A/N: Man, you know when something just ignites your brain and you have to write it, no matter how ridiculous it is? Three planned chapters.

One

Sophia hunched over and wiped the sweat from her palms on her shorts for the thirteenth time this minute, it felt like. She glanced behind her again, and saw that Valentina was fast approaching with a baton. Before she knew it, the handoff happened, and Sophia took off like a rocket!

Yes, that's right, she was working with Valentina on something, and Valentina wasn't being terrible! She wouldn't say they were close or anything, but they were actually doing something where they relied on each other, and they weren't trapped in a constant circle of Valentina backbiting her, then blaming her. It really seemed like Valentina had chilled out. Thank goodness!

Valentina and Sophia were on a team with four girls, each from a different dorm. It was a fun way to get them to socialize with everyone else, and use the horse racing track in a slyly sardonic way. All their unicorns watched from near the bleachers, neighing appreciatively when their partners took the baton.

Sophia waved wildly at Rainbow, so beautiful and resplendent. Rainbow had taken to wearing a strange … well, it was like a shoulder harness on a human, but it looked a little odd on a unicorn. Kind of like a second saddle. With a flashlight sticking out of a holster on the right. A couple of the other unicorns had started wearing them, too, so Sophia just shrugged and went along with it. Like so many other things, the unicorns had lives that were steeped in magic and mystery, and many things just had to be accepted; she'd learn all the secrets eventually.

Rainbow raised his head in response and nodded back at her. They both watched the ending of the race. It was so close! Yes - Ming Xiu won!

Everyone raced toward the main dugout area, clapping and cheering. Mrs. Trufflebottom, the phys ed instructor, with her crew cut gray hair and tired eyes, brought out a clipboard and marked something on it.

"Nice job, everyone!" she shouted, and everyone began quieting down as she spoke. "Now, let's all get to the showers and I'll see you back here on Wednesday. Enjoy the rest of the afternoon with your unicorns, and each other."

The hot torrent of the showers came down on Sophia like a stinging baptism. She couldn't wait to dry off, then go take Rainbow out for a strong gallop. Lucy was still the only rider in her class who knew her unicorn's magical ability, and Sophia was hoping she could maybe coax Rainbow's ability out if she spent enough time with him.

Sophia put soap on a loofah and began scrubbing vigorously.

Valentina moved from her nozzle over towards Sophia, and Sophia instinctually tensed up, stopping her scrubbing. Valentina had a loofah of her own and was lazily using it to inscribe gentle circles into her skin.

"Chill, Soph, I'm not going to gank you," Valentina said and laughed. The laugh seemed a little forced, but … maybe real? "I was just going to say, those were some good moves out there today. You've got some really taut, athletic thighs!"

"Thanks," Sophia said, a little uncomfortable, while applying a bit more soap on the loofah before bending to use it lower. "You've … got really well-developed upper arms?" She tried not to make it sound like a question, but was sure she failed.

"Haha," Valentina replied, lifting her leg up onto a nearby wall so that she could start cleaning her feet, paying special attention to her well-manicured toes. "Hey, if you want, some of us like meeting out in the woods at around 7 to chill out and relax. You're welcome to come."

"Uh … let me think it over?" Sophia answered. She really didn't want to go, but she also didn't want to turn down an opportunity to turn an enemy into a friend.

"No worries. Come if you want." Valentina started to turn away.

"Can I bring Ava?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Valentina shrugged as she walked back into her shower area, the steamy rivulets running down her bare back. "Seeya then!"

"I don't know, what do you think?"

Ava couldn't even manage a whole shrug. It just wasn't her thing to put that much effort into anything. "Why not?" Her voice was slightly airy and came out in a singsong rhythm. " If we don't feel comfortable, we can leave and not come back."

Ava dug her hand into her bulk bag of granola, pulled out a few bits, and maneuvered them into her mouth. She chewed slowly.

"Yeah, I suppose." Sophia wondered if maybe Valentina's parents had threatened to cut her off financially (they were trustees at the school), or if of the professors had spoken to her and she'd found out she wasn't as invincible as she thought she was.

Whatever the reason, Sophia snapped her fingers and said, "Yeah! Let's do it! But we'll keep an eye on each other, okay? And let Star know to keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

Ava slowly nodded and mumbled "mm" as she continued masticating.

Sophia wondered if she should change her clothes.

Sophia had decided on just loose clothing, in case they had to run away. Valentina and her friends had a little copse they'd found, where there were enough naturally occurring stumps and hillocks that they could easily sit around a central pit area. There was a gentle fire burning in the pit, and a couple of the girls were holding speared veggies over the fire.

Sophia waved, and Valentina waved back.

"Wow," Sophia whispered to Ava, "Lucy's here!"

Ava just giggled at that, which confused Sophia, but she had more immediate concerns.

"All right," Valentina said, standing up and coming over to them, "now that everybody's here we can get this party started." She handed them both a couple of aluminum cans, and Sophia was shocked to see that it was beer! Quality beer, at that!

"Thanks," Ava said, and popped the tab on her can.

"Look, Sophia," Valentina said, putting her arm around her shoulders, "I know I was pretty rough on you when we first got here, and I apologize. You're probably wondering why I changed so much. And it's honestly because Ming Xiu over here …" Ming Xiu waved. "... introduced me to the wonders of …" Here her voice became a conspiratorial whisper. "Drugs!"

Sophia blanched, and her step faltered. "What?" she squeaked out, trying to hide her nervousness by taking a sip of her drink, but she realized as she put it to her lips that she hadn't opened it yet, and felt even sillier. She tried to hide it by licking her lip.

"Now, look," Valentina said, all haughty businesswoman, "if you don't want any, you don't have to participate. That's fine." She spoke loudly now, her arm moving to show she was addressing everyone. "No one has to do anything they don't feel comfortable doing! We're here to chillax and get to know each other better!

