Stardust and the Daredevil Ponies

There was still a month to go, but every day that Issie checked on Blaze she seemed to be more and more enormous. Her belly was now so huge that Issie couldn’t fit a girth around her and the pony was eating twice as much hard feed as usual, as well as the lush spring grass in her paddock at Winterflood Farm.

Avery, meanwhile, was like an expectant father, fussing over the mare. He had set up the barn ready for the birth and organised the foaling monitor that would alert them the minute Blaze went into labour.

“The foaling monitor means we can leave her outdoors to graze naturally until she actually goes into labour. After that, things tend to happen very quickly,” Avery warned Issie. “When my great showjumping mare Starlight was foaling, I popped off to grab a cup of tea and by the time I came back from the kitchen she’d had him and the little tyke was already trying to stand up!”

Everything was prepared and the vet had pronounced Blaze perfectly healthy. Still, Issie was nervous about going away with Aunt Hester and leaving her pony.

“She’ll be fine,” Avery reassured Issie. “You go and have fun. I’ll keep an eye on her, don’t you worry. You’re only an hour away–I’ll let you know the minute anything happens, I promise.”

“Just don’t make any cups of tea while I’m gone. I don’t want Blaze to have her foal without me!” Issie had joked.

Even with Avery’s reassurances, Issie didn’t want to say goodbye to Blaze. On the night before the truck was due to pick them up and take them to the film set, she stopped by Winterflood Farm and stood in the paddock for ages, giving the mare snuggles and feeding her at least six carrots.

“After all,” she giggled as Blaze snuffled and munched a carrot from the palm of her hand, “you are eating for two, aren’t you, girl?”

She ran her hands one last time through Blaze’s long flaxen-blonde mane. The mare was so pretty with her dished Arabian face and her perfect white blaze. Issie loved Blaze so deeply now it seemed strange when she thought back to the day they first met.

It was Tom Avery who had brought Blaze to her. The chestnut Anglo-Arab had been so awfully mistreated, she was in a terrible state. Avery and the International League for the Protection of Horses had rescued her. Issie couldn’t believe it when Avery told her he wanted Issie to be her guardian and take care of the mare.

It was a lot for him to ask. Until Blaze turned up, Issie had sworn off horses for good. She didn’t want anything more to do with them after what had happened to Mystic.

Mystic had been Issie’s first ever horse. A fourteen-hand, swaybacked grey gelding with faded dapples and a shaggy mane. Issie had loved Mystic deeply from the first day they met. When Mystic had been killed in a road accident at the pony club, Issie thought she would never get over it. She was sure she would never have another horse. But Avery knew better. He brought Blaze to her and together the broken-hearted girl and the broken-spirited pony healed each other and became a real team.

And Mystic? His death was just the beginning of a whole new adventure. Issie’s bond with Mystic was more powerful than even she suspected. In fact Mystic wasn’t truly gone at all. Whenever things got really bad, whenever Issie needed him most, he would be there at her side–not like a ghost or anything like that, but a real horse, flesh and blood.

Mystic was her guardian angel. He had saved her and Blaze countless times now. She hadn’t seen the grey gelding in a long time, but she felt his presence more strongly than ever now that Blaze was close to foaling. Just knowing that the grey gelding was watching over Blaze and protecting her made Issie feel better about leaving the mare behind.

“I have to go, but Mystic will keep an eye on you, OK, girl?” Issie murmured as the mare nuzzled against her. Then she gave Blaze one more carrot for the road and left the mare in the paddock, heading home to pack her bags.

But when she got home, Issie was surprised to find her bags already packed and her sleeping bag rolled and ready at the front door.

“Mum?” Issie called out. Mrs Brown emerged from the kitchen.

“There you are!” she said breezily. “I figured you’d be running late so I went ahead and packed for you. I’ve washed and folded all that stuff you had in your laundry basket and put that in, and you’ve got three pairs of jodhpurs, your new hoodie and your PONY Magazines…”

“But Mum, I thought you didn’t really want me to go,” Issie said.

“Well, I was hoping you’d get a nice, safe, ordinary part-time job on the supermarket check-out for the holidays.” Mrs Brown put her arms round Issie and gave her a hug. “But then I realised you wouldn’t be my Issie if you did that, would you?”

