Reina watched Dimple’s sides raise up and down for a few minutes before deciding enough was enough and she didn’t want to be seen as a pervert. Opening the door, Reina entered the stall and crouched next to Dimple.

Now that she was right next to her close friend, Reina experienced an overwhelming urge to latch onto her neck and cry out all her worries and problems over the last few days.

So, ignoring the fact people might be watching, Reina did just that. She sobbed into Dimple’s neck, letting loose all of the tears she had. Yesterday’s cry was about her parents. This one was about her former friends.

Dimple woke up and to her credit, didn’t begin flailing around that Reina was here or that she was getting her wet. Instead, she calmly assessed the situation and leaned into Reina.

Reina smiled wetly through her tears. “Smart horse.” she hiccuped, causing Dimple to swell up in pride. “Oh, stop it.” she lightly swatted her.

When her tear ducts had dried out, Reina remained in the same position she was. “Hi, Dimple.” Dimple nickered and nudged at her head. Reina giggled. “I know, I know, I didn’t feed you. Sorry.”

There were a lot more things than that, a lot more things she was sorry about but for now, that was the most she could. And Dimple seemed to not only know but accept that, snuggling into her even more.

Reina felt prickles in her eyes. “Gosh darn it, Dimple. You made me cry again!” Dimple opened her mouth and do the equivalent of laughing for horses.

“Anything good happen, you rascal?” Reina questioned. Dimple tilted her head to the side and motioned with her front hooves the area around her. “Yeah, I know. This place is so big now, it took me forever to find you. Well, that and the fact you were asleep.”

Dimple ducked her head as if admonished before braying with laughter again. Reina simply shook her head in a resigned manner. Maybe the real reason they got along so well was because they were both always sleepy. Reina mentioned this out loud and Dimple adamantly shook her head. Reina chuckled and patted her on the head. Same old Dimple.

After a while, Dimple licked her hand to get her to look at her and give Reina the look. The look that said ‘Tell Me Everything Or I Will Show Everybody This Embarrassing Clip Where I Bucked You Off My Back.’

Reina grumbled and crossed her arms. “It was a coincidence there was a camera filming nearby!” she protested. Dimple wasn’t impressed, raising a solitary eyebrow. Do horses have eyebrows? Maybe she raised her face.

“Fine! There’s this group of people, they broke into my dorm to find evidence I was evil or whatnot, they got caught by yours truly, I unfriended them. Easy as that.”

A lick to her face informed her Dimple didn’t believe that one second. Good, it was a rubbish lie anything. Well, not really much of a lie. More of an omission of details. But simply because Dimple figured it out did not mean she had to tell her the truth!

After several minutes of being eyed upon by Dimple, Reina cracked.

“Alright! Alright!” Dimple nickered and lowered her head onto Reina’s lap. For a split second, Reina was tempted to shove it off but remembered this was her first day of meeting her again. Unless Dimple did something like buck her off, Reina didn't necessarily have a grudge.

“I actually liked them. They were nice, funny, smart. I actually thought given time, we could have become really really close. But then they decided to be all stupid and rummage through my stuff. I mean, who even does that?!” Reina asked. Dimple glared at her. “What? I break in and search through the stuff of people I know and have confirmed are criminals. That’s all, I swear!” Dimple still didn’t look convinced but nickered to tell her to go on.

“I unfriended them like I said, but I kind of, microscopically, miss them,” Reina admitted.

Dimple clapped her hooves together. Reina rolled her eyes at her horse acting as if she’d won an Oscar or lottery or something. “What?”

Dimple stared at her with vibrant, emotional eyes and after some time passed, Reina understood what was going on. “Oh no. You want me to friend them again?” Dimple nodded.

“I can’t do that! They broke my trust! My trust, Dimple! You know how important trust is to me!” Reina wasn’t sure but she had a feeling if Dimple could talk, she would be yelling about hypocrisy right about now. Even her eyes had the message.

“I told you, they weee confirmed criminals! And don’t give me that look. You only tossed me off your back, you didn't go through my stuff! Don’t tell me they’re only kids and it’s a troubling ti-wait, how do you know about this?” Reina asked.

Dimple nickered. “Yes, yes, I know you’re not dumb. But did you see him? Did you see the killer?” Reina checked. This we bad. Had the killer snuck into here to kill a horse? Maybe he took one?

Dimple slowly shook her head and sniffed loudly several times. “You smelled him,” Reina confirmed. Dimple nodded. “Okay, so you smelled him where?” Dimple tossed her head towards the right side. Reina followed where her head was pointed to. If she kept on going, she would reach the Tree.

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Of course it was the Tree. Why wouldn’t it be the Tree? “Dimple, you didn’t get hurt, did you?” Reina made sure. She doubted Dimple had but she couldn’t be sure.

Dimple nodded reassuringly but then pointed at a stall far right, at the very outskirts. Reina couldn’t spot the horse inside, which was weird.

“That horse has something to do with the killer?” Reina asked. Dimple shook her head in the negative. “The horse saw or knows information about the killer?” This time, the answer was a nod.

Reina barely contained her excitement. Hauling herself and Dimple to their respective feet and hooves, Reina patted her friend on the flank. “I’ll be right out.” She didn’t think people wouldn’t look strangely at a horse strolling a few feet away to a different stall. Just shows what they know, which is absolutely nothing.

