Sparkleton #3 Read online

  Dedication

  To Patty,

  the meanest horse I ever loved.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1:I Got Wish-Granting Magic!

  2:I Have to Practice First!

  3:Well, This Is New and Terrible!

  4:She’s Beautiful!

  5:I Don’t Think You Can Fight a Hawk with Confetti

  6:SPLURCH! SPLURCH SPLURCH!

  7:I’m Not Sad. I’m Afraid.

  8:You’re the Nicest Unicorn I’ve Ever Met

  9:The Comedy Stylings of “TwinkleTon”!

  10:Hey, Shimmer Lake!

  Unicorn Games

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Back Ad

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Sparkleton was a small, shaggy purple unicorn. And more than anything, he wanted to have wish-granting magic. He wanted it so much. He wanted it right now. But everyone kept telling him to be patient.

  There were many different kinds of unicorn magic, from confetti magic to invisibility.

  Sparkleton only wanted wish-granting magic. And Sparkleton did not want to wait.

  But now he’d finally found a way to make his magic come faster! No more waiting. No more wishing.

  “All I have to do is stand on one hoof while yodeling,” he explained to Willow and Gabe. “And then I’ll get wish-granting magic right away!”

  Willow and Gabe watched, eyes wide, as Sparkleton reared up. He staggered back and forth, trying to get his balance.

  “Okay, I’m on two hooves!” he said. “Now I just have to lift one of my back hooves. I know I can do this!”

  Concentrating hard, Sparkleton shifted all his weight to his right hind leg.

  Carefully, carefully, he lifted his left hind hoof. It worked! He was balancing on one leg! Now all he had to do was yodel. He was so close!

  Sparkleton took a deep breath, and—

  “Sparkleton, for the last time, wake up!”

  Huh?!

  Sparkleton’s eyes shot open. It had all been a dream! He’d fallen asleep in class . . . and now everyone was looking at him and laughing!

  Sparkleton blushed so hard his face turned maroon. He was embarrassed!

  “Are the seven hundred and ninety-three rules of proper unicorn spell casting that boring, Sparkleton?” Gramma Una asked. Everyone snickered.

  The answer, of course, was yes.

  But Sparkleton knew he couldn’t say that to Gramma Una’s face.

  “Of course not!” he told Gramma Una. He grinned at her and winked. “Someone must have put a sleeping spell on me!” He squeezed his eyes shut, flopped his ears down, and made a loud snoring noise. The whole class burst into laughter.

  It’s fun when I’m making them laugh on purpose, Sparkleton thought. He pretended to wake up with a snort.

  “It happened again!” he said. He shook his head. “Maybe it’s pixies!”

  Everyone laughed even harder.

  Sparkleton was having so much fun! He jumped and yelped, “Ouch!” Then he turned and looked at his rear. “I think one of the pixies bit me!”

  Rosie laughed so hard she snorted. Dale was giggling so much that he nearly fell over.

  Sparkleton grinned. This was the most fun he’d had in weeks! He might not have wish-granting magic (yet), but at least he was still sparkletastic! And everyone else knew it!

  And it’s not like anyone else has suddenly gotten wish-granting magic, he thought. At least there was that.

  “Everyone!” a voice called. “I got my magic! I got wish-granting magic!”

  The laughter stopped. All the unicorns, including Sparkleton, spun to look. A pink unicorn was trotting over the hill toward them.

  “I got wish-granting magic!” she said again. She pranced happily.

  Sparkleton felt like he’d swallowed a twenty-pound rock.

  The happy unicorn was Twinkle.

  Just a moment ago, Sparkleton had been the center of everyone’s attention. His friends had been laughing and cheering. He’d been so happy. It had all been completely glitterrific.

  Now he felt like sticking his head in a gopher hole.

  Not only did he still not have magic, but now Twinkle had magic. Not only did Twinkle have magic . . . she had wish-granting magic.

  It was so unfair.

  Sparkleton had never really liked Twinkle. He didn’t have a good reason, but that didn’t stop him. She was just so . . . nice. So kind. She blinked a lot, and she never laughed at anything Sparkleton thought was funny.

