientific method step-by-step. We don’t have to worry about the treasure yet,” Shamrock pointed out.
The sun was shining, and the ocean breeze was cool. The four friends were enjoying the walk so much that they made it to town before long and were all smiling as they wove their way through the cluster of little wooden buildings.
Shamrock noticed that the whole town seemed to lean east, as if the ocean wind had pushed it that way. Most houses had sea glass windows, with different blues and greens melted together. Unicorns were selling rope, seaweed, and trinkets from carts that lined the roads. Shamrock saw one unicorn push a cart filled with old books. The pages were browned with age, and it looked like the covers were made of everything from old sails to dried bark.
“Hey, kids! Looking for me?” The friends spun around, and Uncle Sea Star was standing right in front them, a big basket full of rope hanging from his neck.
“Uncle Sea Star, I have incredible news,” Sapphire told him in her serious student voice.
Then Comet yelled out, “She saw the Glowing Horn! She saw the Glowing Horn!” until Sapphire shushed her in an equally loud voice.
Shamrock looked around to see the unicorns of the town peeking at his friends curiously. There was a very old unicorn pushing a cart of glass bottles and iron pots and pans who looked particularly interested. Two unicorns dressed like Uncle Sea Star stopped their conversation and pricked up their ears. Shamrock was curious about what Uncle Sea Star knew too.
“Uncle Sea Star, you have to tell us how to lure the horn to the beach,” Sapphire was saying. “Think of the treasure!”
Uncle Sea Star chuckled. “This is a treasure-hunting sleepover, eh? No, no. Too many unicorns have been lost to this legend. You’ll just have to let the horn be, niece.”
“But I found a loophole!” Comet pressed. “If we lure the horn to us, then the horn can’t lure us to the sea.” She closed her eyes and nodded seriously, as if settling the point.
Uncle Sea Star just shook his head. Shamrock knew his friends were going about this all wrong. If he were going to be part of this fact-finding mission, then they were going to do things correctly.
“Right now we’re just gathering
information to form our hypothesis,” Shamrock said seriously. “That means ‘an educated guess,’ by the way. We will not perform any experiments until we get our facts straight, I promise. Of course, we’d rather talk to you about this instead of finding the information someplace else. I mean, some of those old books over on that cart looked like they might have some information… and actually, those unicorns over there seemed interested.…” Shamrock drifted off, starting to get lost in thought. He wished they were closer to the library at school.
Uncle Sea Star chuckled and shook his head again. “Okay, okay, but this is just an old story, all right? Might not be anything to it. And all four of you must promise me you won’t get yourselves into any danger. Sapphire, don’t get me in trouble with your mother!”
Sapphire promised not to do anything dangerous.
Uncle Sea Star nodded and said, “Legend says that the Glowing Horn is always trying to add to its treasure. It’s supposed to be drawn to shiny things.”
The young unicorns nodded in unison, hanging on his every word.
“The thing is, the Glowing Horn knows unicorns want to take its treasure. Make sure it doesn’t see you, or else you could be in trouble with the ghost!”
Twilight sighed.
Sapphire ignored it. “Twilight, I think we’ll need to use your special powers.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that,” Twilight said, shaking her head.
Before any of them could thank Uncle Sea Star for his very valuable information or even say good-bye, he was crossing the street, waving his horn to a unicorn with an eye patch and a very dirty apron.
5 Finding Treasure
Okay, so what do we do to find this treasure?” Comet asked as they walked away from town.
Shamrock said, “Well, we can all agree that we have different theories for how this will turn out—”
“We’ll be rich, with treasure!” Comet shouted.
“We’ll discover something valuable, at the very least,” Sapphire said with confidence.
“We’ll make a new ghost friend,” Twilight said softly.
Shamrock just nodded. They all knew what his theory was. “The next logical step is to conduct an experiment. Normally this would take weeks of planning, but I’m willing to cut some corners to keep the process moving. Does anyone have any ideas?”
Twilight mumbled, “I think Sapphire does.”
“I do!” Sapphire said, nudging Twilight gently with her flank. “We go down to the beach tonight. Twilight will use her invisibility to set out a bunch of sparkly things in front of a fire, so they get, you know, extra sparkly. Then we all hide in the grass and wait for the horn to come to the beach.”
Comet whooped and floated, yelling “Best sleepover ever!” again and again.
When Comet calmed down, Twilight finally said, “Okay, I’ll do it, but you guys have to promise to stay close by. Also, where are we going to find the sparkly stuff?”
Shamrock’s heart leapt right out of his chest. “The CAVES!” he blurted out.
His friends just stared at him.
Shamrock shook his shoulders, straightened his glasses, and tried to get back some scientific seriousness. “Ahem, I mean, there are sparkly rocks in the caves, remember? Perhaps we could gather those.”
“Great idea!” Sapphire replied. “I’ve seen them before, and I think they’re sparkly enough to lure the ghost.”
“If you guys don’t mind, I’m going to skip the caves. I have a surprise for all of us,” Comet said with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
“Do you need any help?” Twilight asked.
“Actually, yeah!” Comet said. “That would be great.”
The two of them huddled together and made plans during the rest of the way back.
Shamrock and Sapphire walked in silence, as they did quite a lot when they were at Unicorn University. They were both thinkers. Shamrock was usually thinking about a book he had just read, and Sapphire was usually dreaming about where she’d like to travel when she got older.
