Mike wandered around Ponyland, bored to death. He had hoped a visit to Ponyland would beat his case of the blahs, but so far, it hadn't done much good. He figured it would be better than hanging out at the Pad all day doing nothing except tune his guitar, but it didn't. He sighed, and walked into the Estate. Paradise was reading a book.

"I'm bored," he said.

"Why don't you fly with Masquerade?" Paradise suggested.

"Did it."

"Pick cherries with Cherries Jubilee?"

"Did it."

"Trail ride with Tex?"

"Did it."

"Well why don't you . . . . ."

"Did it."

"I didn't even say anything!"

"I know, but whatever it is you're about to suggest, I've probably already done it."

Paradise sighed. It looked to her that Mike was getting tired of Ponyland. And she didn't want that to happen! She liked all the Monkees and their friends, and didn't want them to stop coming to Ponyland. She was afraid if Mike was getting bored with it, he probably wouldn't want to come back. Then she had an idea.

"Ever hear about Sparkle Ponies, Mike?" she asked.

"Stories ain't my thing, Paradise," Mike said. "Fluey digs your tall tales, not me."

"Come on," Paradise coaxed. "It'll be fun."

"Oh all right," Mike sighed. "I'm bored enough to listen to your stories."

Mike sat down on the couch and propped his feet up on it. Paradise cleared her throat and began to tell her Texan friend about the mysterious Sparkle Ponies that lived on Glitter Island.

"Far, far away, in the tropics of Ponyland," she said. "There is an island called Glitter Island. It got it's name because everything on the island glittered. Even the legendary Sparkle Ponies. They got their names because they sparkle like the stars in the night time sky."

"I sort of figured," Mike said, stifling a slight yawn. Paradise glared at him for a minute.

"Nobody knows if the Sparkle Ponies really exist," she said. "But it's said that they are supposed to be a beautiful sight. Glitter Island is supposed to be very beautiful, too."

"How do they know that if they don't know if the darn thing exists?"

"You have to analyze everything, don't you Mike?"

"Well, it just don't make sense to me!"

Paradise sighed. Sometimes Mike drove her crazy, especially when he started analyzing her stories. So she just stopped talking about the Sparkle Ponies and Glitter Island.

"Never mind," she said with a groan. "I'll tell this one to Fluey a little later. I know he'll appreciate it!"

"Yeah, tell it to Fluey," Mike said. "He likes all these stupid stories of yours."

"Stupid?! Well I never!"

Paradise was about to fly off. Mike drummed his fingers on the back of the couch for a minute, and pursed his lips in though. He sat up straight and looked over at the white Pegasus.

"Hey Paradise?" he asked.

"What?" Paradise asked. She was still a little angry with Mike for calling her stories stupid.

"You want to go find it?"

"Find what?"

"Glitter Island."

"What?!"

"Do you want to go find Glitter Island?"

"Mike, are you crazy?!"

"No. But I will be if I don't get out of Paradise Estate and look for the darn island! Come on, Paradise! Think of it. If no one knows if the Sparkle Ponies exist, we'll be the first to see them! Then you'll really have somethin' to tell Fluey!"

Paradise thought that over. She thought over the original story she knew about Glitter Island and the Sparkle Ponies. It seemed a little boring to her. Then she remembered Fluey's favorite story was when the Monkees and the little ponies had to defeat a witch named Enchantra from plunging the world into darkness. She knew Fluey liked stories with a lot of action and excitement, ones that left him on the edge of his seat.

"Oh what the heck?" she said. "Okay. You talked me into it!"

"Groovy!" Mike shouted. He jumped on Paradise's back, and she took off out the window.

Mike and Paradise flew far away from Dream Valley, far away from the Mushromp, and past the Haunted Forest and Skull Mountain.

"So how far away is Glitter Island?" Mike asked.

"Pretty far," Paradise said. "It's in the tropics of Ponyland. I've never been there, but I can figure out how we can get there."

"Okay, cool."

"We just have to be careful once we get there."

"Why's that?"

"The natives might be restless."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute! You never said anythin' about natives bein' on this island!"

"You never asked."

"They're not dangerous, are they?"

"How should I know? I've never been to Glitter Island before."

"Point well taken."

"Still want to go?"

"Do fish swim? Let's keep goin'."

Paradise nodded, and kept flying. She flew until the sun started to set. She and Mike landed to get some sleep. They would continue on their way in the morning.