"Buuuut …" she said and smiled goofily, "Ming Xiu has what looks to be some killer weed for us tonight, so for those of us who do want to party … que la fête commence!"

Valentina escorted Sophia and Ava to a place together, then returned to her spot, which somehow felt like the head of the table despite everyone being arranged in a loose circle. Star and Rainbow wandered beneath the shade of the nearby trees. Rainbow seemed cautious, but Star appeared unruffled.

"Where did you get all of that?" Sophia asked Ming Xiu, trying not to let her eyes bug out of her head.

Ming Xiu answered in her incredibly monotone voice after she fired up the first joint, took a hit, then passed it to her left. "My grandma taught me a lot about healing herbs. Cannabis is one of those, and it's amazing what grows in this forest. I've just been going out when I can and collecting everything that seems like it might come in handy." She lit another joint, took a puff, and passed it to her right.

When one of the cigarettes got to Valentina, Sophia watched very carefully to see if she actually inhaled. To the best of her knowledge, Sophia took a heroic amount into her lungs. It quickly reached Ava, who passed it to Sophia. "No thanks," Ava said, "I already had a cube earlier today."

"A … sugar cube?" Sophia asked.

"Well," Ava said, looking down then back up, "a special cube. I have to keep them separate from Star's stash."

"It's much appreciated," Star said from nearby, and Ava giggled.

"Haha, Lucy knows!" Ava said, pointing at Lucy. "Hey, Lucy, if you rode my unicorn, you'd be Lucy in the sky with Staaaa-aar!"

Lucy had been inhaling on a spliff at that moment, gave her a puzzled look, then started a hacking cough that wouldn't stop.

Ava giggled a little and looked slightly embarrassed. She wiggled her legs. "She gets it," she whispered, smiling.

Sophia realized that she was actually having a good time, and really wanted to just relax and have fun. With a small mental shrug, she put the rolled paper to her lips and sucked it in. Her first toke was not expert, but she got a bit in her lungs and held it there. She quickly exhaled, then passed it to her right. Valentina gave her a thumbs up, then took a big swig of her drink.

Sophia realized she still hadn't opened hers, and rectified that now. Beer wasn't really her thing, but this was actually oaky. She licked her lips at the hints of vanilla after she'd swallowed.

Lucy's coughing had trailed off at this point, and Sophia realized the other cigarette had reached its way to her. This time she braved a bigger inhale, and felt more of the smoke enter her lungs. She managed to get it out without coughing, but then breathed out too hard and had a small coughing fit just as she started to pass it to her left.

"So," Valentina asked Lucy, "what do your parents do?"

"Uh." Lucy looked around, uncertain. Was she being paranoid? Was this stuff kicking in already? Sophia's heart raced. "They have a small furniture shop? In Tolosia?"

"Oh, yeah?" Valentina said. "We winter there sometimes."

"My mom's a healer!" Sophia blurted. Everyone stared at her, and her eyes got large, but she continued. "So's her unicorn. So it's like a … symbiotic thing. Or … "

"Complementary," Ava said syllable by syllable.

"Yeah." Sophia looked down, suddenly extremely aware of how loud even her breath was moving past her lips both in and out. Did everybody else hear that? She must sound like a hill giant, or a broken radiator.

Distantly, as if at the end of a long, corrugated iron tunnel, Sophia heard someone mutter "cool."

There was a long silence, then Ylena, silent till now, spoke up. Her voice was timorous. "Hey. Any of you guys heard the story of the dragons?"

"Ylena … " her unicorn, Cuerno, started.

"Yeah," Lucy added. "Yeah, I think I heard about that. Didn't they invade years ago? Like, here? The academy?"

"Yeah," Ylena said. "Supposedly they were only beaten back at the last moment, but they swore to be back."

"So … why do you sound scared?" Ming Xiu asked. "I mean … there are wars and horrible things all the time. That's just the way the world works."

"It's how they take you over." Lucy again. She stared at her drink as she lazily spun it around. "They get in your head, and they … change you. Make you cruel. Make you hurt the things you love. My grandpa …"

She trailed off and shook her head, looking up at everyone as if in apology.

Valentina shook herself and looked up. "Well. If we're choosing ghost stories, I say we break out some marshmallows."

So they did. The mood became less somber, but no one exchanged anything more than pleasantries for the rest of the evening.

But the meeting was good! It wasn't every night, and it wasn't always the same girls, and sometimes the meeting fizzled before it had even begun, but generally it was a good hour or two time killer getting to know the others in a way that daily classes just didn't allow.

Sometimes people brought games, and sometimes people brought books to read passages from. Sometimes they'd talk about personal things, and more than a few meetings turned into an unprompted group therapy session. Sophia even opened up about Clover, her horse back home, and how much she missed him.

She'd felt so guilty for the longest time, loving Rainbow when she'd promised Clover that he would be his best friend forever. But Rainbow had explained to her how she could take her time, but that it was fine to love more than one person, or equestrian. He'd explained it very patiently. "You love both your mother and your brother, right? And you don't love your brother less because of the love for your mother."

"Yes, I suppose that's true."

And it was. But it was still something she felt a little niggling worry about. Things would be better after the first year, when she could go back and explain things to Clover. She cried that night. She wasn't the first to cry, and plenty of the girls had come and hugged her. Rainbow had nuzzled her from behind with his chin. Valentina didn't hug her - she sensed correctly that Sophia still wasn't that comfortable with her - but she did come and sit by her, and pat her knee twice while looking her in the eyes and giving her an empathetic look.

Sophia, more than a little buzzed, put her head on Valentina's shoulder for a few moments.

Yes, the meetings were good. They were so good and so healing.

Until the night they weren't. The night everything changed.