  And now she had wish-granting magic.

  The whole class crowded around Twinkle, begging her to grant their wishes.

  “I have to practice first!” Twinkle said. “Having wish-granting magic is a big responsibility! I want to treat my new powers with respect!”

  Sparkleton snorted. That was the most boring thing he’d ever heard. If he had woken up with wish-granting powers, he’d be swimming in a lake full of singing glowworms by now.

  “Well, I guess there’s no way you foals are going to be able to concentrate on your lessons now,” Gramma Una said. “Class is dismissed. But before you all run off, take a look at this!”

  She held up a big flyer.

  The annual talent show! It was tonight? And first prize was a Pixie Cap?! Sparkleton forgot all about Twinkle. A Pixie Cap was a cute little hat that granted one glorious wish to the unicorn wearing it. He had to win it!

  Plus, Sparkleton loved the talent show! Last year he’d sung a song about wishes while balancing on his horn.

  Gabe looked worried. “Isn’t goblin magic forbidden?” he asked.

  “Forbidden, schmorbidden,” Willow said.

  “This is going to end in disaster,” Gabe said gloomily.

  Sparkleton, Willow, and Gabe went to Gabe’s mushroom garden to plan for the talent show.

  “I was thinking of entering my Spotticus dotticus in the talent show,” Gabe said, nodding at one mushroom. “Or maybe this yuckius over here . . .”

  Willow nodded attentively. But Sparkleton tuned him out. Gabe’s mushrooms were so boring, and Sparkleton’s head was spinning. What a weird day. First he’d had that wonderful dream, then he’d made everyone laugh in class. Then Twinkle . . .

  Ugh. He didn’t even want to think about Twinkle.

  And now the talent show was tonight! He needed an act. And it had to be sparkletastic.

  Sparkleton had a plan. He was going to win the talent show, get the Pixie Cap, and grant his own wish for wish-granting magic. And then everything would be glitterrific forever.

  “Sparkleton, are you even listening?” Gabe asked impatiently. He was pointing at a group of especially gross-looking mushrooms.

  “Of course!” Sparkleton lied. “They’re very pretty,” he added.

  That was also a lie.

  Just then, something tickled Sparkleton’s hoof. He looked down. A snail was sliming its way up his leg!

  “Ew!” Sparkleton said. He shook his hoof, but the snail stayed put. “Get it off!” Sparkleton told Gabe.

  “Relax,” Gabe said. “That’s just my garden snail. I call her Booger.”

  “That doesn’t really make me feel better,” Sparkleton said. “Please make her go away.” Booger wasn’t very big—maybe the size of a mouse—but Sparkleton still wanted her to leave. She was getting slime on his fur.

  Gabe talked quietly with Booger for a moment. The snail turned around and slimed her way back down Sparkleton’s hoof and onto the dirt.

  “So as I was saying,” Gabe said, “before I was so rudely interrupted—” He frowned at Sparkleton.

  “Hey,” Sparkleton protested. “Your snail did the interrupting, not
me!”

  “It’s not like you were paying attention anyway!” Gabe said. He was so annoyed that his ears had turned completely around. “I bet you couldn’t even tell me which mushroom I was talking about.”

  Sparkleton rolled his eyes. “Of course I can.” He chose one at random. “You were talking about this one,” he said, and poked it with his horn.

  “NO, DON’T TOUCH—” Gabe cried.

  But it was too late. The tip of Sparkleton’s horn sank into the mushroom, and—

  POOM!

  Everything went white.

  Then everything went black.

  Sparkleton blinked and blinked, trying to clear the shimmers from his eyes.

  When he could see again, he looked around. Nothing made sense. He was in a huge, dark space. And he was surrounded by giant mushrooms!

  “Well, this is new and terrible!” said a cheerful voice behind him. Willow! Sparkleton turned. Gabe and Willow were there, too, looking around in surprise.

