Chapter 5

The horses were grazing in the pasture peacefully; every once in a while, they would peak over at Onyx who stood apart in the far corner. Scarlet was still doing everything in her power to understand him. From what she had gathered, so far, he was quiet, standoffish, does not speak, is very talented, and skittish. She too was on the outskirts from the others, just barely on the edge of the circle group. If she snuck away now then none of the others would likely notice until later. She took another scan of the group. Everyone was grazing peacefully in their own worlds, every once in a while looking up into the distance or the clatter from students and workers. Scarlet made the decision to risk it.

She slowly and quietly moved away before she was about 10 feet from Onyx. He lifted his head for a moment and then continued back to grazing when she showed no real threat. She said nothing, but continued to graze in his presence. If she wanted to help him better feel welcome then she was going to need to tread carefully–baby steps only. They stayed that way for a while, only sharing quick glances at one another. It was rather enjoyable to Scarlet–peaceful. It did not take long before she caught sight of the speculating glances she was receiving from the other horses; it almost looked as if they were prepared for Onyx to attack her like some wild animal.

"Come on!" Calypso's accent broke through the silence, "Let's run!"

Molly had arrived and was able to take Calypso out of her stall to join the other horses. The other horse's reared up in excitement as they followed Calypso around the greenery. Scarlet smiled and reared up along with them. She joined them around one lap before stopping in front of Onyx–who was still quietly grazing. During her lap, she took note of the sad look in his eyes, as if he wanted to join but did not know if he would be welcome. He looked at her as she reared up to try and get him to follow.

"Let's run!" She said to him with a welcoming smile.

She expected him to walk away, but he accepted her off–rearing up before taking off at a relaxed pace. Scarlet's eyes widened in surprise and happiness. She ran just a nose behind Onyx. He still kept an appropriate distance between him and the pack, but he appeared to be enjoying himself; this made Scarlet smile. The entire lot of them stopped by the water troughs, but there were so many of them that Scarlet had to wait her turn. Onyx stepped aside when there was an opening, gesturing with his head and front hoof to help herself. He really was warming up to her. It made her a little sad that the other horse's were not taking note that he was not the monster they made him out to be.

Still though, the question still remained "Why did he not talk?" Could be that he was just shy. It would make sense why he felt left out when arriving back at Horseland. She was sure that he had his own group of horses when growing up, and now that they were gone, he was officially the new horse. Even if he did not talk, Scarlet made it her goal to, at the very least, befriend him. Talking is not the only requirement to making new friends.

Don't judge a horse by their limo She thought to herself, smiling at the memory when she first arrived.

Sunburst made his appearance into the pasture. Scarlet could see just the bare hint of Nani's figure disappearing back into the barn after placing Sunburst with the rest of them. Instead of joining the group at the far end, he walked towards Scarlet and Onyx.

"Hey there, Scarlet," He greeted kindly, stopping right beside her, "Hi Onyx."

Onyx looked him up and down then went back to grazing. Scarlet and Sunburst shared a look, but did not say anything.

"How has it been?" Sunburst whispered.

"So far so good. I got him to run with us and he seemed pretty excited about that."

"Talking?"

She shook her head, "Not yet, but baby steps, right?"

He blew out his nose in agreement. The nice thing about Sunburst was that he was newer, just like Scarlet was. It was the one thing that made them click better with one another than the others. Just last night, Sunburst and Scarlet were whispering to one another to make it their mission to let Onyx feel welcome to Horseland. They knew what it felt like to be judged immediately and become dismissed; they were not going to let that happen to another horse. Onyx's head lifted rapidly as he stared off at the direction of the barn. Scarlet and Sunburst followed his gaze to–nothing. Once more confused, they could not help but share another silent messaged look. Onyx reared a bit and ran past the two horses, stopping in front of the fence. Spencer came out of the barn a minute later in a very relaxed manner with one hand stuffed in her pocket and an apple lazily hanging in her other hand.

"How…?" Sunburst's words trailed off, but Scarlet was just as confused as him.

Sarah and Nani followed behind another minute later and the two horses ran for their owners.

"What are your plans right now, Spence?" Nani asked as she pat Sunburst on the muzzle.

"I think Bailey asked me to help him out with setting up and organizing some of the arenas. After that, I believe I was planning on taking a bit of time for myself. It has been a busy couple of months and I think I just need a moment to breathe from the chaos."

"Oh, I'm sorry if we have become a bother," Sarah said kindly, "Tell us any time if you prefer to not do anything or be left alone. We won't take offense, I swear."

Spencer only laughed, "No, no! Trust me! You guys have been the opposite of a bother. It has actually been a fun day. I've enjoyed spending time with you guys and shadowing your classes, but I do appreciate the understanding as well."

The two girls smiled. Spencer gave Onyx a kiss and three little love taps on his muzzle before taking off back into the barn, likely to find Bailey. Alma, Molly, Zoey, and Chloe joined Nani and Sarah after Spencer left. They saddled up their horses and took off towards the woods for a little girls ride out. Scarlet grave a final brief look at Onyx right before they left. He entertained her with his first smile. For the rest of the ride, Scarlet only listened to the rider's speak amongst themselves.

"I'm just a bit confused," Molly said, "Why is it that we have not heard of her, but it turns out that other riders have?"

"Yeah," Chloe chimed in, "I've never heard of Spencer Brookes until now. It's a bit suspicious."

"Did we miss something throughout the years?" Sarah wondered, "I mean, we have been really busy with balancing school, work, and riding these past years. We don't exactly spend a lot of time on the news."

"That's because Will tells us everything that is going on," Zoey said.

"Yeah," Chloe continued, "So there was never a reason to do our own research."

"What about you, Alma?" Molly peered back, "You tend to keep up with the most up to date info. What do you know?"

