Puzzle: The Runaway Pony Read online

  At that moment the heavens opened and the rain started to fall in great swirling sheets.

  “Oh, perfect – that’s all I need,” Rosie sighed dramatically as they headed for home at a slow trot.

  “I don’t know what you’re grumbling about,” Alice smiled. “At least the rain’ll wash the mud off.”

  Rosie couldn’t help smiling at Alice as they turned the corner and reached the rutted drive that led up to Blackberry Farm.

  “Look!” Charlie said suddenly, squinting through the rain at the old rustic gate that led to the little yard. “Someone’s at the gate – I wonder what they want?”

  AS they got nearer they saw a girl hunkered down by the gate beside a propped-up bike. She looked about their age, wearing pale-blue jods and a padded pink jacket with a colourful stripy jumper poking out underneath. Her plaited brown hair was soaked, as if she’d been waiting for ages, and she was shivering in the cold, hugging a heavy-looking yellow canvas bag. She turned when she heard the ponies’ hooves scrunching on the drive and looked slightly startled, almost as if she was going to make a run for it.

  “Hi there!” Rosie called out cheerfully.

  “Oh, you’ve only just got back from your ride,” she said in a high, small voice, “I’ll come back later. You must have loads to do.”

  She turned and walked back to her bike, with her head down, but Mia called out to her.

  “That’s okay. It won’t take us long to put the ponies away if you can hang on five minutes. How long have you been waiting here, anyway?”

  “Oh, only about… well… forty minutes maybe,” the girl replied shyly.

  “What? In this rain?” Rosie exclaimed, noticing how un-waterproofed her jacket looked. The girl nodded. “What’s worth getting that soaked for?”

  “I… I’ve got a bit of a problem,” the girl said, pulling her coat closer around her. “I wondered if you might be able to help.”

  “What kind of problem?” Charlie asked.

  The girl stood for a second. She opened her mouth as if she was about to speak, then she stopped and shivered, looking miserable.

  “Why don’t we put the ponies away first,” Alice suggested. She was starting to really shiver too and wanted to get herself out of the rain and Scout rugged up. “It won’t take long. Then we can go round to the barn and you can tell us what the problem is.”

  The girl nodded and dodged sideways while the others led their ponies past. She hung about, not quite knowing where to put herself as the ponies were settled in. Mia spent ages carefully inspecting Wish’s legs, running her hands down them and checking for any cuts or signs of heat after her escapade. But her mare’s legs were clean, much to her relief.

  They dried their ponies off and put on their warm rugs over their sweat rugs, then left them munching happily on full haynets. Then they found the girl, who was standing out of the rain, just inside the feed room, and headed for the hay barn. The girl gazed at the pictures, rosettes and posters that had been pulled out of Pony Mad and stuck haphazardly over the barn’s wooden wall while Charlie and Rosie hauled shut the big door to keep it as snug as possible. They climbed the ladder to the loft which was filled with sweet-smelling hay. If they squinted through the little gaps in the wood, they could see the yard below and the ponies as they bobbed their heads out under the eaves of the stable roofs every now and again.

  With hay bales piled up around them to help them stay warm, blankets wrapped over their shoulders and an old sleeping bag covering their legs, the girls were really cosy. Mrs Honeycott, Rosie’s mum, appeared, draped in a huge yellow mac with a big hood covering her paint-streaked hair. She was balancing a tray of steaming hot chocolates, along with a huge, still-warm banana cake for them to share – although they quickly discovered with a giggle that she’d forgotten to put any banana in. Mrs Honeycott had only made four cups of hot chocolate, so Alice gave hers to the new girl, and shared with Charlie instead.

  “Are you sure you don’t mind?” the girl asked, uncertainly.

  “Course not.” Alice smiled.

  The girl thanked Alice, looking a bit awkward, then sipped from her cup nervously.

  Once they were all settled with their drinks, she told them that her name was Pixie.

  “Are… are you the ones who found Moonlight?” she asked hesitantly. She had dark circles around her eyes and her face was pale. The girls all nodded, glancing at one another. They had an inkling of what was going to come next. Even though they felt bad for Pixie, they couldn’t help feeling the slightest rush of excitement about the possibility that she was bringing them a new case.