  “Where are we?” Willow said. “This almost looks like Gabe’s mushroom garden, except—”

  “Except everything’s huge,” Sparkleton said. “Everything got giant.”

  “No,” Gabe said gloomily. “We got small.”

  “That’s what that mushroom does,” Gabe explained sourly. The three friends were slowly making their way out of the garden. “It makes things tiny. That’s why I have that warning sign in front of it. And no, I don’t have a makes-things-bigger mushroom. There’s no natural cure. I guess we’re stuck like this. Forever.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic. We’ll just find a wish-granting unicorn to undo it,” Willow said. She rolled her eyes. “Sparkleton, doesn’t Nella have a hangout nearby?” she asked. “We can find her and wish to be normal size again.”

  “Uh-huh,” Sparkleton said. “Sure.” He wove his way around mushrooms twice his height. He wasn’t really listening to Willow and Gabe—he was too distracted. Being tiny was shimmerrific!

  Everything was huge, and you could see all sorts of weird details. The gills under the mushrooms looked like the ripples on the water of Shimmer Lake. The nubs of dirt on the ground were like big, crumbly rocks. And everything smelled rich and strange. His nostrils flared. Then he smelled something new—something salty, like the sea.

  “What—” Sparkleton started to say. But Willow interrupted him.

  “Oh wow,” she said. “Oh, wow! Hi, Booger!”

  The salty smell was Booger.

  The garden snail the size of a mouse was now almost as big as the unicorns.

  “Huh,” Sparkleton said. He tilted his head. “You know, now that I see her up close . . .”

  She was! Even Sparkleton thought so. Booger’s pearly shell shone with a thousand colors. Her body had faint polka dots all over it, and it gleamed in the dim light. Her feelers waved gracefully at them. She made a kind of quiet popping noise as she slimed her way along the ground.

  “Wow,” Willow whispered as Booger glided away.

  The world outside the garden was even more sparkletastic. Now that they were small, everything was a cool new toy!

  “Yahoooo!” Sparkleton yelled as he ran toward a fallen leaf. It was as big as his bed! He took a running jump and landed on it with his legs braced. The leaf slid along the moss just like a sled in wintertime!

  “Come see!” Willow called. She had gone a little farther into the meadow. “There are wild strawberries here in the grass!”

  Soon Sparkleton, Willow, and Gabe were munching on enormous wild strawberries. Sparkleton had never tasted anything so delicious.

  After their snack, Willow and Gabe started a game of kickball with an acorn. Sparkleton found an empty spider web and turned it into his own personal trampoline.

  “Look at me!” he yelled as he bounced. He went higher and higher. Soon he was sailing above the tops of the high grass.

  “Check this out!” he called to Willow and Gabe. He did a flip at the top of his next bounce.

  “Yikes,” Gabe said flatly. But Sparkleton could tell he was impressed.

  On his next bounce, Sparkleton struck a pose as he reached the top. “I’m Nella!” he called. He scowled and shook his head. “Sparkleton, quit bugging me!” he said, imitating her slightly squeaky voice.

  Then he tumbled back down to the spider web.

  Willow giggled, and Gabe nearly cracked a smile.

  Sparkleton decided to do Gramma Una next, but as he sailed up on his next bounce, a dark shadow slid across the sun.

  A piercing skree! shattered the air.

  “Hawk!!!” Gabe shrieked.

  A hawk had spotted them! It was hungry . . .

  And they were snack-size.

  “Run!” Willow yelled.

  Gabe made a break for a big blueberry bush. “We can hide in here!” he called as he ran. “It won’t be able to reach us!”

  High above them, the hawk moved into a dive. It got bigger and bigger as it rocketed toward them.

  “This is why I need goblin magic!” Willow panted as they fled toward the blueberry bush. “For emergencies!”

  Sparkleton looked up as they ran. The hawk was a black shape that blotted out the whole sky. It was almost on top of them. They weren’t going to make it in time.

  He squeezed his eyes closed and ran.

  “We made it!” Willow yelled. The three tiny unicorns slid under the thick branches and leaves of the bush and huddled by the trunk.