Alma snapped back into reality, "Oh si, I was actually just as confused as you guys were when I heard my class yelling 'Spencer Brookes' and how they were big fans. During lunch, I actually did a bit more research on my phone. Turns out, we do know who she is."

"Who?" They all chorused at once.

"You remember seeing in all the prints and news articles of the rider 'Soleil, the sun reacher'?"

"Yeah?" Zoey spoke first, "What's Soleil have to do with anything at the moment?"

"They are the same person."

"What?!" Chloe and Zoey screamed out in unison.

"That's Spencer?" Sarah was just as shocked.

Molly was in denial, "There is no way. We definitely would have known."

"Si, I did some research last night about Spencer, but I could not find much because I did not know her last name at the time. Turns out, there are a lot of Spencer riders out there that have made it into the news. What I did finally find was an article with the name 'Spencer Brookes breaks Jumping World Record' and her picture matched, but I could not read further because I needed to leave."

Scarlet's ears had peaked at this new information as she turned her ears back to listen a bit better. Seems she was not the only one as the others around her were doing the same thing.

"Did you end up reading it?" Molly asked.

"What'd it say?" Chloe asked.

"Si, during lunch, I went back to the article I found earlier. The first line read, 'Soleil, the sun reacher, does it again…' and it talked about how she not only won the jumping competition, but also broke the record. I almost did not believe they were the same person, so when I searched Spencer's full name 'Spencer Brookes,' sure enough, articles after articles appeared about 'Soleil, the sun reacher.' She has won multiple competitions, mostly jumping."

"How did we not piece it together though?" Molly wondered.

"I guess if you are more well known for your nickname, then people don't bother looking or even remembering your real name," Sarah had to guess, "I mean take 'TJ, the Javan Tiger,' as an example. He's really only known for his nickname. We did not end up learning that his name is Timothy James until recently when they made it part of the headline instead of his nickname."

"True," Molly said, "But you would think we would be able to, at the very least, match pictures."

"No sé," Alma shook her head, "I looked at the pictures. Any pictures I found, she either looked really young, it was blurry, or you could not see her face. There were maybe a few that I found where the picture matched her current face, but that was after I was purposefully looking to match the two together."

"Soleil also went on a long hiatus for a while," Nani noted, "I saw it in some headline somewhere and Bailey had told me about it. She only just came back on like a year ago after being on hiatus for a couple years prior. It would make sense why she may look different."

Sarah was still severely confused on multiple levels, "But that does not explain how everyone else knows her by Spencer Brookes and we are just now learning that Soleil and Spencer are the same person. How did they figure it out and not us? It almost sounds too big a thing to miss."

"Kids and their social media," Chloe said.

"You sound like a mom," Zoey jokes.

"Shut up!"

"We have been very busy," Nani reminded, "I would say this has been our busiest year since. Anytime I go home, I barely have the mental capacity to do homework, much less read into the news."

"Very true," Molly said, who was currently juggling two jobs, as of right now, along with online classes, "I get most of my news from Will or by just glancing at headlines."

"We definitely don't have the freedom we used to," Sarah said, "My dad has been keeping me incredibly busy and by the time I get home, I'm out like a light."

"Si! I used to be so good at keeping up with everything, but similar to Nani, I glance at headlines and skim articles now. It is not as easy anymore than it used to be."

"Life really took us over," Molly commented in a bit of amusement, "Funny how we used to think we were so busy then. Look at us now–starting college, digging deep into our jobs or future careers, working here at Horseland."

"The question now stands why you two didn't know about it?" Nani pointed.

The twins just looked at her with a "are you kidding me?" expression.

"You honestly think we have time for that?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah," said Zoey, "We may not be working, but we have been busy with our own things."

"Like what?!" Molly asked.

"If you must know," The oldest started, "We have back to back events with our parents constantly on top of coming here every day to see our horses."

"Yeah, now that we are older, our mother is finally seeing the potential in her daughters. If you looked in a magazine every once in a while then you would know what we are talking about!"

"Hours long sitting in front of a camera can be exhausting, then you need to go and mingle with guests later on, at some different event that can last till midnight."

"You guys act like we sit at home doing nothing. We may not need to work for our money, but that does not mean we aren't doing anything with our lives."

No one said anything and the forest around them drowned away the silence.

Finally Molly said, "Sorry! I sometimes forget that your parents own a long chain of riding accessories and horse attire."

"Exactly!" Zoey humphed.

"Even then," When one talked, the other spoke, "We never checked the news before, what makes you think we would start now?"

The group laughed. The tension, now gone.

"So true!" Alma giggled.

"No matter," Sarah said, "I am glad we figured it out now. It is all piecing together."

"Perhaps it is also for the best," said Nani, "Us not knowing who she is perhaps gave her the freshness of normalcy."

"Si, she seems very comfortable here."

The girls continued to talk about Spencer, getting into her uncanny abilities to teach and then digging deeper into Soleil, the sun reacher. Scarlet had hoped that Onyx would be mentioned during their chatting, but they never spoke about him. She had hoped to get some more information regarding the why's she questioned consistently. The only thing she learned through the entire eavesdropping conversation was that he broke the world record on the highest jump and fastest jumping course. The problem with this information–she already knew he was full of talent. Her thirst to know more was eating away at her mind, but she had to be patient. With time, perhaps, she could learn and gain more.

It was mid-afternoon when they arrived back and placed into their stables. Onyx was nowhere to be found which likely indicated that Spencer took him out. Jimber and Aztec were with their riders, who were heading out when they were heading in. Their owners fed and brushed them, Sarah sneaking Scarlet a carrot from her bag. Scarlet's mind was elsewhere, trying to plan her next move to gain Onyx trust.