It’s time to get ready,” Ms. Hungerford announced at the end of breakfast. It was a pajama breakfast, so no one was wearing her uniform yet. Abigail discovered, as she asked around, that the other girls had all done exactly the same as the PALs. Their uniforms were laid out and ready to wear. There was so much excitement in the air.

When it was time to go change and get ready, Abigail grabbed a couple of rolls and some juice for Snips, then found Pru and Lucky.

They walked to the tent area together. Their uniforms were where they’d left them, and they all began to get dressed.

This was the last day. After the show, there was lunch, then voting, and finally the announcement of the Hungerford Heart winner.

“We can’t mess up. This is our last chance to earn a badge—” Abigail was saying when suddenly, there was screaming from the other side of camp.

The PALs took off running toward the noise. Abigail’s uniform was untucked and her Fillies leaf hat flopped on her head. Lucky was half-dressed, and Pru was ready except for her hat.

“What’s going on?” Pru wondered. “That scream sounded terrible.”

They hurried past the campfire pit to Jimena’s tent, where all the herds had gathered.

“What’s up?” Abigail asked. She looked around. Everyone was still wearing pajamas. No one was in uniform. And Jimena was flushed with anger.

“Why did you do it?!” Jimena faced the PALs. She’d been so friendly lately, Abigail wasn’t sure what happened. “You’re the only ones who would’ve done it.”

“We’re like Boxcar Bonnie, solving a mystery,” Riley said.

Lucky gasped. “You read Boxcar Bonnie?”

“I do,” Riley said in an accusatory tone. “And I have this mystery all figured out!”

“We think you’re cheating to win the Hungerford Heart,” Olivia announced. “We know you want it.”

“I do,” Abigail admitted to her, “but it’s impossible to cheat to get it. The votes are secret and protected. Only Ms. Hungerford has the paper slips.”

“Even if there were a way, which there isn’t, we aren’t cheaters,” Pru insisted.

“We don’t know what’s even going on,” Lucky said, motioning at the other Fillies.

“Ha,” Olivia said. “That’s what cheaters say.” She pointed at the PALs, one at a time, and asked, “How come you are the only ones who have your uniforms, and the rest of us can’t find ours?”

“None of you?” Lucky asked, looking at all the herds. “No one has a uniform?”

“No,” Jimena confirmed. “And as you know”—she glared at Abigail—“we can’t get the badge if we aren’t dressed correctly.”

“I see….” Abigail took a deep breath.

Ms. Hungerford approached. “What’s this I hear about the Miradero herd cheating?” she asked, noticing that Miradero was mostly dressed in uniforms and the other girls were still in their pajamas.

“It makes perfect sense,” Jimena said. “They’ve been causing trouble since the moment they tried to take our camping space.”

“That was a misunderstanding,” Pru protested.

“Then there was the food fight,” Olivia said. “You started it, so you had to clean it up.”

“That’s not what happened—” Lucky started, but Sophie from the Copper Point herd jumped in.

“The targets were moving at the Boots and Bows,” Sophie said. “I saw it!”

“We’d hoped no one noticed that,” Abigail said with a grimace.

“So you admit they moved?” Ms. Hungerford asked. She was frowning.

“Yes. But it’s not what you think—” Pru began when another girl named Cassie cut in.

“And at the Majestic Mare event, their ribbons were the only ones that didn’t get ruined,” Cassie said.

“I know,” Abigail said, “but that wasn’t our fault. You see—”

Jimena touched the sore spot on her head and said, “I bet you put the snake in that tree.”

“How would we have done that?” Lucky was getting defensive. “None of this is our fault.” She reminded Jimena, “We were behind you. We saved you.”

“Yeah, but I think you spooked me and then saved me,” Jimena said.

“No. That doesn’t make any sense!” Abigail told Jimena. “Why would we do that?”

Jimena thought for a second, and then she said, “I know! You were going to prove that you deserve our Hungerford Heart.”

“It’s not yours.” Lucky stepped forward.

“See?” Jimena looked to Ms. Hungerford. “They want the Heart more than anything. So they took our uniforms.”

“What are you talking about?!” Pru countered. “We need your votes to get the Heart. If we messed things up, we’d never get the Heart.”

Abigail was sad, sadder than ever before. She said, “It’s all ruined. No one will vote for us now.” Her voice choked as she said, “The Jamboree is almost over and everything is so messed up.” She looked at all the other girls and said, “Do you want to know the truth?”

They all did.

Ms. Hungerford said, “Please explain, Abigail.”

She took another breath and barreled into the story. “My little brother, Snips, followed us here and has been messing up things all along. Lucky, Pru, and I—we’ve been trying to fix the messes he’s making!”

At first no one believed them, but Abigail, Pru, and Lucky took turns explaining how Snips started the food fight, moved the targets, and tangled up the ribbons and bows.

“Did he spook Duchess?” Jimena asked, touching her sore head.

“No, that was a snake,” Abigail said. “I’m, like, ninety-eight percent sure. Maybe ninety-seven, but no less than ninety-five percent sure it wasn’t his idea.”

Once they’d finally come clean with it all, Ms. Hungerford asked, “Where is your brother now?”

“I don’t know.” Abigail shrugged. “But when we find him, I’m guessing that we’ll find your uniforms, too.” She felt as if she had to add, “He isn’t all bad. Snips thought he was helping us.”

“It was wrong not to tell me your brother was here all along,” Ms. Hungerford said. “Abigail, you should have been honest at the Jamboree’s start and not now, at the end.”

Abigail frowned. “I’m sorry,” she said.

Lucky and Pru apologized, too.

A small voice came from the top of a nearby tree. “I’m sorry, too,” the voice said.

Then from high in the tree, Frontier Fillies uniforms began to fall to the ground like rain.