The Key

**"The Key"** is the third episode of *Centaurworld*.

## Official Synopsis

*Horse meets up with Waterbaby—one of Centaurworld's shamans—and learns about the key: a mysterious object that could reunite her with Rider.*

## Plot

Picking up where the previous episode ended, Horse has spotted what she believes to be Rider in the distance and is chasing after her, with the herd following close behind. Everyone falls off a cliff with Horse landing in the water, while everyone else lands on and destroys a houseboat, which Wammawink is mortified to realise belongs to Waterbaby, the first Shaman.

Waterbaby herself soon appears and Horse asks her about the human she saw, which Waterbaby claims was just Gebbrey, a ficustaur living nearby who is shaped similarly to a human. She and Wammawink share a reunion before the latter asks for her help, Waterbaby then tasks the herd with repairing her houseboat before leaving with Wammawink. Horse leaves shortly after to look for Rider, while the rest of the herd begins trying to fix the boat.

Wammawink assures Waterbaby that her herd will successfully repair her boat, but Waterbaby is skeptical that they'll finish at all and reminds Wammawink that she dropped her shaman training when it became too hard, before tasking her with holding onto a rutabegataur that she says will help Horse get home if Wammawink is able to do what she needs her to. Meanwhile, Horse is still pursuing the figure she's been seeing and is disappointed to see that it's Grebbrey, who she attempts to have a heart to heart talk with, but is in a different headspace from her.

She returns to the herd to find that they haven't repaired the boat at all, only decorated the wreckage, and explains that they need to build a solid foundation first, before starting to lead them in their repair work. Elsewhere, Wammawink & Waterbaby have found the entrance to the Shaman Training Ground, where Wammawink learnt magic. The two of them enjoy casting some fun, silly spells before Waterbaby tasks her former student with levitating the bog using the more serious magic she learnt, but Wammawink freezes up under the pressure.

Meanwhile, the herd has made progress on the houseboat and have nearly finished, unfortunately Horse's explanation of how glue is made upsets the others, causing them to stick to each other and accidentally destroy the houseboat again.

Waterbaby is growing annoyed by Wammawink's once again giving up when things get difficult and points out that she'll need to improve her magic to help Horse, but Wammawink insists that she's only suited to fun, silly magic which distracts her long enough to overcome her block and successfully levitate the bog. Though Wammawink is surprised that she did it, Waterbaby assures her that she had always been able to and retrieves a box from the mud.

Horse, on the other hand, is on the verge of tears, though she adamantly denies it and insists that she is merely frustrated, before breaking down, sobbing. Waterbaby & Wammawink return, and the former harvests Horse's tears to open the box and transform the rutabegataur into another artifact, which she reveals is one of six pieces to a key that will connect the two worlds, with each of the Shamans guarding a piece, and that they will need to be convinced to give them to her. Once she collects the other four pieces, Waterbaby will meet her where the worlds connect and give her hers' to form the key that will activate the portal between worlds, but warns that the other Shamans won't be as co-operative as she is.

Wammawink, now confident in her magical abilities, informs Horse that she and her herd will be joining her to lend their skills (and to comfort her the next time she cries). Waterbaby then uses her magic to repair the houseboat, before she sends everyone on their way she compliments Wammawink on her herd, though she points out that they still have a lot to learn.

Once the herd has left a Mysterious Woman appears, who Waterbaby seems to know. The Woman tells Waterbaby that she's putting the world in jeopardy, but Waterbaby points out that she's free to do whatever she wishes with her key piece, and if she wants to stop things that is her own affair, before flying away on her houseboat.

## Features

### Locations

* Centaurworld
	+ Rainbow Road

### Songs

* Making Friendships--BOATS!
* Frustration Tears
* The Key

## Trivia

* Waterbaby makes her debut in this episode.
* One of the food items Waterbaby conjures is the herring and pumpkin pie from *Kiki's Delivery Service.*
* Although this is Woman's first appearance, she actually first appeared in the previous episode whom Horse mistook her form for Rider's.
* The tool Waterbaby uses to find her and Wammawink’s old shaman training grounds is a dowsing rod: a forked stick used by magic users such as witches and occult practitioners to locate anything ranging from bodies of water to places/artifacts of magic via divination.
* **Items stolen by Glendale:** a corner from Waterbaby's entrance carpet
	+ Honorable mentions: a stick used by Waterbaby to perform a transformation spell - failed attempt