Shamrock thought that perhaps Comet’s surprise would be some sort of baked treat, and he was very much looking forward to it. He was also pleased that he was going to explore the caves sooner than he’d thought he would. Maybe he could go with the flow a little bit more. Maybe.
Shamrock and Sapphire peeled off from Twilight and Comet at the barn and made their way to the beach. On the walk, Shamrock noticed something—or a few somethings—dashing in and out of the grass. He could tell it wasn’t the wind, but the little creatures were too quick to see.
“What’s that in the grass, Sapphire?” he asked.
“They’re ghosts!” Sapphire shouted, making Shamrock almost jump out of his coat. From her shout—not because of “ghosts,” he assured himself.
Sapphire laughed and nudged him with her flank. Shamrock giggled, but he did wonder if he might have been more affected by all this ghost talk than he’d realized.
“No, not really,” Sapphire explained. “They’re sand pixies of course.”
Shamrock nodded. “Oh, I see! We have grass pixies in the mountains, and they make the same sounds. I’ve never been able to see one up close, but I’ve read about them. What about you?”
“Yeah, they’re too quick to see. Hmm. You know, I’ve read about ghosts, too, and now I’ve seen one!”
Shamrock just shook his head. He could see the caves up ahead and raced toward them. Sapphire followed closely behind.
They both paused at the mouth of the cave and stared in wonder at the sparkling rocks. The sun was shining into the cave, making the floor and walls glimmer and shine like diamonds. Shamrock felt like they had found the treasure without the help of any ghost.
6 To Catch a Ghost
After dinner, Shamrock led the way toward the beach. He couldn’t wait to conduct the experiment and prove that his hypothesis was right and the others were wrong. He whistled and swished his tail as he pranced through the grass.
Everyone settled at the spot where Sapphire had first glimpsed the ghost.
“Okay!” Sapphire yelled out in her best organizing voice. “Everyone, get some driftwood for the fire, and pile it here.” She pointed with her horn to the small hole she’d dug in the sand.
When they’d gathered enough wood, Sapphire arranged the pile and made a campfire. Shamrock remembered when she’d learned to do that at school from one of the chefs, Stella. Stella was a dragon and knew tons about fire.
“Shamrock, do you have the sparkling rocks?” Sapphire asked.
He sure did. Shamrock had loved gathering the rocks and was excited to bring them home after all this. Some were huge and white with silver specks, and some were shining gray. A few even had purple streaked through them. He handed the bag to Twilight just before she used her special ability to become invisible. Shamrock, Sapphire, and Comet hid in the tall grasses off to the side. They peered through dark green strands to see Twilight line the rocks up in front of the fire so they would sparkle in the light.
“Beautiful!” Sapphire said with awe.
Everyone nodded as they watched the rocks shimmer. Twilight crept back to the grass and dropped her invisibility.
“Now what?” Comet asked.
“Now we wait,” Sapphire told her, and crouched a little lower behind the grass.
Shamrock looked up to see the many constellations in the sky. It was such a clear night, he didn’t even need a telescope.
“There’s the Big Horn,” he pointed out, looking up to the constellation that looked like a triangle made of big, bright stars.
Comet laughed. “At first I thought you meant the ghost was here.”
Shamrock laughed too. He could understand the mistake.
“Shh, don’t scare the ghost,” Sapphire reminded them.
“This is pretty cool, though. I read all about the constellations over break,” Shamrock said very quietly. “See the tip of the horn? The very brightest star?”
Comet nodded.
“
That points north, and unicorns have used it forever to guide their way. There are lots of stories about it.”
“Kind of reminds me of what Uncle Sea Star said earlier,” Twilight whispered. Shamrock didn’t see the connection between ghosts and stars but decided not to say anything. He didn’t want to hurt Twilight’s feelings.
“Guys, focus on the water!” Sapphire whisper-yelled. “We don’t want to miss the Glowing Horn.”
They did focus on the ocean, but still no ghost appeared. Soon their legs were cramped, and they all started fidgeting in the grass.
“Maybe the ghost wasn’t real, after all,” Sapphire said with disappointment.
“Maybe it’s just feeling shy,” Twilight told her. They all knew Twilight understood that feeling.
“Maybe you were right, Shamrock,” Comet sighed. She walked over to the fire and flopped dramatically onto the sand. “All this for nothing!”
“No way! Not for nothing!” Shamrock shouted. He felt like he had taken a big gulp of warm cider, and he was filled with a warm glow from head to toe. He jumped up with glee and raised his horn high into the air as he trotted around the fire. “The experiment proved that I was right! I told you guys all day. I told you! I’m taking a mental picture of this moment right now.”
His glasses had gone askew in his excitement, and he shook his head back to straighten them. Using his special ability, he filed away a memory movie of the moment.
“Well, I still have my surprise!” Comet said, ignoring his speech. She scooted over a large black skillet of cupcakes she had brought and put it by the fire. “Just to warm them up a little,” she explained.
Soon the smell of freshly baked cupcakes filled the air, and it wasn’t just Shamrock who was feeling good. Freshly baked cupcakes, I’m surrounded by my best friends, and I was totally proved right. This might be the best picnic ever, Shamrock thought.
He smiled and looked out at the dark ocean, and then, all of a sudden, he could see the impossible. His jaw dropped when he saw a Glowing Horn emerge from the ocean and float toward them.
Shamrock's Stable Sleepover Page 2