Mrs Brown’s hug got tighter. “I’ve told Hester to take good care of you this time, and I’ll be there to pick you up and bring you home at the weekend.” She let go of Issie and smiled. “Your dinner is ready–go and sit at the table. After that, you better get straight up to bed. You have an early start in the morning.”

Issie did go straight to bed after dinner and she was so exhausted she had no trouble falling asleep. The last thing she remembered was setting her alarm clock for six. Then she was dreaming. In her dream she could hear Avery calling to her. He was telling her to hurry up because Blaze was having the foal. Issie could hear the foaling monitor going parp! parp! parp! telling her that she must go to her mare, but it was like her limbs were made of lead, it was so hard to move. Then, as she drowsily woke up out of her sleep, she realised the noise wasn’t a foaling alarm at all. It was the sound of her alarm clock and there was her mother, sitting beside her on the bed and shaking her gently by the shoulder.

“Issie! It’s time to get going. I came in and woke you up already, but you must have gone straight back to sleep,” Mrs Brown said. “Come on. Everyone is here waiting for you.”

“What time is it now?” Issie mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

“Seven o’clock.”

“Ohmygod!”

Issie leapt out of bed. She pulled on her dressing gown and ran to the window on the other side of the hallway, the one that looked out to the main street. Aidan’s horse truck was already parked outside. Issie could see Stella, Kate and Natasha waving madly through the truck windows at her. Stella was mouthing something at her but Issie couldn’t hear her. “What?” she called back. Stella looked exasperated and wound down her window. “I said hurry up, sleepyhead!” she laughed. “We’ve been waiting for ages!”

“Yeah, come on!” Kate grinned at her.

Natasha glared at her balefully. “Typical,” she said. “Making the rest of us wait for you.”

“Sorry! I’m coming. Give me five minutes!” Issie called back.

There was barely time for a shower and no time for breakfast. Mrs Brown managed to thrust a piece of Marmite toast in Issie’s hand and give her daughter a kiss goodbye as she raced out of the door.

Outside the horse truck was waiting. A boy stood by the door of the truck cab. He was wearing black jeans and a flannel shirt and his long dark hair fell in a floppy fringe over his face. “I’ve put your bags in the truck. The others are all sitting in the back, but I thought you might like to ride up in the cab with me,” Aidan said.

Aidan! Issie could feel her heart beating fast in her chest and her mouth was so dry there was no way she could choke down the last bite of the Marmite toast. “Uh-huh,” she managed.

Aidan looked pleased and gave her a shy smile, pushing his fringe back so that Issie could see his startling blue eyes. “Let’s go then!”

The first five minutes of the drive were excruciatingly painful. Issie didn’t know what to say so the pair of them sat there in silence looking out the window.

Finally Aidan spoke. “Do you know much about this movie?”

“I’ve read the book, like, a hundred times,” Issie said. “There’s this princess–her name is Galatea, but everyone calls her Gala. She’s the ruler of a kingdom where the women are all princesses and brave warriors–but she’s the strongest of them all and she has superpowers and stuff. Anyway, in Galatea’s realm the horses are all palominos and they have magical powers too. Then there are all these really creepy guys called the Elerians. The Elerians have these black horses, and the really horrible part is that their horses were all once palominos too. They used to belong to Galatea’s stables, but one by one the Elerians have captured them and turned them into the Horses of Darkness. The Elerians are actually vampires–except they bite horses, not people. They use their vampire fangs to suck all the life out of the palominos and turn them into these awful black horses, drained of all their pure strength and overcome by evil…”

Issie suddenly turned to look at Aidan. Why was he smiling at her? “What?” she said defensively. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing’s funny!” Aidan said, still smiling. “It’s just that I’d forgotten how excited you get about stuff–especially horses. I really like that about you.”

Issie fumbled around in her bag. “Here,” she said, handing Aidan a dog-eared paperback. “I brought my copy with me. You can borrow it if you like.”

Aidan smiled. “I’ve already read it. It’s one of my favourite books too.”

After that, Issie and Aidan talked non-stop and the hour-long drive seemed to take no time at all. The horse truck thundered along the road past the pine forests north of Chevalier Point, through rolling green fields dotted with grazing cows. Finally they pulled off the main road down a gravel driveway and Issie was surprised when they were stopped by a burly security guard at the farm gate.