When morning came, Paradise flew to the tropics of Ponyland. There were islands all over the place. The waves crashed against the white sand of all the beaches. It smelled like the coastline of Malibu Beach, where the Monkees lived. Mike took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and smiled.

"Smell that sea air," he sighed. "Kinda smells like California. Without the smog."

"Sure does," Paradise said. "Come on. Let's look for Glitter Island. It should be around here somewhere."

Mike agreed with that, and he and Paradise continued flying around, looking for the mysterious island. They went to a couple of other islands to ask about it, but no one knew where to go.

"I'm about ready to give up," Mike said.

"Let's keep looking a little while longer," Paradise said. She hovered around for a little while until she came across something in the middle of the ocean, glittering. Mike saw it, too, and looked down.

"You know somethin'?" he asked. "I think that's it."

"I think you're right," Paradise said. "Let's go!"

Mike and Paradise flew down to the island, but as they did, a rocket flew into the air and blocked them off. WHOOSH!

"What was that?!" Mike shouted, looking at the trail of smoke rising into the air.

"I don't know," Paradise said, staring at the trail herself.

The rocket exploded just then, and another one flew up. This one exploded into fireworks right in front of Mike and Paradise. Paradise's balance was thrown, as more and more firecrackers exploded around her.

"I think the natives are givin' us a twenty-one gun salute!" Mike shouted.

"Hang on, Mike!" Paradise shouted. "I'm losing altitude! I'm going dooowwwwwn!"

Both Mike and Paradise screamed as they fell through the sky and down to the island. They landed in some kind of body of water.

SPLASH!

Mike and Paradise coughed, spat water out of their mouths, and shook water out of their hair. Mike took off his wool hat and began wringing it out.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I think we landed," Paradise said. "But where? It feels like we're in a hot bath."

Mike gave Paradise a funny look, and then looked at his surroundings. He and Paradise were in a giant black pot of some kind, surrounded by islanders. The pot was resting on a pile of firewood. Some of the natives were cutting up vegetables and putting them into the pot.

"Ho boy," Mike said. "Paradise, we landed on the island in time for dinner."

"I wonder what's on the menu?" Paradise asked.

"Off hand, I'd say Pony Stew a la Monkee."

Paradise got the drift. A nervous look came over her. The natives began dancing around the stew pot, chanting.

"Walla walla willow walla! Walla walla willow walla!"

"This don't look good, Paradise," Mike said, nervously.

"You said it," Paradise said.

Before anything else could happen, a small native came running in, frantically.

"Sparkly comma!" he shouted. "Sparkly comma!"

The natives immediately dropped what they were doing and began chanting again, this time, something different.

"Hully Gully, Hully Gully, Hully Gully!"

"I wonder what that means?" Paradise asked.

Mike thought it over, and began muttering "Hully Gully" under his breath.

"Hully Gully," he said. "Hully Gully. Hully Gull . . . . . Paradise, that's a dance!"

"What?" Paradise asked, a little confused.

"Sure! It was popular in the sixties. I think Jerry might know how to do that dance."

"Too bad he isn't here. Then maybe we'd be out of this mess."

The natives stopped chanting "Hully Gully" all of a sudden. Everything grew silent. Ten ponies came out of the bushes. Mike and Paradise saw them, and their jaws nearly hit the ground. Five of those ponies were glittering! The other four ponies were bright, neon colors, with bright tri-colored hair, and eye shadow.

"Sparkly, sparkly, sparkly!" the natives shouted.

"Watusi," a dark neon pink pony with orange, red, and blue hair said.

"That's another dance," Mike explained.

The four neon colored ponies walked over to the stew pot and looked at Mike and Paradise.

"Don't worry," the pink one said. "We'll get you out."

A yellow pony with chartreuse, green, and pink hair turned to the natives.

"Hully Gully," she said. "Rama Lama Ding Dong."

The natives nodded, and left. Mike and Paradise climbed out of the stew pot.

"Thanks," Mike said, wringing out his shirt.

"No problem," the yellow pony said. "Welcome to Glitter Island."

"Hey, we made it!" Mike shouted.

"Of course you did, silly!" the pink pony laughed. "I'm Pina Colada."

"I'm Tootie Tails," the  yellow pony said.

"My name's Sea Breeze," an orange Pegasus with red, chartreuse, and orange hair said.

"I'm Hula Hula," a fuchsia unicorn with orange, red, and bright green hair said. "Aloha!"

Hula Hula wiggled her hips in the tradition Hawaiian Hula dance. Mike and Paradise laughed.

