Marshmallow Dreams

by Halira

First published 30th of March, 2020

Rebecca Riddle seems to be your typical human-turned-pegasus in a world of both humans and ponies, but she has a secret double life, and there is nothing typical about her other life.

I'm Rebecca, Rebecca Riddle, though some people teasingly call me the Marshmallow-- because I'm kind of pleasantly plump. If you met me on the street, you wouldn't think too much about it. I'm just your ordinary college freshman human-turned-pegasus, in a world of both humans and ponies. I dance to music, love to draw, write stories, and play my kazoo, nothing out of the ordinary at all.

But I lead a double life that only a few know about. It is hard trying to keep the two parts of my life separated. By day I'm Rebecca Riddle, but when I sleep at night, I'm something much more, something beyond comprehension; but awake or asleep, I always try to keep smiling-- even when it is tough to smile.

A solo title in Pandemic Series. Note, this AU existed before the actual real-life pandemic happened.

Chapter 1: Average Start of the Day

Some people say life starts at conception, others say at birth. They will argue about whether it came with the first beat of your heart or the first breath you took. For me, I believe life begins when we get our first memory. I'm not talking about the first thing we learned, but the first thing that stuck with us; that left such a powerful impression that years later, we could still recall it, even if much of the memory was recobbled together and only fractionally right. It was the beginning of our reality, the start of what makes us-- us. There was life before that memory, but that life wasn't us.

My first memory came ironically, or perhaps unironically, from a dream. I was four years old. How do I know I had this dream when I was four? Simple, my mom told me, and it is well documented historically. It was no ordinary dream; it was a vision. It was the last night of ETS before the cure came, and the night a little human girl became a little pegasus filly. I can't remember anything that came before that dream, so I must assume that I didn't yet exist. There was some young human girl named Rebecca Riddle there, but this was the birth of Rebecca Riddle, the pegasus. If you live long enough, you can be lots of people, and I sometimes wonder how many I will be. Sometimes we have to be more than one person at once, and that gets hard.

Most of my early memories are dreams, rather than things that happened out in the waking world. I don't know why that is. Maybe it is because I didn't want to accept the reality around me when I was awake. After all, there were terrible things all around me, so I focused on my dreams. My dreams became more and more elaborate, a reflection of the world I wanted to live in—a world of smiling sunflowers, singing dogs, and warm and toasty beds. I met my first ever friend in my dreams, Miss Seapony. You might know her by a different name, but she'll always be Miss Seapony to me.

My first super vivid memory in the waking world came when I was about seven years old. That was three years after ETS. My mom and I were in a hotel room, it was dirty, and people were yelling in the next room over. My mom, who had caught ETS years before, but rehumanized, was doing her best to distract me from the yelling going on next door. We spent a lot of nights in hotel rooms like this one if we were lucky. If we weren't fortunate, we spent the night in the car. I spent many days in the car, and my mom would tell me to keep the doors locked and not let anyone in. She would say to me that if anyone tried to break into the car just to run away as fast as I could; don't try to fight them, don't try to save our possessions. She would say that the car and the stuff in it were not as important as me. Then she would go off to work, so we could eat and maybe spend a night in a hotel.

My mom was telling me all about how she was going to be a great ballerina, and someday someone would give her a great dancing job, and we wouldn't have to spend nights in hotels like this anymore. I snuggled up to her as she brushed her hands through my snow-white feathers and corn colored mane. I had absolute trust in my mom that she'd make those dreams come true. I didn't understand that the dancing my mom did was stripping at a gentleman's club. I didn't know or understand that my mom was almost to the point she might take me to social services because she was scared of not being able to keep us in hotel rooms through the winter and snow. I understood just one thing, and it was something real, that my mom loved me absolutely.

There was a knock on the door, and my mom tensed up. She told me to hide under the bed, and if anything terrible happened to run. Otherwise, I needed to stay there until she said to come out. I did as I was told, peaking as much as I could towards the door while remaining hidden. My mom went to the door and peeked out the eyehole, then called out, asking who was there. A voice responded with something, a female voice. My mom cracked the door open and spoke to whoever was outside. They talked for a minute, then she opened the door all the way and let a pony inside.

We lived in the middle of Massachusetts at the time. There weren't a lot of other ponies than me around that area. ETS hadn't gotten that well spread in our region, and most of the people who caught it ended up rehumanizing, like my mom. I had seen only a couple of other ponies in my life up to that point. This was a green earth pony mare, with a short cut purple mane. She was bundled up in a sweater, and I got the impression she didn't like the cold. She and my mom talked a little while. My mom then told me that I could come out. She introduced me to the mare, but I don't recall her name.

They talked for a while longer, and then we all left. My mom took us to a much nicer hotel room that night, nicer than anywhere I'd ever been. It had clean white sheets, a high ceiling with no dark spots on it, the place was warm and bright, and the room smelled funny (I'd never smelled a hotel room that didn't reek of piss before this, although I didn't understand that fact either). The entire place was like a palace from one of my dreams. My mom then told me that we would be moving far away, and the nice mare was going to be giving her a new job, and soon we'd have our own house. My faith in my mom had never been in doubt, nor had my faith in the fact that the world could be like a dream. This was the foundation of who I was in the waking world.

Since then, I've been just a regular pony, living an ordinary life, doing all the typical things that everyday people do… except for a few itsy-bitsy, teeny-weenie details.

My alarm clock woke me up, as it usually did, and I reached out a wing and tapped the top of it, as I usually did. When I did, the radio came on, as it always did. A happy-bouncy song from sometime in the nineteen-seventies or eighties started to play. I got up and stretched my legs, my wings, my neck, and my tail. I fluttered my ears a little and shook my head to clear my mane from my eyes. Then I hopped out of my bed and shook my rump in concert with the beat, singing as I walked to my window to see what the weather was like that day. It was bright blue skies, and I took the time to smile and greet the sun.

Still bouncing along to the rhythm, and adding some clumsy dance steps to the mix, I exited my room for the bathroom. I turned on the shower and continued to dance and hum my music within it, stopping my singing so I could brush my teeth. I couldn't hear the music that well over the running water, but that was okay. I could listen to music in my head. I finished with my shower and climbed out onto the waiting towel on the floor. I hit the button for the big blow dryer on the wall and let its warm airflow all over my fur, feathers, and mane for two minutes. I'm not sure if it would dry faster if I didn't spend my time dancing, but that wasn't going to stop me. I stood up on just my hind legs and shook my tail while the dryer got my chubby underside. I'm not the slimmest of ponies, and my two-legged dance didn't rank high on the list of graceful things in the world, but I didn't fall over. When I finally felt dry enough, I shut it down and went to brush my mane and fur, and preen my feathers.

I noted to myself it was almost time to empty my preening bin again, after adding a few more feathers to it and tried to remind myself that I needed to do that later, even though I had done the exact same thing yesterday. I'd get around to it sooner or later, but I had plans for today and wanted to be out and about soon.

The radio was on a timer and had just shut off. That brought a temporary halt to my dancing. How my belly stayed big was a mystery for the ages, because I enjoyed bouncing and dancing whenever I could, and got a lot of exercise as a result. I'd started putting on pounds back around the time I was twelve (I'd been scrawny as a young filly), and they only had gone up with the years. My big belly didn't bother me too much. In my view, it just made me more cuddly and huggable-- like a giant fuzzy marshmallow, but it would be nice to be a little more aerodynamic. People who saw me fly said I flew like a bumblebee, and I couldn't keep pace with other pegasi, or even keep up with leathery-winged night ponies for that matter. I was the slowest flyer that I knew.

I went back into my room and picked out a lovely purple ribbon from the open drawer of my dresser. It took a minute for me actually to get my mane into it. Humans and unicorns were so lucky. They could do this kind of thing easily with no help from anyone else, while I had to try to twist my body around in yoga positions to pull my mane back with a ribbon. My parents were probably already at work, so they weren't about to help. I hoped whoever I ended up getting as a roommate at the college would be willing to help me with this once I moved in.

Having gotten myself dressed (as much as I typically got dressed anyway), I went out to the kitchen. There was a note on the refrigerator:

Hi, my little sunshine,

I won't be home until an hour or two later than usual. I'm just getting some things done before my vacation time starts tomorrow. I left you and your father plenty of stuff to make salads, and you need to make enough for six because we're going to have some guests over tonight. I need to stress that these are really important guests, some of the most important we've ever had over, so be ready.

I expect you to lay off the ranch dressing; you're supposed to be on a diet, young lady! No sweet snacks either. Remember, we are supposed to be taking you to the doctor tomorrow-- you're going, no arguments-- so don't make any plans that will interfere with that.

I hope you have a fun day visiting the college, meeting who you'll be roommates with, and getting your books. Just be home in time to help your father prep dinner. I'll be sure not to be late.

Love Mom

The doctor's trip wasn't necessary. Mom had this idea that because I was going to be living in the dorms that I needed to be on birth control because being out on my own would suddenly turn me into a sex monster or something-- not to mention being sure I'd be trying marijuana and getting drunk, possibly joining a cult or something. I rolled my eyes at her unfounded fears, but whatever made my mom feel better. If she wanted me on birth control, it wasn't that big a deal, even if it was unnecessary. It did make me think to take a quick sniff under my tail since I'd forgotten to do so, and I didn't smell any of that time of month mare funk. I was pretty sure I was a few days away from that coming up again, but it could always come early or late. I'd put some deodorant on, just in case.

I wondered who the guests were. Maybe someone from either my mom or stepdad's work? We had guests on and off for dinner, but typically my mom told me who they were. This time she didn't even mention if they were humans or ponies, so I'd know how big of meals I should be making. My stepdad probably knew, but it left me wondering. He'd be back home before me. I'd give him a call before I came home to see if we needed anything from the store. He usually tried to spice up dinner a little more than mom did and might want to add something else to the menu.

After eating a pair of carrots for breakfast (and resisting the urge to grab a slice of very delicious looking fudge cake), I went back to my room to finish getting ready. Maggie should be calling soon to tell me she was on her way. It was a shame they couldn't have us as roommates, but in addition to being male and female dorms, the dorms were separated into pony housing and human housing, mainly so they could keep appropriate furniture in each room without having to move it around. It would be nice to be able to drive myself too, but seating for winged ponies was already restrictive in pony cars, and I found the driver's seat cramped and uncomfy. I'd dropped out of driver's ed the first day they had us get into a driver's seat.

Returning to my room, I put on my phone band and scrolled through the contacts using my feathers. I tapped the screen to give it an order to call Maggie and then waited while it rang.

"Hello?" Maggie's voice said groggily over the phone, quickly followed by a gasp. "Oh, crap! I'm sorry, Bec, I overslept."

I giggled. "It's okay. How long do you think you'll take to get ready?"

"Um, ah, give me an hour-- make that an hour-and-a-half. I want to make sure I don't show up at the school looking like a zombie. Sorry, I was up late, writing."

I shrugged, even if Maggie wouldn't see it. "Hey, have to ride that inspiration when it hits. Is that the Star Trek fanfiction you were writing before?" Maggie was a huge Trekie. They rebooted the Star Trek universe last year, and it had gotten trendy. It had some old characters, kept as the original races, and many new pony characters-- as well as some updates on the lore.

"Yeah, writing a love triangle between Picard, Riker, and Data."

"Ah, that's an interesting triangle," I replied, bemused. "Can't wait to read it." Maggie had a thing for shipping guys together. I rarely questioned it and tried not to laugh at her tastes.

"I'll give you a call when I'm about to leave. Sorry again, and see you soon."

Well, that left me with more than an hour with nothing to do. At the same time, it was an opportunity. No one was home, and no one was going to see me for at least an hour, if not more. That meant I could flex my abilities a little and not have my parents yell at me or have Maggie find out what I could do. I just had to be careful to make sure no one spotted me.

With a tap on the radio, I had music again; I winced when an old Twisted Sister song came on. I liked Twisted Sister, I liked most music from the sixties, seventies, and eighties, but it wasn't what I needed to get in the right mindset. I flipped the radio off, and instead pulled up something from my playlist on my phone-- an old Bob Dylan song, Hey Mr. Tambourine Man-- that was more the right vibe.

I sat and gently swayed in place with the mellow tones of Bob Dylan's voice, closing my eyes as I did. I let myself become more relaxed, reaching a point where I was neither truly asleep nor genuinely awake.

It didn't take long before I was sitting opposite myself, watching myself zone out in a trance at the music. I lifted a hoof to double-check myself and saw nothing. That was good; it meant that no one else could see me either, only the part of me seeing swaying in tune with the music. I gave myself an invisible smile and then willed myself upwards and through the ceiling.

I quickly moved through the crawl space and up through the roof to the bright morning air, as immaterial as a ghost. I was capable of making myself seen and heard if I wanted to be, but I was utterly incapable of touching anything. I'd tried doing this once during a flying competition since I could move extremely fast like this, but the other flyers had caught on that they weren't feeling any air gusts coming off my wings. I had to abort and disappear as soon as I found somewhere safe to disappear unnoticed. My mom had heard about it and had given me an earful about it. No one was supposed to know that I could do this. There were only a few ponies in the world who could, and all of them tended to keep quiet about being able to. It would draw unwanted attention to me if anyone found out. Not that I altogether avoided doing it. I just had to be careful.

I took the opportunity to gain some height so that I could see around my neighborhood. It was average suburbia, with all new housing that had gone up in the last few years. Far in the distance were the trees that gave the town its name, Skytree. What caught my attention was the house across the street from mine. It had movers moving things into it. That house had been empty for most of the last year, so it was nice to get new neighbors at last-- even if I would be moving off to the college dorms.

Letting curiosity get the better of me, I swooped down and took a closer look at the things that were being moved in. It seemed to be a mix of pony-sized things and human-sized, which indicated a mixed family-- like mine. I didn't see any toys or anything that would indicate foals. Everything was in darker colors. Some of the objects were kind of weird-looking, and it took me a little bit to figure out they were for someone who was physically disabled. I zipped around, passing straight through the movers, as I looked at various items.

My nosey search of my new neighbors' stuff came to an abrupt halt when a big multicolored seapony with wings appeared right between one of the movers and me. The mover didn't notice her, since she was even less there than I was, but it was kinda funny watching her finned tail go in and out of the human mover's arm.

"Spying, Rebecca?" Miss Seapony asked as she crossed her fins and raised an eyebrow.

I pretended to settle on a nearby couch, even if I couldn't touch it. "Just being curious. I won't use any information I gain, and won't mention to anyone what I've seen."

The mover walked through Miss Seapony and obscured my view of her briefly before she moved back through him to be seen. "You'll find out about these two tonight so that you can avoid spying. There's too much chance you'll learn something that will influence your opinion of them early. Just wait till tonight."

That made me frown. "I will? I thought you couldn't tell me things like that."

She smiled at me, she had fangs, but I never found them scary. "I can say when they are here at my behest."

Okay then. Only there was only one reason Miss Seapony would have asked someone to move here. "They're here because of me? Why?"

"You'll see," she replied nonchalantly. "Just be on good behavior, and try to make a good impression. They're here to protect your family."

That confused and worried me. "Why do we need bodyguards? No one knows about me. I'm not even anything to know about yet."

"Just taking early precautions," Miss Seapony replied. "I hate to sound too businesslike with you, as our friendship is real, but you're an investment, and protecting our investments is important. I want to ensure you and your family are safe when the time comes to cash in that investment, and we don't make any noticeable moves that would give you away when we do." Her expression turned sad. "I wouldn't want anything bad happening to you or your family, even if it wasn't tied to that. I love you like I love one of my own foals. If I could, I'd die again for your sake, if it came to that."

"Okay," I replied warily. I trusted Miss Seapony. I knew that whatever the reason, she'd never want me hurt. "Just don't let them get in the way of my groove."

My oldest friend laughed. "Your groove is safe. Now head home, and quit spying." My phantom friend then vanished.

I gave one last brief look around, and let off a non-existent sigh. Then I opened my eyes back up in my bedroom; the music had gone through two more songs on my playlist—still lots of time to waste before Maggie called. Maybe I could have just a tiny piece of cake without ruining my diet. I changed songs and danced back to the kitchen.

Author's Notes:

This story is a solo title in the ongoing Pandemic series. It is not necessary to read any of the other titles to understand this one, as it will explain its world through the story.

Chapter 2: Ghosts, Ice Cream and Magic Trees

I remember vividly the first time I was genuinely terrified. It was my birthday, and I had just turned twelve.

We moved a few times when I was growing up, on account of my mom's work. My mom worked for PonyCo, the company that made things like the straps that ponies attached stuff to, and my mom was supposed to help set up new offices in different places. We'd be in a home for a year or two; then, her big boss would tell her that we needed to move someplace else. We were living in a little town in Nebraska at the time. It was the last place we lived before we finally moved to our forever home in Skytree, and had been there for just over a year-and-a-half.

My mom always took the day off for my birthday, no matter what else was going on with her work. That day she had held a party for me, and invited all my friends from school, along with her boyfriend David (who later became my stepdad), and some of her friends from work. This party was extra special, because just a week before I'd gotten my cutie mark-- a pair of smiling sunflowers crossed over one another with a smiling cloud just above them. A mark that reflected my desire to bring joy through art and creativity, along with reflecting my happy disposition-- and this was a double party celebrating both my birthday and the fact I had found my special thing.

The party lasted for several hours, and I got tons of presents; art supplies, notebooks to write or draw in, a new computer with art studio software, books about drawing techniques, and books about how to be a better writer. Someone even gave me a kazoo, which I happily blew into and danced to my horribly done silly song.

By the time everyone went home, it was full dark, and there had been plenty of laughter, as well as an enormous amount of cake and ice cream consumed. I still had plenty of energy at this point. I wasn't so heavy back then, so flew better, but my mom didn't like me flying unsupervised or in the dark. That left me having to explore other options for how to burn off my excess energy.

I tried helping my mom clean up, but she insisted on me not having to do anything on my birthday. I then decided to go to my room, and put on my pony-tailored headphones, so I could dance and party to music, while not disturbing my mom as she tried to straighten up. The music was enthralling, and I soon found myself getting lost in my own little world within it.

The next thing I knew, I was staring at myself.

My first thought was that I had somehow fallen asleep, and was having a weird dream, but the details around me were too exact to be a dream. Everything in a dream was always at least a little off, but nothing was off about this. I tried to reach out and touch my own body, but my hoof passed right through myself. It surprised me so much that I back-peddled straight through my bed, passing directly through it.

I had to be dreaming, but I couldn't wake myself up. Not knowing what to do, I ran to get my mom, but when I reached up to grab my door handle, my hoof passed right through it as well, leaving me completely unable to open the door. My body, my actual body that was stuck in its trance, started breathing more heavily as my anxiety rose. I yelled out to my mom, but no one came.

Forcing myself to try to calm down and think, I realized my mom must have stepped outside. My mom smoked, and she would always go outside to the far end of the backyard to do it so that she wouldn't have that around me. If she were at the far end of the backyard she wouldn't be able to hear me. I just needed to get to her, and have her help me fix this.

There was still the problem of not being able to open any doors. I stared at the barrier, and tried to think of how to get through. It seems obvious in hindsight that I could have just walked on through, but I was twelve at the time, so give a foal a break.

"Rebecca? How are you doing this?" Came a familiar voice. I jumped back as Miss Seapony appeared in front of me, looking concerned.

"I don't know," I cried. "I was just listening to music, and the next thing I know I'm a ghost."

"Calm down. Where is your body?" Miss Seapony asked.

I gave her a confused look, and pointed a leg behind me. "It's right there, can't you see it?"

"Turn around and look at it," Miss Seapony instructed. I did as I was told, and Ms. Seapony let off a relieved sigh as she flew over and looked at my body. "I see it now. I can only see what you can see. You don't look like you are in any danger."

"But I'm a ghost!" I whined.

My friend turned to me and shook her head. "No, there are only three ponies who can claim they're ghosts, and you aren't one of us. I'm going to put you back in your head, but I'm not experienced with these types of powers, and I'll have to send you additional help that is experienced to make sure this doesn't keep happening. Don't do whatever you did to make this happen until the help shows up, okay?"

"But how-" I stopped speaking as I realized that I was back in my body, and I looked around for my now missing friend. "Miss Seapony? Where'd you go?"

After I tested to make sure I was solid again I ran to go find my mom. She didn't believe me right away. No matter how much I tried to convince her. She thought I was just having a dream. Her opinion changed a few hours later.

It was late, and I was about to go to bed, when my mom screamed, and I heard something shatter against the wall.

"How'd you get in here! Get out!" My mom was yelling at someone.

I went out to the living room, and saw my mom throwing things at a night pony mare that was sitting in the middle of the room. That was surprising in itself, but what was really surprising was the things my mom was throwing were passing right through the night pony like she wasn't there. The night pony didn't look particularly bothered by objects passing through her head, but did seem really bothered by the yelling.

"Ma'am can you calm down? My name is Josie, and I'm here to help somepony named Rebecca."

And that's how I was scared I had turned into a ghost, and met the night pony that trained me on my powers. It is also how my mom had ended up breaking all our fine china.

I locked up the front door, and headed out to the driveway to meet Maggie as her car pulled up. Her passenger door opened upward and as soon as it did I hopped right in.

"Sorry again for being late," Maggie said, as she hit the button to order the door closed again.

I spent a second trying to determine which strap was the seat belt and which was the pony safety harness. They really should color code these things or something. "It's okay. No harm done."

Maggie checked her rear view camera as the door finished shutting, and slowly backed the car out of the driveway. "By the way, I found out that they are going to be opening signups for clubs and sororities early, starting around four."

One of my ears fell, but I picked it back up. "I can't today. My mom wants me home early to help make dinner. She said we have important guests coming over tonight."

We were on the road now, and Maggie's eyes were focused on traffic. "Maybe tomorrow?"

I slumped in my seat. "I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. My mom wants me to get a prescription for birth control."

Maggie seemed to choke on a laugh, and did a brief glance over at me before turning her eyes back to the road. "Birth control? You? You're like the most dedicated virgin I've ever met."

I shrugged and laughed. "Whatever makes her happy." I got more somber. "My mom got pregnant with me her senior year of high school, and it kind of threw her life off course. I think she worries I will get pregnant in college and have to drop out. She's just showing she cares about me."

"It seems like not having faith in you to be responsible, but whatever," Maggie replied. "I could pick you up after your appointment is over, and then we could check the sororities out then."

My grin returned. "That'd be great! And I'll have you know I'm not a dedicated virgin. I just have never been asked out on a date or anything."

"Well, you could try being the one to step up and ask some guy out," Maggie said conspiratorially. "You're fun and energetic, a natural extrovert, you should be more forward."

I kept my smile on, but sat considering how to deflect this conversation. My comment about not being asked out had been true, but also bluster. The truth was, I didn't feel like I could afford to commit to a proper relationship. Relationships were built on trust, and there were secrets I kept from everyone. It occurred to me that if Miss Seapony was going to have bodyguards showing up at my family's house today they might be telling my parents why. My parents knew I spent a lot of time talking to Miss Seapony, but they didn't know why. What was I going to do if they told my parents why? How would my parents react?

I just kept smiling. I really wanted another piece of cake. Maybe the college had a shop that sold snacks. "Maybe I will ask someone out, if any guy ever measures up to my standards. I've got high expectations."

Maggie laughed. "Can't fault you there, Bec."

My parents weren't stupid. People didn't normally have such close friendships as I did with Miss Seapony, and that had to raise questions for them. Maybe they already knew what was going on, and just didn't say anything about it. Mom said in the note that these were the most important guests they ever had. She wouldn't say that just for inviting new neighbors over. Mom had to know something about why they were there.

"Hey!" I blurted out, as I spotted a shop. "Can we stop by the Baskin Robbins drive through? I could really use some ice cream right now."

"Bec, you know you're supposed to be on a diet," Maggie replied. "I'm going to help keep you honest. We're already running behind anyway."

Traitor! I didn't sulk though. I just laughed. "Oops, I forgot about my diet. Thanks for reminding me." I really wanted something sweet right now, a great big banana split with extra whip cream, sprinkles, and fudge sounded great or perhaps a chocolate-mocha milkshake. I should just try to put all this stuff out of my head. Whatever was going to happen tonight was going to happen whether or not I spent all day fretting about it. There were better things to focus on, like how exciting it was I was going to be moving into the dorms in just a few days and that I'd be meeting my new roommates in just a few hours. Happy thoughts, happy vibes, don't stress about things I can't control.

"I hope we get to have some classes together still, even though we have different majors," Maggie said hopefully. "I know I'll be meeting lots of new people, but it would be great to have a friend I already know in some of my classes."

I could tell Maggie was a little nervous about that. Meeting new people and making new friends came more naturally to me than for her. "We still have to take all the basic liberal arts stuff, and I'm sure at least some of the graphic design and architectural design stuff overlaps. I mean, I've got to work on my art techniques too, even if I'm designing buildings."

Maggie licked her lips. "Do you think I should change my major? You're going to be making a lot more money than me after you graduate."

I blinked and then smirked. "You haven't even had your first day of class yet and you're already second guessing your major? That's not good, Mags."

"My dad just keeps getting on me about how I won't be able to make a great living with my degree," Maggie griped in frustration. "He keeps going on and on about how the market is flooded with graphic designers, because of all the art focused ponies out there… um, no offense to you, Bec."

I tried to reflexively spread my wings a little, but the harness held them down. They made these things so uncomfortable. "You need to follow what you love. You wouldn't be happy with my major."

"We don't know that."

I mischievously narrowed my eyes. "You have to learn lots of math to be an architect."

That seemed to make her hesitate. "A lot?"

"There's like four or five courses, all higher level than geometry and trig," I replied in a casual way, as if it were nothing. Math wasn't my favorite thing either, but I was much better at it than Maggie.

"Uehhh," Maggie squeaked, huddling down in her seat a little. "Okay, maybe I shouldn't try what you're doing. I still worry my dad might be right, though."

"You've got to have faith in yourself and follow your passions," I insisted, trying to hop a little in my seat, but failing due to the stupid harness. "If you go into a job full of passion for it you're sure to be successful." That wasn't what Miss Seapony would always say, she'd probably agree with me here, but she sometimes warned about getting too caught up in passions. I think she meant more not letting your emotions lead you into doing something stupid. Miss Seapony was really big on that kind of thing; that and sex stuff, but I supposed sex stuff had a lot of concerns about not letting your emotions make you do stupid things, so it fit too.

I looked out my window and tensed up in anticipation. I could see Maggie had noticed my excitement and was now grinning. We were about to come up to a full view of literally the most awesome thing in the entire city, the Remembrance Monument. I saw it all the time, but every time I saw it I still had my breath taken away. The Skytree College of Art and Design was right across the street from it, so I'd be getting to see it every day going forward. It was another thing to be excited about.

We passed around a corner, and out from under the shadows of tall buildings, and suddenly we were there, under the shadow of the monument. I couldn't help myself, I gasped with joy.

