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.
7
Running from Ghosts!
Ghost!” Shamrock shrieked.
“Come on, Shamrock,” Sapphire groaned. “We get it! Stop being mean.”
“Yeah, ha ha.” Comet rolled her eyes.
“No, no, look, look!” Shamrock said. His eyes felt like they were about to pop through his glasses. “The horn is—”
Twilight looked up to see what Shamrock was pointing at. “Coming right at us!” Twilight squeaked.
“Better get moving!” Sapphire shouted when she saw it too.
No one needed to be told twice. Shamrock scrambled up from the sand to run with his friends back to their tent, leaving the cupcakes and rock treasures for the ghost.
“Didn’t we want to find the ghost?” Comet, almost out of breath, reminded them as she ran.
“I guess we didn’t think about the fact that scary ghosts are, well, scary! So we gotta run faster!” Twilight yelled louder than any of them had heard her yell before.
When they got to the tent, they turned back to see the Glowing Horn still glimmering over the surface of the ocean. Shamrock looked at the tent and felt way too scared to sleep outside.
“Um,” Shamrock ventured in a shaky voice, “maybe we sleep in your room tonight?”
“Totally,” Sapphire agreed without even pausing to think. They all grabbed their bags and made their way into the big red barn.
Soon they were settled in Sapphire’s room—snuggled close together with the lights on—but they couldn’t stop thinking about the ghost. Shamrock could feel his friends shivering beside him. Of course, they had wanted to see it, but now they’d didn’t remember why! What if the ghost was mad that they tried to trick it? Shamrock took a deep breath to calm down and think rationally. But what was rational about a ghost?
“I don’t think I can sleep tonight,” Twilight admitted. “We just saw a ghost! And it’s still out there!”
“I’m sorry about earlier, guys,” Shamrock told them. “I was not being a good friend at all. You were right, and I was so, so, so very wrong.”
Comet waved her hoof as if to shoo away the apology. “Honestly, I thought this was just a fun game. I am as surprised as you are that we saw a ghost!”
“Me too! I am surprised our trap worked,” Twilight admitted. “I was only going along with it because I didn’t think the ghost was actually going to visit.”
“Me too,” Sapphire agreed. “I mean, I really did think I saw the ghost at first, but as the day went on, I kinda thought I’d imagined it.”
Everyone started laughing at once. Turned out Shamrock wasn’t the only one to think the ghost wasn’t real, after all! Their laughter broke the tension, and soon enough everyone was able to settle down to sleep.
Shamrock felt a little silly for being so serious about the ghost all day. His friends had just been having fun!
He lay awake longer than the others, not sure what to think about laying eyes on a ghostly being. What did it mean to have Uncle Sea Star’s story be real? Had he been telling the truth about other things too? It all made Shamrock’s head spin. Eventually, when his head was too full of questions for him to think anymore, Shamrock finally drifted off to sleep.
8
Sweet Discovery
Everything was different in the bright morning sunshine. As he sat up and yawned, Shamrock regretted being scared of the Glowing Horn. And now they had lost their chance to talk to a ghost. A missed scientific opportunity!
Shamrock, Comet, Twilight, and Sapphire ate breakfast at their tent that morning. Everyone agreed with Shamrock, that they were silly to have been afraid the night before.
“It’s not like it was being mean or anything,” Twilight pointed out.
“If anything, it was friendly! Coming over to say hello,” Comet added.
Sapphire shook her head. “I can’t believe we were all so scared. We totally missed our chance.”
“I don’t know about that,” Shamrock pushed back. He suddenly had a fluttering feeling. An idea was taking shape!
“But our parents are coming to pick us up this afternoon,” Twilight said.
“Yeah, we don’t have another night to look for the ghost,” said Comet.
Shamrock just smiled. “But we don’t need to wait for nighttime. Remember, Sapphire first saw the Glowing Horn during the day. Most might think a ghost will only appear at night, but we know that’s not true in this case. Even though we’re dealing with the supernatural, we can still approach this situation rationally. Now, what else do we know about this ghost?”
Sapphire was nodding enthusiastically. This was the type of adventure she was looking for. “Great thinking, Shamrock. We know the ghost appeared when we put the shining rocks out, like Uncle Sea Star said it would.”
“No, wait!” Comet said. “The ghost totally came for my cupcakes, remember? I mean, they are good. You know, I created the recipe myself. My great-aunt had a certain version, but she didn’t use cinnamon—”
Shamrock’s horn went into the air with a start. “And before that, it came out when we were having a picnic!”
“You’re right!” Twilight agreed. “This ghost is hungry.”
“And has a sweet tooth,” Shamrock added.
“I like this ghost. And I even have more cupcakes!” Comet said. They didn’t need treasure or sparkly things to talk with the ghost. They needed sugar!
“Okay, okay,” Sapphire said to get the group’s attention. “But what will we do this time if the ghost does come back?”
“Not run away,” Comet said.
Sapphire laughed. “Yeah, but how do we get it to tell us where the treasure is?”
“I think we should record the sights, sounds, and movements of this ghost,” Shamrock was quick to say. “This is quite a major discovery, and we
