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Rae encounters a lavender horse in the research library after noticing that the lower shelves have been chewed and that something has been nesting under the tables. Its bright colors and star marking resemble the classroom's former friendship imagery. The animal arrives carrying prey, accepts a ration and quickly attracts other pastel-colored horses. They are hungry, agile and equipped with teeth that make their child-friendly appearance a particularly bad joke. The ensuing struggle damages the room and kills one of the horses; the remaining group does not treat the party as welcome visitors.

More than one color and form appears in the library encounter. The animals swarm food, react to blood and crowd the approach until flight seems more rational than holding the room. Their trilling calls and movements suggest animals with learned routines rather than sentient former toys. Their origin remains unknown. Their appetite, however, is immediate enough that waiting for an explanation is not an appealing strategy.

On a later return, the school shelves show old bite marks and little has been repaired. Instead of another direct confrontation, the group follows traces of a route: caught pastel hair, low scratches, hoofprints and damage to barriers. They find a narrow service chase linking the old school, hygiene route and the edges of an Auditor-maintained corridor. The horses use a maintenance system that clearly predates their occupation of it. 'Commute' is Dude's joke, but the route is real.

The trail runs beyond the neatest machine spaces into fractured stone where air carries a different smell. Hoofprints and animal bones show that the horses are using a broader habitat, not just the library's picturesque hallway. Some routes are too low for the group's normal travel, while the animals can pass through. Mapping this movement helps the party understand how otherwise separate dungeon districts are being connected by nonhuman residents.