The monument was not made of metal or stone. It covered a wide circular area in the center of town a mile in circumference. The outer edges of the monument were tall massive tree stumps, tree stumps as tall as my house. They were all pushed tight together, the way they had been grown, and the tops of the stumps had been flattened, polished, preserved with magic and other things, and looked like freshly cut wood that glistened in the light. Around the outer edge of the stumps there were steps cut into them so you could walk up on top, and it was like a continuous walking path from stump to stump once you did. Toward the center, at the four cardinal points, stood four still living skytrees, and their branches extended up above the entire Remembrance Monument. If you touched the trees you could feel the powerful magic in them, that sustained them as much or more than the nutrients in the soil. Even though there was no actual roof, the entire thing was like one massive building because of that dense canopy. Nets were hung along under the canopy, to catch falling leaves and the many apples that these trees produced year round. Skytree apples were expensive, compared to normal apples, but they were some of the best tasting fruits ever.

In the very center, right in the exact middle of where the four skytrees stood, was a large granite stone, inscribed with the names of everyone who lost their lives in the Cataclysm of Riverview (the name the city used to have). This was not only a memorial to that tragedy, the trees themselves were part of the story, the shield that had kept it from being worse. The day of magic and earthquakes like likes of which had never been seen before or since, and the day wood had beaten fire. It was no building in any traditional sense, but it was a wonder of magic, a wonder of the new world. I hadn't lived here yet when it happened, but when I first moved here the monument inspired me to be an architect, because I wanted to make places like this, where the fantastical became real.

"You can breathe now, Bec," Maggie laughed. "Is this what you're going to do every day you walk outside your dorm room? We might need to invest in an oxygen mask for you, so you don't suffocate yourself."

"Ha ha, very funny," I replied, still looking at the monument. I wouldn't doubt that I would do this every morning. My heart soared just looking at the wonder. "This is going to be great."

"We're about to arrive. Are you still wanting a snack?" Maggie asked.

I turned and looked at her, confused. "Why would I want a snack? I'm on a diet, remember?"

Maggie just laughed.

Chapter 3: Missing Perspectives

Back when I was really little, right after the ETS pandemic, the alicorn and Dreamwarden Luna came to Earth. Luna looked around and was scared; there were all these new night ponies that didn't understand how much they could hurt others dreamwalking, and there was a big evil thing slowly forming on its own in the dream realm that was going to hurt everyone. So Luna decided to make six ponies the new Dreamwardens of this realm. They would make sure the night ponies behaved, and their being there made the big evil thing go away.

What is a Dreamwarden? It is the most powerful thing in the dream realm, like a dream god. They've got all these rules they can't break that tell them when they can do things, so maybe dream god is a bad term, maybe dream genie instead? The original six took their jobs really seriously, like too seriously. They made all the night ponies really afraid of them all. There was one, a big meanie by the name of Sha'am Maut, that was scarier and meaner than all the other Dreamwardens put together. She was so mean that the other original Dreamwardens eventually turned on her, and forced her to retire from the job-- but that is a different story.

Another one of those Dreamwardens was a pony named Yinyu Wu Yan, but I've always called her Miss Seapony. Miss Seapony tried at first to act like a monster, to scare all the night ponies into being good-- kind of like how parents will tell you some monster will come gobble you up if you do something bad. Miss Seapony wasn't really mean, and the more bad things she saw happen, the less she could pretend to be a meanie; until one day she just stopped trying to pretend she was a monster. I was still a young foal the first time I met Miss Seapony in my dreams, but this still all happened before that.

As I said before, I remember my dreams from when I was a little foal much better than I do what happened in the waking world. My dream that night had a pastel colored world, like a cartoon, and everything had a smiling face; the sun, the flowers, the houses, the cars, everything. My dream was populated by humans and ponies of every size and shape. When I say every size and shape, I mean it. I had humans with antlers, ponies that were more giraffe than pony, people with one eye or three, people that were anthropomorphic birds or chipmunks. These may have been the dreams of a naive foal, but they are still to this day the ones I cherish most.

I was playing with my various made-up dream friends, and along came this big seapony, flying through the air. I knew right away she was different than anything else around me. I looked up at her with a big smile. "Hello! Who're you!"

The seapony gazed down at me and smiled. "Just a curious observer. My name is Yinyu. What's your name little dreamer?"

Young foals and children typically have no problem answering questions, it's just that the nature of the answer might not be what you were expecting. "I'm Rebecca. Do you want to have a tea party with me, Miss Yinyin? I'm six, and my mom's a ballerina!"

My visitor had simply rolled with what I had said. "Is she now? And six you say? My, I think that is even older than five. But my name is Yinyu, not Yinyin. Yinyin means something very different."

"Yanu?"

"Yin-yu." She replied back slowly and patiently.

I wasn't getting it. "Why are you yining me? What's yining?"

The seapony didn't get upset. She just laughed. "How about you just call me Miss Seapony, how does that sound?"

I nodded vigorously. "Okay, Miss Seapony. Are you going to have tea with me and my friends?"

Miss Seapony looked around at our surroundings, and the various smiling faces, before looking down at me again, showing her-- very out of place with my dream-- fangs. "I don't scare you?"

I shook my head. "No. You're pretty! I've never seen a person that looks like you."

Miss Seapony looked at all my crazy make-believe friends, then back at me again. She then drifted down to my tea party. "I'd love to have tea with you. What kind of tea are we having?"

I showed her my teapot. "Purple tea!"

"How about some proper green tea instead?"

"Only if it has orange spots. Orange spots make it taste better."

Miss Seapony laughed again. "I think you've made yourself a deal, Miss Rebecca-- who is six, and has a ballerina for a mom. We can sit and talk, and you can tell me all about yourself, and your wonderful friends."

And that is how I made friends with Miss Seapony. Or at least, that's how I remembered it for a long time after. Memories are funny things, they don't always tell us the whole truth. When you are with another person, you only remember your perspective, and only get half the story, or even less. It took me a long time to remember everything that happened that night, and to realize how much I had missed.

The Skytree College of Art and Design had triangular shapes to all their main buildings, and the administration building had painted murals displaying the Remembrance Monument, but also murals showing the massive church known as the Bastion that had once stood where the monument now covered.

I had to admit, based on the drawings, the Bastion must have been an impressive sight back in the day; part church, part fortress, and very very large. It had been built to impress, but I couldn't help feeling that there was a certain coldness to the design. A place that sacrificed beauty for the sake of strength. Looking at the opposing murals I saw the hearts of two different cities that occupied the same location.

"We'll never get anything done today if you stop to gape at everything, Bec," Maggie chidded.

I turned and looked at her. "But there's so much to see." I noticed more murals on some of the classroom buildings, and felt a strong urge to go look at them as well.

"Bec, you'll be here every day after we get moved in. You'll have plenty of time to look at everything as much as you want after that," Maggie replied impatiently. "Let's just go check in, get our class schedules, and find out our dorm information. You're the one that said we're on a tight schedule today."

That was true, and Maggie was right. I gave a quick longing glance back at the classroom buildings, and then nodded back to my friend.

Inside the main lobby of the administration building there were several tables set up where incoming freshmen could check in and get the information they needed. There were about ten different tables, some with lines, some without. We spotted the table that was taking care of students with last care of students with last names or pony names beginning with R or S. That covered both of us, and it didn't have a line right now.

I hurried towards the table at a partial gallop, and Maggie had to do a jog to try to keep up. I tried to slow down when I realized I was running indoors, but instead I ended up faceplanting on the ground and sliding along the tile floor.

The human lady and unicorn stallion that had been at the table tried to come around it to come check if I was okay, but I waved them off with a wing. "I'm okay. It happens all the time."

"Are you sure? We have a nurse on staff who can help if you're hurt," the human lady asked. She looked older, with lots of lines around her eyes, and short iron colored hair.

I stood back up and gave my best reassuring grin. "I'm fine. I've got a lot of extra padding on me, so when I fall down it is more of a SMOOSH-SPLAT instead of a CRASH-CRACK."

"Except for when you knock other things down," Maggie reminded me.

I spread my wings and then hopped from back and forth between my starboard and port sides. "That is more of a CRASH-BANG-CLANK; usually followed by me yelling I can pick that up or I'll pay for it."

The unicorn blinked a few times. "Such a-" he seemed to be looking for the right word. "-colorful way of describing things." I'd earned a small audience among those nearby, and a few nearby students were laughing. I was a klutz, and I'd rather own being a klutz than be embarrassed. People need to be willing to laugh at themselves to be happy.

The human lady looked bemused. "Try to avoid this becoming a habit. We don't want any crashes or cracks. I take it you're one of our new freshmen?"

I gave a broad grin. "Yes, I'm Rebecca Riddle." I gestured at Maggie. "This is my friend, Maggie Smith."

"Margaret Smith, technically, but I go by Maggie," Maggie corrected. Becoming suddenly much more shy, now that I wasn't the sole source of attention.

"Well, Miss Smith, I should have your information over here," the human lady said, as she walked back to her seat. She pointed me towards the unicorn. "Telly here will have your information Miss Riddle."

It took a few minutes to explain to us where the dorms were located, and how to match the codes on our schedules to the appropriate books in the bookstores. It never occurred to me that the exact same class taught by two different professors might have two entirely different requirements for books; not that I minded, it just meant each professor was a unique experience. Maggie and I spent another few minutes looking over our first semester schedules and comparing them. We did have two classes together, English 111 and Art 101. Those were really lucky, because those were both classes that every student had to take their first semester, and therefore there were a lot of different possible times and professors that we could have ended up with.

The dorms were towards the back of the campus. Both the male dorm building, and the female dorm building, were shaped like massive letter U's; with two separate wing towers and a central gathering area. Students from the opposite gender were allowed in the central gathering areas, but not into the tower wings. The left tower was reserved for primarily human dorms, and the right were primarily pony dorms (although there could be some occasional mixing of those, based on how many of each were enrolled at any given time).

We entered the female dorm building and looked around. Scattered around the common area were lots of couches, ping pong and air hockey tables, arcade cabinets, meeting tables, vending machines, public computers, and even a big swimming pool. There was also a security desk, where the guards on duty seemed to be carefully monitoring the few men and stallions that were hanging out with their female friends. On the entrance wall was a big sign listing off the building rules-- among those rules was no flying in the halls or common area, which wouldn't be an issue for me.

"So, I'm supposed to be going to FL 209. What's your room number?" Maggie asked me, as she looked on in interest at the swimming pool.

"My dorm number is FR 512, I'm guessing that's on the fifth floor," I replied. I hoped there was an elevator. I did not want to have to go up and down five flights of stairs every day.

Maggie started to shift back and forth from one foot to the other. "I guess we should go check them out, and meet our new roommates. Um, meet you back down here in an hour? After that we can go reserve our books and I'll take you back home."

"That works," I replied. "If I end up having to go up five flights of stairs on hoof I might need an ambulance, but here's hoping it won't come to that."

Maggie pointed at the far right wall, near some vending machines. "That looks like an elevator over there."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Hooray! No need to resuscitate me today!" I noticed Maggie was still nervously dancing in place. "Don't worry. I'm sure you and your new roommates will get along fine, and I'll be right across the building from you."

Maggie took a deep breath, and smiled. "I've got it. Just a little jittery. I'll see you in an hour. Don't join any cults or get pregnant without me."

I laughed. "I'll try not to, but no promises."

As Maggie turned and headed to a stairwell to our left, I walked over to the elevator. It opened right away, and a pair of unicorns waved at me as they got off and I stepped on. I didn't even get a chance to hit the button to go up before I saw the light for it pop up. I guess that meant someone on the fifth floor had beat me to it. I just sat there, humming to myself, as the elevator started to ascend.

When it came to a halt, and opened, I was met by a green pegasus who immediately looked at my cutie mark with wide eyes. "Are you Sunflower Smiles? You weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow."

"Um, that's not me," I said apologetically, stepping around the pegasus. "My name is Rebecca."

The other mare looked relieved. "That's good, I was worried my new roommate was showing up a day early, and was going to freak out because our room is kind of a wreck right now." She looked me over. "You said your name is Rebecca? I'm pretty sure you're in the room next to mine. Nightscape and Julie are both there waiting on their new roommate, and I think they said their new freshman was named Rebecca. I'm Meadow Leaf by the way, but just call me Meadow."

I looked left and right trying to decide where to go. Meadow must have figured out what I was doing. "Oh! Sorry! Down the hallway to the right. It's like five doors down. Most the ponies on this floor are pegasi, except for Nightscape, and Grenda down at the end of the hall. Grenda is a griffon exchange student, and the RA for our floor. Don't be too scared of her; she's normally really friendly-- unless she catches you trying to sneak a stallion in, or smells alcohol or drugs on you."

I giggled. "That shouldn't be a problem. Thanks for the help. I'll be seeing you around."

The room was easy enough to find. I gave myself a little shake, made sure I didn't have any feathers out of place, then gave the door a knock. It opened right away to show a yellow pegasus mare with a straight white mane and tail-- white as my fur. She gave me a big smile and pulled me into a wing hug. "You must be Rebecca! I'm Julie. Come on in; me and Nighty have been waiting for you."

Julie was really strong for a pegasus, because she all but dragged me into the room with just one wing. The room was simple looking. It had three small desks, lined up in a row along one wall. It had a huge glass door with curtains over it that looked like it let out onto a balcony, and there was a bunk bed stacked three beds high in a corner. On the middle bunk there was a grey-blue night pony with a red mane looking at me.

"Eyes on you, Rebecca Riddle," the night pony greeted.

I blinked, that was a kind of a weird greeting. "Hi! Um, eyes on you too. Nightscape, right?"

"Nighty! What kind of way is that to greet our new roommate?" Julie asked in consternation.

Nightscape grinned. "It's kind of a private thing. She'll know what I meant by it. If not now, then soon enough." Okay, that just got weirder. Nightscape looked me up and down. "I didn't expect you to be so... round. Well, do you know how to fight? Like any martial art? Anything at all?"

"I can sit on someone, that would probably do the trick in a fight," I said, jiggling my flank. Night ponies were known to be aggressive, so her asking about me being able to fight didn't really put me off. I noticed that she didn't have any tattoos on her leathery wings. Night pony mares tattooed their wings if they were lesbians; I'm not sure why, it was just a weird night pony thing. Her not having any tattoos meant she wasn't hitting on me, or anything like that.

Nightscape blinked. "Ohhh dear."

I tilted my head. "What? Did I do something wrong?"

Julie stepped forward. "Yeah! What's up with you? You're acting strange all of the sudden."

The night pony shook her wings briefly. "It's nothing, just not what I expected." She then smiled at me. "I apologize if I came off as disrespectful. I didn't mean to be. What are you majoring in?"

My mood brightened up. "I'm in the architectural design and engineering program."

Nightscape's eyes seemed to light up. "Really? Me too. Most of the people in that program are humans, earth ponies, and unicorns. This whole past two years I've been the only pony with wings with that major."

"That's great! Maybe you can help me out with things." I turned to my new pegasus friend. "What are you majoring in?"

Julie lifted her wings high. She had a really impressive wingspan, and looked really muscular. "I'm an athlete, here on a flight team scholarship, but my major is in cloud design. I'm hoping to get drafted out onto a professional speed flying team, but after my sports career eventually dries up I'll probably go into the business of making custom shaped clouds. There's a growing market for it."

"Custom shaped clouds?"

She nodded. "Yeah. People order them made for special events, or for movies, or all kinds of things. Rich people will pay a lot of money to have every cloud in their event to look just right, and ponies that know what they are doing with detail cloud shaping can make a lot of money. Any pegasus can make a cloud, but it takes an artist to make a perfect cloud for the mood."

"I've never heard of that. I also didn't know we had a speed flying team, since this is an art school," I said in astonishment.

Julie hopped back. "Are you kidding? This place has one of the best speed flying teams in the country. I guess you aren't a local. Back when the city blew up Sapphire Skies did a lot of really high power pegasus magic stuff, and it inspired every little pegasus filly and colt around here it seemed. This school is packed with flying athletes."

I gave a birdlike tilt of my head. "Who's Sapphire Skies?"

Julie went wide eyed with shock. "You don't know who Sapphire Skies is?! She's like the best pegasus ever!"

"Now you've done it," Nightscape said in a lamenting voice. "We're about to be presented with the monologue of praise of Julie's hero."

Julie gave Nightscape the stink-eye. "I'm not that bad!"

Nightscape snorted. "You've got your bed surrounded with posters of her, like some sort of shrine. I'm surprised you don't pray to her at night, with how much hero worship you have."

"Well, you've got your weird Dreamwarden worship thing going," Julie shot back. Dreamwarden worship? That could make this arrangement kind of uncomfortable.

Nightscape laughed again. "My fiancé has Phobia Remedy for a sort-of-godmother. Which kind of makes her almost like my future mother-in-law. Trust me, I don't worship my future pseudo-mother-in-law, but I do listen when she tells me to do something."

I didn't know how to feel about that. Phobia Remedy was like Miss Seapony, a Dreamwarden. She was said to be the only Dreamwarden that the meanie Dreamwarden Sha'am had been afraid of. Phobia Remedy lived in Skytree, but I had never met her. Miss Seapony didn't talk a lot about the other Dreamwardens, so I really didn't know what they were all like. I just knew that anyone that Sha'am Maut had been afraid of had to be really scary.

"Is Phobia Remedy really scary?" I asked, unable to withhold speaking my mind out loud. I wanted to take a break and go see what was in the vending machines.

Nightscape seemed taken aback by my question, then shrugged. "What's more scary than me making my future mother-in-law, or pseudo-mother-in-law, angry with me? I can't think of anything."

"You've never told me how you get along with his actual family," Julie cut in.

Nightscape flapped her wings, and flew down from the bed. "I've never really met them. His little sister is supposed to be arriving in town later today, and she is going to be going to the clinic with me and him tomorrow. I'll let you know what she's like after that. I'm going to meet his actual parents and little brother over Thanksgiving Break."

"You got engaged without meeting your fiancé's parents?" I asked, gaping in amazement.

Nightscape shrugged. "I'm a night pony. We try to get that engagement promise ASAP. There's a night pony saying; those that hesitate, don't get a wedding date."

"But, is the rest of his family night ponies?" I asked.

The mare shook her head. "No, but I'm sure his actual family will understand, if they know anything at all about night ponies, which they obviously should. I'm actually being very conservative with him, any other night pony mare would have made sure he had them pregnant by now. But I agreed to hold off on that until after we graduate, hence the visit to the clinic tomorrow to discuss birth control options."

I perked up. "I'm actually going by the doctor tomorrow for birth control."

Nightscape gave a mischievous smirk. "Ohhh, are you going to be going on some midnight rendezvous off campus?"

"No, I-"

The night pony went wide-eyed. "Oh! In that case, I can try to help cover for you sneaking a stallion in here, but I'm not sure how Julie feels about that."

"No!" Julie shouted. "No stallions! You aren't getting me in trouble. I'd lose my scholarship."

"I'm not going to be having any sex!" I shouted. "I'm a committed virgin. My mom just insists I get on birth control, and I'm humoring her to make her feel more at ease."

Julie let off a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank Yinyu! I thought we were about to have some drama in here before you even got moved in."

Nightscape just looked even more confused. "You aren't at all what I was expecting. Not that there's anything wrong with that."

The fact that Nightscape seemed to have had a lot of expectations still felt strange.

"Anyway," Nightscape continued, before covering a yawn. "Maybe I'll run into you tomorrow at the clinic. If I do, you can meet my fiancé. He's a great guy, and he attends here as well. I'm sure you'll be as surprising to him as you were to me. I'm getting some much needed sleep now. I was only staying awake this long to meet you. Have a good day, and I look forward to helping you move in later on."

Nightscape then pulled a curtain around her section of the bunk bed. Still leaving me feeling as if I was missing half the conversation somehow. I could only smile and wonder.

Chapter 4: Things We Just Don't Talk About

When I was eleven years old, someone important to me died.

I was in my friend Mandy's dream. Mandy and I had lived next door from one another in Virginia, one of the many places my mom's big boss had made us live, and then later move away from. We did get to eventually settle for good in Skytree, but there were a lot of places in between where we had started and Skytree. Each one of those came with more friends that I had to say goodbye to. Mom told me that we were going to be getting our forever home eventually, but sometimes dreams took some time to come completely true. I could accept that. I accepted a lot of things, but I always hated saying goodbye.

It was a normal sort of night. Miss Seapony hadn't been around when I first fell asleep, but that wasn't unusual; Miss Seapony didn't always show up. Because my family moved around so much she had taught me two years before how to dreamwalk, so I could visit all my old friends still after I moved. There had been a lot of time teaching me how to find each of my friends' dreams, and I had been told that I wasn't to go visiting other people's dreams without her there, or the angel lady would show up and send me back to my own dreams. I kind of wanted to meet the angel lady, but I didn't want to be sent back to my own dreams either. That was like being sent to my room without dinner, which was just about the most awful thing I could think of.

Mandy was my age, and had just gotten her cutie mark, a needle and thread over an outspread wing. Mandy had learned how to sew using her wings, and was telling me all about it. I was listening with joy and enthusiasm, telling her how happy I was for her, and daydreaming about the day I might get my own cutie mark, when Miss Seapony came.

I didn't notice Miss Seapony at first, Mandy did. Mandy jumped away and screamed, and I turned to see my best friend. Miss Seapony looked faded, tired, not her normal self at all. I could tell that there was something wrong. First I had to take care of Mandy.

I went over to Mandy and rubbed a wing against her, while she stared in horror at my other friend. "Don't worry, Mandy. This is Miss Seapony, she's my friend. She's the one that taught me how to talk to you in dreams."

"She's big, and she has s-sharp teeth," Mandy whimpered, pointing a wing at Miss Seapony accusingly. "That's not a pony, that's a monster!"

Miss Seapony actually flinched at what Mandy said, which is something I couldn't imagine her doing. She then shrank her size down, so she was no bigger than me or Mandy. That seemed to calm Mandy down a little, but not completely.

The fact Miss Seapony looked so sad was getting too much for me. Mandy seemed calm enough, for the moment. I hurried over to Miss Seapony. Mandy would understand that Miss Seapony wasn't a monster when she saw me talking to her.

"Miss Seapony, what's wrong? You look sad, or hurt. You don't look right."

Miss Seapony stared at me, and I could see tears in her eyes. "I've had a very bad day today, Rebecca. I can say with perfect honesty that it was the worst day of my life, and there will never be another day of my life that will be worse."

I went up to my oldest friend and gave her a big hug. Miss Seapony seemed surprised, but embraced me as well. She laid her head on my shoulder, and did something that she'd never done before and has never done since, she started sobbing. She sobbed so hard that her whole body shook, and I could feel her tears on my fur. It was just a dream, but it was as real as anything in the waking world.

"What's wrong with her?" Mandy asked. She crept forward, concern outweighing fear. It was hard to be afraid of a monster that was sobbing like that.

"I don't know," I replied, then hugged my friend tighter. "What's wrong?"

Miss Seapony drifted out of my grip. By drifting out of my grip I mean she became immaterial and there simply wasn't any way of gripping her. She sat back and looked at me, wiping her eyes with a fin. "I think we should go see your mother before I tell you. This is not going to be an easy thing, and I think she should be there when I tell you."

I had never dreamwalked to my mom before. I understood that I probably wasn't going to be the one dreamwalking her tonight; Miss Seapony was going to be taking me into her dreams.

"Say goodbye to your friend, Rebecca," Miss Seapony instructed. "You can see her again tomorrow."

I looked over at my still wary friend. "Sorry, Mandy, I've got to go. I'll see you again soon."

Mandy crept a little closer, but came sort of the distance she needed to hug me. "Just don't get eaten!"

I didn't get time to reply back, as Miss Seapony whisked us away. We were suddenly in a different dream, that felt a little funny. It's hard to say what felt funny about it. It was like a constant sound just outside my ability to hear, or a breeze on my feathers that wasn't there, or like something was always right outside my field of vision.

Miss Seapony caught onto my discomfort. "This is a human dream. Human dreams operate on a different, let's say frequency, than pony dreams do. You can feel that difference while in it. The magic attached to this dream is very weak, and you won't be able to find this dream again without me. Until today, I wouldn't have been able to find this dream either."

The dream didn't seem to be anything. I just saw fog. "Where's my mom?"

"We are on the edge of the dream. I am waiting for a friend to explain things to your mom before I take you to see her."

"Oh," that was all the reply I could think of. Miss Seapony's depressed mood had me really worried about her. She was never like this, and she was my friend. I wanted her to be happy.

The fog suddenly dissipated, showing what looked like the front door of my house. "We can go forward now. She should be waiting. Arbiter has alerted her of our arrival."

"Who's Arbiter?" I asked, as we approached the door.

"The angel lady," Miss Seapony replied. "She's my younger sister Dreamwarden, and she has tended more to dreams like this one since joining our ranks, dreams that don't have much magic."

"Is she going to be there?" I had never met the angel lady.

"She is always around, as I am now, but she is going to be keeping out of sight. This is a personal conversation, that she has no desire to intrude upon. She likes to be in the background, giving aid unseen, unless something requires her to speak directly to a dreamer."

"Oh," I replied again.

We went through the door into what looked like our living room, except with just the tiny bit off being off that said this was a dream; light that came from nowhere, none of the little imperfections the room normally had, and some details missing or different. My mom was there sitting on the couch, and she turned and looked at us as we entered.

"Hello, Miss Riddle, you know who I am," Miss Seapony stated, not making it a question.

My mom squeezed her hands tightly together. "You're Yinyu Wu Yan. I guess it's nice to meet our benefactor at last."

I looked up at my friend, ears flattened. "What's she mean, benefactor?"

Miss Seapony looked down at me and brushed a fin against my mane. "Years ago, I saw the situation you and your mother were in, when you were homeless. I had to obtain your permission to seek help for it, you might not recall me doing so, since you were so small. Once I had it, I asked one of my sisters to request the aid of Wild Growth, as a personal favor. She was the one that gave your mother her job."

"Oh," I said yet again. I smiled up at her. "That was really nice of you! You must help lots of people like that."

To my shock, Miss Seapony shook her head. "Unfortunately, the world is far too big, with too much suffering, to help everyone so much. And you're so very special Rebecca, that I need to admit, I had an ulterior motive for helping you at the time, but it no longer seems to have any meaning."

"What were you trying to get out of my daughter?" My mom said, her voice was harsh, like she was angry. I was confused, why was my mom angry?

"An heir," Miss Seapony said quietly. "I saw in your daughter all the qualities that I wanted in whoever succeeded me. She could be trained and prepared for years, so she could be more ready than any who came before to step into the job. A smooth transition to a better, kinder Dreamwarden, when I chose to move on to Equestria. She would have to accept it, of course, but I had such high hopes."

