The Magic Spell

went to bed, she opened the unicorn book to a beautiful picture showing unicorns grazing in lush meadows dotted with star-shaped purple flowers. The pink sky was streaked across with orange and gold, as if the sun was setting. She began to read…
    When the two young unicorns grew old they returned to Arcadia. The unicorn elders decided that from then on they would send young unicorns to Earth to do good works. They look like small ponies. Each of them hopes to find someone who will learn how to free their magical powers. To do this one needs: the words of the Turning Spell, a hair from the unicorn’s mane, the petals from a single moonflower and the light of the Twilight Star, which only shines for ten minutes after the sun has set.
    Lauren turned the page and saw the picture of the young unicorn that she had seen in Mrs Fontana’s shop. Scruffy and grey, it looked quite like Twilight.
    Maybe Twilight’s a unicorn in disguise , Lauren thought suddenly.
    She smiled to herself. She was being silly. It was just a made-up story and Twilight was just a regular pony.

Six
    A fter breakfast the next morning, Lauren took Twilight out for a ride in the woods again. It felt a bit lonely on her own. I wish I had someone else to ride with , she thought. She wondered if she would make friends with someone when school started.
    As they reached the trees, Twilight pricked up his ears and pulled at the reins.
    ‘OK, boy,’ Lauren said, letting him trot.
    She had been riding for ten minutes when Twilight suddenly stopped.
    ‘Go on!’ Lauren encouraged him.
    But Twilight wouldn’t move. He shook his head and looked to the left.
    Lauren realized that he was looking along the same side-trail he had tried to go down the last time they had been in the woods. She thought for a moment. What harm could there be in exploring?
    ‘All right,’ she said, turning Twilight towards it.
    The track was narrow and the trees on either side met over Lauren’s head, blocking out the sun. It was like riding through a long, green tunnel. As the silence closed in around them, Lauren began to wonder where the track was leading.
    ‘Maybe we should turn back,’ she whispered to Twilight, but the pony pulled eagerly on the reins. It was clear he didn’t want to stop.
    Lauren saw light ahead. It looked as if the track was coming to an end. Wondering where they would come out, she let Twilight carry on. He trotted out from among the trees and into a grassy glade.
    It was beautiful. In the centre of the glade there was a mound dotted with purple flowers where a cloud of yellow butterflies fluttered in the sunlight.
    Twilight walked to the mound and Lauren saw that the flowers were star-shaped and at the tip of each bright petal

    there was a golden spot. She frowned. She knew she had seen them somewhere before, but she couldn’t remember where.
    With a soft whicker, Twilight bent his head. Thinking he was grabbing a mouthful of grass, Lauren tried to pull his head up. ‘No, Twilight!’
    But as she spoke she realized that he wasn’t eating, he was nuzzling at the star-shaped flowers. Her curiosity was aroused and she dismounted.
    Looping the reins round her arm, she looked closely at the flowers. Where had she seen them before?
    Twilight whickered and nudged her arm. Lauren was puzzled. It was as if he was trying to tell her something, she thought, then she shook her head.
    He’s just a pony , she reminded herself quickly.
    She glanced around. The glade was so beautiful and still that she didn’t want to leave. But she knew that she ought to be getting home, so she mounted Twilight and rode him back into the trees.
    Lauren turned Twilight on to the main trail through the woods where the birds were singing overhead again. Leaning forward, she let him go faster and they cantered along the track towards home.
    When they got back to the farm, Lauren went into the study, where her dad had loads of books about plants. She took the biggest one down from the shelf and began to look through the section on woodland flowers. There were quite a few plants with purple flowers but none of them was star-shaped with golden spots on the edge of the petals. She tried another book and then another. But she couldn’t find any flowers that looked like the ones in the glade.
    She closed the last book and sighed. She knew she had seen the flowers before somewhere.
    ‘I thought I heard you in here,’ Mrs Foster said, coming into the study. ‘What are you