“There have been loads of paparazzi–tabloid newspaper photographers–trying to get on the set,” Aidan explained to Issie as they drove on again through the paddocks. “Apparently the girl they’ve got playing Princess Galatea is really famous. There’s been loads of rumours. They’re trying to keep everything hush-hush. Even the crew haven’t been told who it is…”

But Issie wasn’t really listening to him. She was too busy looking out the front window of the truck.

“Ohmygod!” she breathed. “Aidan! This is incredible!”

As they came over the hill, there in front of them was a grand golden gate that led to a vast white cobbled courtyard and in the centre was a gold fountain, with life-size statues of rearing horses spouting brilliant turquoise water from their golden mouths. Surrounding the white courtyard were rows of white loose boxes with golden doors.

“The stables of Princess Galatea,” Aidan grinned. He turned the horse truck past the golden gates. “And over there is the black castle of Eleria.”

Issie looked to her left and saw the familiar sight of Chevalier Castle. Only the castle didn’t look like it usually did. The ruins, which sat on top of a hill that looked out over farmland and forest, had been sprayed with black paint. The broad, cobblestone terraces that wound round and round like a corkscrew to the summit had also been painted black. The castle, with spikes on its turrets and a huge iron portcullis, would have been a terrifying vision if it weren’t for the crew members and builders running about the place. Everywhere you looked there were set dressers lugging enormous black-varnished styrofoam boulders towards the castle or painting fake green slime on the drawbridge.

“Production has been under way for weeks now. These are just the finishing touches. They’re nearly ready to start filming,” Aidan said.

He turned the truck around and parked it near the golden gates of the stables, giving a cheery wave to one of the set dressers who was busily pouring more turquoise dye into the golden fountain.

“We brought all the horses here a month ago–Hester has done loads of desensitising work with them. They’ve filmed some of the vampire riders’ scenes already–but the main stunts need palomino riders too and that’s where you come in.” He jumped out of the truck cab, followed by Issie.

“I’ll give you a proper tour later, but first let’s get you all settled in. Your rooms are over there behind the stable block. We’ll grab your bags. It’s easier if we walk through from here.”

As Aidan said this, the door swung open on the side of the truck and Stella, Kate and Natasha emerged.

“Whoa!” Stella said, looking at the golden stables. “Is this where we’ll be staying?” The others laughed.

“The golden stables!” Kate squealed. “They’re just like I always imagined they’d look!”

“I know,” Issie beamed. “Isn’t it cool?”

Natasha was the last to climb out of the truck. She cast a disdainful glance at Aidan.

“Well? Where are our rooms?” she demanded, gesturing at the luggage lying on the ground. “Come on! Bring my bags, will you?”

Stella rounded on Natasha immediately. “Aidan’s not your servant, you know. We all carry our own bags around here.”

“Oh, really?” Natasha glared at her. “Mummy always told me that ladies never carry luggage. I’m not sure what your mother taught you…”

Before Stella could snap back, they were interrupted by the sight of the most enormous car they’d ever seen cruising towards them down the driveway.

“What is that?” Kate said as the chrome-yellow Hummer with black tinted windows pulled up next to them.

“You mean who is that, don’t you?” Aidan said. “I have a feeling we’re finally going to discover who’s got the starring role in The Palomino Princess.”

As the rest of the crew ran over to the Hummer and gathered round, the front doors of the vehicle swung open and two men in black suits wearing earpiece microphones jumped out.

“Who are they? I don’t recognise them. Are they famous?” Issie whispered to Aidan.

“I think they’re just the bodyguards,” Aidan whispered back.

The bodyguards spoke into their earpieces and nodded to each other. Then one of the men stood guard while the other opened the back door of the Hummer. From behind the tinted glass a girl emerged, helped down by a third bodyguard.

“Ohmygod! I don’t believe it! It’s the Teen Drama Queen!” Stella squealed.

“Stella!” Issie hissed at her. “Don’t! You’ll embarrass her!”

The girl, who had clearly heard Stella’s comment, pushed her dark glasses back to reveal her violet eyes. “Don’t worry,” she said in a soft mid-west American accent. “People always call me that. I get it, like, all the time.” She smiled, revealing her perfect white teeth. “Are y’all working on the movie?” she asked.

“Ummm, yes. We’re stunt riders,” Issie said. “My name is Isadora and this is Stella and Kate, Natasha and Aidan.”