My mom's tone didn't lighten. "You say that in the past tense. Has she displeased you? Are you just going to cast her aside as useless now?"

"No, she has only continued to verify what I first saw in her," Miss Seapony replied. She then sank low to the floor. "What has changed is I am no longer going to be able to move onto Equestria. It will no doubt be on the news when you awaken. I have brought Rebecca here because I need to tell her what has happened to me, and it's a very hard subject, one that you should be present for. I am trapped in the dream realm forever now. Do you understand why that kind of thing happens, Miss Riddle?"

My mom looked confused for a moment, then brought her hand up to her mouth with a gasp. "Oh my! I…I don't know what to say."

Miss Seapony gazed forlornly at my mother. "So you do understand. I am many things, Miss Riddle, but one of those things is that I am your daughter's friend, her oldest friend, other than you. I need your help, to explain what has happened."

"I don't know if we should have this conversation with her," my mom said, looking more and more concerned.

I cowered down on the floor, not likely that both my mom and Miss Seapony were so upset. Had I done something wrong? "What's wrong? I don't like this."

Miss Seapony kept staring at my mom. "She will hear of it one way or another soon enough. It is better that she heard it directly from me, and better that you are right here to help her understand and comfort her. I care deeply about your daughter, as if she was one my own foals. I am even now trying to comfort them as well, and the experience has been far more traumatic for them. Help me make this less so for her."

"What's going on?" I whimpered.

My mom came over to me and pulled me into a hug. "My little sunshine, we need to talk. We need to talk about what happens sometimes when bad things happen."

And that's when I learned that Miss Seapony had died, and was now a ghost… you'll need to excuse me; I don't want to focus on this memory any longer.

I spent a little while talking to Julie. In addition to getting to know one another, we discussed what I would be bringing in, my actual move in date, and went over some basic 'house rules'. Nightscape slept through the entire time, as was typical for a nocturnal pony, and operated on a schedule very different than either me or Julie.

Some interesting things I learned were that most pegasus students tended to just fly in and out of the balconies when coming and going from class. They typically only used the elevator or stairs when visiting someone elsewhere in the building, when going down to the gathering area below, or when carrying around a delicate project that they wanted no risk of falling from a five story height. Julie was more than a little shocked when I told her that I would probably use the elevator most of the time, at least when carrying my stuff for class.

"But, what pegasus doesn't want to fly as much as they can?!" Julie exclaimed, spreading her wings as if to remind me we had them. "I know you're a little…"

"Fat," I supplied.

Julie looked embarrassed. "I was looking for a nicer word. But, being that shouldn't interfere with you being able to fly that much."

I flapped my wings a few times to get into a small hover. The rules forbid flying in the halls or common area, it didn't forbid flying inside of rooms. Julie wouldn't even be able to reach her bed without flying. I took to the air and kind of dipped up and down, while wavering left and right, before finally settling back down.

Julie blinked. "Your weight actually causes you to have that much trouble flying steady? I don't understand. You're not the only heavy-set pegasus I've ever seen, and those other ones didn't have that much trouble."

"My pegasus magic is kind of weak all around," I explained, as I gave my wings an extra flap or two before settling them back to my sides. "I've got next to no weather magic, and I feel like I'm walking on a waterbed when I cloudwalk."

"Oh, you're one of those ponies with lower magic, like PREQUES two or whatever," Julie said sympathetically. "Sorry, I didn't realize."

I shook my head, then grinned. "I'm actually a four-point-one. My magic just mostly got put into other things. I can dreamwalk as well, or better, than most night ponies, and I'm licensed by the OMMR."

Julie gave a worried shuffle of her wings. "So you can do, like mind magic, and stuff?"

I shook my head again. "No, no mind magic, at least, not like you are thinking. I'm not allowed to actually say what I can do. I can show you my license, if you want."

I opened up my travel pouch and pulled the small card out from it with my mouth, and transferred it to the cup of my wing. I then passed it to Julie's outstretched wing and waited for her to read it.

"One ability licensed, ability classified, assessed one-two-nine, personally monitored by the Dreamwardens, refer all requests for information regarding ability to the Dreamwardens," Julie read aloud. "What does that number mean?"

I took the card back from her and placed it back in my pouch. "Each number is ranked one to ten, one the lowest, and ten the highest. The first number says how much direct damage or harm my ability can do. The second number says how prevalent the ability is in the general population; two means exceedingly rare, in this case there are like a dozen ponies who can do it. The third number says how strong I am at the ability out of those who can use the ability."

Julie gave a partial frown. "And you can't say what it is?"

I shook my head a third time. "Nope, Dreamwardens say no can do. I can say that if I ever look completely zoned out, and staring off at nothing, I might be doing it, so don't freak out. I'm not sick or anything. If you really need me when I'm doing that, you can get my attention by giving me a little shake."

"And the Dreamwardens themselves keep track of you?" Julie asked, mulling things over.

"Yep," I said with a nod. "They're immediately aware of every time I use it, and watch me the whole time."

"So, it's some dream realm thing then," Julie concluded.

"I can't really say, sorry," I apologized. "I can't accidently hurt you or anything with it. You don't need to worry about it."

Julie gave a flick of her tail. "Just weird having a roommate that has some super-classified magic ability she can't talk about. I guess It's no problem, but I think you should keep that to yourself. I feel like I'd rather not have known about it."

I looked down. "I understand, I just felt like if we were going to be roommates you should know, in case you ever caught me using it and got confused or worried."

"When you're zoned out, right?"

"Right."

Julie smiled at last. "Okay, that I can understand, because I might have worried. I can understand now why you told me. Can I tell Nighty about it later, or do you want to be the one to tell her? I won't tell anyone else."

I thought about it. "You can tell her. Just make sure it doesn't get spread around. I really did tell you just because we'll be living together, and you might see me doing it. Even my best friend doesn't know about this, since she'd never be in a position she'd see me doing it. I only do it when I'm in private."

"Understood, just as long as it isn't hurting anything, it will be fine," Julie said, fully releasing her tension. "Did you want a tour around campus? Do you have time today?"

My eyes went wide as I checked the time. Luckily a full hour hadn't passed yet, but it was getting close. "Um, can we do that tomorrow? I've got to run and meet my best friend. I told her I'd only be an hour. She and I were going to come back tomorrow afternoon to check out the sororities and clubs."

Julie looked at the time, and gasped when she saw it. "You'd better run then. Yeah, I'll be here tomorrow afternoon, and you can introduce me to your friend. I'll have your key for the room then. I was supposed to have that today, but they were running behind. Go on, hurry so you don't keep her waiting."

Author's Notes:

Art of Miss Seapony (Yinyu Wu Yan).

Chapter 5: People are Never What they Seem

My friend Josie taught me everything I know about how to use my powers. She visited me at least once a week, if not more, from the entire time after I learned that I had weird powers, up until the point we moved to Skytree. She was always kind of sad though. I hated anyone being sad, especially a friend.

One day, I tried to do something about it.

I had been expecting her. Because we had a rough schedule. It wouldn't do for her to show up in the house unexpectedly when we had guests, or I wasn't there. My mom accepted her presence, because she understood I needed to learn how to control my abilities. I'm not sure my mom ever really liked Josie though. It took a lot of effort to convince my mom to go along with my plan, but my mom eventually caved in, mainly because she couldn't deny me trying to make someone happy.

When Josie appeared she gaped at the room in open mouthed shock. My mom and I had party streamers hanging from the ceiling, balloons scattered around, a big cake, along with a big banner that said 'A Very Merry Unbirthday, Josie!'. Alice in Wonderland was my favorite book, and I loved the idea of an unbirthday party. You could have an unbirthday party every day of the year, except for your birthday, and that was better than just one birthday party a year.

"Happy unbirthday, Josie!" I shouted with joy. I then paused. "It isn't your birthday today, is it? This would be really badly planned if it was."

Josie gave me a flat look. "It actually is my birthday."

"Oh…," I mouthed, unsure what I was supposed to do now.

Josie stared at me with one eyebrow raised. "No, it isn't my birthday. What's this all about?"

I brightened up again, and laughed. "You got me good! I just wanted to have a party for you. You're always really nice to me, but you always seem unhappy. I want to turn your frown upside down!"

Josie blinked, then looked suspiciously at my mom. "And you helped her with this?"

My mom seemed unsure how to reply. "I- I am willing to indulge whatever helps bring my daughter joy. I couldn't deny her a chance to throw you a party if that was what was going to make her happy."

I put my kazoo in my mouth and started playing the unbirthday song as best I could (not very well at all). Josie just continued to stare, and after a few seconds I stopped, and dropped my kazoo. "What's wrong? Is it the cake? I know you can't eat it here, since you aren't really here, but we could mail some to you."

Josie sighed, and ran a hoof across her muzzle. "It isn't the cake."

I looked around, trying to determine why this wasn't going right. "Is it too bright? I know you don't like bright light, but I didn't think it was that bright in here. Maybe too colorful?"

Josie gave me an even sadder look than normal. "Rebecca… I know your heart is in the right place, and I really appreciate the gesture-- I do, but I don't think this was a good idea."

"Should I do something else?" I asked, looking for something to cheer my friend up.

Josie bit her lip, and seemed to be calming herself. "I don't deserve this. Just let it go. We have lessons to do."

"Now wait one moment!" My mom yelled. "My daughter has gone out of her way to do something nice for you, and you refuse to even try to pretend to be happy about it? I don't know what kind of problem you have, but it better not be with my daughter."

Josie's eyes narrowed. "I don't pretend to be happy about it because I don't want to put on some fake persona for her, and lie to her. I'm here because there was a scared filly, dealing with things she didn't understand, and I can't leave a filly like that when there is something I can do about it."

My mom was about to fire back some angry retort, but I asked a question first. "Why? Why don't you think you deserve it? Did you do something wrong? I don't think you did anything wrong."

Josie took a step back. She seemed to be really struggling with something. She gave me a final sorrowful look, and then vanished.

My eyes started to sting, and my vision got blurry. Before I knew what was happening, my chest was tightening and I started to cry. My mom hurried over to me and grabbed me up into her arms. I wrapped my wings around my mom and cried onto her shoulder while she cradled me in her arms.

"What did I do wrong? I wanted to make her happy."

My mom rocked me back and forth, still holding me tight against her shoulder. "I know you did, that's who you are, but sometimes you just can't make someone happy."

"Why?" I sniffled. "Doesn't everybody want to be happy?"

"Some people don't," my mom replied quietly. "Some people get it in their head that they can't be happy, that they shouldn't be happy. Some people just wallow in their own self loathing. You can try to help, but you have to understand you can't always help them."

"Why is Josie like that?"

My mom just continued to try to soothe me. "I don't know, sunshine, I don't know."

"I'm like this because I've done a lot wrong. It wasn't my fault, but I didn't have a choice."

I picked my head up from my mom's shoulder and looked back to try to see Josie. I saw nothing. The room seemed to be empty.

"Josie?" I called out, looking for the source of the voice.

"When I was little, I had such terrible nightmares," the voice continued, still unseen. "I would wake up, and it would still feel like I was in the nightmare. Night terrors are what people call that. I could never remember what I was afraid of after, just the terror."

"What does that have to do with anything?" My mom demanded.

"Because my nightmares weren't nightmares, my nightmares were real," Josie replied. "There was always this little girl in my room, a little girl who didn't belong there, and was gone by the time my parents came running to me, just vanished. I could never remember her after, but she was always there."

"A ghost?" I asked.

"No, not a ghost. That girl was all too real. A red-headed girl in tattered clothes, she never aged, from when I was six up until when I was ten. She… she did things to me. Then, one day, she came and told me she was done, that she was sorry it had to be this way, but that I would do a good job when the time came."

"And no one ever caught her?" My mom asked, seeming to doubt the story.

"My parents put up cameras in my room, to see what was happening at night. The cameras never saw anything."

"It sounds like you were just dreaming," my mom said. "I'm guessing this was back before ETS, judging by your age, so that rules magic out."

"Oh, but that's the thing. I'm from Lazy Pines. Where ETS first broke out. My life was decided for me, and I had no choice in the matter. When I fully transformed I was not only the first night pony on earth, I was the strongest that there would be, by design. When her voice came to me again after my transformation, I didn't remember it, but I did as it said… just like she had intended."

"And what did it tell you to do?" I asked in a low voice.

"It told me how to craft a vision. The vision was my craftsmanship. The greatest mind magic crime in history was started by me, the mass brainwashing of millions. I may have been conditioned to do it, but it was still me."

Josie now appeared in front of us, crying. "I wouldn't stop trying to craft visions, and the Dreamwardens grew angry. They put me on trial, and I was unrepentant, prepared to die for what I thought was right. I wasn't so lucky. I had Phobia Remedy for a judge. It would have been so much better to have Sha'am Maut, and just died, but Phobia Remedy forced me to face my fears-- all the fears that had been suppressed and hidden from me for years. She made me remember, she made me realize the truth."

Josie stared at us with a look of horror. "Nothing in my life was ever my choice. I can't even say for sure that me being here now is my choice, or if it is just how I've been programmed to think. That's why I don't deserve parties or gratitude. I've done bad things, and I'm not a person of my own making. I'm just a tool, here to do a job."

I don't know how I managed it, but I put myself right into astral projection right then and there and sent my projected form over to Josie. Then I hugged her. It caught her completely off guard, and my mom as well; who almost dropped my body in shock, before she realized what I'd just done.

"Rebecca, please, I'm not a good person. I'm not even a person, just some thing that was made," Josie wept, trying to gently free herself from my astral grip.

"You care about scared foals."

We both turned and looked at my mom, who was watching us intently, still holding my half-asleep body. "You care about scared foals," my mom said again.

"So? Of course I do," Josie replied. "After everything that happened to me as a kid, I can't bear to watch them go through terrors."

"And that's all you," my mom said quietly. "If what you say is true, you weren't made to care about scared foals. The real you that went through all that stuff is the one that cares."

"I-" Josie began, but my mom wasn't done.

"You said you are here because my daughter was a scared filly dealing with things she didn't understand. You don't just help her, you empathize with her. You've made it so she isn't scared anymore, because of your care and empathy, not because that was what you were made to do. Please, accept my daughter wanting to celebrate you for it."

"Please, Josie," I begged, gripping her tighter.

Josie sat still, and sniffled. "Okay kid, you can mail me some cake, and play your song for me. If that is what you want to do. I do appreciate it. I just can't promise that it will make me happy."

"Will it make you less sad?"

Josie chuckled dryly. "I guess it will."

"Then that's a start."

That's when I learned how much hurt a person could be hiding, and that sometimes bringing someone joy was a process.

Maggie ended up being the one late getting back down from her new dorm, though only by about four minutes. She was very apologetic, and I told her that it wasn't a big deal. It had given me time to raid the vending machines for some snack cakes.

We got to the bookstore and reserved and paid for all our books. I thought we were supposed to take them home with us today, but they said they'd hold them there until our move-in day. That made things much easier, because there were a lot of books, and I wasn't looking forward to carrying them all at once. After that we took a brief walk around campus, just to see where everything was at, before hopping back in Maggie's car and heading home.

Unfortunately, about five minutes into the drive, the car got a flat tire. Maggie had a spare tire, but she didn't actually know how to change a tire. I of course was absolutely no help in this, other than try to be moral support. It took a few minutes, but a nice human man eventually pulled over and helped us change the tire. He took an extra few minutes looking over the other tires, and explaining that Maggie needed to replace not only the one that went flat, but a second one as well, or it would be going flat as well soon. It really was nice of him, but it took extra time, and I was starting to fret about getting home late.

While he was still explaining things to Maggie about tire wear, and how often she should get her tires changed, I called my stepdad. "Hey Dad."

"Rebecca, where are you? Are you on your way home?" My stepdad answered back. He normally called me Bec or Becky, when he used my full first name it usually meant something serious.

"I'll be home soon. We got a flat tire, but it is fixed now. We've been running behind all day," I explained. "Is everything okay? Did you need something from the store?"

"We don't need anything, but thanks for asking," my step dad replied. He paused, and lowered his voice. "Becky, have you been doing anything you shouldn't? Things involving your you-know-what?"

I shook my head. "No, I've been a good girl. Why do you ask?"

"It's nothing," Dad replied quickly. I could tell he was very worried still. "Our guests were just very insistent that you be here." His voice dropped lower still. "Two of them are OMMR agents, Bec. Are you sure that you haven't done anything? You can be honest with me, we'll protect you."

"Oh, that," I said, forcing a laugh and grin. I did my best to put my smile into my voice. "Don't worry about that. I know why they're coming, bit who's the other guest?"

"Someone important. Your mom said you met her a long time ago, your mom's old boss," Dad replied.

"Oh." Mom's old big boss was Wild Growth, who was now a senator and a national hero. She was a very important pony, and she didn't typically just make social house calls. Saying Wild Growth was showing up for dinner was like saying the president was showing up for dinner 'just because'. It just didn't happen without a reason. She didn't run my mom's work anymore either, some other person ran that company for her; so she wouldn't be visiting to talk about that.

Of course, I already knew this was all because of me, but why would a senator be showing up? The only reason some big important government person would show up was… It couldn't be that. Miss Seapony would have told me… Wouldn't she?

I wanted to astral project right then and there to ask her, but I was in public, and with Maggie. There was no way I could do that right now without drawing attention to myself. It would have to wait till I got home.

"Hey, Bec! We're ready to go. Come on!" Maggie called out to me.

I turned my attention back to my phone. "I'll be home soon, Dad. I'll ask her about it when I get back. Love you."

"Love you, too. Just stay out of trouble, and get here soon. Your mom is on her way."

I ended the call and bounded back to the car.

Maggie gave me a curious look when I got back inside. "Everything okay? Do we need to stop at the ice cream place?"

Ice cream sounded so good right now. "No time. Need to get back home to be ready for the guests."

Maggie frowned. "What's wrong?"

I turned and looked at her, giving her a big smile. "Nothing's wrong. Why do you think something's wrong?"

Maggie narrowed her eyes. "I just offered you ice cream and you didn't protest that you are on a diet. That means you want ice cream; which means you're nervous or upset about something. The fact you refused, despite the fact you really want it, means whatever is going on is urgent."

I stared at her blankly.

"Bec, I'm your friend. I know you. You might smile all the time, but you get easy to read after a while. Tell me what's going on."

I didn't have a good out for this, and no white lie available. I just lowered my head. "I'm sorry, I can't talk about it. I'll be alright, I promise. Tomorrow, when you pick me up, I'll be perfectly fine."

Maggie didn't seem happy with that answer at all. She just put the car in drive and started driving. We drove back to my house in complete silence.

Author's Notes:

Going to be going back to work, starting tomorrow, so unsure what that will do to the speed of updates.

Chapter 6: More than Meets the Eye

I once knew someone in school who had a tri-colored mane and tail. Most ponies have just a single straight color for those, or two shades of the same color, or two colors, but three colors was really rare. They were really proud of their fancy mane and tail, and they also spent a lot of time reminding me how plain my colors were. I felt the need to correct her.

"I have stripes and spots," I asserted, with complete and utter confidence.

She looked at me like I didn't know what I was talking about. "No you don't. I'm looking right at you. You're plain white."

I grinned, and turned my body to put it more on display. "You aren't looking hard enough."

She squinted her eyes, trying to see what I was seeing. She then shook her head. "It's just straight boring white, and your mane and tail are just straight boring yellow."

I pointed a hoof at my body. "I have white spots and white stripes, can't you see them?"

She stomped a hoof. "You can't have white stripes and spots on top of white fur!"

"Yes I can, and I do," I replied, pointing again.

"You're crazy!" She yelled, and turned her back to me, gave me a strong flick of her tail, and strutted off.

"Or maybe I just see things a little differently," I said quietly.

Tell me, do you see my stripes and my spots? I think my stripes have always looked good on me.

Maggie pulled the car up behind my step dad's car and parked. "I'm sorry I got mad at you, Bec. I just don't like that you're clearly upset about something and you don't seem to trust me to tell me what it is."

I sat and considered what to say.

"It hurts my feelings," Maggie continued. "But more than that, it leaves me worrying about you. I caught that you were nervous when we were heading up to the college, but figured it was just the same stuff that I was feeling. You were talking on the phone with your dad, is something going on here?"

I tried to think of how to respond without lying to her. I hated lying to anyone, much less a friend. It just wasn't a nice thing to do. "These guests that're showing up later are really important. They could really impact my family in big ways. I might just be overreacting. I can't talk about who they are or what they're here for. I'm not entirely sure what they're here for, to tell the truth." The last part was a partial lie. I knew what they were here for. What I didn't know was why they were being put in place now. I had my suspicions, but couldn't be certain, yet.

Maggie was quiet for a moment, before sighing. "Well, that's more than I knew earlier. Is this going to change our plans for tomorrow?"

I brightened up. "Oh, definitely not! I'm ready to sign up for some clubs and maybe a sorority. I don't think my mom will cancel me going to the doctor tomorrow, even if the end of the world was coming."

That seemed to improve my friend's mood. "Okay then, I guess I'll see you tomorrow. If you want me to pick you up at the clinic make sure to send my car your GPS coordinates. Hopefully traffic isn't going to be too bad."

I giggled. "Yeah, wish cars could fly, and just avoid all that."

Maggie slapped her steering wheel. "I know, right! It's 2037, where's all our flying cars? We've got teleporting, if you're rich enough to be teleported everywhere, but we don't have flying cars yet."

"Yep, we got it all out of order," I agreed. Maggie hit the button for my door and it began to rise open.

Maggie gave me one more concerned look before I left her car. "Hey, give me a call if you need anything. Give me a call anyway later on, just to tell me if everything turned out okay with your guests, okay?"

I nodded with a friendly smile. "I can do that. Thanks, Mags. See ya tomorrow."

I watched as Maggie exited the driveway and drove off. My attention then turned to the house across the street, the one I had been nosey about earlier. The movers were all gone, and now there was a human lady standing out on the front porch. She was clearly watching me.

One thing I am bad at is containing my curiosity. I just can't help myself. There's so many interesting things to see. This time my curiosity had nothing to do with my normal reasons. I wanted to know more about our neighbors.

I did a little jog, while beating my wings, and took to the air. I was just going to fly across the street and say hello. Find out the lady's name, and be friendly. The lady watched me as I did my short flight, and then watched as I tumbled across her grass when trying to land.

"If you fly that badly, I think you might want to just walk over in the future," she called over to me. "You didn't hurt yourself, did you?"

I pulled myself back to my hooves, and spit out some grass. "I'm fine. I'm sorry about messing up your grass, I can pay for it."

"The movers made far more of a mess of it, don't worry about it," the lady replied with a dismissive flick of her hand, and leaned against her porch banister. She had red hair and golden eyes. "Eyes on you, Rebecca Riddle. How can I help you?"

Okay, that was the second time I'd heard that weird greeting. "What's that mean? Eyes on you?"

The lady kept blank faced, but looked around, before turning back to me. "Turn your phone off."

"Huh?" That didn't make much sense. "Eyes on you means turn my phone off?"

"No," the lady replied, shaking her head. "I'm telling you to turn your phone off by saying turn your phone off. I'll tell you after that."

I didn't understand what was going on, but did as she said. She watched me, and then added. "Do you have any other device that connects to the internet on you? If you do, turn that off as well."

I flapped my wings. "No, why do I need my phone off?"

She seemed to relax a bit. "Because you never know who else can be listening through the internet. Phones, computers, tablets, televisions, even some kitchen appliances can all be used to listen in on conversations. When you go home you need to turn as many of those things off as you can before we arrive, better yet, unplug them."

"Don't you think that's a little paranoid?" I asked.

The first sign of emotion appeared on her face, sympathy. "The goal is to keep you and your family safe, and any information getting out will make that harder. We need to make sure these conversations really are private, even if the chances of someone listening in are slim. If it weren't for the fact your stepfather can't be brought into a shared dream we'd be having this meeting that way, since that is the most secure."

It still seemed pretty paranoid to me. "Well, my phone is off, so can you tell me what eyes on you means? What's your name?"

"It means I'm a bodyguard for you and your family, and I'm aware of what you might become," the lady answered. "And my name is Melissa Rivers, or you can call me Daylight Mirage-- in the dream realm."

My eyes widened. "Anyone who says that to me is a bodyguard?"

Melissa nodded. "That's our code. We'll only say it to you once, just so you know us. So pay attention to anyone that says it."

That meant Nightscape was a bodyguard. That also meant someone had probably pulled strings to make sure I ended up with her as a roommate. "How many of you are there?"

"About a dozen, right now, that number may change," Melissa replied, standing up straight. "You might not even meet all of them. Most will keep low key, and may never speak to you. Some are placed near you, some near your parents. It's possible some may be placed near your close friends as well. There are also a number of other bodyguards that don't know why they are guarding who they are guarding, and won't do anything to give themselves away or have that code phrase."

I gulped, the scale of it made my suspicions seem more and more likely. "So, when should we expect you to come over?"

Melissa gestured at my house. "I'm just keeping an eye out for your mother, now that you're here. When she arrives I'll signal our other friend, and go wake my husband up. It won't take long after that."

I put on my best smile. "I better get going. I need to help get ready. Nice meeting you, Melissa."

"You as well, Rebecca. You aren't quite what I expected-- not that I had any idea what to expect. I suppose that's a good thing. If you aren't what anyone expects then that's more chance you'll remain anonymous."

I turned and walked back to the house. My thoughts were racing though. How quick were things going to happen? I wasn't expecting this to happen for years yet. Would it interfere with my college? Heck, how much was this going to interfere with my life all around? How were my parents going to take it? I could always say no. Were my parents going to pressure me to say no?

I wondered if there was any cake left over.

I walked into my house and saw my step dad putting away some things in the refrigerator. I remembered what Melissa said about appliances, and tried to think about what hooked up to the internet.

My step dad spotted me coming in and hurried out of the kitchen. "Your mom couldn't find her phone this morning, but she called me a little while ago from her work to let me know she is on her way. I heard Maggie's car out in the driveway, but what took you so long to come in?"

I gestured towards the front door. "Sorry about that. I was talking to the new neighbor, one of the ones that is coming over later."

His eyes went wide. "You just went straight over and…" He put a hand up to his face."Of course you did."

"She says we need to turn the power off or unplug everything that hooks up to the internet," I explained, looking around the living room for what those things might be.

He looked baffled. "Why?"

Telling him would only worry him more. "Um, it's kind of complicated. It seems important. It's just for the visit."

He looked around. "I really don't see the point. Everything that hooks up to the internet?"

"Everything," I confirmed. "Phones, computers, appliances, everything."

He sighed. "It seems like overkill. What the heck did you do, Becky?"

"Um, I haven't done anything, yet. They'll talk about it later."

"Not yet," he repeated. He looked around the living room, and sighed again. "Okay, you go unplug the computers in the bedrooms, along with the television in my room and your radio. I'll take care of everything out here."

I did as instructed, and just as I was finishing, I heard the front door open. "Why are you unplugging the TV?"