  “My mum knows Moonlight’s owners, not well or anything, but she said that I should come and see you with my… my problem,” she continued. “Mum made me promise I’d come here, but I didn’t want to bother you, not if you’re really hectic with big cases – you’re probably way too busy to help, aren’t you?”

  Pixie glanced up, looking almost as if she was waiting for them to agree, so that she could disappear.

  “Well, it’s true, we do always have big cases on the go – that’s the nature of being a successful Pony Detective,” Rosie lied.

  “But we can always make room for one more,” Mia added quickly, glaring at Rosie, who hid behind a huge bite of cake.

  Pixie sighed quietly and her shoulders drooped as she gazed at the floor. “Mum said you’d probably say that.”

  “So what’s the problem?” Charlie prompted her.

  “It’s my horse – Faraway Phantom,” Pixie said dully. “He’s disappeared.”

  “Dish-appeared?” Rosie asked through a mouthful of cake. “Really?”

  Pixie glanced up at Rosie, then looked away. “Well, he’s gone missing at least.”

  Mia pulled out her notebook from behind one of the bales, then started to write, her head down, and her long black hair falling neatly over her shoulders. Even after being drenched, Mia still somehow managed to look immaculate. When she’d got up to speed, she waited with pen poised for Pixie to go on. But she didn’t.

  “When did it happen?” Charlie prompted, as Pixie fiddled with the strap on her bag.

  “Um, yesterday – Saturday,” Pixie replied quietly. “One minute he was there, and the next he was gone… no trace.”

  “There’s always a trace,” Rosie said knowingly, tapping the side of her nose and not realising that she had cream from her hot chocolate on her finger.

  Pixie looked slightly scared for a second. “Is there?”

  Rosie nodded. “Even when people think a case is unsolvable, the Pony Detectives pick up on the tiniest clues. And what do they find?”

  Pixie gulped. “Er, ponies?”

  “Well, technically, yes,” Rosie said. “That, and success. Success is our middle name.”

  “Er, that’s good news.” Pixie half-smiled, before looking down at the hay-covered floor again.

  “So, going back to Faraway Phantom…” Mia said, chewing her pen.

  “Oh, that’s his show name,” Pixie explained in a small voice. “I just call him Phantom.”

  “Okay, so can you tell us exactly what happened yesterday? I mean, like when you noticed he’d gone, stuff like that?”

  Pixie thought for a second. “I got to the yard in the morning at my usual time, which was pretty early, and he… well, his stable door was open and he’d just gone. He can open the top bolt and if he kicks the door he can flip open the bottom bolt too. Bit of an escape artist, you see. Normally I always put the lead rope clip on the bolt so he can’t but… well I’m sure I did but I can’t be a hundred per cent certain. Maybe I forgot…”

  “What does Phantom look like?” Alice asked.

  “He’s 15 hands high,” Pixie said, “and black.”

  “Any markings?” Mia asked, head down, writing.

  “Um, he’s got a star and half a white blaze over his nose.”

  “Anything else?”

  Pixie shook her head then sat quietly for a second.

&n
bsp; “Do you know his breeding?” Rosie asked.

  “Oh, yes – he’s three-quarters thoroughbred and a quarter Welsh,” Pixie said, putting down her mug and looking over towards the loft ladder.

  “Was he wearing a rug?” Charlie asked.

  Pixie nodded. “A purple one, with light purple piping.”

  They all agreed that at least he wasn’t wandering around the countryside in the cold and wet totally exposed to the elements. Being part thoroughbred he wouldn’t have a nice thick coat to help him keep warm.

  “Age?” Alice asked, after waiting to see if Pixie was going to speak in the silence that followed. She frowned, finding it increasingly odd that Pixie was being so quiet. They were having to extract information from her piece by piece. Alice knew that if she had been describing Scout, it would take her at least two hours to go through all his best bits, not two seconds, and she wouldn’t need any prompting.

