My Secret Unicorn (3 page)

‘Hi!' she called.

The girl looked up and gasped – her mouth gaping open – as she saw Twilight and Lauren in the sky.

Lauren laughed at the surprise on her face. ‘I'm Lauren,' she said as Twilight landed. ‘And this is Twilight.'

Twilight whinnied a hello.

‘You're Rosie, aren't you?' Lauren went on. ‘And this is Sparkle?'

Sparkle had cantered over to stand by Rosie. He was a slim dark grey unicorn with a grey mane and tail.

‘Y-yes, I'm Rosie,' the girl stammered.

‘And I'm Sparkle,' the unicorn said.

‘How do you know our names?' Rosie asked.

‘I'm…well…' Lauren cleared her throat and tried to make herself sound serious and grown up. ‘I am the Keeper of Secrets,' she told Rosie. She saw a look of confusion cross the other girl's face. ‘It means I know all about the
unicorns and their friends in this area,' she explained. ‘I help them work out how to use their magic.' She decided not to mention that Rosie was the first Unicorn Friend she'd ever come to see.

‘Oh wow,' Rosie breathed. ‘I never thought I'd meet anyone else with a unicorn. Do you want to go flying together?'

Lauren was tempted to say yes but she quickly reminded herself that she was there to do her job as Keeper of Secrets.
I have to be like Mrs Fontana
, she thought. She took a deep breath. ‘Not now. I am here because I know you have a problem, Rosie. Tell me and maybe I'll be able to help.'

Rosie looked disappointed for a second but then she sighed. ‘Actually, you're right, I do have a problem,' she admitted. ‘It's my friend Ellie. Her mum makes wildlife documentaries. She's in the Arctic at the moment, filming polar bears. But no one has heard from her for the last two days. Ellie's really worried. I want to help her with unicorn magic but I just don't know how.'

‘But that's easy!' The words burst out of Lauren before she could stop them. All Rosie had to do was get Sparkle to look for Ellie's mum using some rose quartz. Then they would be able to check and see where Ellie's mum was
and what she was doing. ‘All you have to do is –'

Twilight whinnied, interrupting her.

Lauren suddenly remembered that unicorns and their Unicorn Friends had to find out about magic for themselves. What if Rosie and Sparkle didn't know about rose-quartz gazing?

‘Um…what magic can Sparkle do?' she asked more cautiously.

‘He can fly and talk to me,' Rosie said.

‘And I can use magic to hear really well,' Sparkle put in. ‘Oh, and I can make people feel braver by touching them with my horn.'

‘But how can any of those things help?' Rosie said.

Lauren thought for a moment. This was actually quite hard. They obviously
didn't
know how Sparkle could use rose quartz to see anywhere in the world. How could she help them discover it? An image of Mrs Fontana came into her mind. Time after time, Mrs Fontana had said things that had sounded mysterious but that had helped her and Twilight
discover the magic they needed in the end.
I'd better do that
, Lauren decided.

‘Sparkle has many powers you do not know of,' she began, trying to make her voice sound wise. ‘You must strive to discover them. He does have a power that you can use to help.'

‘What?' Rosie asked eagerly. ‘What is it?'

‘I cannot tell you,' said Lauren.

Rosie's face fell. ‘Why not?'

‘You and Sparkle must learn how to use his powers by yourselves,' said Lauren. It felt very odd trying to sound mysterious and grown up when she wished she could just tell the other girl what to do.

‘Well, can you give me a clue or something?' Rosie asked.

‘Maybe you should…um…' Lauren looked around. There were some rocks of rose quartz around the edges of the clearing, half covered with brambles. ‘Maybe you should get Sparkle to see if he can make his magic work on anything in the clearing.'

Twilight nodded. ‘Try and work some magic,' he told the other unicorn.

‘You mean touch things and see if anything happens?' Sparkle said.

Lauren nodded.

‘Try touching some trees,' Rosie said eagerly. Sparkle cantered over to a cluster of oak trees and touched them
with his horn. Nothing happened. Lauren had to bite her tongue not to say anything. Sparkle was only a metre away from the rose quartz rocks.
Touch them, touch them
, she willed the dark grey unicorn.

‘Try something else!' Rosie urged.

Yes, go on, go on!
thought Lauren.

Sparkle looked around and then touched his horn to the brambles. There was a flash of purple smoke. Rosie gasped and Sparkle gave a whinny of surprise. Before their eyes the woven mass of bramble branches started to untangle.

‘Oh wow!' Rosie breathed. ‘Sparkle, it's a new magic power. You can untangle things!'

Lauren looked at Twilight. That wasn't the power she'd meant Sparkle to discover at all!

Rosie ran over and hugged Sparkle. ‘That's brilliant!' He whickered happily. A puzzled look crossed Rosie's face and she turned to Lauren. ‘I'm not sure how we can use it to help Ellie, though.'

Lauren didn't know what to say. She looked at Twilight, but he seemed equally lost for words. ‘Um…a unicorn has many powers,' Lauren said hastily. ‘Keep looking for the one that will help.' She got back on to Twilight's back. She was sure that if she stayed any longer she would end up telling Rosie what she had to do. ‘Twilight and I
must leave you now. Good luck with trying to help your friend.'