My step dad was explaining things to my mom as I got back out into the living room. She turned her attention to me right away, and hurried over to me and sat down beside me. "How was your day today?"

I gave her a big smile. "It was good. I met my new roommates, one of them is in the same program as me. The dorm building is really nice. It even has an indoor swimming pool!" I didn't swim, so much as float. I tended to be like a big fat duck going along the surface of the water, pony paddling to move along.

She looked me in the eyes, and smiled. I liked my mom's eyes. She had one eye that was blue, and the other eye was lilac colored-- the only visible evidence that she'd ever been a pegasus herself for a short while. "I'm glad to hear it."

"Are we just going to not talk about the people who are about to show up, and why?" Dad asked, seeming flustered.

"I have a pretty good idea what this is about," my mom said calmly. "I'm pretty sure Rebecca does too. It isn't bad, dear. It's something we should be proud of her for."

"If it is so good, why do they have to be so secretive about everything?" Dad asked, checking the time on an old digital clock on the wall.

"It's-" My mom was cut off from answering by a knock on the door. They really were ready to come over right as soon as she got home.

"I'll get it!" I announced, and ran over to the door. Our front door had a doorknob up high and a handle down low. Both turned together if you turned one or the other. They had separate keyholes as well, which also locked or open together.

I opened the door and was met by a different human lady than Melissa standing at the doorway. Melissa and a night pony stallion were standing right behind the woman. The woman herself didn't look too much older than me, had an olive color to her skin, and short black hair. She was wearing a business suit, and had a slight frown on her face. Where was Wild Growth, and who was this lady?

"Rebecca Riddle, I presume?" The lady asked, raising an eyebrow.

I smiled, like I typically did when meeting someone new, even though I was nervous. "That's me! What's your name?"

"Can we come in? You should be expecting us," the lady replied, ignoring my question. That was rude!

"Come right in!" My mom called out, hurrying over to the door. She looked around, and seemed as confused as I was about the lady. "We were expecting someone else, I think."

The lady briskly walked in and did a brief glance around the room. Melissa followed after her, but stopped when the stallion let off a curse. "Mel! Can you give me a hand? Back leg is jamming again."

I noticed then that one of his front legs and one of his back legs were completely metal and robotic. He was also wearing some strange contraption over his regular forehoof that looked like a gauntlet. Melissa stooped down and picked him up, and carried him inside. She looked around for a second before looking at my mom. "Do you mind if I set him on the couch? His back leg has a loose ball bearing that we really need to get fixed, and he needs to sit and adjust it, otherwise he can't walk."

Mom gestured at the couch. "Go right ahead."

Melissa hurried him over to the couch while the other lady just stood and watched. After Melissa set him down she closed her eyes for a second and cocked her head like she was listening for something. She then reached her hand in between the couch cushions and a second later she pulled up my mom's phone. She turned it off and set it on a nearby end-table, before turning back to the other lady. "That was the only thing I could detect. Everything else is off from what I can tell."

The olive skinned lady seemed to relax a little, and nodded back. Then looked at my mom. "Susan, do you mind if I use your bathroom for a second?"

"Um, yes," my mom replied. "Have we met before?"

"We'll get to that. Where's the bathroom?"

My mom pointed. "Right down the hall, second door on the left." The lady hurried off towards it immediately. Maybe that's why she was frowning and being so short, she just really needed to tinkle.

I closed the door, and watched in fascination as the stallion extended little mechanical fingers out of his gauntlet and started doing something to his back leg. That was really cool! I wish I had a thing that let me do that.

Melissa kept quiet, and just looked around the living room. On and off she would cock her head and seem to be listening for something, but it only lasted a second or two each time.

"Can we get you anything to drink?" My step dad asked.

Melissa turned to the stallion. "Want anything, hun?"

"Milk or juice would be great," the stallion replied. He then punched his leg, letting off a big clanging sound. He then stretched and shifted his robotic back leg around, as if testing its flexibility. "Aw, that's better. I really should have rehumanized years ago. These legs are too much damn trouble."

"No point complaining about it at this stage, hun," Melissa replied. She then turned to my dad. "Thank you, I'll just have some water for now, and juice for my husband. I think your other guest will want some water too, when she gets back out here. She should be quick."

"I need to get one of those thingies that she has," the stallion grumbled.

"That would be a nightmare trying to work with your prosthetics," Melissa replied. "I wouldn't mind one for me either, but you know how tight they hold onto those things, and you and I aren't important enough to be allowed one."

"What things?" I asked, they already seemed to have pretty cool things, with that gauntlet.

"That's so much better!" Came the lady's voice from the hall.

We all turned to face her, but I did a double take when I did. It was no longer the lady from before. It was a very muscular green earth pony mare with purple mane and tail, Wild Growth.

Wild Growth trotted cheerfully into the room. "I don't know how Sunset can stand being under those effects for days at a time sometimes. It just throws my whole perspective off, and I feel like my ears are clogged the entire time."

She looked around the room. "So when is dinner going to be ready? I'm starving."

Dinner sounded really good right around now.

Chapter 7: Family Chats

I don't remember my mom being a pony. I know she had been, for a little while, but my memories that weren't dreams from that far back aren't that good. It wasn't long after my mom started working for Wild Growth that I actually got to see what she had looked like as a pony.

My mom had just bought a new phone. It had been a long time since she had a phone. She just couldn't afford one up until that point. When her choices were between making sure she could feed me and keep me warm each night, and having a phone, she didn't have to think about which was more important to her.

Me, being the curious pony that I am, looked at her doing things on her phone with interest. "Mom, what are you doing?"

"I'm accessing my old cloud files," my mom replied, still entering things on her phone.

I looked at the phone. "You have clouds in your phone?"

"Not that type of cloud, sunshine."

"Oh, because those would be really tiny clouds if you did."

My mom gave an excited little bounce. "I found my old photos. Do you want to see what I looked like when I was a pony?"

I gave her a confused look. "You were a pony? Why aren't you a pony now? Do ponies grow up to be humans?"

That took away some of my mom's excitement. "No, I was human, both of us were, and we became ponies. I had to change back to human, and you were just not a good age to change back-- not enough sense of self, is what they told me. I have pictures of you as a little girl, if you want to see them."

"Why'd you have to change back?"

My mom set her phone down. "We were all by ourselves, barely any other ponies around. I needed to be able to get things for you, and I couldn't do that as a pony. If we had lived somewhere out west, or in the south, or almost anywhere else, it might have gone differently. Being a mom means I have to think about what's best for you."

This was a lot for my young mind to try to process. "Did you want to be a pony? Did you want me to be a human?"

My mom made a lap, and pulled me into it. She started brushing my mane. "I wanted us to be the same, but it just didn't work out that way. Initially, I wanted us both to stay as ponies, but people convinced me I couldn't provide for your needs that way-- not isolated as we were from other ponies. So I took you with me to the rehumanization clinic. The councillor there talked to you for a little while, and then he told me you couldn't safely be rehumanized. I'd have to rehumanize by myself. That devastated me, and I almost backed out of it, but I did what I thought I had to do."

I smiled a little. "So, things were better then?"

Mom sighed, and looked down. "I-I don't know. Things are better now, and I'm not sure if we could have gotten here without me turning back to a human. I can't say for certain if I made the right choice or not back then or not. I prefer not to second guess myself. I don't see how things could have gone better if I stayed a pony, but I am unsure if they could have gone worse."

"I don't understand."

My mom hugged me. "I'll explain it to you when you're older. Right now you are too young to understand things about rent, and bills, and unemployment, and debt, and economic depressions. Just know things are going to get better now, okay?"

"Okay."

She ruffled my mane, which made me giggle, and then picked up her phone again. "Now, let's look at some pictures. Here's one of you and me right after we became ponies."

I looked at the phone. I recognized my mom right away as my mom, though I couldn't say how. She was a light purple pegasus with a dark purple mane, and she was laying on the ground while I climbed all over her. I looked like I was happy, and my mom was smiling at whoever was taking the picture.

"I was really little," I said, as I looked at the picture.

That got another hug from her. "You still are, my scrawny little stork. When we get our own place I'm going to have to feed you a lot to get some meat on those bones. Then I can gobble you up for dinner!"

I gasped in mock fear. "Oh no! Don't gobble me up!"

My mom turned me on my back and bent her head down, pushing her face against my exposed tummy and made 'maw-maw-maw' sounds, before blowing hard on my fur. I squirmed and laughed as she did it, not really putting up any real struggle.

She showed me more photos. Pictures of when I was first born, pictures of me as a little girl wearing a dress and a big hat, lots of pictures of both me and her. In all the pictures we were together my mom always looked so happy, and I did too.

"As long as you have someone there to love, there is always something to smile about," she whispered in my ear.

And I never forgot that.

Our dining table was set really low to the floor, with no chairs. My mom and step dad called it Japanese style. Everyone took seats around the table, as my step dad set out salads for each of us, as well as a selection of dressings. I scrunched up my nose when he deliberately set the low-fat raspberry vinaigrette next to my salad.

"You're on a diet, sunshine," my mom reminded me. She then added a blue cheese dressing to her own salad. I wouldn't mind some blue cheese dressing, ranch would be better, but I'd take blue cheese over any vinaigrette.

The stallion with the robotic legs, used the mechanical fingers on his gauntlet thing to pick up his fork like a human would. Well, kind of like a human, it was an odd looking grip. My parents and Melissa all gripped their forks like humans normally do, and seemed to try to ignore Wild Growth's uncivilized manner of eating. Wild Growth didn't bring a pony strap to use silverware with, but the legendary earth pony didn't let that deter her from digging right in. The mare just stuck her face right down into the food and started eating it like that. She didn't bother with dressing, but that was probably a good thing, considering her lack of table manners. It was rude to comment on the table manners of a senator and living legend. I attached my own fork to my pony strap, as I typically did, and greedily dug into my own food. It soon became a bit of a race between me and Wild Growth to see who would finish first.

Wild Growth and I finished around the same time. The earth pony excused herself to the bathroom in order to clean her face. I was left watching other people eat in the meantime, even though I really wanted seconds, or dessert. I didn't ask for any. Mom or Dad would scold me that I was on a diet if I did. I wished I hadn't eaten so fast now, because watching other people eat was depressing.

When the mighty earth pony returned she sat down and gazed at me purposefully. "So, you're little Rebecca. Do you remember me? We've met before, briefly, but you were really young when we did."

"You came to our hotel room when I was a foal, and took us away from there," I slowly replied. "You look the same, except you had a sweater on before."

Wild Growth raised an eyebrow. "I probably was wearing a sweater. I can't stand the snow. I was born and bred in South Carolina, and snow and me don't get along much. I find the weather in D.C to be miserable." She brought a hoof up to her mouth and cleared her throat. "As for me looking the same, I age slowly, slower than most other ponies. I'm no immortal, despite the rumors, but I should be long lived. You'll probably have a fully grey mane by the time my first wrinkle appears."

"You were really nice to us; giving my mom a new job," I cautiously continued. Wild Growth was a really important pony. She was the one that grew the skytrees, and saved all the people in the city.

Wild Growth waved it off. "It was nothing. I found it a little odd that the Dreamwardens had taken such a direct interest in you and your mother, but I'm always willing to help those that need it. Helping you actually inspired me to start a program to help others in the situation you were in. Every year there are at least a dozen families I extend the same treatment to, and I have yet to have one where I felt I wasted my time and money."

"Oh, well, you're a very nice pony then," I said with a grin.

"I can only try my best," Wild said with a tired sigh. She looked around the table and noted that everyone else had finished eating. "I guess we can now discuss the meaning of this visit."

Everyone focused their undivided attention on the earth pony, and she turned her gaze back to me. "It is not public knowledge yet, but Psychic Calm has informed the government that he is intending to retire to Equestria this coming November. The announcement should be happening in October sometime. That means we are in line to be getting a new Dreamwarden. Things have changed in the past few years, and the Dreamwardens have become more open with sharing their lists of candidates with high ranking government officials. This is, of course, highly classified information, not to be released to the public-- or even most officials for that matter. You're on the top of the list of candidates."

"I knew it!" My mom blurted out. Wild Growth raised an eyebrow at her, and my mom gave her a sheepish look. "Sorry, just excited for my daughter."

"A Dreamwarden?" My step dad asked in amazement. "Becky, a Dreamwarden?"

"It is not confirmed she will be one yet, she is just at the top of the Dreamwardens' list of candidates," Wild Growth replied. "Things could change on that. One of the other candidates might suddenly distinguish themselves to rise above her, she might object to becoming Dreamwarden, or there might be sufficient number of governments that object to her becoming one."

"Governments can block a person from becoming a Dreamwarden?" My mom asked in confusion.

"Yes and no," Wild Growth answered. "We can express our concerns and displeasure with a candidate, and the Dreamwardens have promised to take those under consideration. In the end, they choose who they want, but they do listen to our feedback. The last Dreamwarden they chose they had several close candidates, and they dismissed several of those based on feedback from different governments."

"So what does Becky do now?" Dad asked.

Wild Growth shrugged her shoulders. "She really doesn't need to do much, other than take the time to decide if she actually wants to be a Dreamwarden. What I'm here for, today, is to get a first impression of her and report my feelings about her. That way the president and other members of the UN can have some idea what type of person your daughter is, and whether we feel safe letting her have that kind of power. I will continue on as a liaison after that, as we move closer to the date things will happen. She lives in my district, I'm very familiar with Dreamwardens, and I will be assisting with arranging for world leaders to discreetly meet her."

"And we're moving in across the street because the families of Dreamwardens must be protected," Melissa added in. "If she becomes a Dreamwarden she'll remain anonymous, other than her title, but we still keep guard over families, just in case. It won't be as impressively guarding you like they do Phobia Remedy's family, but that is because no one should know that Rebecca is even a Dreamwarden, just like no one but a few know who the Warden of Order is."

"I'm on half-a-dozen different Senate subcommittees, the head of one of them, and I don't even know the identity of the Warden of Order. I'm unsure who other than the President in our country knows, although someone else must," Wild Growth added in. "Keeping a lid on the incoming Dreamwardens' identities has gone well so far. After this switch, Phobia will be the last of the living Dreamwardens that has their identity known to the public."

"We won't let history repeat itself again," Melissa said quietly. "No more tragedies like Ghadab or Yinyu."

My parents both looked uneasy at the reminder of what being related to a Dreamwarden meant. If you killed a Dreamwarden the Dreamwarden just became a permanent resident of the dream realm, and more powerful. No one in their right mind kills a Dreamwarden (though crazy people still exist). What the bad guys would do instead is go after a Dreamwarden's family; that was how you hurt a Dreamwarden if you really wanted to hurt a Dreamwarden. Miss Seapony had died making sure her family couldn't be hurt.

Wild Growth looked me in the eyes. "The most important question I have for right now is, do you intend to accept if the position is offered to you?"

I squirmed where I was sitting. "This is a little high pressure. I knew this was coming, but I didn't think it was coming this soon. Psychic Calm isn't that old."

Wild Growth shrugged again. "Not my call on when the guy feels like kicking off his retirement. Maybe he just wants to have enough years left to actually enjoy it. Have they discussed it with you?"

I shook my head. "No. I kind of knew, because Miss Seapony had originally wanted me to replace her, and she stayed just as active with me after she died. I've never even met any of the others."

"Miss Seapony?" Wild Growth asked in confusion.

Melissa burst out laughing. "I love that. Do you have other names like that for the rest?"

I smiled. "Yes, the angel lady and Miss Nightmares."

"Cute," Wild Growth said dryly. "I'll be sure to tell Phobia she is hereby Miss Nightmares from now on. Phobia has a strange sense of humor, and might get a kick out of it… But you're telling me that you live in the same city as she does and have never met her?"

"No, never," I said, shaking my head. "Is she scary? I asked my roommate that earlier, but she didn't really answer."

"Most of the time, no," the stallion answered. "Except for when she is pissed off. If she is pissed off you're in deep trouble. Mel and I saw her pissed off once, and only once; it was the scariest damn thing I ever saw-- and I help treat nightmares for a living."

"She tends to be very reserved, and is a bit of a priss. I've never seen her that angry, a little angry, but not to the point she is going to do something. She can be quietly intimidating, all the same," Wild Growth said.

"Lucky you, never seeing her at her worst," Melissa muttered.

I cringed. "Was it really that bad?"

"She ripped our best friend's limbs off slowly, one at a time, all while forcing our friend to confront nightmare versions of us that seemed to take glee in her suffering. She also personally withstrained us, and who knows how many thousand night ponies, all at once, from coming to our friend's aid, and forced us all to watch," the stallion growled. "Yes, it was that bad."

"She has only done that once, as far as I'm aware, and she said she went too far, but I'll never forget it. I'll never forget what a Dreamwarden is capable of doing," Melissa said quietly.

I whimpered.

"I take it you aren't partial to doing anything like that?" Wild Growth asked.

"No! That's horrible! How could she do something like that?" Had Miss Seapony tried to stop her? I needed to know. I couldn't imagine Miss Seapony letting anyone do that kind of thing.

"You'll have to ask her yourself," Wild Growth replied. "She was the one that helped lay down the rules that stopped the Dreamwardens from doing that, but I don't ask questions about their early activities before those rules were put in place. I don't want to know."

"Sha'am was worse, much worse from what I heard," Melissa said. "Took Phobia putting her in her place to finally get her to stop. I have no idea what Phobia threatened Sha'am with, but it worked. I'm glad that old monster is gone."

Miss Seapony never told me much about Miss Nightmares. Just that Sha'am Maut was the most horrible and mean Dreamwarden, but even Sha'am Maut feared Miss Nightmares. I wasn't sure I wanted to meet Miss Nightmares. She sounded scary and mean on a level that could only be found in storybooks.

Wild Growth just watched me for a moment, then nodded. "I think I have some idea of your character. We do have one other small matter that needs attending to." She turned to my step dad. "We prefer meetings to discuss Rebecca to be held in the dream realm, with the aid of Yinyu, Arbiter, and Ghadab. As her stepfather, you should be present. Right now that isn't possible, because you don't have a drop of magic in you. We need to remedy that, but we require your consent to do that."

I perked my head up. They could do that?

My step dad blinked. "How? How are you going to do that? How much magic are you talking about giving me?"

"I honestly can't say how much magic you'll end up with," Wild Growth replied. "The method we have has been rather erratic in how much magic individuals end up with. You could end up like your wife, and have a small unusable amount, or it could grow into unique magical abilities in time. I really can't tell you how it will turn out, in that regard. I can say the method is safe to use."

Dad didn't seem sure what to do. "So, do you like zap me or something? Give me an injection?"

Wild Growth shook her head. "No, I temporarily, perhaps for five minutes, turn you into a pony. I have a talisman that will do it. That's how I was able to walk in her as a temporary human. If I can put up with an hour or more of being human, you should be able to stand five minutes of ponydom."

My mom gasped. "I thought that temporary transformations were still in medical trials."

Wild Growth snorted "That's the story, and they are, but that's mainly because we don't want widespread public access to this at the moment. Especially since we haven't narrowed down how to control the amount of magic humans end up with as a side effect, or how pony magic works while in human form. Believe me, the Blessingists really want to have us push this out soon, but we've been resisting. The magic for the transformations themselves has been perfected for some time now."

"And me getting magic is the only side effect?" Dad asked while rubbing his arms. "I'm not going to have leftover pony parts when I turn back, or have it mess with the way I think?"

"It does do a small amount of mind magic while under effect so you can actually use your body, but it doesn't have any lasting effect after you turn back," Wild Growth explained.

"You're lucky. I'd kill to have access to one of those talismans. If only for a few minutes," Melissa said wistfully. "I'm rehumanized, but I had the temp spell done to me before. It didn't leave any side effects on me."

Wild Growth flicked her tail. "Five minutes is what he's getting, these talismans are government property, and classified that they even exist."

"Can I try it too?" I asked. I wanted to know what it was like to be a human.

The earth pony flattened her ears. "No, it isn't a toy for everyone to play with. Five minutes for him, then I take it off. I'll use it when I'm exiting here, because I need to come and go from here incognito. People seeing me show up at your house raises questions. Melissa and Teddy Bear are your new neighbors, so they don't raise questions. Me showing up is a whole other story."

I looked at the stallion's flank. I hadn't really paid attention to It because I was so caught up looking at his robot parts. It really did have a big teddy bear on it. That was so cute! It was a cyborg night pony with a teddy bear cutie mark!

Wild Growth paused in her discussion. "Something wrong, Rebecca?"

I could barely contain myself as I looked at the stallion. "Can I call you Cyber Pooky?"

Melissa snorted, trying to hold back a laugh.

He flattened his ears. "What? No!"

I was undeterred. "How about Locutus of Bear?"

Melissa burst out laughing.

He gave me a dirty look. "Only if I get to call you Marshmallow."

"Okay, Locutus of Bear."

Chapter 8: Disclosures

My step dad and I don't have any of that weird stepparent-stepdaughter drama between us. When my mom married David, I was all onboard for having a new dad. He made my mom happy, and he loved me too. I did go through a small adjustment period, where I had trouble calling him Dad instead of David. I also still, to this day, think of him as my stepfather instead of my father, but that doesn't diminish the love I have for him. If you're looking for stories of me angrily yelling "You're not my real dad!" Then you have come to the wrong place, because I never did that.

However, my mom getting engaged did bring up some questions I had never asked. Yes, I did wonder why I didn't have a dad long before that point, but I had just never asked why. I had my mom, and that seemed enough. The impending addition to our family made it so I could no longer contain my curiosity.

"Mom, what happened to my original dad?"

My mom had been cutting up carrots for our dinner, and my question startled her so much that she accidently dropped the knife. It hit the floor and bounced, and I had to scuttle avoid it.

Her first concern was making sure the knife hadn't cut me, but quickly realized I'd successfully dodged it. She sighed, and picked the knife off the floor and put it by the sink, before bending down next to me. "When I got pregnant with you, I didn't want your actual father to know."

I tilted my head. "Why?"

My mom nervously ran a hand through her hair. "He was a complete jackass. I dated him for a while in high school, but dumped him not too long after… after we did what mommies and daddies do to make babies."

I snorted. "I'm thirteen, Mom. I know where babies come from. You gave me the talk a year ago when I had my first time of month. I'm wearing deodorant for that right now, and I masturbated in the shower this morning."

My mom's face twisted up into a stern look. "Rebecca Penelope Riddle! That last part falls under T-M-I, too much information!"

My ears dropped. "Sorry."

She looked upwards for a second and fluttered her lips. "Actually no, you're fine. It's good that you feel safe and secure telling me about things like that, and I shouldn't discourage you being open with me. Just try not to broadcast things like that to other people, okay?"

"Okay."

My mom's eyes narrowed. "How do you even-" She shook her head. "Never mind, not important. You were asking about why your biological father isn't part of your life, right?"

I nodded my head, and sat down to wait for her response.

She chewed on her lip for a moment before continuing. "Anyway, we had sex, and then I found out the next day that he bragged about it to all his friends and the whole school knew about it. Not only that, I found out he had been with a string of girls, and had been treating getting them to have sex with him as some sort of game, with a score. I was very attractive back then, one of, if not the most attractive girls in school-- and that isn't me just being vain. The fact that he managed to bag me, had earned him bonus points."

She gripped her hands into fists at the anger the memory brought her. "So I dumped him right on the spot. I wasn't about to be treated that way. He retaliated by spreading around rumors that I was basically a slut, who slept with anyone with enough prompting. People actually believed him, and I had all kinds of creeps come out of the woodwork trying to get me in bed with them. The girls at my school weren't much better, because they sat there and slut shamed me. It wasn't every guy and girl at school doing that stuff to me, but it was enough to make my school year a nightmare. I honestly considered dropping out at one point."

I came over to her and nuzzled her. "But you stuck it out, right?"

She laid a hand on my side and nodded. "Yeah, but it was rough. You have no idea how ashamed I was years later when I had no choice but take a job as a sex worker so we could eat. I cried so hard because I heard all those old taunts in my head, but the economy had been in a deep depression after ETS. We had to have food, and there weren't any other jobs at the time."

I nuzzled closer to my mom, but kept quiet.

My mom started to cry. "I wanted nothing to do with him. When I missed a period I took a pregnancy test, and was horrified to learn I was pregnant. I wouldn't tell anyone, even my parents, who the father was. I let them think I really was just some promiscuous girl who slept around, rather than have any chance he would be involved in your life. My parents were furious, and they wanted me to get an abortion. Despite how you came about, I didn't want that. After I graduated my parents paid a year's rent on a cheap apartment, and gave me a few thousand dollars, and they said not to ask for any more, because I wasn't getting anything else out of them."

"Did they ever make up with you?" I asked. I knew the answer, because I had never met my grandparents.

She shook her head. "No. I sometimes wonder if things would have gone differently if I had just been open and honest with them. If I told them about the mistake I made, and if I told them how I didn't want to have any more involvement with the guy who I had slept with. I don't know, it's hard to say."

I was pulled into a tight hug. "Just know that I support you no matter what. I'll always be here for you, no matter what happens."

And my mom always has.

Me and my two new neighbors sat around the table while my parents and Wild Growth went to the bedroom. My stepdad had to strip off all his clothes for this, and he wasn't going to do that out in front of guests. We sat quietly while we listened to what went on in the bedroom.

"Oh, you're adorable!" I heard my mom gush.

"I'm pink!" Dad shouted.

"It's a really nice pink, and it goes well with your blue mane." My mom assured him.

"Why'd I have to be pink?"

"I have no idea," Wild Growth answered. "The talisman works with what it has and replicates what ETS would have done. Just bear with it for another four minutes."

"Does this horn actually work?" Dad asked.

"It should," Wild Growth answered.

There was the sound of crashing in the room. Melissa started whistling beside me.

"That didn't go right," Dad said warily. "Maybe I should try again."

"It's your stuff you're destroying. Knock yourself out." Wild Growth said in answer.

More crashing ensued. I looked down and slowly started tapping out a beat on the table. Everyone in the living room was looking in any direction but the hallway.

"Honey, maybe something smaller?" Mom said.

"Alright." Dad said in agreement.

Melissa altered her whistle to join in with my beat on the table. Locutus of Bear started doing some 'bum-bum' sounds, and we had a little band going in the living room.

Wild Growth screamed. "Ahh! I don't qualify as something smaller! Put me down, right now!"

We paused our concert when we heard another big crash. It went silent for a moment after that.

"Do you think we should check on them?" I asked.

"I'm sure they're fine," Melissa answered. She then resumed whistling, and I resumed my beat on the table.

"This isn't so bad." I heard my dad announce.

"You make such a cute pink unicorn, hun."

"One more minute!" Wild Growth announced.

I partially stood up. Shaking my rear end in rhythm to our song. I kind of wanted to go find my kazoo, but I didn't want to break up what we were doing in order to find it. Melissa added a steady clap, and the stallion beat a wing against his metal leg.