Reina gently knocked on the door. It was common etiquette to do so. The number of times she’s seen humans barge in and lasso them was frustratingly baffling. They were living creatures who were capable of comprehensive thoughts too, you know!?

Reina digressed. When there wasn’t any response, Reina grew concerned. She’d knocked hard enough the horse would wake up. The fact she or he hadn’t made the slightest noise was worrisome.

Casting aside some manners (along with the voice in her head that said what she was doing was disturbingly close to what she was angry at her former friends were doing) and cracked open the door gently.

What she saw was a beautiful stallion with locks of silver hair and strong, firm muscles. He looked to be the perfect specimen and example of horse masculinity if not for the fact his muscles wouldn’t stop twitching and his hair was disheveled.

Something had made him like this. Turned an Academy stallion, one of the most prideful creatures she’s ever known, into this mess.

Reina had a feeling she knew who it was but wanted-no, needed more information. “May I come in?” she inquired.

The stallion didn’t give any indication he had heard but didn’t stop her from cautiously entering, which she figured was a good thing. When Reina got too close though, he flinched and hurried away.

“Okay, okay, don’t worry.” Reina crooned in what she hoped was a placating manner as she took several steps back. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

His frenzied movements faltered the moment Reina’s back was against the door and soon died down completely. Once again, his gaze became locked at the window.

There were open windows at each end of the corridor for every floor. If this stallion had been so affected by something and was looking out a window, that were clear indications he had seen the killer outside.

Or since there was a mirror hanging next to the window, he could very well be checking himself over. Who knows, his type is very prideful like she said.

Reina traced his line of vision and nodded. “Definitely window, not mirror. Okay, horsey. Mind telling me your name? I promise I won’t do anything.”

Reina hadn’t moved but the mere sound of her voice was enough to cause the stallion to flinch and back away. Sighing, Reina exited the stall.

“Is this alright?” she asked. As she was worried, this time, the stallion didn’t seem to register her words at all. Reina bit her lips and tasted iron. There had to be a way to get the stallion to open up!

She was good at talking to horses, she knew, but that had only been with Dimple. The last time she tried communicating with a new horse had resulted in her being bucked off.

Now that she thought about it, almost all of her first encounters with horses had ended in her getting bucked out. She only hoped this time would be different.

“Do you need anything? Water, food, better hay?” Reina checked. The horse moaned mournfully and bit into some hay, crunching on it slowly. Reina could tell he wasn’t eating it for fun or because he was hungry, but because he couldn’t think of anything else to do.

He’d become a broken shell of himself who could barely eat, much less move around. Reina felt a deep boiling hatred inside of her. Reina loved horses, and no matter what species, this behavior would not be tolerated.

It was clear Reina wouldn’t get much, if anything, out from the stallion at all. His mind was broken and they hadn’t formed a bond like she had with Dimple so she couldn’t heal him. The best thing she could do was to go to the horse caretaker and inform him of this recent development.

Then again, going to Joel would be the best option. She didn’t like talking to teachers but for this poor stallion, she would do it.

After wishing a good recovery, Reina shut the door and headed down. On the way, she passed Dimple who shrieked wildly. She must have thought Reina was vanishing on her again.

Reina smirked. “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”

The horse eyed her partner before accepting she was telling the truth and settled down, though one of her eyes was trained on her the entire time.

Chuckling at the thought of an overprotective horse, Reina‘s good mood quickly soured when a storm rushed up the stairs. This particular storm had a name: my classmates.

Hadn’t Joel told them to be careful, quiet, and patient? What was happening here was the complete opposite! It was like colony land!

For a brief flash, Reina had a possessive moment. She wanted to dash over, kick up Dimple, and carry her down with her to make it clear Dimple was hers.

Shaking her head clear of such thoughts, Reina walked over to Joel who was standing around with the biggest, stupidest, smuggest smile she’s ever seen on a face. When he spotted her coming from like a mile away, he grinned even wider. How was that even possible?

“Reina! How’s school?” he asked. Reina brushed off any attempts at social small talk.

“There’s a stallion on the third floor. I think he may have seen the killer.” Reina whispered. The smile was wiped off of Joel’s face as his teacher persona vanished and his work persona appeared. Reina felt her lips twitch, watching him vanish into the shadows. Joel was one heck of a guy to have on your side.

Confident she’d done all she could, Reina hastily forced her way past the crowd. To her immense displeasure, she spotted a horde of people located around one horse.

Her horse.

The closer she got, the more compliments of Dimple she heard.

“She’s so pretty! Her mane looks so soft!”

“Do you think she’ll let me ride her?”

“I’m going to name her Princess Sprinkles!”

“How do you know it’s a girl?”

“Do you ever listen? He said. . .”

“Excuse me.” Reina pushed in front of them. “She’s already my horse, I’m afraid. You’re going to have to get one for yourself.”

“That’s a lie!” Jacob yelled. Reina shrugged.

“Hey, if that’s what you’ll think, I’ll let you think that. Even though you’re completely wrong.” Reina said. She smirked as the people around Jacob laughed at him.

He turned a disgusting purple shade. “Why you-“ Reina stuck out her hand, letting the palm of her hand smash into his chest and sending him backward.

By the time he got back up again, Reina had entered the stall, talked with Dimple, and was already halfway out of the stables.