  “Six. And a half,” Pixie replied before glancing at her watch and standing up. “Look, I’d better go, it’s getting late. And, honestly, I know Mum’s all worried and she wanted me to come and everything, but if you’re really busy with other stuff then, well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll just tell her that. It’s okay.”

  The others looked at each other, frowning.

  “It doesn’t sound okay,” Mia replied. “In fact, a thoroughbred cross running round in this weather sounds like an emergency to me. We’ll get onto it right away.”

  “Oh, right, of course,” Pixie said. “Thanks.”

  She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked towards the ladder.

  “Have you got a photo or anything we could look at?” Charlie asked, thinking that they would need it because they had very little else to go on.

  “Not on me,” Pixie said, looking worried. “I could bring you one though.”

  Mia suggested that she could drop one off the next day after school.

  “Erm, okay,” Pixie said hesitantly, then started to climb over the top of the ladder.

  “Oh, one more thing,” Mia called out just as Pixie was about to disappear. “I almost forgot – where was Phantom stabled?”

  A cloud crossed Pixie’s face.

  “Compton Manor,” she replied, looking down as the girls all exchanged glances.

  “Funny, we were there earlier,” Mia smiled.

  “I guess you think I’m lucky to have Phantom stabled there,” Pixie said quietly, gripping tightly on the ladder. “Everyone else seems to think so.”

  “I might have done up until we visited,” Mia replied. “Now I’m not so sure.”

  Pixie looked up, and for the first time seemed to relax for half a second.

  “Oh, and what’s the CM club?” Alice asked before Pixie disappeared. “I heard someone there talking about it.”

  “You mean Sasha, right?” Pixie asked. Alice nodded. “It’s the Compton Manor club. It’s very exclusive, and you’ve got to earn your way to being Sasha’s best friend to be in it, which basically means you have to do everything she says when she orders you around, including all her mucking out and grooming. Oh, and laugh at her horrible jokes.”

  “And at other people when she’s mean to them,” Alice finished.

  Pixie nodded.

  “If you’re not in her club, she makes life pretty miserable. Trouble is, she runs the place, for the Under 16s anyway,” Pixie sighed despondently, “and her mum’s always so busy she hasn’t got time to listen to any of us if we go and complain. Sasha gets away with anything, there’s nothing anyone can do about her. Anyway, I guess I don’t have to worry about that any more. Look, I really have to go now.”

  The girls called out goodbye, then waited until they heard Pixie’s light footfalls pattering out of the barn.

  “Sounds like she had a horrible time at Compton Manor,” Mia said, re-reading the notes she’d made.

  “That’s hardly surprising, with Sasha running things,” Rosie agreed.

  “But, apart from that, does anyone else think that Pixie was acting weirdly?” Charlie asked. “I mean, I know she came to see us, but I reckon that was only because her mum told her to.”

  “Exactly, not because she wanted to,” Alice agreed.

  Suddenly they heard a skidding of hooves outside on the concrete and all the ponies started to neigh at the top of their lungs, as if one of them had got out of their stable. Beanie appeared from nowhere, barking territorially.

  The girls looked up and stared at each other for a second. Then, without saying a word, they flew downstairs and out of the barn, slipping on the loose hay that covered the floor as they raced round the corner to the stables. There, outside the gate but clambering back over it to safety, was a petrified Pixie. In front of her, head raised high, stood a wild-looking pony.

  IT was the pony’s appearance that made him look wild, rather than anything he was doing. That and the fact that Pixie was staring at him as if he was some kind of demon from the dark side. He was covered in a thick layer of caked-on mud, his mane and tail matted with it, and his cobby face was pinched. His eyes had a look of desperation in their dark depths, asking for help almost as clearly as if he’d spoken to the girls. His fluffy ears were out sideways and he was wearing a muddied blue headcollar with clogged-up holes, which looked like it had been there for a while.

  As the pony looked over at the girls he didn’t panic and run away, but stepped closer to Pixie, uncertainly. Pixie shrank away from him, looking paler than before. The pony reached his nose out to her, but Pixie squealed and moved quickly out of the way.

  Rosie looked from the pony to Pixie. “I don’t believe it! Is that Phantom?” she asked, disappointed that their case might be solved before they’d even had a chance to look for a single clue.