"I'm naked!" Dad yelled out.

"Of course you're naked. You were naked before I put the talisman on you!"

"You weren't looking in my direction then!"

"I'm a married pony, attracted to ponies. Do you really think I care if I see your man bits?"

"Just turn around!"

Our music slowly winded down out, having gone a few minutes. Now we waited for everyone to come back out. I looked over at Melissa, and flicked an ear. "Hey, how did you know my mom's phone was in the couch?"

Melissa glanced over the phone in question. "I have human magic. I know where everything is around us, at least in a small confined area like your house. I just have to focus and feel it out. Electronic things around me tend to feel a little different than other things, light hot spots."

"Oh, that's cool," I said cheerfully. "I don't know much about human magic."

She laughed. "No one is an expert on human magic. It doesn't seem to follow any consistent pattern from person to person that has it. I can detect objects around me, but that doesn't mean the next human that has magic can do anything like that. Most humans with magic can't do anything at all."

I smiled. "I understand. My mom has magic, at least that's what she told me. She says she can't do anything with it, that it is too weak. She said she's a PREQUES zero-point-six."

"I'm a two-point-eight," Melissa replied. "I have my detection ability, and the Dreamwardens gave me the power to dreamwalk. I know of a human that can make massive illusions, and force everyone around to behave like characters in her fantasy. I know another human that can bend light, and another that sucks out the heat from anything he touches. There's no rhyme or reason to what human magic powers might be. Many of us have leftover pony magic too, though many of us don't. I don't have any, but I know several really strong humans that used to be earth ponies, and other humans that can detect subtle changes in the weather-- just like they could when they were pegasi. We're living in a world where X-Men mutants are real, only our powers are all magic."

I wasn't sure what an X-man mutant was, but couldn't help continuing to be nosy. "What kind of pony were you?"

Melissa laid a hand on her husband's back. "A night pony, like Teddy here. We both got hurt really badly early on. I still take a night pony form when dreamwalking, and consider myself part night pony."

The stallion held up a robotic leg. "I know I'm not all there, but Mel was much worse off. We spent a lot of time together in the hospital, it's where we started our relationship. She was one of the first people to rehumanize. They told her that it would heal her. It did just that, which I'm grateful for. I hated seeing her in constant pain."

I looked at his legs again. Yeah, they were cool, but I think I'd rather have real legs. "Why didn't you rehumanize?"

He shook his head. "It's a long story, Marshmallow. I'd probably have rehumanized if I could go back and do it again, but I was dealing with more problems than missing limbs back then."

I wanted to ask more, but my parents returned to the room right then. My mom looked amused, and my step dad's clothes were a ruffled mess.

"Your zipper's down," I informed him.

He hastily reached down and pulled it up. "Thanks. I got dressed in a hurry. That was a very unique experience. It was interesting seeing things more from your perspective."

"I wish I could have tried," my mom lamented. "I never got to do much flying when I was a pony. It would have been nice to feel that feeling again."

"I can relate," Melissa said, looking back towards the hall. "I take it our senator is putting her human suit back on."

"Yeah, she seems to want to get moving," my mom confirmed. She then walked into the kitchen. "Water or juice, hun?"

"Just water," Dad said breathlessly.

I walked over to him and gave his legs a hug. "Are you okay?"

He brushed me off his leg and then sat heavily down on the couch. "Sorry Becky, I just needed to sit down. That was… that was something else." He looked over at Melissa. "How long does it take for the magic to show?"

Melissa shrugged. "There is definitely magic in you now. How much is the question. The Dreamwardens can work with any amount. You might not know if you are going to gain any powers for weeks, months, or even a year or more; if you gain any at all. It took well over a year after rehumanization before my powers started to show."

My mom looked at her in interest. "You have powers?"

"Your daughter can tell you about it later. Wild Growth is done dressing," Melissa replied. We immediately heard the bathroom door open up.

Wild Growth walked in, and once again looked like an olive skinned lady. She really didn't look much older than me, like someone about to start college. I knew she was in her thirties at least, and I wondered if this was how she had looked before she turned into a pony.

The false human looked at Melissa. "I heard your little performance while We were in the bedroom. Didn't take you for the musical type.

Melissa blushed. "I'm not really sure where that came from."

"When Becky is involved it is easy to get caught up in whatever she is doing. It is kind of infectious," Dad explained.

Wild Growth raised an eyebrow. "Mind magic?"

"Just charisma," Mom answered.

I got another considering look from the senator. "I actually do have one other order of business before we leave. I was told you had some sort of classified power with the OMMR. OMMR classified records are typically something I don't have access to, unless putting in a good legal reason. Considering I need to report any potential threats you present, I need to know exactly what your classified ability is." She looked over to Melissa. "I'm sure the Dreamwardens will understand me inquiring about it."

"I think they will," Melissa agreed.

That made me uneasy. My parents knew what I could do, but Miss Seapony had said I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. This was Wild Growth, a United States senator, and a pony that had been the most powerful magic user on the planet-- before she burnt her powers out. This wasn't a normal someone asking. She needed to get Miss Seapony's permission, but to talk to Miss Seapony she had to actually use her powers-- or go to sleep, but she wasn't tired.

"I need to ask Miss Seapony if it is okay," I replied.

Wild Growth sighed. "Are you one of those ponies that are able to fall asleep quickly? I'd rather get this done today."

"I can ask her without falling asleep," I said slowly. I could be invisible and soundless right away. I was good enough with my powers to do that. I could have a full conversation with Miss Seapony right here without them seeing or hearing a thing. "I need to turn my phone on to do it."

Wild Growth raised an eyebrow again. She then looked at our other two guests. "Keep quiet while she has her phone on. No one discusses anything about the Dreamwardens while the phone is on." Everyone nodded, and she turned back to me with her arms crossed. "Go ahead."

I turned my phone back on and pulled up my music playlist. I flipped through the options, trying to decide on something relaxing. I eventually settled on Vanilla Twilight by Owl City. I turned the song on, closed my eyes, and let the music become my world.

It didn't take long at all to find myself staring at my swaying body once again. No one gave any gasps or signs of shock at another me appearing, or looked at anything but my swaying body. Teddy Bear even shuffled a yawn, as the mellow tones seemed to make him sleepy.

"Miss Seapony! I need to talk to you," I called out.

She appeared in front of me, and seemed to quickly access the situation. I turned and looked at each person in the room so she could see them. She swam in front of me while I was looking at Melissa and Teddy Bear. "I know these two well. I'm guessing the human is Wild Growth, using that abominable magic. How can I help you, Rebecca?"

"I need your permission to tell them what I can do," I answered.

Miss Seapony dipped and somersaulted in the air. "You have my permission to tell and show them. Is your meeting going well? Did they give your stepfather magic?"

"They did, and everything seems to be alright," I replied. I remembered something else. "Miss Seapony… they told me something bad that Miss Nightmares did, a long time ago. Did you try to stop her?"

My oldest friend looked sad. "We can discuss that later. Now is not the time. I promise to give you the answer tonight, and not hold any information from you." She looked at the others in my field of vision again. "Go ahead and make yourself visible and with sound. I will keep watching. You can even let them know I am watching through you."

I nodded. I hoped Miss Seapony would tell me tonight that what they had said about Miss Nightmares was somehow not true, or that Miss Seapony had tried to stop it. For right now I just let myself become visible.

Melissa gasped and covered her mouth when I suddenly appeared. Teddy Bear looked back and forth between the two versions of me in confusion. Wild Growth didn't seem particularly concerned about it. My parents, who'd seen me use my powers many times, gave our guests worried glances.

"That's a cool trick," Teddy Bear said. "Some sort of illusion?"

I pointed at my phone around my leg. "Can someone turn that off? I can't really do it right now." Mom hurried over to the me who was still swaying with the music, and turned my phone off, and I smiled at her. "Thanks, Mom."

"So, you can make an illusion of yourself when in a trance?" Wild Growth asked.

I shifted hoof to hoof. "Kinda-sorta. It's more than just an illusion, it's me. It's called astral projecting. I can't touch anything, but I can change my shape, or go invisible, or make it so you can't hear me, but I'm still here."

"Can you change your shape for me?" Wild Growth asked.

I blinked. "Okay, what do you want me to change into?"

"Surprise me."

Miss Seapony swam back into view. "How about a duplicate of her, down to the voice?"

"Okay," I replied. I think Wild Growth thought I was talking to her, since she couldn't see or hear Miss Seapony like I could.

I looked her over and a second later I was her mirror image, right down to the suit. "How's this?" I asked, mimicking her voice.

She walked over and placed her hand straight through me, and waved it around, before pulling it back. "Completely incorporeal, as you said. Do you have size restrictions on what you can turn into?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Not that I know of, I never really tried to see how big or small I can get. I have to be able to imagine how whatever I look like moves, or it won't look right when I move around."

"You have limitations," Miss Seapony told me.

"Miss Seapony just told me I have limitations," I informed the others. "She can see and hear what I see and hear right now. I can see and hear her too."

Wild Growth smirked. "So, you're like a telephone call into the dream realm."

"I guess so," I admitted. "I never thought about it that way."

"How far from your body can you send this projection?" Wild Growth continued, still not seeming that concerned. Melissa and Teddy Bear looked impressed, but not Wild Growth. I supposed when you were a legend like her, nothing could surprise you anymore.

"A few miles," I replied, and shifted back to my normal shape and voice. "And it doesn't matter what shape I'm in, or if I'm invisible or visible."

Wild Growth continued to examine me. "And the Dreamwardens dubbed this ability non-threatening?" She snorted. "I think they have a different definition of the word than I do, because this ability seems to have plenty of room to be abused. Not so much for directly harming someone, but for spying on others or trying to fool others. Can a crystal pony detect you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, they can feel it if I get near, even if I'm invisible. Some night ponies can too."

She nodded. "At least that's some sort of defense against this. Are there others who can do this?"

"You can give her a yes, but don't reveal names or clues about who," Miss Seapony instructed.

"I can't say who, but there are others," I answered the senator.

Wild Growth could be seen thinking. "I need to talk to the president and see if we can come up with some additional security measures for classified meetings then. That's going to be fun trying to get in place without saying what we're guarding against."

I shook my head. "The rules for the dream realm about not using secrets we learn still apply. It's treated like we're dreaming. If anyone tries that they're breaking a rule."

Wild Growth nodded. "That's good to know. If there's one thing you can count in a Dreamwarden to do, it's to be no-nonsense when it comes to the rules. I'll let the president know that the rules still apply. That should reduce some worry." She absently scratched her arm, and then let out a long breath. "That's enough demonstration. You can stop doing that now."

I opened my eyes back in my regular body and didn't see or hear Miss Seapony anymore.

Wild Growth walked towards the front door, and Melissa and Teddy Bear quickly followed. "I have enough information for my report. Expect Arbiter to be setting up a shared dream in a few days so I can follow up with you. I'm going to get going. I need to get back to Washington, and I want some time back at home before I go. It was nice seeing you all again."

The three of them promptly left. Leaving me and my parents alone.

"Well, that went well," my mom said with relief. She turned to me. "I always suspected this was coming, but never said anything about it. I do want you to know I'm very proud of you, and support you no matter what."

Dad shook his head. "I'm still kind of shell-shocked about it. I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to react. I've heard the stories about the things the Dreamwardens used to do, and you spending so much time with a Dreamwarden always worried me because of that, but I kept my mouth closed. I need some time to process this."

My mom headed to the kitchen. "Does anyone want some cake?"

"Yes, please!" I happily answered.

My parents seemed to be taking this alright, but what my step dad said about the old stories and what Melissa and Teddy Bear said about Miss Nightmares really worried me. I hoped Miss Seapony had some way of reassuring me that things weren't that bad.

Maybe I could convince Dad to make some more cake.

Chapter 9: Meeting the Undead

My mom had managed to keep me in school, even while we were homeless. Social services was iffy about ponies being required to attend school back then, they were iffy about everything involving ponies, so I technically wasn't required to go. She later told me that she was always terrified that some teacher was going to try to make her lose custody of me, but she had to risk it. It wasn't just important to get me an education; it was also important because it came with guaranteed meals for me, along with having a place she was sure I was safe when she was working.

I don't remember too much about my first school. I remember little things. I remember that I was always the only pony in my class. I think there were two or three other ponies at the school (depending on the year), but they were always in different grades. I remember that I sat off in a corner, separated from all the other kids in class. I remember that I always had to sit by the teacher at lunch, and I had to stay with her during recess, rather than play. It was lonely, that was what I remember.

The first place we moved, after my mom started working for PonyCo, was Frackville, in Pennsylvania. It was an almost all human town, but PonyCo was setting up a factory there to make accessories for their straps. It seemed strange that a town full of humans would be getting a factory to make pony tools, but my mom said that it meant a lot of jobs for the people in town. This particular factory did a lot of the smelting for the metal tools, and ponies didn't like being around all the smoke that came from this type of factory.

We moved there in the middle of the school year, and that meant that my first day of school had certain ceremonies that all new students had to go through. This time I really was the only pony in the entire school.

I remember the principal walking me through the halls on my first day of school there. I remember how my hooves seemed to make more noise than normal as I walked through the halls, and the janitors and rare students on a bathroom break all stared at me as I passed. They all kept their distance from me, backing up against walls as the principal and I passed. It was like I had a contagious disease or something.

The principal led me into a classroom. All the kids in class stared and whispered among themselves as he led me up in front of the class.

"Good morning!" He said loudly. Like he was in a big auditorium, instead of a classroom. "Today you're being joined by a new student. This young lady is Rebecca Riddle. I know she is a little different than all the other students at this school, but I hope that you make her feel welcome."

A few muted hi's and hellos came from the class.

He got a serious expression on his face. "I feel bad having to say this next part, but feel that it needs to be said up front. Rebecca may not be human, but she's not an animal. She's just another student, here to learn. Also, nothing she can do can turn you into a pony. There will be harsh disciplinary action taken to anyone that treats her as an animal or infected, do I make myself clear?"

The class gave a mixture of yeses, okays, and yes sirs, not quite in chorus. I didn't know before that anyone would actually feel that way about me, so his defense of me didn't make me feel better. I had already been nervous after all the looks I'd gotten in the hall, and now my anxiety was peaking.

He turned to me with a smile. "How about you introduce yourself, and tell us a little about yourself."

I normally was thrilled to meet new people, but the principal just implied that these kids might not like me because I was a pony. I know humans get nightmares about having to stand naked in front of a classroom. Well, I'm a pony, so I'm almost always naked, and I'd just been put on the spot to talk to all these human kids about myself. The nakedness didn't bother me, but my younger self in that moment could easily empathize with that kind of anxiety. I wanted to duck behind the teacher's desk so they wouldn't see me.

I just stood as tall as my tiny legs would let me and waved to the class with a wing. "Hi, I'm Rebecca. I just moved here."

Silence greeted me, and I struggled to figure out what else to say. "Um, I like our new house, because we never had a house before."

Some of the kids snickered, and I thought that must be good. Laughter was always good, right?

My confidence picked up. "I like to draw, and have lots of crayons. I don't have other toys, only my teddy bear, but my mom says that I'm going to be getting lots of toys, because we moved here."

No real reaction greeted this, and I tried to think of anything else to say. "My best friend is Miss Seapony. She comes and has tea parties with me in my dreams. She has another name, but I never get it right. Yinny? Yanny?"

The teacher let off a gasp, which confused me. The principal suddenly looked much whiter than before. "Yinyu Wu Yan? Is that the name?" He asked me.

I nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yeah, that's right! I just call her Miss Seapony. She likes green tea with orange spots."

That seemed to distress both the adults a great deal, but they didn't say anything angry to me. "Thank you for sharing, Rebecca. I think that's enough for now. Miss Narrowski will show you where you can sit."

The kids in my school never seemed to understand who Miss Seapony was. Some of them tried to make fun of me for having an imaginary friend, but the adults always hushed any discussion of her right away. I knew that the adults knew that she was real, but it took me many years to learn why they reacted like they did.

We had the remainder of the chocolate cake, but even Mom being super proud of me wouldn't encourage her into helping me convince Dad to make more. They said I was breaking my diet plenty as it was. A possible promotion to one of the most powerful beings in the universe should have earned extra cake in my mind, but I didn't pout… much.

Okay, I actually gave my stepdad my biggest, most sad looking puppy dog eyes-- but it didn't work.

We did sit down and talk. There were the expected questions. They asked if I knew that I was possibly getting an offer to become a Dreamwarden. The truthful answer was no. I had no idea if they had still wanted me after Miss Seapony wasn't going to be able to retire. They asked what I would do as Dreamwarden-- and that was a tough one to answer. I just want to help bring joy and inspire creativity, like I got my cutie mark for wanting. I was unsure how I was going to do that as a Dreamwarden, but I was sure that I could figure it out. They asked why the Dreamwardens wanted me, and not someone else. That I was unsure of, and would have to ask.

There were also much harder questions. How was this going to impact my personality? I had no idea. I didn't believe it would. How was this going to impact my safety, and the safety of my parents? That was another hard one. Only a few people should know what I was after it was done, so no one should know who to threaten, but it was still uncertain how well that system was going to work. I really didn't want anyone trying to hurt my parents.

Then there was the biggest question of all-- would I say yes or no? If you asked me with the prospect of it being years away I would definitely say yes, but the suddenness of this made me second guess that. There was also the issue of Miss Nightmares, and the terrible thing she had done. I didn't want to believe it, but I needed to find out.

I went to bed early. I even told my parents that I really needed to talk to Miss Seapony. It took me a while to fall asleep, because my mind was racing, but sleep eventually came.

Over the years I have gotten very good at controlling the settings of my dreams. It is just something that comes with having been a dreamwalker for most of my life. This setting I made someplace secure, my room. I sat on my dream bed, and waited. I didn't have to wait long.

"You're here early, Rebecca," Miss Seapony's disembodied voice quietly said. "But I can understand why."

I didn't look around for the source of the voice, I knew Miss Seapony would appear when she was ready. She did this sometimes when she was sad, or embarrassed. "Why didn't you just tell me that you were wanting me to become a Dreamwarden, and become one now?" I asked. I couldn't keep the anxiety I had been holding back all day from getting into my voice.

"Psychy Wikey just told us two days ago that he was going to call it quits. That was when the decision was made," Miss Seapony replied. "We felt it was best to break the news to your entire family at once, so that they had no doubt this was a serious offer."

I pouted. "You could have told me first."

Miss Seapony finally appeared in front of me, curled up on herself like a coiled up snake. "It was a group decision, heavily influenced by Psychy Wikey's opinions. You can take that up with him." Miss Seapony uncoiled herself, and gave me a sad look. "But that's not what we agreed to discuss tonight, is it? You want to know about that trial."

I gave a stiff nod. I was terrified of the answers that might be coming, but I needed to know.

My friend sighed, and lowered herself to the floor, laying on it. "Come lay next to me, and let me tell you some uncomfortable truths."

I hopped down from the bed and did as I was asked. Miss Seapony wrapped a fin over me and looked down at me like my mom would when telling me something sad. "Rebecca, we all screwed up. It wasn't just Phobia, although her round of torture on that poor mare was well beyond what any of us, but Sha'am, had ever done. We were all so scared, and overwhelmed, back in those days, and Sha'am convinced us that we had to be harsh and cruel-- tyrants-- in order to get all the night ponies in line."

She looked so sad, I couldn't bear it. "You said you pretended to be a monster back then," I said, comfortingly.

She shook her head. "There is a fine line between pretending to be something and becoming the thing you are pretending to be. I didn't try to stop her. I actually defended her actions."

I flattened my ears. It couldn't be true! She continued on. "I was secretly horrified by what was going on, but did everything I could not to show it. As it kept going on and on, with no end in sight, I couldn't keep that act up. I started praying for the pony to end it. That's the thing about Miss Nightmare's powers, they're about making you confront truths, and forcing you to face your fears. Once you do those things her powers have no more hold on you. The poor mare finally did it, although it felt like it took an eternity for it to happen. Miss Nightmares even kept telling her what to do, over and over again."

Miss Seapony closed her eyes, and bowed her head. "I still defended her after that. I didn't want to. I knew it had gone too far. All of us, except for Sha' am, knew it had gone too far, but we were afraid to back down once something was in progress, because it would make us look weak in front of the night ponies. Miss Nightmares was just as disgusted and sickened by it, she cried onto her spouse's shoulder immediately when she woke up. Poor Kriky spent an hour straight vomiting after he woke up-- he never could take violence, and I had to spend a long time helping him cry it out. Mr. Potty-Mouth called us all… some not nice names for letting it happen, and Sha'am called us all weak for getting so upset."

I felt like crying, knowing that it had happened. I didn't want to think about this anymore. I liked happy things, but I had to know more. "Did it happen any more?"

She shook her head. "We still tried to intimidate some, for a while, but only Sha'am did horrific things like that from then on. We eventually got her to stop, after it became clear she was causing far more harm than anything else, but it took Miss Nightmares threatening her. It has been almost fourteen years, but I still don't know what Miss Nightmares threatened Sha'am with that intimidated Sha'am that much."

"So she really is more terrible than Sha'am?" I asked, still scared of when the time would eventually come I had to meet her.

Miss Seapony hugged me closer. "Miss Nightmares might look thin and delicate, slow to anger, and she might even cry more than the rest of us too, but she's the last Dreamwarden you want to get on the bad side of-- if she feels like she is forced to take action. She is not a bad pony. She was the one that pushed reforms, reforms that even I didn't think we could possibly do, but somehow she managed to make happen. I think she has more of Luna in her than the rest of us, at least when it comes to determination to make things happen…" Miss Seapony looked around the room, then leaned her head in close to me to whisper. "Don't tell her I said that. We don't want her getting a big head."

I nervously squirmed underneath her fin. "When am I going to meet her?"

Miss Seapony smiled. "She says she is going to make arrangements so you can meet her, without drawing any attention to you. I'm not sure how yet, but she says you'll find out about it tomorrow. She isn't asleep right now."

"But you can meet us," a new voice said.

Two new figures appeared in the room. The first was one that it was hard to tell was a pony, because he was on fire. He didn't seem to particularly care that he was on fire, nor did anyone else, so I didn't ask about it. The second was a tall lady with wings, purple hair, and pony ears. She was wearing an orange robe, and holding a long bronze staff.

Miss Seapony gestured at them. "Meet Mister Potty-Mouth, better known as Ghadab, and the Angel Lady, better known as Arbiter."

Arbiter gave a little bow. "Pleased to finally meet you face to face."

Ghadab just stared for a moment before finally giving his greeting. "You're fat."

The tall lady reached a hand out and swatted Ghadab on the head. "Can't you make it thirty seconds into a conversation before insulting someone?"

"But she is fat," Ghadab grumbled.

"I prefer, pleasantly plump," I said with a grin.

Ghadab pointed at me while looking up at Arbiter. "See! She is not insulted! That is good. Ones such as us shouldn't have thin hides."

I stood up, and wiggled my belly under me. "Mine's definitely not thin."

That caused Ghadab to laugh. "I like this one! You should take lessons from her and the whore, you insufferable retainer! You attempted murderer! You tone deaf songstress!"

"Take that last one back! I am not tone deaf!" Arbiter yelled. "You wouldn't know the difference between a baritone and a tenor!"

"If I didn't know the difference before I certainly wouldn't be able to learn it from you," Ghadab yelled back.

Arbiter put her staff under Ghadab's chin. "Take it back, or I'll show them a vision of how badly you sing songs from The Hobbit."

Ghadab stepped back. "You wouldn't dare!"

Arbiter narrowed her eyes. "Try me."

Ghadab flicked his tail, or at least, I thought he did. It was hard to tell through the flames. "Alright, but you are still an insufferable retainer and attempted murderer."

Arbiter seemed to settle down, and crossed her arms, still holding that bronze staff. "That's fair."

"Miss Arbiter? What's the staff for?" I asked, wondering what super magical powers it had.

The angelic looking lady lifted her staff. "It makes me look important. Everyone looks more important if they are holding a staff. People will ignore you sometimes, but when you walk in holding a staff they'll listen to you."

I considered this advice. "But I have hooves, I can't hold a staff like that."

Arbiter frowned. "Well, you'll just have to come up with some other way of looking important. This way was taken by me anyway."

Miss Seapony floated up. "So, now you've met the three actual ghosts; me, Mister Potty Mouth, and the Angel Lady." She turned to Ghadab. "Can you please turn off that fire? I'm the one who burned to death, and I'm not fond of seeing that imagery."

Ghadab's flames immediately ceased, revealing a night pony with sand colored fur and a vibrant red mane. "My apologies, you cum drunk whore. I wasn't thinking. We rarely make avatars together anymore. Please forgive me, sister."

Miss Seapony swam over to him, and wrapped him up in a big hug. He just kind of accepted this with a flat look on his face, hanging limply in her embrace. "Apologies accepted, brother."

When they released their hug, Arbiter bonked Ghadab on the head again with her staff. He put a hoof up to his head. "Hey! What was that for!"

Arbiter pointed at Miss Seapony. "For calling Yinyu a whore."

"She is a whore!" Ghadab protested, and then got bonked on the head again.

"Be nice!" Arbiter hissed.

Ghadab flapped his wings. "She was a very talented member of an escort service. Does that satisfy you, little sister?"

Arbiter smiled. "That's better. I'm going to teach you manners yet."

As I watched all this, I couldn't help but smile. Sure, they weren't what anyone would expect out of some of the most powerful beings in the universe, but there was a sense of family between them. I could imagine myself being part of this. This might not be so stressful… depending on how the meeting with Miss Nightmares went.

Chapter 10: Aches and Pains

Moving to new places always left me with mixed emotions. I loved meeting new people, seeing new things, and having new experiences. I also ended up feeling sad about the people, places, and things that I was leaving behind. The move to Skytree had been no different.

My mom had actually moved to Skytree a full two weeks before me and my step dad. Miss Seapony had helped me dreamwalk to my mom every night she had been gone, but I was still anxious to see her in person again. Some night ponies felt like seeing people in their dreams was just as good as seeing them in person, but I wasn't a night pony, and I felt a keen difference between hugging someone in a dream and hugging a person while awake. I needed that actual physical comfort.

I still thought of my step dad as David at the time, even though he had been married to my mom for several months by that point. The two weeks we spent without my mom had been time he had really tried to focus on bonding with me-- really trying to build that father-daughter bond.

Unfortunately for him, I was feeling down because of the impending move and the fact that my mom wasn't there. That mood was further worsened by the fact my time of month had started. I feel very like some stereotype saying that, but when I was a younger teen I would intermittently get really bad cramps when that was going on. They have since stopped happening, now that I'm older, and the doctor said it had been a side effect of the fact I was still growing. I'm not sure how that works, but that's what the doctor said. However, this was one of those times I was cramping, and me cramping has a side effect of making me a grumpy goose. So even though it was rare for me; I was in a prolonged bad mood.