She knows there's something she can do with his magic now
, she told herself,
and she knows that he can find it by doing something here in this clearing.

‘Thank you,' Rosie said, looking a bit confused. ‘Will I see you again?'

Lauren smiled. ‘Yes,' she said. ‘You will. Bye!' She waved as Twilight soared into the air. He flew out of the clearing and into the sky.

‘That was really strange,' he said as soon as they were out of earshot. ‘You didn't sound like yourself at all, Lauren.'

‘I didn't
feel
like me,' Lauren admitted. ‘But then I'm not supposed to be me,
am I? I've got to try and be like Mrs Fontana.'

‘I suppose so,' Twilight snorted. ‘Do you think Rosie and Sparkle will understand what you mean and keep trying to do magic in the clearing until they find out about rose-quartz gazing?'

‘I hope so,' Lauren replied. She hugged him. ‘Oh, Twilight, I really hope we've helped!'

When Lauren got out of bed the following morning, the grass and the trees were covered in a thick white coating of frost that sparkled in the winter sunshine. She quickly pulled on her clothes. It was the perfect day for going for a ride in the woods. She couldn't wait for Michael to arrive.

As she brushed her hair, she thought about Rosie and Sparkle. Had they managed to find out about rose-quartz gazing after she'd left?

Twilight and I had better go back tonight and find out
, Lauren decided. She thought back over the night before. It had felt so odd trying to be like Mrs Fontana. ‘I guess I'll get used to it soon,' she muttered to herself.

Outside, she heard Twilight whinny from his stable. Lauren smiled and hurried from the room.

After feeding Twilight and refilling his water bucket, Lauren went inside for her own breakfast. Her mum was making
pancakes. ‘Mmm,' said Lauren, sniffing the air. ‘They smell good.'

Mrs Foster smiled. ‘Help yourself,' she said, carrying a plateful over to the table. ‘There's loads. Max!' she called through the kitchen door. ‘Breakfast's ready!'

Lauren sat down. Buddy, Max's Bernese mountain dog, plonked his head on her knee and looked at her with hopeful brown eyes. ‘Go away, Buddy.' She grinned at him, ruffling his fur. ‘I know you only want some of my pancake.'

Buddy thumped his tail on the floor.

‘Come on, Buddy.' Mrs Foster scraped some pancake scraps into his bowl. Buddy bounded over and wolfed them
down in two seconds flat. He looked up hopefully for more.

‘No, that's it,' Mrs Foster told him.

‘Don't worry, Buddy. It'll be Christmas soon,' said Lauren. ‘Then you can have a huge plateful of leftover meat and vegetables as your Christmas dinner.'

‘Just four days to go,' said Mrs Foster.

Lauren sighed happily and looked at the decorations she and Max had put up in the kitchen. She loved Christmas!

‘What time's Michael coming round?' Mrs Foster asked as Lauren poured maple syrup on to her pancake.

‘About ten,' Lauren answered.

‘It's ages since you've seen him, isn't it?' Mrs Foster said.

Lauren nodded. They kept in touch via email but Michael was never very good at replying and he didn't like writing much, so his emails were always quite short. She couldn't wait to find out everything that he and Moonshine had been doing.

‘Are you going to go out for a ride together?' Mrs Foster asked.

‘Yep,' Lauren replied.

And then tonight we're going to go flying together
, she added in her head. She grinned to herself. If only her mum knew!

Lauren had just finished tacking Twilight up when there was the sound of hooves on the path leading to the stable.

‘Michael!' Lauren cried, as a boy rode down the path on a pretty grey pony.

Michael grinned. ‘Hi there!'

Lauren ran to meet him. ‘Hi!'

Moonshine snorted softly and nuzzled
Lauren's hands. Michael dismounted. He was at least a head taller than Lauren now. For a moment Lauren felt slightly awkward. He looked so different. But then he smiled at her and she felt her shyness melt away.

‘It's good to be back here,' he said. ‘Hey there, Twilight. How are you, boy?'

He led Moonshine over and patted Twilight. The two ponies touched noses and snorted in greeting.

‘Should we go for a ride?' Lauren said eagerly. ‘We can talk about…
stuff
when we're in the woods.'

‘Sure,' Michael said. ‘I've got loads of
stuff
to tell you!'

They grinned at each other, knowing exactly what the other one meant.

Ten minutes later, they were riding along the trail that led into the woods. The path was hard beneath the ponies' hooves and as Lauren and Michael talked, their breath froze in the air.

‘So, what have you and Moonshine been up to?' Lauren asked when she was sure they were completely alone.

‘Loads of things,' Michael replied. His brown eyes shone. ‘She's got so many magic powers, Lauren! We've been helping lots of people. There was my friend Tom whose cat got lost, and then we were out late one night and stopped a burglary!'

‘A burglary!' Lauren said, her eyes wide.

‘Yes. Moonshine was using her powers to hear things at a distance and we heard these two men prowling around an old lady's house nearby. We flew there and saw that they looked like they were about to break in. I called the police on my phone. They came round and caught the men just as they were breaking in through the back door.'