"And these are the Sparkle ponies," Pina Colada said.

"I'm Sunspot," an orange pony with pink hair said.

"I'm Starhopper," a green unicorn with white hair said.

"I'm Napper," a yellow earth pony with green hair said.

"I'm Star Dancer," a dark pink pony with blue hair said, and she gave a little twirl.

"I'm Sky Rocket!" a greenish-blue pony with red hair shouted, excitedly.

"And that's Twinkler," Sunspot said, pointing to a purple Pegasus with purple hair. She didn't sparkle at all.

"Isn't she a Sparkle Pony?" Paradise asked.

"Yes," Star Dancer said. "But she was born without sparkles. The rest of us were born with them."

"She's sort of an outcast," Starhopper said. "But we all like her anyway."

"Don't worry about the natives," Sea Breeze said. "They get a little testy when strangers come to the island, but they relax when the Sparkle Ponies come."

"They like to see us sparkle," Sky Rocket said.

"It's an interesting story," Pina Colada said. "A long, long time ago, long before any of us were born, Glitter Island was just a regular old island. It didn't even have a name. But it did have volcano. It's called Mount Wannarunnamucka."

"Mount Wannarunnamucka?" Paradise asked.

"Gesundheit," Mike commented.

"Well, Mount Wannarunnamucka was about to blow, baby, blow!" Pina Colada continued. "It was going to destroy the whole island. But there were two ponies who were determined to make sure the island didn't get destroyed. They ran up to the volcano, and jumped inside of it, as a pony sacrifice. Then, the volcano erupted, and the two ponies just shot right out of it! And they were covered in glitter. Instead of lava, glitter shot out of the volcano and covered the entire island, making it glitter. The two ponies were renamed Sparkle Ponies, and the island was called Glitter Island. From that moment on, the volcano never erupted again."

"Let me get this straight, Pina," Mike said. "You're tellin' me two ponies dove into Mount Wannarunnamucka to save the island?"

"That's the story I heard," Pina Colada said.

"Well that's some story!"

"It gets better every time I tell it!"

"Do you honestly believe it?"

"Well, if the natives didn't believe it, they wouldn't have built that statue over there."

Mike and Paradise turned to where Pina Colada was indicating. The statue was of two ponies, made from glittering stone.

"Sparkly! Sparkly!" the natives chanted as they bowed down to it.

"If I didn't see it," Paradise said. "I never would have believed it."

Mike nodded in agreement. As he and Paradise watched the natives worship their stone idol of the Sparkle Ponies, Pina Colada came up to them.

"So where do you come from, and what brings you here?" she asked.

"Well, we're from Ponyland," Paradise said. "At least Dream Valley and Paradise Estate.

"She's from Ponyland," Mike said. "I'm from California. Well, actually, I'm from Texas, but I moved to California to become a musician, so right now, I'm visitin' Paradise Estate, but in actuality, I live in Malibu, California, but I was born in Dallas, Texas."

Paradise and Pina Colada looked at Mike as if he were crazy. Mike blushed, smiled sheepishly, and gave an embarrassed laugh. He did it again. He was known for explaining things to the tiniest detail, and that ends up to be extremely confusing.

Twinkler flew over, and began sniffing at something in Mike's pocket. She nudged him, trying to get a better look.

"What's that?" she asked, indicating a crystal ball on a stick.

"This?" Mike asked. "It's a magic wand. It used to belong to my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great . . . . . ."

"Oh brother, here we go again," Paradise groaned. She nudged Mike with her hoof.

"Grandfather," Mike finished. "Thanks Paradise, I needed that."

"He always goes a little overboard when he talks about Claudius Nesmith," Paradise explained.

"You're a sorcerer?" Twinkler asked, eyes growing wide with hope.

"Sort of," Mike said. "I'm still learnin' to get a handle on this magic stuff."

"Do you think maybe . . . . . oh, could you give me sparkles, like the other Sparkle Ponies? It would mean so much to me just to have sparkles. It's not easy being a sparkless Sparkle Pony."

"Well . . . ." Mike started, thinking it over. "I'm still tryin' to get a handle on this whole magic routine, but I think I might be able to give it a whirl."

Mike climbed on Twinkler's back, and she flew into the woods. As she went through the trees, sparkle dust rubbed off on Mike and Twinkler. Once they landed, Twinkler shook it off.

"Everything sheds glitter here," she said.

"So I've noticed," Mike said. He rolled up his sleeves, cracked his knuckles, and held up his magic wand.

