“This is so cool, Shamrock!” Sapphire was as excited as he was about it. “Actually, I kind of wonder what it says about ghosts.”
Shamrock groaned.
“I can tell you about a ghost,” Comet told them. “Once, when I was staying at my great-aunt Jupiter’s, I was sleeping on the couch, and I swear I saw an old bathrobe dancing on its own in the middle of the night. Just swirling around the living room!”
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!”