  Crash!

  The bush shook and trembled as the hawk smashed into it. The giant bird beat its huge wings and tore at the branches with razor-sharp claws, but the bush was too bushy! The hawk couldn’t break through the branches.

  The hawk flapped away, climbed into the air, and turned to dive again.

  “Uh-oh,” Gabe said.

  Crash! It smashed into the blueberry bush again, screeching hungrily.

  “We better do something,” Willow said. “It knows we’re in here. If it keeps doing this, it might actually get through the branches.”

  Gabe squared his shoulders. “I can use my magic,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”

  Sparkleton tilted his head. “Yeah, but you’ve got confetti magic,” he pointed out. “I don’t think you can fight a hawk with confetti.”

  “No,” Willow said thoughtfully. “You can’t. But confetti magic includes all celebration magic. And that means . . .”

  “Fireworks,” Sparkleton said. Gabe nodded, and Sparkleton’s eyes went wide. “Oh sparkles, this is going to be good.”

  The hawk had flown back into the sky and was beginning a third dive.

  Gabe pointed his horn through the branches of the blueberry bush. He aimed at the hawk as it came toward them.

  “FireworksfireworksFIREWORKS!” he cried. Yellow and blue fireworks erupted from his horn. Suddenly, the air above the blueberry bush was thundering and popping with blinding light! It was the biggest fireworks display Sparkleton had ever seen.

  The hawk screeched again—but this time in terror. It skidded to a halt midair. Then it took off in the other direction.

  The unicorns watched it go through the smoke and fading shimmer of the fireworks.

  “We’re safe,” Sparkleton said. He let out a big, trembly breath.

  “For now,” Gabe agreed. “But we have to get back to normal size before something else tries to eat us.”

  “You know, instead of finding Nella, maybe we should try to contact goblins for help!” Willow said. “I’ve been reading about it, you guys, and I think if we say ‘Shimmer Lake’ backward three times while crossing our eyes—”

  Willow pouted.

  “We’ve got to find Nella,” Gabe said. “And we’ve got to do it without getting eaten.”

  Scritch. A dark shape scurried past the three unicorns.

  They all jumped. Sparkleton’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest.

  “What was that?” Willow gasped.

  But it was just a mole hurrying through the blueberry bush. It trotted righ
t past them without a second look.

  “Phew,” Sparkleton sighed.

  “I nearly died of fright,” Gabe wheezed. He put his head between his legs and took a few deep breaths.

  “We really have to get somewhere safe,” Willow said. “Before Gabe actually dies of fright.”

  Or before I do, Sparkleton thought. I wish we could ask someone for advice. Like that mole—

  Wait, that was it!

  “I’ve got it!” Sparkleton cried. “We can follow the mole! Moles live underground—and underground is way safer for a bunch of tiny unicorns than the meadow!”

  “Brilliant, Sparkleton!” Willow cried. The three unicorns followed the mole to the edge of the blueberry bush.

  And then the mole disappeared.

  “What—” Sparkleton started. He hurried over . . . and discovered a hole. It was the perfect size for a tiny unicorn. “Here we go!” he said, and hopped right into it.

  The tunnel was warm and dark and steep. Sparkleton, Willow, and Gabe scrambled a bit, trying to stay upright. But soon it leveled out. The dirt walls of the tunnel were packed smooth, so it was easy to follow. But it was also pitch dark. Until—

  “Duh,” Gabe said to himself.

  “SparklersparklerSPARKLER!” and the tip of his horn lit up with tiny sparks. It was just enough light to show the tunnel around them. The mole was long gone, but at least now they could see.

  “Good thinking, Gabe!” Sparkleton said. “Now we just have to keep on in this direction, and these tunnels should take us to Nella’s corner of the meadow.”

  But going in one direction turned out to be impossible. The tunnels twisted and turned. They split and dead-ended. And not all of them were empty.

  “GAH!” Sparkleton shrieked as he turned down a branch of the tunnel and came face-to-face with a giant, slimy worm.