"Stand back, Twinkler-baby," he said. "I don't rightly know what this is gonna do."

Twinkler nodded, stood back, and closed her eyes tightly, and smiled. She was imagining herself as a Sparkle Pony, glittering in the sunlight, just like her friends. Mike took a deep breath, and waved his wand. A blast of glitter shot out of it, and hit Twinkler, but when it cleared, she was just the same as she always was.

"Huh," Mike said, a little surprised. "Funny, that usually would've worked."

"It didn't work?" Twinkler asked, a little disappointed.

"Hold on, let me try again," Mike said. He cracked his knuckles and waved again, but the same results happened.

"Third time's the charm," Mike said again, shrugging. He tried a third time, and again, nothing happened.

Mike made a face. Twinkler was still standing there with her eyes closed. He had to think fast. He didn't want to disappoint her again.

"Don't open your eyes!" Mike shouted. "Keep them closed!"

"Why?" Twinkler asked.

"It's, ahhhh, it's . . . . . part of the spell!"

"Oh."

Twinkler shrugged (as best as a pony could shrug), and kept her eyes closed. Mike bit his lower lip and began to think fast, and hard. He grabbed a glittering fruit from the tree, and cracked it open. The juice from the fruit was clear, sparkling, and very sticky.

Perfect! he thought.

Mike dug his hand into the fruit, and began smearing it all over Twinkler's body. He used the entire fruit, but he managed to get Twinkler sparkling like a Sparkle Pony.

"Okay," he said. "You can look now."

Twinkler opened her eyes, and looked around herself. Then she flew into the air, and let out a squeal of delight.

"Wheeee!" she shouted. "Oh thank you, thank you, Mike! Thank you so much!"

"Oh, don't thank me," Mike said, shrugging.

"I can't wait to show the others!"

Twinkler flew off. Mike smiled a little, but in the back of his mind, something was telling him this wasn't such a good idea.

Twinkler flew directly to the others and did a summersault in mid air. The other Sparkle Ponies stared at her, shocked.

"I don't believe it!" Napper shouted.

"How'd you get all those sparkles?" Starhopper asked.

"Mike gave them to me," Twinkler said.

"That's great!" Sea Breeze shouted. "A Sparkle Pony just isn't a Sparkle Pony without sparkles!"

"How did you do it Mike?" Paradise asked.

"Trade secret," Mike shrugged. "And that's all I'm sayin'."

Paradise didn't say anything else to that. She just flew into the air and began to play with Twinkler. All the other Sparkle Ponies began to play around as well. The Tropical Ponies joined the game. Tootie Tails and Hula Hula began splashing around. Paradise and Twinkler came flying down, and Tootie Tails and Hula Hula began splashing at them.

"Think fast!" Tootie Tails shouted as she splashed a huge amount of water at Twinkler. It soaked her wings, and she came crashing down into the water.

KER SPLASH!

"Twinkler, are you okay?" Sunspot asked as she, and the other Sparkle Ponies came over.

"I think so," Twinkler said, shaking the water off of her.

"No you're not!" Star Dancer shrieked. "YOUR SPARKLES ARE COMING OFF!"

"What?" Twinkler asked, and she looked all over herself. "My sparkles! What happened?"

Everyone turned to look at Mike. Mike blushed and twirled his wand in his hand.

"Heh, heh," he laughed sheepishly. "Well, see, ahhh . . . . . I tried three times to give her sparkles usin' my magic wand, but . . . . well, I couldn't. I didn't want to disappoint her, so I  sorta . . . . . grabbed a piece of fruit and gunked her up. It was so sticky, I didn't think it would wash off."

"That was a dirty trick!" Twinkler shouted, angrily. "I'll never get sparkles now!"

And with that, Twinkler flew off in tears. Mike was about to run after her.

"Twinkler, wait!" he called.

"Let her go, Mike," Sea Breeze said. "She needs time to cool off."

"You shouldn't have tried that, Mike," Paradise said.

"She'll probably be sparkless forever," Sky Rocket said with a shrug.

Mike nodded. The group continued to walk around the island, until the volcano began to erupt. Everyone on the island began to scream and panic. A blast of smoke flew out of the volcano and rumbled the island.

"Nice touch," Mike said.

"Oh no!" Star Dancer cried out. "The island! The people!"

"What can we do?" Paradise asked.

"There's only one thing to do," Star Dancer said, and she began walking towards the volcano.

"Where are you going?" Paradise asked.

"I'm going to throw myself to the volcano, and don't try to stop me!"