“Nice to meet y’all.” The girl smiled again. “I’m Angelique Adams.”

Chapter 3

Issie couldn’t believe it. Angelique Adams! The girl that Sixteen Magazine called “the most famous teenager in the world” was standing right in front of her.

Angelique looked just like she did on all those magazine covers. Her long honey-blonde hair was ironed straight and she had a deep golden tan. Dressed in designer jeans, a leather vest and enormous sunglasses, she looked much smaller than she did in her movies. Issie was actually ever so slightly taller than the pint-sized celebrity.

Angelique clicked her fingers and two more people leapt out of the back of the Hummer–a dark-haired woman and a blond man.

“Her entourage,” whispered Aidan under his breath to Issie. Angelique gestured to the woman who scurried forward and handed her a coffee. Angelique took a quick sip and then thrust the cup back at her assistant as the blond man darted in and began to fuss around, fixing her hair, pulling make-up brushes out of his belt to add some blusher and a fresh coat of lip gloss.

“That’s enough, Tony!” Angelique snapped, pushing the make-up man out of the way just in time as the gang of paparazzi photographers, who had been tailing the Hummer, all leapt out of their cars. They jostled each other to get close to Angelique and began to take her picture, their motor drives whirring, cameras flashing.

“Angelique!” the paparazzi shouted to her. “Over here! Look this way. Give us a smile, Angelique!”

Suddenly there was a noise at the back of the paparazzi pack. “Lemme through!” A little man in a khaki army jacket was leaping up and down like Rumpelstiltskin, elbowing his way past the photographers. “One side, comin’ through!” he snapped as he barged his way forward. When the little man reached the front and found himself blocked by Angelique’s bodyguards he began to shout even louder. “Hey! You big apes! Yes, you! Lemme through I tell ya!”

The little man was lugging an enormous video camera on his shoulder. He was accompanied by a pale thin man carrying what looked a bit like a fluffy grey cat pinned to the end of a long stick.

“I’m with Angelique!” the man insisted to the bodyguards. “I have an access-all-areas pass. She’ll tell you, won’t you, Angelique, baby? Tell them!” he pleaded.

Angelique looked over and gave a nod to the bodyguards to let the man and his skinny sidekick through. The other paparazzi began to complain loudly at this and the little man gave them a smirk. “A-list access!” he beamed. Then he turned to the teen starlet and smiled his oiliest grin.

“Angelique! Honey!” His voice took on a crawly tone. “Great entrance, baby! Right on! But…uhhh, the thing is, we’ve had a slight technical hitch and we’re going to have to reshoot all of that.”

Angelique’s smile disappeared. The little man looked nervous. “It’s all because of Bob here,” he stammered. “He didn’t get the sound recorded right. Isn’t that right, Bob?” He shot a withering glare at his sidekick, who looked suitably guilty and didn’t say anything.

“So…we need you to do it again from the top,” the little man said. “Can you get back in the car and then drive up and do the whole arriving-on-set thing again? And make it really, you know, real.”

Angelique rolled her eyes. “All right. But this better not take all day, Eugene!” she snapped at him. “I’ve got, like, a masseuse and three beauticians waiting for me back at my trailer.”

She glared at Bob, who cowered a little, then she clicked her fingers at her assistants and climbed back into the Hummer. Her bodyguards quickly piled in after them, slamming the car into reverse as the paparazzi scrambled to get out of their way.

“Hey, you kids!” the man in the khaki jacket turned his attention to Issie and her friends.

“Who us?” Stella said.

“What? Yes, you! Of course you!” the man said. “You kids were great!” he enthused. “We’ll go once more, just like last time. Are you ready?”

Stella looked at him blankly. “Ready for what?”

“The second take of course!” the little man said. There were more blank looks from Stella and Issie. The man sighed. He didn’t have time for this.

“We’re making a documentary here, kids! The name is Eugene–Eugene Sneadly–Hollywood’s most hardworking documentary film-maker.” Eugene gestured over his shoulder at the skinny man with the cat on a stick. “This here is Bob, my sound man. That stick of his is what we call a sound boom. Hey watch it with that thing, Bob!”