David stuck his head into my room. "Hey, Becky, I'm going to be packing up the old Atari tonight. I was wondering if you wanted to do a round of pong with me before I put it away."

My room, like most of the house, was filled with half filled plastic bins, as we worked to get everything packed and ready to move. I had just finished putting away a lot of things that reminded me of my friends, and I was still dealing with my cramps. Still, I tried not to show how miserable I was. "I'm not really up to it, sorry."

Disappointment briefly flashed on his face. "That's alright. Also, we have a lot of food that we should use up before the move, and I was wondering if you wanted to help me make some cookies in a little while. If we time it right they can be ready to eat right after dinner."

A small war broke out between my stomach and my nether regions over this proposal. On the stomach's end-- cookies, enough said. However, there were also the parts nearby that just registered 'don't even think of putting extra pressure on us back here!' In addition to 'do you know how much moving around that will take? Why are you punishing us?' This was also right around the time I was starting to put on some pounds, and it was also becoming increasingly obvious my flying was well below average for my age-- and I didn't know yet that it wasn't the fault of my weight. Back then, those two things were causing me to be self-conscious about what I was eating-- hard as that may be to believe now.

"I think I'll pass on the cookies tonight," I finally replied, and then flopped on my shag carpet. The flop turned out to be ill advised, and I suppressed a whimper as my cramps gave me a sharp jab of pain.

David walked up to me and knelt down. "Are you feeling alright?"

I gave an irritable flap of my wings when he tried to reach out to touch me. "I'm fine! Just leave me alone!" I snapped, and started to cry. I clutched my legs around myself as my pain intensified. Crying was just making the cramps hurt worse. Everything I did seemed to make the cramps hurt worse.

David gave me a deeply distressed look, then got up and hurried out of the room. A moment later I could hear him talking on the phone, but couldn't really focus on what he was saying, or who he was talking to. I just focused on the pain, it had never been this bad.

I'm not sure how much time passed, but he came back into the room and knelt back down next to me. He held out something in front of my mouth. "Here, this is a pain killer. I have some water here to wash it down. I need you to take it."

I opened my mouth and let him place it in, it tasted really bitter, but if it would help I wasn't going to complain. A second later he held a cup with a straw up to my mouth in turn. I sipped water from it, and then curled up tightly where I was laying.

"I'm sorry if this ends up hurting, but I'm going to have to pick you up," he said quickly. "I'm going to carry you out to the car and then drive you to the hospital."

"I don't need to go to the hospital," I croaked. Why I said that was a mystery. I wasn't really thinking straight is all I can say in my defense.

"Yes, you do," he said sternly. "Whatever this is, it isn't normal."

"It's just cramps," I whimpered. "I get them sometimes… time of month." I hadn't had a flare up of them in the few months since he had moved in.

He sighed. "I didn't know you got menstrual cramps, but I doubt they normally have you curled up in a ball on the floor, crying like a baby." That was true. They hurt, but not like this.

He lifted me up when I didn't put up any further objections. I did whimper and squirm when he did, but he just tightened his hold on me so he wouldn't drop me. By the time he got me to the back seat of the car I was openly sobbing, which again, made everything hurt worse.

I'm unsure how long the car ride took. Normally the car rides felt perfectly smooth, but this time every little bump or turn we made I could feel, and made me groan. David kept trying to say soothing things to me, but I couldn't pay attention. I just wanted this hurt to go away. He was right, it had never even been close to this bad, and I didn't understand why it was hurting so much now.

We signed in at the emergency room, and they took me away on a stretcher to get some tests. I was pricked with needles to get my blood, someone stuck a long swab up my marehood to get a sample of something, they listened to my breathing, a crystal pony checked my magic, and a human doctor applied pressure to different spots asking me where it hurt and if it hurt more here or there. A nurse gave me a shot of something with a long name that I couldn't pronounce, it sounded like gobbledygook. David spent this time near me, on the phone, talking to my mom about what was going on. I wanted to talk to her too, or better yet, have her here with me, but medical people kept doing things to me.

They rolled an X-ray machine in to take pictures of the backside of my body. David had to hang up and turn off his phone for some reason, but don't know why; I don't understand how medical stuff works-- now or then. Whatever the stuff the shot me with must have kicked in around then, because the pain gradually faded then stopped.

David, very gently, put a hand on my side. "Feeling better?"

I nodded. My body felt really weak. "Yeah, I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "Don't be sorry. This isn't your fault."

"I must have done something. It has never been this bad," I whined. My thoughts went out to my weight, or the fact I was far less athletic than many other pegasi, or maybe I consumed too much sugar.

David sighed. "It could be an anxiety related issue. Maybe it was just me pestering you when you clearly weren't wanting to spend time with me."

It was my turn to shake my head. "You aren't stressing me. I just miss Mom, and I've been cramping. On top of that we are moving again." I gave an irritated flap of my wings. "I get used to a place, and have friends, and places there I like to go, and then her big boss tells her that we need to move again. Why does her boss keep doing that?"

"She actually has a new boss," David explained. "This new boss is saying that her new promotion is going to mean no more moves. She might need to personally go out of town for a few days, once or twice a year, but we shouldn't have to move ever again. This is the main corporate office that she's going to be working at. That's why we're moving to Skytree."

My ill feelings just deepened. "Oh! So now I get to be without her a couple times a year. That's so much better!"

David shook his head in disbelief. "I've never seen you in such a foul mood, or ever heard you use biting sarcasm." He came and sat on the bed next to me. "I get it. You're in physical pain and you're dealing with a lot of anxiety about this move. Your mom has worked very hard to get to this point. She's risen from homeless on the streets a few years ago to an assistant vice president in a major international corporation. She's gone from the two of you living in a car to being able to provide the nicest possible things for you. Do you have any idea how amazing that is?"

I sniffled. "I don't care about the things she can get me. I just want her to be there, and for us to just stay in one place."

"Becky, she's going to be gone two weeks at most out of the year. You're going to have plenty of time with her. We aren't moving anymore either. Your mom and I had several long talks before we got married, and this job isn't just about providing for you. It is just as much something she needs to do for herself."

"She doesn't need lots of money," I replied in a low growl. "We did perfectly fine without lots of money."

David sighed. "It isn't about the money. It's about feeling accomplishment. I know that this might be hard to understand, and don't take this wrong, because you're the most important person in the world to your mother, and she loves you with all her heart; but your mom felt like she'd lost out on all her opportunities to do big things when she got pregnant with you."

I looked up at him and blinked in confusion. Was he saying I ruined my mom's life?

He laid his arm on my back. "Your mom had dreams when she was in high school. Yes, she dreamed of having a family, and I'm sure she dreamed of having a daughter just like you-- well, there were no ponies back then, but you get the idea. She also had dreams of making a name for herself. The fact that she had to turn her attention completely to taking care of you made her abandon those other dreams. Now she's at a point she feels like she can fulfill both sets of dreams; having a wonderful family, as well as showing the world what she can do. We're a part of her dreams, the bigger parts, but we aren't everything."

My ears flattened. "We should be enough."

He shook his head. "This isn't her having to choose between one set of dreams and the other. This is her having the opportunity to accomplish both. In a few short years you'll be all grown up, and leaving the nest. You can't hang on to having your mom around all the time. Do you really want her not to accomplish what she wants to do because you want her fifty-two weeks out of the year instead of fifty?"

Shame flooded over me, and I bowed my head. "I guess… when you put it that way… I guess it sounds pretty selfish."

He lifted my head up and smiled at me. "Hey, I know how you feel. I'm not thrilled about the fact she'll be gone two weeks a year-- and I can't even dreamwalk her like you can. We need to be supportive of her; just like she's always been supportive of you."

I sniffled again. "I'll try to be."

I was then pulled against his chest, and into a hug. "And we have each other when she's gone those two weeks each year. Hopefully things will go smoother in our time together than they've gone today. You were part of the package deal when I married your mom, and if I can get you to feel half as strongly about me as you do your mom, then I know I'd be doing something right."

Someone cleared their throat nearby, and we turned to look at a human doctor that had just walked in the room. The doctor smiled at us. "Sorry for interrupting your moment, but I have a diagnosis for what had caused the pain earlier."

David released me and we both turned our absolute attention to the doctor.

The doctor cleared his throat and looked at a file. "Miss Riddle, what we found is you have fibroids; those are non-cancerous growths on your uterus. They can be painful at times during your ovulation period. While they don't happen to Equestrian native ponies, they do happen to some ponies here on Earth."

"Are they dangerous? Am I going to die?" I asked worriedly.

The doctor shook his head. "They aren't dangerous, but can cause a great deal of pain, as well as bleeding. The bleeding in ponies can cause complications, if untreated, since ponies don't typically bleed during menstrual periods. The most effective treatment for fibroids in ponies is typically surgical removal, since they tend to stay gone-- in ponies at least-- after surgical removal. It is a perfectly safe procedure that shouldn't damage your uterus in any way."

Surgery?! They were going to cut me open? I didn't want to be cut open.

David gave the doctor a look almost as wide-eyed as mine. "Are you intending to do this now?"

The doctor chuckled, and shook his head. "Oh, definitely not. She will need an appointment to an expert on this type of surgery. I can prescribe her some pain medication while you are waiting for a surgery date, if you choose to go the surgical route. I do advise surgery, since fibroids in ponies have been resistant to the types of medications we prescribe humans."

David still seemed dazed. "We're moving to Skytree in a few days, we can't really schedule anything, and we need to talk with her mother about this first."

This seemed to make the doctor happy for some reason. "Well then, the hospital in Skytree is one of the top few locations on our world for pony medicine. I can write up a recommendation letter to give to their staff. You are in no better hands or hooves than the Skytree doctors."

My nerves were completely frayed, but I put on a brave face. I tried to think about what David had told me about my mom, just to distract myself. I had been really selfish, and I took to heart what he said to me. People could have many dreams, and they didn't always have to choose between them.

I awoke to my radio. "Good morning! Today calls for blue skies. The titled song then started to play. I threw off my blankets, went through my normal stretches, and then I looked out the window and greeted the sun. Immediately after I hopped down from the bed and started doing my normal morning dance.

However, when I was whipping my head and rump back and forth I caught a whiff of something musky. I paused my dance and then sniffed under my tail-- mare stench, that time of month had come again. Oh well, maybe that would make things easier for the birth control doctor. At least it had been years since I'd had my surgery for my growth-thingies, and this time of month didn't hurt anymore. Life was good, and I was ready to meet the new day with enthusiasm. I wondered if my stepdad had made any breakfast.

Chapter 11: The Siblings

I once asked Miss Seapony if everything had meaning and purpose that we could understand. This was quite the deep question for a young foal like myself to ask, but Miss Seapony was smarter than anyone else I knew or could think of, so surely she could give an answer to that question. She looked at me, and told me a story, not much of a story, really, but more an example of why that question was not one she could answer. I will now tell you what she told me.

There is a place, so unfathomably old, that not even immortal minds can truly understand its age. Some had said that it predates the universe itself, some relic of the past universe, or perhaps even a universe before that. It lies deep in space, untouched by time, and defiant against all elements. Just floating out in the void, all by itself. If it has any hidden consciousness it must be really lonely.

It covers what we would measure as several thousand kilometers, sitting on a massive flat plain of stone. It is filled with unadorned buildings, lofty towers, and bridges that seem so paper thin and fragile that you would doubt that they could support the weight of a small mouse-- yet they can hold the weight of the world, if you were to try. It once sat on a planet, and even longer before that it was encased in the rock of that world. That planet is now long gone, and not even gravel remains. As I said, really lonely, it doesn't even have a planet to sit on. How lonely would someone be if they were just floating out in space, and didn't even have ground to lay on?

In Triss's younger days she lived on the long forgotten planet. Her people were scavengers, and that primordial place gave them treasures that were highly valued, and they hawked for them for the food and supplies they needed to live. There was no telling when and how a treasure would be found. A building could be searched a million times over, and be found empty each time, only for someone to walk in the next time and find an item in plain sight. The items themselves were useless, oddly shaped rocks and crystals that none could determine a purpose for, nor break down. Despite their seeming invincibility, all those items are long gone. Perhaps their original owners somehow took them back, and they're hidden even now in the shadows of those seemingly empty rooms and towers. Triss's people had many superstitions about the place, some that have proven to be just superstitions, and others the jury is still out on.

This place of legend endured the destruction brought by the Devourers, the explosion of stars, and Triss has said that it has more than once been taken in by the event horizon of a nearby black hole (which had once been that was at the heart of that place's solar system), only to emerge again eons later, untouched.

For a million years straight, Triss studied that place (she must really have a lot of free time). Yet, despite all that study, she understood it no better than when she first took breath. It has given up no answers to its secrets, it has not revealed the identities, forms, or intents of its builders. It only exists, defiant against every cataclysm, ignoring the rise, fall, and rise and fall again of life. It seems certain that when our universe ceases to be that it will still somehow stand, unbroken, unchanged, and still as untouched by time and wear as it has always been.

Triss's people called it Jeg'galla'gamb'i, though its true name will forever be unknown. Jeg'galla'gamb'i means 'the first and last place', and no more appropriate name could be given. There is nothing of use in Jeg'galla'gamp'i, just questions that shall never have an answer. Sometimes there are things in life that are that way, things we'll just never be able to understand, no matter how hard we try.

I had been happily singing along with the car radio when my mom suddenly paused the music. "I have a question; are you going to end up moving to Equestria when you get older?"

I blinked. Why was she asking that? What would even bring that up? The only thing that had happened lately was… oh… okay, that's why she was asking. "Um, our phones are on, and the car has a connection to the internet. We aren't supposed to talk about that stuff when those things are on around us."

"I didn't actually say why you might move to Equestria. I just asked if you would be," Mom replied, eyes still focused on the road.

I shrugged. "If I do the thing, I suppose that I'll someday move to Equestria. The alternative is eventually ending up as a ghost for real, and I really don't want to be a ghost for real."

My mom gave me a worried glance. "Any idea when you would be doing that?"

I gave my best encouraging grin. "Mom, I don't even know a hundred-percent sure I'm doing the thing yet. I haven't thought about that stuff. It would be a long time from now if I did move to Equestria. I think that's why they picked me young, so I'd be around longer. You're asking me about stuff I don't need to think about until I'm way older than you."

She gave me a mock offended look. "You say that like I'm old!"

"Mom, you are old."

"I'm exactly twice your age, young lady. Thirty-six is not old!"

I stuck my tongue out at her, and she made a forced sniff. "Fine! We'll see how much I try to comfort you that you aren't old whenever you start your mid-life crisis. I will be old by then."

I raised my muzzle up high. "I'll stay young forever."

All the playfulness dropped from my mom. "Don't say that! There's only one way you stay young forever. I don't want to think about that."

I realized what was implied; Miss Seapony was young forever, so was Angel Lady. I guess Mister Potty-Mouth was too.

Mom groaned as she parked the car in front of the clinic. "Sorry, I just can't help thinking of everything that could happen. Good and bad; it's a lot to take in. I'm proud to death of you, and worried sick at the same time."

"Do you want me to turn them down?"

The question seemed to take my mom off guard. "What I want you to do doesn't matter. This is completely your decision. I'm not even sure what I would want you to do, if the choice were mine to make. I'm going to back whatever you choose to do. That's what good parents do, they support their children's decisions."

I unbuckled my harness. "That doesn't mean you can't give me your honest opinions. I know you'll be proud of me, no matter what, but I also know any advice you give me is based on love."

She sighed. "You're such a sweet filly… young mare. I don't have any concrete advice for you. This isn't exactly a situation parents have to deal with. This isn't something that ninty-nine-point-nine-nine-repeating-nine percent of people have to deal with. If I ever have any advice, I'll let you know. Let's just put this conversation aside and focus on your appointment."

We got out of the car and walked up to the clinic. It was a simple, unpainted, square shaped, concrete building that was about the size of a larger grocery store. I wasn't a big fan of extremely utilitarian building designs. The fact that such a plain building was a clinic was even worse in my mind. An average person going to a clinic might be worried, and it would be nice if the clinic had a more welcoming design in that case. This design just felt cold, unconcerned about the feelings of its visitors.

The lobby and waiting area inside was fairly large, with plenty of seating to both the left and right as we walked in. Immediately in front of the doors was the station where everyone checked in, which had four glass panels with clerks on the other side. Each of those panels had small openings in them up high and down low where either humans or ponies could comfortably pass things back and forth through. A keypad with an attached pen was attached to each window. One of these windows had a human woman checking in at it, and we went to the next available one. The clerk on the other side of the glass was a tan colored unicorn mare with a mane similarly colored to mine.

The mare smiled at us. "Hello, if you would just sign in using the keypad, that would be great. Do you already have an appointment, or is this just a walk-in?"

My mom entered our names on the keypad while answering. "There should be an appointment at nine for my daughter, Rebecca Riddle."

The mare nodded, still smiling. "No problem, let me check our records, and will see if we need any forms filled out." She then started checking the screen on her legband. She did a few taps on it, and then looked back at us. "Found her. We do have a few forms that need to be completed. I have just sent them to your email on file. We have several kiosks on your right where the forms can be completed, or you can complete them on your phone. Please complete those forms quickly, and submit them. A nurse will come for you a few minutes after you submit the forms."

My mom thanked the mare and directed us to the area off to the left. She pulled out her cell phone as we walked and checked for the email. In the meantime, I picked out what looked like the most comfortable looking couch for us to wait on.

Mom sat there and asked me a series of questions, and entered my answers in. A few of them were embarrassing. "You know I'm not sexually active, Mom!"

"I have to ask. Just make sure all your answers are honest."

Some of the questions she filled in for me, without consulting me, things about family medical history. She gave me a raised eyebrow after I gave my answers for whether I had ever smoked or vaped, and I told her that I'd gone to a hookah bar one time earlier that year, right after turning eighteen. It had just been that one time, and it was like some right of passage thing to do when you turned eighteen in Skytree. I'm not sure why it was, but all my friends insisted that I needed to do it, so I did. It wasn't like they were asking me to jump off a cliff or anything. I never understood why jumping off a cliff is a bad thing, since I can fly, but that was the expression my mom always used whenever I did anything that resembled giving into peer pressure.

The forms were submitted, and it immediately displayed an approximate wait time before I would be brought back, which was ten to fifteen minutes. That meant I had time to check out our surroundings.

The lighting was dim, and it seemed to be dim on purpose. There were a few potted plants, a small table filled with magazines, an even smaller table filled with childrens' books, a few pictures of abstract art done in watercolors, and the other people waiting around.

Most of the other people were in groups, a lot of them clearly mothers and daughters, just like me and my mom. There were a few mares sitting around by themselves, looking anxious, and a lone night pony stallion who was watching me for some reason. After what happened yesterday, having this out of place night pony stallion watching me raised some suspicions. I decided to go talk to him.

My mom didn't object to me walking right over to a stranger to strike up a conversation. She just focused on reading something on her phone. Ponies were naturally social, and I tended to be extra social. The stallion gave me a grin as I approached him. "Eyes on you."

I felt smug for guessing what was going on. "Eyes on you. I'm Rebecca, what's your name?"

He made room for me on his couch. "Name's Robby. It's nice to meet you. My fiancée, Nightscape, mentioned you might be here today. I believe you two are roommates this coming year."

I tried to remember the stuff Nightscape had said about the pony she was getting married to. "Is Nightscape here?"

Robby gestured towards a door with a wing. "She's in the back. Normally she'd take care of this herself, but my little sister is here getting checked out for something else. My sister is a minor, so she needs me around to sign off on some forms."

I hopped up next to him. "Oh, is your sister a night pony too?"

He shook his head. "No, she's a human… well, mostly human. If she comes out while you're still here, don't call her a partial; she hates being called a partial. She's human as far as anyone needs to be concerned "

"Oh," I replied. I'd never seen a partial before. Most partials in the world had either rehumanized or went to Equestria to finish being transformed into ponies. And more than half of those never returned to Earth, choosing to remain on the other world. There were some humans that rehumanized with some lingering pony traits, like my mom's one eye, but being called partial implied something much more than just some odd eye, hair color, or random patch of fur. I decided not to ask too much about it, just in case it was rude, even if my curiosity was burning. "You seem really young to be getting married."

He laughed. "I might be considered old by night pony standards. Our mares like to grab us up as soon as we're legal. Night pony mares are… competitive when trying to fight for a night pony stallion's affections. The only way we're getting away with it, without having mares trying to beat Nightscape down, is Phobia Remedy has given Nightscape her blessing to marry me, and no one is going to cross Phobia."

That's what I needed to remember! Robby had Miss Nightmares for a godmother or something. "What's she like, Miss Nightm- Phobia Remedy? You live with her, and I want to know all about her."

That got a chuckle. "You spend a lot of time with Yinyu, don't you? She calls Phobia that. Phobia's nice. I can tell you all about her. She spends most of her time either baking or in her office. Only time I really see her angry is when she’s on the phone with government officials that have their heads up their asses. She has three foals of her own, all younger teens. She's married to another mare named Rosetta, and Rosetta is the one who tends to make the big family decisions."

"Oh, that doesn't seem so bad," I replied, feeling a little more at ease at the prospect of meeting Miss Nightmares. "Why is everyone afraid of her?"

Robby frowned. "Well, she did rip a mare limb from limb one time, right in front of half the night ponies in the world. That kind of thing isn't something they're likely to forget, no matter how much time has passed or how much she has shown she won't do that anymore. She also tends to visit nightmares, which isn't the happiest time to be meeting someone. She rarely stops a nightmare, but will verbally walk you through why you might be having it. She won't tell you why; she makes you figure it out yourself. Face your fears, that's what she always says."

"She's a regular slave driver who is constantly asking about my progress on her projects," a new voice said.

Robby and I turned to the new voice. There was a human lady, who looked maybe around my age, or Robby's age. The first thing that stood out was she had pony ears instead of human ears. Her hair was blue, which I knew was definitely not a normal human hair color. I thought it reached all the way down her back to the floor, but a second glance showed that it only went halfway down her back and that she had an equally blue tail. She was wearing a pair of jean shorts and a pink tank top, and I could see her legs were covered in yellow fur while the rest of her body was fur free. She was tall, taller than either of my parents, maybe six feet tall. She also looked very unhappy.

Robby puffed himself up. "Phobia has done a lot for you, Jess."

Jess sat down, or more like dropped herself down, in a chair next to her brother. "I know, and I'm grateful for all she has done, but that doesn't mean she isn't demanding. Have you gotten a chance to run those numbers yet, Jess? Jess, I need you to calculate this for me. Hi, Jess. I have some more work for you to do. Jess, when is what I asked for going to be ready? Almost every damn time I shut my eyes. It's like she's waiting for me. I have my own projects I want to be doing too!"

Robby rolled his eyes and pointed a hoof at his sister. "Let me introduce my sister, Jessica-"

His sister put a fist up to her mouth, and coughed in it. Robby rolled his eyes again. "Excuse me, my sister, Doctor Jessica Middleton."

"Thank you," Jess said with a smile.

"Who is also an extremely moody teenager. She is also one of the smartest people on either world, and has way too much ego about that fact," Robby continued.

Her smile dropped as she glared down at him. "You just lost all your goodwill points, bat brain."

He matched her glare, then smiled. "Nerd."

Jess was one of the coolest looking people I'd ever seen, right up there with Locutus of Bear. I was meeting all kinds of cool looking people lately. I wanted to ask about all her pony parts, but remembered Robby's warning. There were other cool things to ask about though. "You're really a doctor?"

She looked over to me. "Nice to meet you, Rebecca. Yes, I have a doctorate in astrophysics. I'm currently working on a second doctorate in electrical engineering."

I blinked. "Hey, I didn't tell you my name yet. How do you know it?" Was she another bodyguard? She didn't give the code phrase.

Robby growled. "You've been eavesdropping again!"

She shrugged. "I was bored while waiting on the doctor to come back."

That confused me. "But she wasn't even out here? How could she eavesdrop?"

Robby pointed at his sister again. "She's got human magic that lets her eavesdrop anywhere she pleases within a certain circumference of her." He glared up at his partial sister. "We're in a doctor's office! There's too much confidential information being said for you to be doing that."
More human magic? That was exciting!

She waved a hand dismissively at him. "Don't get your tail in a twist. I was only eavesdropping on your conversation, nobody else's. I'm also suppressing the sound around us right now, so no one can hear you yelling about it."

I looked around, and while a few people were staring at Jess, it seemed to be more staring about the fact she was a partial than the noise. Mom was still reading things on her phone, while only occasionally glancing up to check on me.

Jess gave us both a considering look. "And what's with that odd greeting you two had when you started talking together? I've never heard you greet someone with that phrase before. Is that some special thing for your college?"

"Yeah, let's go with that," Robby answered quickly.

Jess narrowed her eyes. "You're lying. I don't even need to monitor your breathing and heart rate to tell that you're lying."

"Yinyu's tits, Jess!" Robby shouted in outrage. "Don't try to use your powers as a lie detector on me. That only works in the comic books."

She shrugged her shoulders again. "It's not a perfect science, but it does have strong correlations. I didn't need that to tell you're lying, anyway." Human lie detector! That was awesome! However, the fact she was digging into the details that Robby was one of my many bodyguards was not so awesome.

Robby shook his head. "Just drop it. How did your appointment go? Did you get a better answer than last time?"

Jess pulled away from her brother slightly, and looked down. "I'd rather not talk about it," she said in a low voice.

I could tell right away that something was wrong. Her night pony brother clearly could as well, and his expression softened as he touched a wing to his younger sister's arm. "Second opinion was the same as the first then," he said quietly. "I'm sorry, Jess."

She turned her face away from us. "It's no big deal. I don't know why everyone thinks it's such a big deal. It- it doesn't matter. I'm fine with it. It changes nothing about my life." I could hear the tears in her voice.

Robby leaned over the armrest and hugged her. "I'll be the one to call Mom and Dad and let them know. That way you don't have to talk about it with them. Any of us are here for you if you decide you do want to talk about it, but that will be on your terms."

She nodded stiffly. "Thanks, Robby."

I wondered what was wrong. Seeing her so sad made me sad. If I knew what was wrong then maybe I could try to cheer her up, but this sounded like something deeply private. Hearing what little I had made me feel like I was intruding.

Robby finished his embrace of his sister, and then looked back at me. "Before I forget, and before I lose the chance to tell you. I have some stuff at Phobia's house that needs to be moved to the dorms with Nightscape, just a few boxes. Phobia suggested asking you to come help move them tomorrow, since you'll have a key to the dorm by then. Nightscape and I will be busy, and your other roommate we were told would be doing some pre-season athletic stuff around that time, making us all unavailable. You're being given an invitation to pass by her guards. Do you want to help come pick the items up?"

And there was my invitation to come meet Miss Nightmares. I doubted that there was even anything to move, it was just an excuse to get me over there. I was nervous, but this was something that needed to be done. I put on my best grin. "Sure, I can help."

