"I am sure there is something special I have to do today," said Rainbow Brite, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes. Twink was just tearing a date from the calendar. "It's the Jones Twins' birthday," he reminded her.
"Of course!" cried Rainbow. "Johnny and Jenny Jones are seven today and I have to make sure that they have a happy birthday. Everything must be bright and cheerful," she declared, jumping out of bed and running to the window. What a shock she had when she peeped out. "What an awful fog there is this morning. The twins will be disappointed. I must try to get rid of it before they wake up," she told Twink.
In The Pits, Murky Dismal was feeling very pleased with himself. "My new fog-making machine is working well. I left it on all night and it has made enough fog for a really gloomy day. The postman won't be able to find his way to Greenfields Farm, to deliver the Twins' birthday cards, so that will be a bad start to their birthday," he chuckled nastily.
"Don't you think that's going a bit too far?" asked Lurky, who rather liked birthdays himself. "After all, birthdays are rather special."
"Bah, why should anyone have a birthday?" snarled Murky. "I don't have one." (He must have had one, once but he was always so nasty to everyone that they kept it a secret from him). Quickly Murky ordered the little grey cloud to hang over Lurky's head to stop him getting any cheerful ideas.
In Colour Castle, Rainbow was feeling worried that she might not be able to clear away the clouds before the twins woke up. "I'll need lots of really bright sunshine yellow star sprinkles," she told Canary.
"I used my last ones yesterday," said Canary. "But don't worry, I'll ask Spark to fetch some more from the Star Sprinkles Mines."
"We'd better go with him," said Rainbow. "We do need to hurry."
She jumped on Starlite's back, but it was so gloomy they found it hard to see where they were going. Even Starlite couldn't find his way in that fog. "I think we're quite lost," she sighed.
In the Grunge Buggy, Lurky was also trying to see his way in the gloom. "Can't you go a bit faster?" shouted Murky.
"I can't see where we are," complained Lurky. "If you hadn't made so much fog last night we wouldn't be in this mess."
"I want to find the Rainbow brat," grumbled Murky. "She's bound to try to get rid of the fog, and I'll be able to creep up on her and grab that magic belt she wears. Then all Rainbow Land will be in my power. Heh, heh!"
Not far away, Rainbow was peering through the fog. Suddenly a figure appeared in the gloom. "Who can it be?" she whispered to Twink.
Twink began to chuckle. "I believe it's Buddy Blue," he told her. "I remember, now, he goes jogging every morning to keep fit."
"Where are we Buddy?" asked Rainbow, as the Blue Colour Kid came closer.
"Don't ask me," puffed Buddy, all out of breath. "I've lost my way in this awful fog."
"I have an idea," said Rainbow. "Give me some of your blue star sprinkles."
Buddy took some from his pouch, then Rainbow swiftly touched the star on her belt. A rainbow shot out, the colours reaching as far as they could see, then disappearing into the mist. "Quickly, Starlite," urged Rainbow, and he leapt forward, his hooves following the rainbow arc up into the clouds. Higher and higher they went but they could still see nothing but the damp mist all around them. At last Rainbow decided to throw the star sprinkles as far as she could, towards the sky.
Down below, Buddy, Twink and Spark were watching from the ground. Nothing had happened since Rainbow vanished into the fog, but suddenly they saw the clouds start to thin and a tiny patch of blue sky appeared, far above them.
Just then the sun rose into the sky and sent a sunbeam right through the hole in the clouds. It shone straight onto the Grunge Buggy, dazzling Lurky. He put his hands up to his eyes, the steering wheel of the buggy spun round and they landed right in the hedge.
"Get back onto the road?" bawled Murky, but that was easier said than done. Lurky tried to pull the buggy out of the ditch, and while he was struggling with it, Rainbow was rushing on Starlite towards the Star Sprinkle Mines.
When they saw her coming, all the yellow sprites brought loads of star sprinkles to brighten up the day. Starlite galloped towards Greenfields Farm, with Rainbow scattering star sprinkles everywhere as fog rolled away, under the bright sunshine.
