The Broken Gem

Morning, Sophia.

Oh, right.

Excellent, class.

As Grammy Rosemary used to say, "Grooming and care strengthens the pair."

Come on. You'll be so cute.

-Whoa! -

Point made. We'll go au naturel.

Excellent plaits, Ava. Your day is made with a tidy braid.

Thanks. Sophia actually showed me how to do these braids last week,

and I've been practicing, and…

Actually, I'm not sure I like it like this.

Well, there are plenty of fabulous options to choose from.

Rhapsody is partial to a French braid herself.

Don't worry, Leaf. I know some braids that will be way cuter.

Yeah, right.

Can I be expelled again? Because this tension is way worse.

Joking. Mostly.

Not about the tension. That's still terrible.

Ms. Rosemary, would you show me how to groom my way out of this conversation?

What?

Layla, go talk to them.

Me? No, I can't. I'm terrible at conflict resolution.

Okay, okay.

Hey. Could I borrow some of your sparkle spray?

I've got some. My own recipe. Extra sparkle.

She was asking me. You don't need to butt into everything.

Oh, didn't realize wanting to help a friend was butting in.

What was that, Glacier?

I need to go, uh, over there and, uh, brush her, uh, face?

-I told you conflict wasn't my thing. -My turn.

All right, enough. Can't you just hug it out and move on?

That's your thing, right? The hugging?

-Uh… -Ha!

Don't look at me.

This is way better than their usual "sparkle rainbow friendship hour."

Ugh. Barf.

Can we please focus on grooming?

This is supposed to be relaxing for you and your unicorns.

- -

- -

- -

I feel bad for Ava. She was just trying to help.

For Ava? Sophia's the one who got ripped away from her ghost dad.

Ghost? I thought it was, like, a message from her subconscious.

-You believe in ghosts? -You don't?

Why do you even care? It's their business.

If they wanna hate each other forever, so what?

Maybe you lack a heart, Valentina,

but the rest of us feel this little emotion called sympathy for Ava.

You mean Sophia.

You too, Layla? Am I the only one on team Ava here?

It's just Sophia believes she was really talking to her dad somehow.

Not that I believe she was, but what matters is she does.

Yeah. And that's kinda tough to get over, Rory.

-Class, focus. -

These unicorns will not groom themselves.

- -

All right, riders. Class dismissed.

Anyone wanna come gather flowers to make more sparkle spray?

I've got a new recipe idea I'm dying to try out.

Hint, it's purple.

I'd love to. Um…

Only we already told Sophia we'd go on a trail ride later.

I can gather flowers with you, Ava. I'm great at that.

No, no, that's fine. A trail ride sounds totally fun.

Room for two more? I promise if you get in trouble,

I'll just assume you're on another important secret mission and not help.

Ava, I need space.

Don't worry. She'll come around.

If it makes you feel better, I'm purely team

"watch how this plays out from a distance and be entertained."

-Thanks? - You're welcome.

I don't think it's personal.

I mean, not really. When we were raiding the kitchen last night,

Sophia just seemed more down about her dad than angry at you.

Great. I messed up things with her dad,

and she went on a snack raid without me?

Right. So, huh, trail ride?

Let's go do that. See ya later. Bye.

Thanks, Leaf.

It'll be okay. If Sophia needs space, then that's what she'll get.

Oh! Ooh!

Whoa!

I hate being this close to the academy. Everything's so cute.

Then I suppose I should thank you.

You're both sacrificing so much to help me get my grim magic back.

Oh, uh, it… it's nothing, my queen.

I'm more than happy to do anything you need, no matter how cute it is.

Yeah. Just tell us where to go.

You are to gain access to Unicorn Academy and retrieve the grimstone

those girls took from the temple.

You want us to go into the school?

Yes, Ash.

That is what I said. Now, go get that grimstone.

But feel free to dispose of the girls on the way.

-We won't let you down, Your Majesticness. - See that you don't.

Come back with my prize, or don't come back at all.

Of course.

-Giving her space. -You're lucky your dorm is so boring.

The drama was fun at first, but I'm so sick of Sophia and Ava--

Hey, gang.

Can I sit with you? I saw these incredible heart-shaped leaves the other day.

-I'm dying to talk to someone about them. -Stop. Don't care. Why are you here?

Oh, I just thought I'd change things up a bit,

spend some time with my other roommate.

I'm your dorm mate. As in there's usually a wall between us.

Speaking of dorms, Jacinta, Delia, you're in Ruby Dorm, right?

What's that like? Any cool Ruby-based slang I should know about?

No. But we do have these super cute accent pillows.

I love pillows. Tell me everything.

You sure you don't wanna sit with Sophia and the rest of the sparkle squad?

Because I think it would be great if you did.

No. I wanna spend time with you. Don't you think it's weird we're dorm mates

and we don't know anything about each other?

No, because of the wall.

Listen, you and Sophia need to hurry up and get over whatever weirdness this is

and stop dragging the rest of us into your drama.

Drama? No. This is just a little misunderstanding between pals.

She'll forgive me.

She just needs time and space

and secret snack runs without me.

And that's great, actually, because it means I get more time with you.

So, what should our group name be?

Hmm.

Not that I was eavesdropping, which I definitely was,

but it sounds like you need someone with a brilliant, tactical mind

to help Ava and Sophia to make up and get Ava out of your hair.

Hmm.

Me. Person is me. I'm talking about me.

If it gets Petals McPouty Face over there to leave me alone, I'm game.

Isn't it so funny?

I distinctly remember someone saying earlier…

What was it? Oh! "If they wanna, like, hate each other forever, so what?"

- -Just joshing. Come on.

Let operation re-bestie commence.

We're not calling it that.

We're calling it that.

- It's caught under your… Ow! -Ow! This better work.

Don't sweat it. My patented double-note group hang to dupe hang has never failed.

Well, depending on your definition of failure, I guess.

Oh! Here they come.

Ooh!

Dessert picnic?

Uh, where is everybody? I thought there was an emergency Sapphire meeting.

I guess we're the first ones here.

Um, do you wanna wait with me? There are snacks.

Oh, I see what this is. Come on, Wildstar. We don't have time for a snacky setup.

Yeah. Who wants to eat cute little fruit tarts with friends anyway?

She's not ready yet. That's fine. I'll go find Valentina.

I wonder if she likes dessert. Let's find out!

Ugh! How did you somehow make this worse for me?

No worries. I got a million more schemes for us to try.

I think the coast is clear. Let's go find those brats.

Nice and easy.

I'm so glad you wanted to hang out, Valentina. I knew you'd come around.

Yeah, that's me, doing this completely voluntarily.

Honestly, I really needed this. Sophia--

Help! Help!

Oh no. Is that Rory?

It sounds like he's in trouble. I'm coming, Rory!

Sh.

- Oh, won't someone help me? -

-There's the piggytails girl. - Watch what you're doing!

And she's got the grimstone on her.

Ugh, cutesy accessories. Bleuch.

So where's Rainbow Head? Aren't those two always together?

-There! -Hey! We've got to be stealthy.