He nodded. "Good. I'll let Phobia know. She'll send her driver out to pick you up tomorrow morning." He didn't ask for my address, but we both knew the driver probably already knew it.

"Rebecca Riddle?" A nurse called out from the doorway leading to the rest of the building. I yelled back that I was here, but she didn't seem to hear me. Jess's magic must have been still blocking my sound.

"She's here!" My mom answered as she stood up and looked at me. "Do you want me to come back there with you, sweetie?"

I gave my mom a smile. "Yeah, I'd like the company." Jess must have dropped the sound suppression, since Mom clearly heard me. I turned briefly back to the siblings. "It was nice meeting both of you. Maybe we'll talk again sometime." I looked at Jess specifically after that, and lowered my ears. "I hope whatever's wrong gets better."

She just silently nodded. Robby smiled at me and replied for the two of them. "I'm sure she appreciates you caring. It was nice meeting you too. Don't let Nighty ruffle your feathers, once you move into the dorms. She only bites me."

I laughed, and then hurried off to the nurse, with my mom.

Author's Notes:

Jess, a few years later with her younger brother Dusk and her niece Eve.

Chapter 12: Loss of Appetite

I highly dislike dull, uninspired buildings. Anything that is going to be seen by many and be around for a long time should project feeling, not just be there. Dislike is not the same as hate. There are only three things that I actually hate. I hate mean people that take pleasure in causing others misery. I also hate things having a predetermined destiny, although it took time for me to find I hated that one. When I was younger I believed that having a destiny must be great. I'm not ready to say how I came to believe differently, but I can give a memory of me dealing with the third thing I hate, something so vile I would feel like if I was able to rid the world of it I would have done enough good to last a hundred lifetimes.

This was back in that same time period my step dad and I were getting things ready for our move to Skytree. All the way up to the final week I had regular visits from a flying coach, to try to help me with my flying. This day was a little different, this time my teacher brought along a crystal pony mare to watch me as I flew.

"Okay, Rebecca, we'll start today with a simple hover, maybe four or five feet off the ground," Pinion, my flight coach-- a grey furred stallion with a blue mane, instructed. "Just try to keep yourself as steady in the air as you can."

I stretched my wings, and took a deep breath. Keeping myself steady in the air was easier said than done. To that point, I hadn't done it. Every single time I took to the air I dipped and wobbled about. This was normal for a younger filly, just starting to fly, but I had been flying for several years at this point, without showing much improvement. Most pegasus foals two or three years younger than me flew better than I did, and every filly and colt my own age definitely flew better. My stamina was up from when I was younger, but my skills were still as fledgling as my first day. I sometimes worried I upset my coach, because I never seemed to get better, no matter how much time he spent with me.

"Don't stress yourself too much. Just let your instincts flow," David called out from the back porch. Our lessons always happened at the house.

I flicked my tail at an imaginary bug. Instinct, every pegasus was supposed to be able to do this stuff on natural instinct. Ponies on Earth had far more hard-wired instincts about using their abilities than Equestrian ponies. The spell that had turned us into ponies had laid those instincts on hard, so we could quickly adjust and function as ponies. My instinct should have been enough to get me flying right. It didn't help at all. I did what I felt was right, and no one ever said I was doing anything wrong, but the results were always bad. Flight coaches were supposed to help turn average flyers into great flyers, not try to make cruddy flyers into passable ones.

There wasn't any wind blowing at the moment, or anything that should throw me off course. I was well away from the trees, so no chance of colliding with them. I was also well away from the patio, so there was no chance of coming down hard on the concrete. Everything was safe for me to take to the air.

I wiggled my rump, and beat my wings as I jumped. It didn't take much effort to reach the height Pinion had told me to do, but the steady part immediately became a problem. My left side started to dip, so I flapped the corresponding wing even harder, this made the right side start to dip instead, and I beat that wing harder to compensate. This went back and forth, and I tried to focus on applying the same wing-power to each side. It took a few seconds, but that part steadied out. The new problem that arose was trying to stay in one place. Hovering in a stationary position is much harder than my fellow winged ponies make it out to be. They might think it's the easiest thing in the world, but my body was determined to be propelled somewhere; whether that was further up, forward, backward, or straight back down to the ground. Staying still was not an option my wings were giving me.

Unable to just hold myself where I was, I settled into alternating between letting myself be pushed forward then backward. This had its own struggles. I had to constantly think about what I was doing, and if I jerked one way or another too fast I ran the risk of flipping myself. I'd seen some skilled flyers show off flying upside down, like they were doing backstrokes in the air. I wasn't in any way, shape, or form a skilled flyer, and if I flipped it would be followed quickly by me hitting the ground face first.

"Just keep doing the best you can," Pinion called out. "How are your wings feeling? Are they getting tired?"

"No!" I yelled, unable to say much else, for fear of losing my concentration. It was true, my wings felt fine. The problem wasn't them wearing out. The problem was trying to keep focus on making them do what I wanted them to do. Other winged ponies didn't have to even think about this to do it, it was just instinct, but it was like I had no instinct whatsoever.

"I've never seen a healthy pegasus struggle so much while flying," the crystal pony said, loud enough for me to hear. I decided to take the positive out of what she said. I was healthy; healthy was better than sick or hurt.

"She has improved in the last few months," Pinion replied. "She had far less control before. Four months ago she'd have smacked into either the ground or her house by this point, or gotten tangled in the tree branches. I've had to fetch her out of the tree more than once." I hadn't actually gotten tangled in the branches for a while, at the point of this demonstration, but that was mainly because I'd broken most of the branches that I could get tangled up in. What happened more often was just colluding with the tree trunk, and then having Pinion rush to catch me as I fell. It was always hard for me to focus on flying after smacking my poor nose into some rough bark.

The mare gave me an appraising look. "It's hard to make sense of what I'm reading with her magic. It doesn't feel completely pegasus-like, it feels faintly like a night pony, but not like that either. It also feels as if she should have far more magic available than what she's putting into her flight, but it's kinda throttled. It's almost like she is having to force it to act, instead of it naturally flowing. Flight magic isn't completely passive in nature, but it has large passive elements to it. She has no passive flow happening at all."

"So, is it some sort of mental block?" Pinion asked. I wished they would tell me to either land or do something other than hover. Hovering took too much concentration, and that was hard to do when trying to listen into a conversation.

The mare shook her head in bewilderment. "I'm not even sure how you would mentally block those kinds of magic flows. It's like saying you have a mental block on breathing, or will stop breathing if you forget to. It just doesn't work that way."

"Can I land now?" I called out in frustration.

Pinion flattened his ears, and turned to the crystal pony for direction. The mare frowned and shook her head again. "Not yet. How about you try pushing yourself as much as you can. Maybe do a large circular flight around the house? Go as fast as you're able. You may gain a bit of altitude if you need to. I can read you well from about fifty yards away."

As fast as I was able? In a circle? This was going to end in disaster. If I wanted to go fast, then it was better to go in a straight line. Going in a straight line meant less thinking about changing directions and other complex things. Going in a circle needed me to go slow, because I couldn't think fast enough to adjust direction at higher speeds, even if just trying to maintain the same loop.

I'll cut to the chase; I picked up what I considered an okay amount of speed. Sure, it wasn't going to win me any races, but it would have been enough to keep up with another pegasus that was lightly pushing themselves, the equivalent of a human jogging. That ended up being too much to control, and I ended up hitting the roof, doing a few bounces across it, smashing into the chimney, and then getting grabbed in the air by Pinion-- right after falling off the roof. I wasn't too hurt, just a headache and some bruised hooves (pegasi were built to survive such crashes), but it was embarrassing.

The results from the crystal pony's readings were inconclusive. She said that whatever was wrong with my flying, it had to do with my magic, not my weight. She also said it wasn't that my magic was inherently weak, only that it wasn't acting the way it should. She wanted to do some follow-up visits to further observe me, but the fact the move to Skytree was coming up in just days prevented that.

They left, and David took me back inside. I climbed up on the couch in order to get off my sore hoofsies. David gave me a sympathetic pat on the back. "Hey, at least we learned part of what's going on, and you didn't damage the roof or yourself at all. We'll find a doctor to follow up on your magic after we get settled into our new house."

"I suppose," I mumbled. I was a young teen, and young teens have a fragile ego. I've gotten over worrying about embarrassing myself with my clumsiness since then, but at the time embarrassing myself hurt worse than the crash did.

He stood up. "How about some milk and cookies? I made a special batch for you, earlier today."

My ears perked up, and so did the corners of my mouth. "Milk and cookies sounds great!"

David walked off to the kitchen, and I sat up and got myself ready to chow down. Yes, my hooves were sore, but not so sore they couldn't hold cookies or lift a cup of milk. There was nothing better than a treat to improve my mood.

He came back with a full plate of delicious looking chocolate chip cookies, and a big cup of milk with a straw in it. He set the milk down on the end table next to me, and the plate of cookies beside me. My mouth watered as I looked the cookies over, trying to decide which to be the first to devour. I made my decision, and just grabbed it up directly with my mouth to scarf down in one mighty bite. My eyes bulged as I bit down into it, and I promptly spit it out. It was disgusting! I quickly turned to take a sip from the milk straw, and no sooner had I inhaled the milk did I start choking and gagging on the equally disgusting beverage.

"What's wrong?" David asked worriedly.

When I finished coughing I laid my ears back. "What did you do to the milk and cookies?!"

He flinched back at my outburst. "I, um, tried using skim milk this time around."

I blinked in confusion. "Skim milk?"

He gave me an apologetic look. "It doesn't have the same milk fat as regular milk. You've been worried about your weight, so I was trying to help out. I know it messes with the taste and texture a little, but I didn't think it would be that bad."

I looked at the cookies and then back at him. "I think I'd rather be fat! That's not real milk. How could you do that to milk and cookies?!"

"Sorry."

And that is when I swore my undying hatred for skim milk. It was some nastiness, masquerading as milk. Worse, it ruined my comfort food! Skim milk was the most horrible thing ever to be done to baked goods! So now you know the three things I hate: mean people, destiny, and the crime against all that is good called skim milk.

My mom waved me goodbye, as I hopped into Maggie's car. Maggie smirked at me as I started trying to determine which was the belt buckle and which was the pony harness. "So… have your medication so you can have sex all year long?"

I squinted one eye at her. "I've got my birth control prescription, but I'm not going to be having any sex. I'm a good filly."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so those of us who want to experiment a bit are all bad then?"

That made me flatten my ears to the sides. "I didn't mean it that way. There's nothing wrong with you doing that if you want to. I just don't want to."

"Bec, I've seen your eyes glued to a stallion or two before, you get horny just like everyone else. Aren't you good friends with the literal Dreamwarden of sex?"

I finally got myself harnessed into my seat. "She's about more things than sex."

Maggie was unconvinced. "But sex is what she's really known best for. You say you've been friends with her since you were just a little filly. I'm not sure how a pony gets to be friends with a Dreamwarden like that, but you can't tell me in all that time you've never taken advantage of the fact that you're friends with the premier expert on sex in order to ask questions or have her help create some fantasies."

My face heated up, and I glanced away. "That isn't the same thing as actually having sex. It doesn't even really help those urges. It just gives me an idea what it's like."

She laughed loud enough it hurt my ears. "You have had sex dreams!"

I crossed my forelegs. "So? Almost everybody does. I'm just not interested in making those fantasies a reality."

She gave me a thoughtful look. "You know, since she is literally in everything in the dream realm. Having a sex fantasy is almost like you had sex with her, since she's in everything when you're dreaming."

"Okay, you just made my dreams feel really weird and awkward, thanks for that." It also made me think of what it meant if I became a Dreamwarden. I technically would be in everything in the dream realm too, even if I would only be able to be aware of small parts of it at a time, because I was living. So did that mean every time anyone had any sort of dream fantasy that whatever was happening was on some level happening to me? That was a scary thought. One that made my stomach feel queasy.

"Anytime," Maggie giggled, and she put the car into drive. "Hey, Bec. I always wanted to ask you. Why do ponies insist on saying mare, stallion, filly, colt, foals, and things like that, even if they don't use any other pony pronouns?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. It just feels more exact, I guess. I don't really think about it. To tell the truth, I sometimes catch myself almost saying things like anypony or everypony, and I wasn't brought up with those words."

"So, that pony brainwashing is a real thing."

"I don't consider myself brainwashed. I've been a pony since I was four, that's as long as I can remember anything. I might as well have always been a pony."

She glanced my way briefly, before turning back to the road. "You don't remember anything from being human? I know four years old is not going to have a lot of memories left at this point, but you must remember something. There's lots of things from after that you seem to remember in extreme detail, at least the way you tell it."

I chewed on my lip, but went back to smiling right after. "Miss Seapony helps with that. She says she stores away memories from people that interest her, at least for a while. She can't store all the memories from everyone, because she'd run out of places to put them. It's like the dream realm has only so much memory to store things with, and it has a lot of stuff stored away already. She stores my memories though, and let's me see them sometimes. That way I can remember events that are important to me."

"I have so many questions about how that even works, or why they do that, but she never stored any memories of when you were human?" Maggie asked in confusion.

"I didn't have any left by the time Miss Seapony first met me. She can't store what she never found," I replied. I wasn't much concerned about it. "Mom has tried to stir up memories from me before, by showing old pictures of me back when I was human. She'll tell me stories, and ask if I remember any of that. I never do. I think it makes her a little sad, but I can't help it. They just aren't there."

"That sucks," Maggie said glumly.

"It's not so bad, other than my mom getting a little sad," I said. I then gave a big grin. "You know what doesn't suck? The fact we're going to be signed up with a sorority before today is out! I'm sure that will lead to some more memories Miss Seapony will want to store away."

That got her laughing again. "Good point. Hopefully they don't haze you too much."

I shrugged again. "Nah, I can take it."

Chapter 13: It's a Bird. It's a Plane. It's Coming Right at Us

The day we finally moved to Skytree I got an unexpected guest at the house.

Everything had been packed, and put on the movers van. The movers had left an hour or so earlier, and we'd be leaving for the airport soon. David was walking around the house with the agent (a crystal pony stallion), talking about the improvements that had been done to the house since we'd been there. I was sitting in what had been the living room, but without any of our stuff in it, it was just an empty room, without much living involved.

"Glad I caught you before you left. You'll be far out of my range soon."

I gave a startled hop, and turned around to face a smiling night pony. "Josie! You came to say goodbye!"

She nodded to me. "Yep, I'm here. At least as here as I ever am. I couldn't let my one and only student leave without seeing her off."

My wings and legs twitched with the urge to hug her, but I knew there was nothing solid to hug. "Thank you, for teaching me, and for coming today. You've been a good friend."

"I'm still your friend, and plan on dreamwalking to you on and off to just check up on you," she replied. Her smile was small, but I could tell it wasn't forced. Seeing an honest smile on her face was always something special. "I do have some parting advice before you leave."

I giggled, and gave a playful bow. "One final lesson from my Jedi master?"

She rolled her eyes. "Hardly a Jedi. Do you have any idea how enraged the Dreamwardens would get about the Jedi mind trick? Obi-Wan Kenobi would never have made it to episode four. You know all that I know about projection, but this is tips for life, not an astral projection lesson."

I decided to revise my answer. "Oh? Well, Jedi wisdom then."

Josie shook her head in exasperation. "However you want to frame it. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that if you ever make a big mistake, something so big that it has long lasting consequences, don't let that define who you are. Acknowledging what happened and trying to do better does not mean you need to make that the core of your life. I made a horrible mistake. I can blame Sunset Shimmer for influencing me, and I wouldn't be wrong, but it's ultimately on me. I've let that mistake define me for a long time, and it has only made me miserable. The past is the past, we can only go forward. Let your mistakes be reasons to be better, not balls and chains you drag around."

I still really wanted to hug her. "Does that mean you're ready to move forward?"

"I'm ready to try. We shall see how it goes," Josie said simply. "I have another word of advice. The Dreamwardens have an unusual amount of interest in you. You should be wary when someone that powerful gets that interested in your life. It usually means they want something out of you." The night pony turned her head slightly to look beyond me, and flattened her ears. "Yes, I know you can hear everything I say to her. It's not against the rules for me to express my opinion."

Miss Seapony or one of the other Dreamwardens must have been talking to her. She paused, and seemed to be listening. "I'm not telling her that you don't care about her. I'm telling her that she needs to just be cautious. Can you blame me? What would you do if our positions were reversed? The advice also carries over to more than just you."

I knew Miss Seapony could hear and see me through Josie. "I trust you Miss Seapony. Josie is just being a good friend." I looked directly at Josie. "I know Miss Seapony wanted me to be the one who replaced her, and had been spending time with me at first because of that. I don't mind. I can't replace her anymore, but she still is my friend, just like you."

Josie blinked at me in shock. "Replace her? You? But you're nothing like…" She turned her head to look at wherever Miss Seapony was, and her eyebrows scrunched together. "How is that any different than what was done to me? Grooming a filly?!"

My ears flattened and I tucked my tail between my legs as I looked towards the windows. "Josie, my stepdad and the real estate agent are outside. They'll hear you yelling."

Josie's wings had been slowly opening and stretching to her sides as she had been talking to Miss Seapony. She glanced at the window quickly, then snapped her wings back to being folded at her sides. She looked back to the spot of air I assumed was Miss Seapony. "No, I don't want another Sha'am, and yes, I would like a well prepared Dreamwarden, but she's a foal that you've been indoctrinating since she was small. That's just not right."

I looked at the window again and saw David and the agent walking back towards the house. "Hey, can you go silent and invisible if you're going to sit here and argue? I don't think my stepdad would want the agent to see or hear you."

Josie took another look at the window and then promptly vanished. I breathed a sigh of relief just as my dad and the real estate agent were coming back in.

David gave me a curious look. "Were you talking to someone on the phone? I thought I heard voices."

I grinned tightly, and held up the phone on my leg. "Yep, just saying goodbye to a friend."

The stallion stared at the spot that Josie had just been in. "Are you doing some sort of magic? I can feel something...something odd, but it doesn't feel like it is coming from you." He shook his head. "Now it's gone. I worked for the government for a year or two after ETS, so I'm familiar with a lot of common magic. I don't think I've ever felt anything quite like that before."

Crap! I forgot crystal ponies can feel someone astral projecting. I guess Josie did too, maybe because she was caught up arguing with Miss Seapony. Now I needed to come up with an excuse for what the magic was, one that a crystal pony that knew different magic sensations would believe. Something I could actually do if I was put on the spot to do it.

"You got me," I falsely confessed. "I wasn't really on the phone. I was practicing throwing and altering my voice with my magic." I could invisible astral project and still make noise, that kind of counted as throwing my voice. It was a creative way of astral projecting without letting him know I was astral projecting.

He flicked an ear, then grinned. "Throwing your voice with magic? That's something I haven't seen yet. Do you have a ventriloquist dummy act you're working on?"

He was buying it. I grinned and nodded rapidly. "Yep! Except I don't have my dummy right now, obviously. So, just practicing the magic part. Just me and my dummy, Josie." I saw David seem to get it at that point. He'd looked confused when I first mentioned it.

The crystal pony nodded. "Can you still demonstrate it, throwing your voice with magic?"

I normally needed some music or something to get in the right mindset. Doing astral projection wasn't something I could just do in a split second. Even Josie needed somewhere quiet and secluded in order to pull it off, and she was the very best at it. "I'm still getting over nerves when doing it in front of people, especially without my dummy, but I can try."

I closed my eyes, and tried to find my peaceful place. To that point I'd never done astral projection without music, but I knew it was possible. I focused on all the things that put me at ease: my mom running her hands over my back, eating chocolate cake, drawing, music, sunbathing, days with light rain, and talking with Miss Seapony over dream tea. It took a few seconds, but I found my happy place, and found myself floating outside my body.

Luckily, I had remembered to make my projection invisible. I could move about without being seen. The crystal pony was watching me closely, and I could tell he could feel my magic at work. Looking at my body, I looked completely zoned out.

It was time to demonstrate. I floated over behind the crystal pony, and watched as one of his ears seemed to follow me. He was definitely locked onto me, but hopefully I could still convince him this was just a magic trick to throwing my voice, and not throwing my whole consciousness.

"Hi! Can you hear me?" I called out from behind him. Even though his ear had been following me like a pointer he still jumped, and looked around in a hurry.

After he settled down he laughed. "Wow! That's pretty cool. Do you do voice impressions as well?"

I floated a short distance away, but this time his eyes were tracking me. I figured he couldn't actually see me, but maybe he was imagining something where he felt the magic. "How about this?" I asked, using Josie' s voice. I could imitate just about any voice or sound I was familiar with when in this form. I floated a short distance to the side then made a sound like a cat meowing.

He shook his head while smiling. "Really impressive. You know, with a team of puppeteers you could run an entire show by yourself. You should give the Jim Henson company a call."

I returned to my body, and opened my eyes, letting off a giggle as I did. "That's nice of you to say, but it's just a little hobby. I don't think I really want to make a career out of it. I don't know what I want to do yet, but I don't want this to go past being a hobby."

He turned back around to face me. "Well, hobbies make the best jobs. Do what you love, and you never feel as if you're working."

I never did take up ventriloquism as a serious hobby, or career path, but I took that crystal pony's words to heart. I always focused on doing what I love, so I'd never feel like my work was work.

When we arrived at the college, Maggie gave a look towards the main building. "Are you ready?"

I glanced back towards where the dorms were at. "I actually need to make a pit stop by my roommates' to pick up my key. They didn't have it ready yesterday. I'd hate to be moving in and not be able to get in the door."

"No problem," she replied. "I'm a little hungry, so I'll just check out the cafeteria while I'm waiting on you. I figure that gives me about an hour to eat."

My ears flicked. Missing out on food was not something I wanted. "An hour? Why do you think it will take an hour?"

She looked down at me. "Um, you aren't exactly the fastest pony. I don't know a delicate way of saying this, but you kind of waddle."

I flicked my tail. "I prefer, shimmy and shake. It won't take an hour though. I'll just fly."

"Uh, you sure you should be doing that?" She asked as she gave me a skeptical frown. "Your flying makes your walking look like ballet."

I shook my rump. "I'm the Swan Princess, ballet studios don't know what they're missing out on."

"They sure don't," Maggie laughed. "But in all seriousness. I don't want to have to be running you to the hospital or something."

I waved a wing at her. "I'll be fine. My flying isn't that bad. I only have problems trying to go fast, taking tight turns, flying in a straight line, hovering stationary, keeping firm footing on a cloud, or needing to come to a stop quickly."

"And you have rough landings," Maggue added.

I blew a raspberry at her. "Pish-posh! Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing."

"Whatever you say, Launchpad McQuack."

I started to dance in place. "Life is like a hurricane. Here in Duckburg. Racecars, lasers aeroplanes; it's a duck-blur. Might solve a mystery-"

She covered her ears. "No! Stop it! You'll get it stuck in my head for the rest of the day."

"It's too late for that, and you know it."

She glared at me with so much mock indignation it was comical. "Evil little pony. I'll wait for you in the cafeteria. I'll call you if you haven't shown up in an hour, and if you don't answer I'll go asking students if they saw a pegasus go splat against a building somewhere."

"Sounds like a good plan," I replied. I then spread my wings, and gave myself a full body shake. Maggie took several steps back from me. I swished my tail one way, then the other, crouched down on my haunches, and then used them to eject myself upward as I beat my wings like a panicked hummingbird.

I rapidly gained altitude. Going straight up was one of the surprisingly easiest parts about flying. When I gained enough height that I was over the tops of all the buildings I tried to adjust my course so I was going forward instead of upward, which wasn't nearly as easy. It would have been easier if I had taken my ascent slower, but I had been showing off that I wasn't a completely inept flyer. It didn't turn out to be too hard to change my direction, since I rarely could keep in a straight line anyway, but there was some struggle in making sure that I didn't end up overcorrecting and reaiming myself straight down. It took a lot to embarrass me, but kamikazing the ground right after lifting off would have been enough to make me blush.

What I did end up overshooting was the campus itself. By the time I had myself under control I was on a crash course with the skytrees of the Remembrance Monument. I managed to pull myself into a turn, and avoided colliding with them. A few pegasi, guarding the monument against flyers who wanted to try to land in the said trees, shouted things at me. I was already circling back around towards the school though, and all the turning had slowed me down enough that I had greater control over my flight path. Next time I tried to fly to the dorms I wasn't going to go up so fast or let myself go so high.

I spotted my destination and brought myself in for a crooked circle around the building as I lowered my altitude. The extra turning would slow me down more, and give me more control over my landing. I circled for a few laps, and didn't go smacking into any other pegasi students who were in the air (mainly because they were paying attention and deftly dodged me). I was nearly down to the ground, and I spread out my legs like they were landing gear. Just a few more feet and I'd be back on terra firma.

BOINK, BOINK, BOINK, CRASH!

I somehow had my rear end propped up high against the wall of the dorm building, and my head down where my rump should go when I was sitting. Oh well, I still got here faster than walking, and it wasn't like I never crashed while walking.

Chapter 14: Connecting with Places

I don't typically mind car rides. They let me sit and talk to whoever I'm with, without me having to worry about keeping myself on course while flying. I also get to get a good look at all the scenery out the window. However, the hour long car ride from Columbia to Skytree came right after being in a plane for several hours, and this little pegasus was going stir crazy over not getting to move about.

"Are we there yet?" Yeah, it was cliche for me to be asking that, but I had been sitting for hours at that point. Well, not really hours. I had gotten to walk about when David and I got off the plane, and I'd also gotten up to use the potty when we were on the plane (I wished I hadn't, airplane restrooms were disgusting), but those had both been brief. When we had gotten off the plane I had gotten to finally see my mom, and give her a big hug, but it had only been about ten minutes of freedom before she had us in the car. Ponies weren't meant to be caged in metal boxes… or plastic ones… or whatever cars and planes were made out of. This little filly needed liberation!

"We're almost there, Becky. Just hold your horses," Mom said calmly. Horse puns! Not funny! I wasn't sure if that was an actual horse pun, but I was in the mood to be offended. I was a moody teenaged filly and it was my unalienable right to find offense in everything, especially if I was bored and cooped up.

"How much longer?" I asked with my best whine, while I flopped down in my seat with an exaggerated amount of flop. I glanced at the window and the endless woods we were driving through. All I could see were tree branches. It was raining, but I couldn't even see the pretty rain clouds (pegasi have a special appreciation for a good downpour and group of rain clouds that other ponies don't share). "I'm wasting away. I don't remember what the sky looks like."

"Don't be so dramatic," Mom replied. "It will be about another ten or fifteen minutes, and then you'll get to see Skytree. Ten minutes after that you'll get to see our new house. We'll be driving by some of the big sights in town on the way. I'm sure seeing the Remembrance Monument will take your breath away. The trees that make up that thing are huge. If it weren't for all the trees around us right now you could probably see them from here."