The postman, who had been quite lost, began to hurry towards the twins' house with a big stack of letters. "There are so many this morning I'll bet it's their birthday," he said to himself. Some of the envelopes were so big they wouldn't go through the letterbox, so the postman had to ring the bell.
"Hooray, our birthday cards have arrived," shouted the twins as they rushed to the door.
"Happy birthday," smiled the postman, handing over the exciting-looking envelopes.
Lurky had got the Grunge Buggy back onto the road and they arrived at the farm just as the twins were waving goodbye to the postman. "Bah!" snarled Murky." We're too late. Turn the buggy round, we must get to the baker's before he opens his shop."
"Why?" asked Lurky. "We won't be able to buy anything until the shop opens."
"Don't argue," bawled Murky. "You'll see what I'm going to do when we get there."
Rainbow and her friends were so busy peeping through the window to see how the Jones twins were enjoying opening their cards that they quite forgot about Murky and Lurky. So when the Grunge Buggy reached the village there was no one about. Murky crept round to the back of the shop where the twins' birthday cake was waiting to be delivered. It was covered with icing and, best of all, it had pretty coloured candles on the top.
Murky took a bottle of colour remover out of his pocket, reaching through the window and sprinkled some over each candle.
"That's much better," he chuckled, as the colour began to fade. "That should really help to cheer them down."
When the baker delivered the cake to Mrs. Jones she took it into the kitchen to unwrap it. She was so disappointed when she saw the candles were not coloured. "I'll see if I can find any coloured candles," she said, leaving the cake on the kitchen table.
Rainbow Brite peeped through the window. She had seen the Grunge Buggy drive off and guessed Murky was up to no good. "Those candles don't look very pretty," she said to Twink. Find the other Colour Kids and tell them I need some more star sprinkles."
Off went Twink, as fast as he could, and it was not long before he was back with star sprinkles in all different colours. Rainbow shook them over the cake and suddenly the candles and the icing were all colours of the rainbow.
Just then Mrs. Jones came back. "I've hunted all over the house and I can't find any more candles," she sighed. Then she rubbed her eyes. "Why, the cake has got coloured candles, after all. I couldn't have looked at them properly the first time. Perhaps the sun was in my eyes!"
The twins came in and cheered when they saw their birthday cake. "Now I must get the food ready for the party," said Mrs. Jones. "I hope all your friends will be able to find their way to the farm."
"Oh, yes, I told them to take the prettiest road. But I'm sure they'll see the signpost at the crossroads, on the other side of the hill," said Jenny.
Murky was feeling pleased with himself because he didn't know that Rainbow had put the colour back into the birthday cake and all the candles. "Now we must make sure the twins' friends can't find their way to the farm," he told Lurky. "Drive the buggy to the crossroads."
Lurky did as he was told. "One more drop of colour remover on this signpost and everyone will be lost," he gloated, as all the writing vanished. "Good," he said, rubbing his hands. "Now we'll hide and see what happens. I'm going to enjoy this!"
Soon all the twins' friends came trooping along the road, carrying birthday gifts. "Which way do we go now?" asked one boy, as they stopped at the crossroads. "This signpost doesn't tell us."
Rainbow was just passing on Starlite. "Oh, dear, they'll be late for the party," she said.
"Jenny told me to take the prettiest road to the farmhouse," piped up one small girl. "But I don't know which one that is."
"That gives me an idea," chuckled Rainbow. She touched the star on her colour power belt and suddenly a rainbow coloured path appeared. It made a short cut through the fields and over the hill to the farmhouse on the other side.
"This is the prettiest path," cried another girl. "Come along or we'll be late."
Rainbow followed them on Starlite, and when they peeped in at the window they saw the twins just about ot blow out the candles on their cake. They did it with one big puff. "This is the loveliest birthday ever," laughed the twins, as all their friends sang "Happy Birthday To You".
Rainbow and her friends got back to Rainbow Land just in time to see Murky and Lurky disappear into The Pits. They looked very gloomy. "Perhaps that will teach them not to try and spoil things for everyone else," smiled Rainbow.
