and his friend Carolyn. The pony's foal grows a horn and turns out to be a unicorn, who grows at a tremendous rate. Billy names the colt Nico from the letters found in the word "unicorn". One day, while Billy is at school, a mountain lion comes to attack the pony and the foal in the stable. The pony sacrifices herself for the well-being of her colt, and she is killed by the mountain lion. Billy and his mother later bury the pony on their land. That night, magic descends upon the stable, and in the morning, Billy discovers that Nico has become full grown. Carolyn visits later in the day and tells Billy that he could charge people to see Nico and help his mother, Julie, earn money for her to go to school. Billy is annoyed at this and he and Carolyn argue making Carolyn storm off back into town, where she meets Bruce and Mark who make fun of Billy for saying he has a unicorn. Carolyn, defends Billy by telling them she has seen Nico, before quickly denying it when Bruce becomes too interested. The group doesn't believe Carolyn, but decides to pull a hoax instead for the paper, and plan to take a picture of Nico with a fake horn. They make an offer with the local news reporter Cecil who is looking for a big story, that if they provide proof of a unicorn, Cecil will pay them a hundred thousand dollars. Cecil agrees thinking they are making it up. Meanwhile, Carolyn has cycled on ahead to warn Billy, who immediately packs his bag to take Nico to safety up on Big Rock at the top of a dangerous mountain. Bruce and friends arrive before he leaves, and ask Billy where Nico is, when Billy refuses to say Bruce pushes Billy down, and Nico comes out of the bushes and goes to attack Bruce. Bruce panics crying out for Billy to help which Billy does, before Bruce and Mark take pictures of Nico and run away. Billy decides now that he has to take Nico away before people take Nico away from him, and tells Carolyn to tell his mother where Billy has gone. Bruce manages to convince Cecil with the photos of Nico, who immediately calls 'his people', Cecil also tells the owner of the diner, Joe and it is also where Billy's