"What?! Why are you going to do that?!"

"Only  a Sparkle Pony can appease the volcano,  just like my ancestors appeased it a long, long time ago. Farewell!"

Star Dancer began to walk off towards Mount Wannarunnamucka. The others followed.

"I can't believe she's doing this!" Paradise shouted.

"Well," Mike said with a shrug. "Better her than us."

Star Dancer continued to walk towards the volcano. The rest of the islanders and ponies watcher her go and began chanting.

"Throw her in, throw her in, waaayyyy in!" they chanted. "Throw her in, throw her in, waaayyyy in! Throw her in, throw her in, waaayyyy in!"

Mike and Paradise then ran to Pina Colada, who was watching the entire thing, doing nothing.

"Pina!" Mike shouted. "You ain't gonna let Star Dancer throw herself into that overgrown crater, are you?"

"Unless she sacrifices herself, the whole island will be destroyed," Pina Colada said.

"You mean it appeases the gods or something?" Paradise asked.

"No, it plugs up the hole."

Mike and Paradise looked at each other oddly. Star Dancer made it to the edge of the volcano, and tried to jump in, but Mount Wannarunnamucka rumbled, and pushed the pony back down the side of the mountain. She crashed directly into the others and knocked them all over like bowling pins.

CRASH!

"This isn't working," Star Dancer said.

"Maybe if she had a runnin' start," Mike suggested.

A native islander climbed up to the volcano and listened to it rumble. Then he nodded, and went back down.

"Wannarunnamucka wanta stona sparkly," he said. "Shama lama ding dong!"

"I see," Pina Colada said.

"What did he say?" Paradise asked.

"He said the volcano doesn't want Star Dancer or any of the Sparkle Ponies," Pina Colada said. "It wants the statue of the Sparkle Ponies we made. If it can't have it in one minute, it's gonna blow us all to pieces!"

"I wonder if my insurance is paid up?" Mike asked.

"How are we going to move that statue?" Paradise asked.

"Yeah, it's way too heavy!" Sunspot shouted.

"What's going on?" Twinkler asked, flying back.

"We need to get the statue of the Sparkle Ponies to the volcano," Mike said, climbing on the purple Pegasus pony's back. "And I know just how to do it. You ready?"

"Set!" Twinkler shouted.

"Then let's go!" Mike shouted.

Mike waved his magic wand, and Twinkler rose into the air. So did the statue of the Sparkle Ponies. Twinkler then flew towards the volcano. The others jumped up and down and cheered.

"Atta boy, Mike!" Paradise cheered. "Go for it!"

Twinkler and Mike continued to fly the statue up to the volcano. It was heavy, but they managed to get there. Unfortunately, because of the updrafts from the volcano, and Mike struggling around with the statue, Twinkler lost altitude and fast.

"We're going down!" she shouted.

"Pull up, pull up!" Mike yelled

"Jump off, Mike!" Paradise shouted. "Jump off!"

Too late. Twinkler and Mike fell directly into the volcano, along with the statue. Mount Wannarunnamucka rumbled, and blew into a fireworks display into the sky. The others walked up to the crater and looked in.

"Twinkler, you crazy galoot," Starhopper said. "What'd you go and do that for? You coulda just shoved the statue in!"

"Aw, Mike," Paradise said. "I didn't even get to say goodbye. I'm gonna miss you."

The ponies and the islanders turned around and started down the mountain. As they were going, Paradise heard some grunting going on. She turned around and saw Mike climbing out of the volcano. He was completely singed.

"Man what a wild ride," he said.

"Mike!" Paradise shouted happily.

Suddenly, something sparkling flew out of the volcano. Everyone turned to look, and gasped.

"Twinkler!" all the Sparkle Ponies shouted.

"I got my sparkles!" Twinkler cried happily. "I got my sparkles! Just like my ancestors did!"

Everyone cheered with joy over Mount Wannarunnamucka settling down, and about Twinkler finally getting her sparkles.

After saying goodbye to the Tropical Ponies and the Sparkle Ponies, Mike and Paradise went back to Paradise Estate. Two days after they returned, Paradise found Fluey laying upside down on the couch, with his head nearly touching the floor.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I'm bored outta my skull," Fluey said. "I already went swimming with the Sea Ponies, and I did the Double Inside Out Loop with Firefly, and Uncle Peter doesn't have any more Ponyland stories. You got one, Paradise?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Paradise said, smiling. "Let me tell you about an adventure Mike and I had on Glitter Island."

The End