  “No!” Pixie squealed. “I’ve never seen this pony before!”

  “Are you sure?” Alice asked, as she stepped past Pixie and took hold of the pony’s headcollar. “It’s hard to tell what he looks like under all this mud.”

  “I’m sure,” Pixie insisted.

  “How weird’s that, then,” Charlie said, confused. “Phantom goes missing one day, and a pony turns up out of nowhere the next.”

  “I don’t recognise him. Do any of you?” Alice said.

  The others shook their heads.

  “What are we going to do with him?” Mia asked as Alice blew into his large nostrils gently before running her hand down his neck. The pony turned and rubbed his head on her, almost knocking her over.

  “We’ll have to see if we can find out who he belongs to,” Charlie said.

  “I know – why don’t we ask Daisy,” Rosie suggested. “If she’s helping out at Fran Hope’s rescue centre she might have information about missing ponies, that kind of thing.”

  “Good idea,” Alice agreed. “I’ll call her.” As Alice pulled out her phone the runaway pony frisked her pocket for treats, his little eyebrows raised. Suddenly a large rumbling echoed in him.

  “But first,” Rosie added, “we’d better get him something to eat.”

  “And we can’t just leave him out here and hope he finds his way back home,” Mia said, unable to stop herself from smiling, “so we’ll have to get the spare stable sorted!”

  “What, you’re just going to put him in one of your stables?” Pixie asked incredulously. “I mean, won’t you get into trouble for doing that? Don’t you have to ask someone?”

  “This isn’t Compton Manor,” Rosie joked. “I doubt Mum will even notice – she’s normally in a world of her own, but she’d approve anyway. She’d never want to see an animal without a home in this weather.”

  Pixie’s face suddenly fell.

  “Don’t worry, though,” Mia said, as Rosie went pink, realising what she’d said. “It won’t get in the way of us trying to find Phantom, too.”

  Pixie wiped her light brown hair off her face, nodding.

  “Although it’s obvious you’re going to be pretty busy now, so, you know, don’t worry too much. Anyway, I’d better
get going,” she said, dodging past the pony hastily. She grabbed her bike from where it had been leaning against a nearby bush, jumped on and began to pedal down the lane.

  “Don’t forget the photo tomorrow!” Charlie called out while Alice led the pony into the yard.

  “If she comes back at all,” Rosie said under her breath, wondering whether they’d seen the last of Pixie, who didn’t really seem to want to be there in the first place.

  Mia found a spare lead rope and clipped it to the runaway pony’s headcollar.

  “I wonder where he’s come from?” Alice asked.

  “Well, wherever it is, he wasn’t looked after very well there,” Mia concluded disapprovingly as she patted his neck.

  “Hmm, maybe, but look.” Charlie bent down and picked up one of his front hooves, wiping it with her hand. “His feet aren’t overgrown and his shoes don’t look that old, so he can’t have been left alone for too long, thankfully.”

  He stood and looked round at the other ponies as they pressed against the front doors of their stables, curious about the newcomer. Then he watched the girls’ every move, his eyebrows still up, as they rushed round sorting out his bedding, hay and water. Alice called Daisy and explained what had happened.

  “We get notices and pictures about missing ponies sent in all the time,” Daisy told Alice, sounding excited. “I’ll come over now. I might recognise him!”

  Alice put her phone away, then suddenly noticed some blood coming through the mud on the pony’s near hind leg. He looked round to watch while Mia quickly checked it.

  “I don’t think it’s too bad,” she announced, standing up. “We just need to wash his leg so we can get a better look.”

  She tied the pony up in the yard outside the spare stable, and while Rosie hosed his leg, Mia offered him a drink. He dipped his muzzle into the water, sloshed it around, then drank deeply before Mia took the bucket away. She didn’t want him to have too much all at once in case it gave him colic. Once the bucket was gone, he instantly turned his attention to the bulging haynet that Charlie and Alice had hung for him. The pony tore great mouthfuls from it, gulping it hungrily as if he hadn’t eaten properly for ages. Finally, his little eyebrows relaxed and his eyes softened, the desperation starting to leave them.