Eugene cast a surly look at Bob and then continued, “Bob and I are here with Angelique Adams. She’s given us A-list priority on the film set so that we can do this behind-the-scenes documentary about her. Drama Queen–Behind the Scenes. That’s what we’re calling it. Sounds exciting, right? And it is! It’s gonna be big, big, big, baby, because everyone loves Angelique and, well, the girl just can’t help herself. Like they say, she’s a regular, real-life drama queen.”

“You just got lucky, kids,” Eugene went on, barely pausing for breath. “This is gonna be your big moment. You can all be in my documentary. So get ready to go wild because…Angelique Adams is about to arrive!”

“But she’s already arrived,” Stella protested. “We just met her.”

The little man sighed. Then he raised his hands to the sky and began talking to himself. “Oh, Eugene, Eugene! Why are you working with amateurs here?” He looked back at Stella.

“I know she’s already arrived, sweetheart,” he said through gritted teeth. “What I’m saying is, let’s pretend and do it again, shall we?”

The girls and Aidan all nodded at this. They weren’t sure what Eugene was up to, but it seemed easiest to agree and go along with it.

“And…action!” Eugene shouted, waving his hand frantically at the Hummer in the distance.

The chrome-yellow car drove down the road and pulled up in front of the stables for a second time. The doors opened and Angelique appeared, looking every bit as fresh-faced and eager to meet everyone as she had the first time round.

“Hi!” she smiled sweetly. “Nice to meet y’all. I’m Angelique Adams!”

The girls and Aidan were dumbstruck as the paparazzi bounded after her and started snapping wildly once more and Angelique grinned and waved.

“Perfect! Perfect!” Eugene yelled out. “Got it! Great work, Angelique.”

As soon as the cameras stopped rolling Angelique abruptly stopped smiling. “That’s it, Eugene! I’m outta here.”

“But, baby, Rupert ain’t even here yet. He wants to meet you. They start shooting tomorrow,” Eugene said.

“Y’all can wait for him if you want, Eugene. I’ll be in my trailer gettin’ a spray tan!” Angelique snapped. She hopped back in the Hummer, obediently followed by her assistants and bodyguards who slammed the door and promptly floored it.

“Angelique, cupcake! Wait! We’re coming too!” Eugene cried. He and the paparazzi made a dash for their cars. Clouds of dust and gravel flew up from the road as the Hummer sped off with a line of cars following closely behind.

“I thought the security guard at the gate was supposed to keep the photographers out,” Issie said to Aidan.

Aidan shrugged. “I guess Angelique let them in. Maybe she likes the paparazzi following her everywhere. You know, taking her picture for all those magazines.”

“I still don’t believe we just met Angelique Adams!” Stella said. “She is soooo famous!”

Natasha sighed. “Yeah, she seemed real thrilled to meet you too, Stella. She couldn’t wait to get away! Didn’t you notice how fast she got out of here?”

Natasha glanced around. “Not that I blame her for wanting to get away from this place,” she muttered under her breath, just loud enough for everyone to hear.

Aidan ignored Natasha and picked up her bags. It was clear that he was going to have to carry her luggage since the snooty blonde still refused to do it herself.

“Grab your bags,” he instructed the others. “I’ll show you to the barracks.”

“What do you mean ‘barracks’?” Natasha said as she followed along behind him through the white courtyard of the stables. “Surely we all have our own private trailers? Aidan? Aidan!”

They walked straight through the golden stables and on the other side they found themselves standing in front of a row of makeshift wooden huts.

“These really were army barracks once,” Aidan explained. “Rupert, the director, bought them cheap and had them moved on to the site to use as accommodation for the crew.”

Aidan pointed to the left. “That building over there is where the props department and the set builders live. And over there are the sleeping quarters for the Elerian horsemen–that’s where I’m staying.” He pointed to the right. “Those two silver trailers are the costume department and make-up and that white building next to the trailers is the main dining hall where we all meet for meals.”

“This is your barrack.” Aidan gestured to the building directly in front of them. “Palomino wranglers’ quarters!” he grinned. “Come on inside.”

The wooden barracks turned out to be much plusher inside than they looked. The lounge was really cosy with lots of colourful beanbags, plump sofas and a wide-screen TV. Beyond the main lounge was a hallway with three doors leading off. Each doorway opened on to a bunk room.

“The room at the end is Hester’s,” Aidan explained. “That leaves two rooms for you guys to share.”