Big trees, that didn't raise a lot of excitement when I was surrounded by them. I needed to get out and move about. I only had one option for that. "Do you mind if I project? I promise to stay unseen and unheard."

Mom sighed. "If you want to; just stay out of trouble."

"Thanks, Mom." I turned myself around so I could just stare out the window. I didn't have my music or headphones, but watching the trees pass by had an almost hypnotic effect that I could utilize to reach the same state of mind.

It only took a minute or so, and I was out and about. I really was out too, because my projection was stationary and the car was moving. I passed straight out of the car and floated in place in the middle of the road while it continued its course towards Skytree. It didn't matter, although I would need to hurry in that direction quickly before my range wore off. I could only project so far from my body, and if my body got too far away it would start to be a strain to do this, until I was forced to stop altogether.

Luckily, I was far faster while in my projection. I was even able to sort of teleport over distances, as long as I stayed within range of my body. That was how Josie had been able to get to me so quickly while training me, rather than having to fly her projection well over a hundred miles to reach me. I didn't have the same range that she had, but I had enough that I could get myself somewhere closer to my body in an instant if my body started getting too far away. My pseudo-teleports were taken kind of blindly, if I didn't have a particular person or place to focus in, so I could teleport right into a solid object, but since I wasn't solid that wasn't a big deal, other than a moment of disorientation before getting myself out of whatever it was. I'd accidentally teleported myself into hills, brick walls, trees, and even people in the past. It was a freaky experience the first few times, but it was easy enough to get used to. I just needed to float up if that happened, and sooner or later I'd exit whatever I mistakenly projected into.

I had no real goal in mind when I projected out of the car. While floating in the middle of the road a car and it's passengers passed right through me. To both sides of the road were just trees, lots of trees. They weren't even particularly interesting trees. They were those thin pine trees that just grew branches and leaves haphazardly all over the place, rather than filling out nicely like a Christmas tree (loblolly pines). I could go off into the woods to explore, but I didn't figure that there was much else to look at there. I instead made up my mind to just get higher and get the lay of the land. Maybe then I could spot something interesting to go investigate.

I floated up, and up, over the treetops, and then I stopped dead still as I saw what my mom had been talking about.

In the distance I could see the city of Skytree, and even at the distance I was from it the four trees of the Remembrance Monument could be seen rising up high above everything else in the city. This was an impressive feat, considering I spotted a fair number of skyscrapers within the city, but none of them equaled half the height of those trees. It was like they all formed one interconnected canopy over the center of the city. A separate skytree, only slightly smaller, stood a short distance away from the others. I was blown away, it was like something out of a fantasy story, or Equestria, not something anyone would expect to be found anywhere on Earth. How could anything living be so big? I had to get a closer look.

A quick blip and I was right up next to the trees. Their height was staggering up close, but the rest of the complex was just as much. The size of the tree trunks surrounding the enclosed inner area were huge, and a few of them had gift shops and food stands hollowed out within, as well as museum displays. Tourists were walking about everywhere, and most of them seemed just as taken away by the monument as me.

I floated over to one of the museum displays. It had lots of photos from the Cataclysm of Riverview with captions underneath. I saw pictures of what the monument site looked like immediately after the Cataclysm. There were so many of these trees pushed so closely together it looked like one massive tree the size of a mountain had just sprung up in the middle of town. I saw pictures of the devastation as well; pictures of people fighting fires, streets so clogged with smoke you couldn't make out anything beyond a few feet of where the picture was taken, refugees huddled together in tents and halls of hospitals, and one picture was of a massive root that ran straight through several shops. Also included were many pictures of people who were involved with the Cataclysm and the cleanup afterward. The story of the Cataclysm was written out in a massive marble plaque labeled The Cataclysm of Riverview, The Day of Fire, Magic, and Wood.

My investigation of the area continued. There was a huge marble cube in the exact center between the four trees, surrounded by a small reflection pool that was just large enough to keep people from touching the cube but free to read the inscription. I was not so restricted, and I went right up to the block to read it.

A long list of names followed. Maybe thirty or forty, I didn't really count. Most of them were human names, with army ranks attached to them, but there were a few pony names mixed in. Down near the bottom, separated from the rest of the names, were two others: James Growth and Tonya Blessing, the Arbiter.

I spotted another three plaques, sitting on stands around the pond, and checked these out as well. One of them was explaining about the high number of deaths being attributed to military service members that had been serving in the Bastion when it exploded. The next explained the Tonya Blessing continued on as the Dreamwarden Arbiter, and it was she who unleashed the explosion so an even greater calamity could be averted. The last explained that James Growth was a name that Wild Growth had given to her foal, who died in her womb when she channeled the magic that grew the trees.

"Such a sad event."

I looked up from the plaque I was reading to see Miss Seapony. My friend looked at the things in my field of vision, and continued speaking. "So much death. We had just lost Ghadab's people just two days before. It was so much heartbreak in such a short period of time."

I had no clue how to respond to that. "Um, the monument is really pretty."

She nodded. "It is. I would rather there didn't need to be a monument. My fellow Dreamwardens and I played a part in what happened here, although very few know it, and none will speak of it. It was we who instructed our little sister how to destroy the Bastion. We had no choice. The price of not doing so would have meant thousands, if not millions of deaths. It doesn't make me any happier about what happened."

I looked around, even though I had just seen the pictures it was hard to imagine the devastation that had once happened here. "At least there's something good to remember it with. This place is amazing."

Miss Seapony smiled at me. "You don't know how amazing. Try to pass through one of those trees."

I gazed at the trees, and slipped over to one. It was wider around than a mansion. If I just floated through it might actually take a few minutes. It would be dark as well. I didn't like floating around in the pitch black. Miss Seapony had asked me to try though. I went forward, but was stopped as I came in contact with the bark. I actually bounced right off the thing!

My friend appeared next to me. "These trees are still just as full of magic as they were on the day they were grown. They sustain their magic, and it sustains them. They shall never know death unless cut down, nor rot or decay. They are perfect and immortal. There is so much magic within them that there is no room for yours."

I went wide-eyed. "How?"

She shook her head. "No one knows. They were made under such extreme pressures of magic and physics that are completely beyond what anyone can replicate. Call it a trick of nature and chance, but Wild Growth created magical life that day. No one has ever done the like, and perhaps no one ever shall again. It was a feat worthy of ascension, in addition to the fact she was willing to lay down her life to protect others. Yet another shame that she burnt herself out, and rejected ascension. Although it is perhaps better that she did reject becoming an alicorn."

I just stared at my magical surroundings, and knew they could come from any of my dreams. "I want to make places like this. Maybe not in the same way, or for the same reasons, but the world needs places like this."

Miss Seapony nodded. "May your ambitions be fruitful. I hope to see you one day make wonders of your own, happier ones."

And that was the day I decided to be an architect. I plan on building my own wonders for people to marvel at, be amazed by, and just as inspired to make something else as amazing as I was on that day. The world needs amazing places, so we can be inspired to do great things, just like Wild Growth once did.

An upside down face of a human greeted me. "Hey, are you alright?"

The fact that I was on my time of month with my exposed rump in the air made me a bit self conscious, even though that smell didn't affect humans. I flipped over, with just a little groan, and let my rump come down on the ground. "I'm fine. My fat cushioned me."

He didn't seem to believe me. "You sure? You hit that wall pretty hard."

A small crowd of ponies and humans had gathered around me to see if I was alright. I waved them off with a wing while getting back to my hooves. "I'm sure. It happens all the time. I could take a side job as a crash test dummy."

He watched me take a few steps, and looked like he was still debating calling for a doctor. "Mind if I walk with you to wherever you are going? I just want to be sure you don't have a concussion or something."

I looked him over. He was about six feet tall, dark skinned, had a small mustache and goatee, with his black hair in dreadlocks. "I suppose so. I'm going to the female dorms, but you can walk me as far as the elevator." I held a hoof out to him. "I'm Rebecca."

He made a fist and bumped it against my hoof. "I'm Russell. Just take it easy. If I see you getting dizzy I'm going to call for help."

I gave him a big smile in appreciation. "Nice to meet you, Russell! Let's get going. This little pony doesn't let a little crash slow her down."

He laughed as he saw me start walking. "I see that. I'm still coming to make sure. I'll give you my phone number too. Just in case you ever need some help after a crash."

There was something about him I liked, although I couldn't put a hoof on it. I'd already made a fair distance from him, and turned and beckened him with my tail. "Well, come on, slowpoke! I'm faster than I look."

He hurried over next to me. "You definitely are."

Author's Notes:

I recently released two other stories in the same universe. One of them is rather dark, and may not be everyone's cup of tea, the other is more a regular drama.

The dark one:

/story/467285/pandemic-nameless

The drama:

/story/467941/pandemic-starting-over

Chapter 15: I Meet All My Friends This Way

In all the places we moved before we finally settled in Skytree I always felt like an outsider at school. Don't get me wrong, I love everyone, both humans and ponies, but being the only pony in a class, or one of the few ponies in class had its disadvantages. In the schools where I was literally the only pony people would treat me strangely, and give me looks like they didn't know how to act around me.

There was also the act of writing. I'm not terrible with my penmanship, in fact, I think I'm pretty good, but I'm not as dexterous or as fast as a human. There would be so many times an assignment would be given, and the entire rest of the class would finish it long before me, and they had to wait for the 'pony' to finish writing her answer. It was an uncomfortable type of attention, and there were a few teachers who thought I was mentally slow just because I couldn't write as fast as my human classmates.

So my first day of public school in Skytree was a complete change of pace for me. For the first time ever, ponies made up the majority of my classmates. There were humans still, but in terms of numbers it was a complete role reversal. I was no longer an outsider, but instead part of the majority. I also wasn't considered slow anymore when it came to completing assignments. Even though humans and unicorns still typically finished their assignments first, I was usually among one of the fastest done out of the remaining ponies. I think my years of trying to keep up with my human classmates had improved my writing speed dramatically. It was nice to not be 'the slow one' anymore when it came to schoolwork, and it was even nicer not feeling like an alien in the classroom.

My former experiences still made an impression on me, and about a week into classes I couldn't help but notice this one human girl that was in several of my classes who ended up being the only human in class in every class but one. She kept to herself, and I didn't see anyone having more than a passing greeting to her. It made me think of my own time as the odd one out, and resolved that I was going to try to be friends with her.

Our geography class had its first project assigned that particular day. As there were twenty-six of us, and fifty-two states, we each had to give a report on two seperate states. Being that this was a pony dominated school, cooperation was always encouraged with getting projects done, even individual projects like this one. In this case, cooperation on doing a group presentation awarded extra credit, even if the individual reports would be scored separately. I was assigned Guam and Hawaii, and noticed that the girl was assigned Puerto Rico and Florida. Those seemed like they could be good complementary states for a presentation. As soon as class ended that day I decided to approach the girl to see if she wanted to work together to help get our reports done.

However, she was a lot quicker than me getting out of the classroom. That meant I needed to run to catch up to her, and me running never turned out well. I wasn't as heavy back then, but I was still just as much a disaster waiting to happen; an object in motion that wanted to stay in motion (at least until I collided hard against something bigger).

I was running down the hallway, and realized my error as soon as I knew I had to come to a stop. The linoleum floors didn't exactly provide the best traction for hooves, and putting on the brakes resulted in me hurtling along the floor like a bowling ball waiting to smack some pins. The pin in this instance turned out to be a big glass trophy case that was right next to where the girl was standing.

PLOUFP!

That was a fascinating new sound.

She instantly helped me back up. "Are you alright?"

I gave my body a shake, and looked at the trophy case. It was thankfully not cracked, nor was my head. "Yeah, I'm great. Pegasus ponies are made to take crashes. I'm just glad I didn't break this glass." I turned to her and gave her a broad smile. "I was trying to catch up with you."

She blinked and stood up straight. "Um, what did you want?"

"Want to work together for some extra credit?" I asked. "I got two island states, and I noticed you got the third one and then Florida. It seems like we could make a tropical vacation themed presentation."

The corners of her mouth tightened. "I appreciate the offer, but I'm just doing the regular report. I don't need to do any extra credit."

My ears fell. "Please? I already was thinking about all the cool props we could get. Well, I would get them if you are worried about getting extra stuff."

She sighed. "I'm sorry, but I don't do the whole super-social thing you ponies do. I'm sure you can ask one of your other pony friends to do a presentation with you."

This wasn't going as I hoped. "If you don't like speaking in front of class I can do all the talking."

At this point she was frowning. "It isn't really public speaking I was talking about, although I don't like that either." She looked at my sad face and slumped her shoulders. "Look, Rebecca, right? I don't think you can understand my feelings, but try. I don't mean to be mean or anything. This is my first year here, and you ponies... are a little much for me."

My eyes shifted to a different type of sadness. "I do get it. This is my first year here too. I have met some new people, but I don't have any long history with anyone here. This is my first time at a school where I'm not the odd one out for being a pony. I noticed you and it reminded me of how I felt in all the other places. We don't have to do the project together, if you don't want to, but I'd still like to hang out or something with you. I might not be another human, but I'm someone who knows what it's like to feel alone when surrounded by people. I figured that might count for something."

She just stared at me for a few seconds, and I couldn't tell what she was thinking. She then let off another sigh. "No project, I'm not interested."

My wings and tail sagged, and I turned to go. "Alright. If that's what you want."

I walked away, and continued with classes through the day. I tried not to let the rejection get to me, and to just bounce back, but it just stuck to my mood for some reason. When lunch came I sat by myself, and picked at my hash browns and apple slices without eating with my normal enthusiasm for food.

Then someone sat their lunch tray down across from me. I looked up, and saw the girl looking at me. She then sat down. "So… you used to go to schools where you were the only pony in class?"

Still figuring out how to feel, I just nodded. "Yeah, this is the first place where having four legs is normal."

She picked at her own food. "Yet the first person you choose to try to make an extra effort to be friends with is a human. That's kind of weird that you were so eager to have more pony classmates and then you go right to the one human. I guess you aren't used to this many ponies either."

"I guess not," I cautiously agreed.

She continued to pick at her food. "I didn't want to move here. My dad is a construction contractor, and moved us all down here because there's lots of work and it pays more than other places. It's always about the money with him. It's like he doesn't even care that we were fine where we were, not when he could be making more money than he was."

We continued to talk about our shared experiences moving from place to place through the whole lunch hour. We talked again during lunch the next day, and again the next after that, and again each day after that. It took a while before we started doing anything other than talk during lunch, but after a few weeks we started hanging out after school. It would be months before we'd work on any projects together, but that was okay.

Ponies tend to just walk up to people and consider themselves good friends with people that they just talked to for a few minutes, it’s a stereotype but it’s true. But sometimes friendships take time to form and strengthen. Maggie and I are now great friends, and it all started with us just talking during our lunches. Those are the best friendships, the ones that take time to mature and grow.

"So, did you get knocked off course or somethin'?" Russell asked as we walked towards the female dorm's entrance.

I shrugged. "Not so much knocked off course. I'm just not the best at flying."

He glanced down at me. "That's a surprise. I thought it just came natural to you all."

Another shrug. "Not so much me. It used to bother me, but I've gotten over it. I'll never be great at flying, but I'm great at other things. My flights just contribute to making life interesting."

I heard him chuckle. "You sound like my mom. She's an earth pony, and an IT engineer. People are always askin' her how she manages to do all that work with hooves and her mouth. She just puts a positive spin on it and says the same exact thing you just said; it makes life interesting."

"Oh, you have pony parents?"

"Just my mom," he replied. "Dad partially transformed and rehumanized, and I didn't get ETS. I was off with my grandparents when it hit. Dad stuck with my mom, even though she refused to rehumanize. He says he doesn't know anyone else that will put up with him, and isn't going to go try lookin'. Mom's a tough one. Don't ever count a determined earth pony out. They ain't no pushovers."

We happened to be walking through the shadow of the Remembrance Monument, so it was kind of hard to discount what a determined earth pony could do. I heard some people used to think earth ponies were the least capable of the tribes, but I didn't think anyone in Skytree would ever question that earth ponies were just as capable as everyone else. Wild Growth had obliterated that old misconception.

"Are you a freshman too?" I asked as we reached the entrance to the dorm building.

He grabbed the door for me and held it open. "Sophomore. Although it feels like I've been here longer. I took some classes here my senior year of high school for early credit. So, I'm going to be hitting my junior year next semester. Where'd you go to high school? Somewhere around here, or you from out of town?"

I nodded my thanks to him being a gentleman and passed through the door and he followed after. "I went to Patel High," I answered. "Graduated like twenty-something in place in my class. I'm in the architectural engineering design program."

"You're a Patel Night Doctor?" He asked, referring to our sports team name, the Night Doctors. I had no idea why my high school had that for a team name, apparently it had something to do with the guy our high school was named after, but I always thought it was the dumbest sounding team name I'd ever heard.

I raised my wings up in mock cheer. "What's up, Docs!" Yeah, our cheer was that bad.

He laughed. "No wonder you guys lost every year to us in… well… everything. I'm a Middleton Mauler. I was on the human wrestling team."

I turned to look at him. "To be fair, Patel High is mostly ponies, so our human teams had pretty slim pickings. Of course you'll beat our human teams. You've got like ten times more humans to pick a team from."

He gave me a playful tap with his leg. "Our flight team beat you too, all four years I was there. Think they beat you last year as well."

I spread my wings wide. "That's just because they didn't have me flying for them. Would have been a whole different story if I had."

"Is that so?" He asked, amused.

I put my head up high. "Yep, if I'd been on the team we would have either not even made it to the finals every year to face your team, or every other team would be in stitches from me running into them."

"Can't argue with that logic," he replied as we reached the elevator. He pulled out his cell phone and punched in a few quick commands, and held it towards me. "Here's my number. If you ever need any help, don't be afraid to call. You're sure you're feeling okay?"

I held out my wrist phone and they synched the contact numbers. "Yeah. As I said it happens all the time. I don't know a lot of people here yet. Do you mind me just calling to go hang out?"

He shook his head. "Go right ahead. Just don't go crashing into any more buildings."

The elevator opened and I stepped into it, then turned to face him. "No promises on that. It's how I meet all my friends. Nice meeting you, Russell!"

"Likewise, Rebecca."

The door shut and I pushed the appropriate button. I hummed to myself as the elevator rose up, and was pleased to have met a new friend. Still, I was here today mainly for club and sorority sign-ups, so hopefully I'd meet a lot more new friends before the day was through.

Chapter 16: Not Quite An Eagle

No one likes going to the doctor's office. They poke and prod you, stick you with needles, and ask you all kinds of embarrassing questions. I needed to go to the doctor though, because my magic just wasn't behaving right. My parents promised that there'd be no needles sucking out my blood, but they shouldn't have made promises that they couldn't keep.

I sat moping about my sore leg, and trying not to rub at the bandage over where the nurse had just stolen some blood from it. I still had a bandage over part of my lower end where they had cut me open a few days before to remove the little growths. Doctor's visits were definitely not pleasant for me during that week. My mom was sitting in a chair across from the hospital bed I was sitting on. The bed was a pony bed, which meant it was lower to the ground, so my mom was still sitting up higher than me. We waited in silence for them to do more tests. I hoped it wouldn't be a lot of tests, and hoped they didn't need to stick me with any more needles.

"I'm sorry about the blood draw," Mom apologized. "I really didn't think they needed to do that for checking your magic."

My leg didn't hurt as much as it could have. So I gave my mom a halfhearted grin to show I wasn't mad. "It's alright. Who goes to the doctor and doesn't expect to have blood drawn?"

"Well, you were very brave and mature about it," she complimented. "When you were younger you would twist and fight the doctor so much they had to hold you down."

That was true. I wondered what had changed about that. After a moment's consideration, I had an answer. "That was before I started flying. When you get into as many crashes I do you get used to a little pain here and there."

She gave me a hard look. "You told me they don't hurt."

I shrugged. "They don't hurt that much. It's like stepping on a lego block kind of pain. It hurts, and feels intense for a few seconds, but it doesn't last long. Normally by the time I have gathered my senses the pain is almost all gone."

She gave me a deeply concerned frown. "I know flying is a big deal, but if you're hurting yourself each time…"

I waved it off with a wing. "Miss Seapony told me that her meanie older sister was wrong about a lot of things, but she was right about the fact we shouldn't let a little bit of pain stop us from doing what's important. Flying is important to me. It's part of who and what I am. If I crash I'm just going to get right back up, because the alternative is losing out on flying."

My mom could move fast, and the next thing I knew I was being pulled against her chest as she squeezed her arms around me. "I'm not happy you're getting hurt, even if it is just soreness and pain, but I'm proud of you."

"For crashing?" I asked in confusion.

She gripped me tighter. "For falling off your bike and getting back on."

I flicked my left ear. "Um, I don't have a bike. I never tried to ride a bike. Do they even make bikes for ponies?"

"I'll explain it to you sometime."

"How to ride a bike?"

"I'll try to help you with that too, if you decide you want to try."

There was a knock at the door, then it opened, revealing a night pony stallion and a crystal pony mare. The night pony clicked something on his phone then looked up at me. "Hello, I'm doctor Patel, and this is my assistant nurse Arbor. I'll be your treating physician." He had an accent, like he was from India.

My ears perked up. "Hi doctor Patel!" It never occurred to me until much later he was the guy my high school was named after. "I'm Rebecca."

He nodded. "I've looked over your test results so far, and your testimony about what has been happening. I'm confident I know what is going on, but want to conduct two final tests before making any assessment. Miss Arbor will be assisting us with those tests."

Crystal ponies assisting in tests usually involved a person having to use their magic so the crystal pony could read it. "What do you want me to do?" I asked, as I looked at the mare.

Miss Arbor walked over to me. "First, I'd like you to do a regular hover. Just for a few seconds. You don't have to go high, just enough to get yourself off the ground. Will you have any problems doing that safely?"

I shook my head. "I can do it. I'm not real steady, but a few inches isn't going to result in any mishaps."

She nodded. "Begin when you're ready. I'll be reading you."

I didn't waste time. I just started beating my wings, and got to where only my tail was still touching the bed. I even tucked my legs up so I didn't have to go any higher. I still wobbled a little, but it was a smaller wobble.

"That's enough. You can land," she announced, and I came back down to a sitting position. She then turned to the doctor. "One-point-nine on her usage, but reading a four or better on her reserves."

The doctor entered some data onto his phone and nodded. He then turned back to me. "I took a few minutes to consult with the Dreamwardens about your OMMR license, trying to get information about it. They wouldn't tell me what you could do, but did tell me that you'd be able to use the ability to let Miss Arbor get a magic reading on it, and that the ability is almost exclusively a night pony ability normally, and a rare one at that. I shall not ask you to reveal your ability to us, but if you are capable of using it in a discrete way, so my assistant can get a read on your magic, it would be much appreciated."

"Can I turn some music on?" I asked, gesturing at the phone on my leg. He gave me a silent nod, and I quickly started selecting something from my playlist. I picked something from an old Disney soundtrack, labeled I'm On My Way, and set it to play.

It took me almost no time at all to start projecting. I once again was invisible, and this time silent. I kept Just above my own head, just because I didn't want to have the crystal mare looking all around the room at me. She was looking at my body at the moment, but I was surprised to see the doctor looking straight at my projection.

The mare shook her head. "I don't know what she's doing. I've never felt magic quite like this. It's definitely stronger; a four-point-two or a four-point-three easily. It does feel vaguely night pony-ish, but I'm not familiar with night pony magic behaving this way."

Doctor Patel continued to stare at me. "Some night ponies can see dreams while awake, and I'm one of them. I can see what you're doing, Rebecca. Don't worry, I'll keep it private. You can stop now. I think this confirms what is going on with your flight."

I immediately stopped, and blinked my eyes as soon as I was back in my body. "So, what's wrong with me?"

Patel sat down and looked at me. "You're a dreamwalker, correct?" I nodded to him, and he nodded back knowingly. "And I assume that you didn't come by that ability naturally, correct?" I nodded again. "At what age did the Dreamwardens grant you the ability to dreamwalk?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Um, eight, I think, maybe nine, but pretty sure I was eight."

He noted something down on his legphone. "And I take it that you weren't flying yet at that age?" I nodded yet again. "Then that is our culprit."

My ears wilted. "I can't fly well because I can dreamwalk? But other ponies have gotten to dreamwalk and it doesn't mess with them."

"Other ponies that were granted the ability were typically granted the ability as adults, after their magic had already matured," he explained. "Gaining such a powerful trait at such a young age essentially derailed your magical development. Your magic still developed, but its natural course was diverted. As a result, what would be typical for a pegasus in magic was essentially stunted in favor of the new magical path."

"If you're saying her pegasus magic got replaced with night pony magic that doesn't make sense," my mom interrupted. "Night ponies might not fly as well as pegasi, but they have less trouble than she does. She doesn't see any better in the dark than me, and doesn't have any magic climbing ability."

Doctor Patel turned towards my mom. "The way magic manifests does follow certain patterns between tribes, this is true, but they aren't strict rules. There is room for variation. The abilities you just described would have developed before the age of eight on a night pony, if following normal patterns, and dreamwalking would not have yet-- with some rare individual exceptions. Her magic got mostly diverted to a night pony path, but when it got there it was just as much off course of normal development, not to mention she already had some pegasi magic developed before that."

"So my big ability is because my magic developed off plan?" I asked, trying to understand.

He did a brisk nod. "I have seen similar reports from foals that were granted dreamwalking at a young age. There are not a lot of such foals, but there is a high number of irregularities in their magical development. For many of them their normal tribal magics are often stunted, or behave strangely. Some have also ended up displaying rare or unusual abilities, in at least a few cases abilities that seem to be wholly unique to them. There's a small international consortium of night pony doctors who have taken an interest in this condition. We are still trying to fully define the symptoms and impact of it, but it seems to be that you have broken your primary magical template."

"How do we fix her template?" Mom asked.

He shook his head. "You don't. The magic wants a template and it made one. It is essentially the same thing that happens with humans who gain magical abilities. There's no preset plan for development, so the magic makes one."

My eyes started to water. "I'm just going to be bad at flying forever? There's no treatment?"

The doctor turned back to me, and gave me a sympathetic look. "I'm sure you can train and practice to get better, but it's always going to be a struggle. There is no treatment for this condition at this time. I'm sorry about that."

The doctor gave some references for flying instructors. We went back to the lobby, my mom paid for the visit, and we got back in the car.

Before we went anywhere my mom put a hand up to her head, then caused me to jump when she brought a fist down on the steering wheel. I flattened my ears to the sides as she laid her head against the wheel and started to cry. "Mom? What's wrong?"

She lifted her head and pushed aside some hair that had fallen in front of her face. "I can't believe someone we trusted did this to you. How could she do something that would cripple you for life?"

I lowered my head, and stared at the seat between my hooves, and the bandages over my abdomen. "I'm sure she didn't know it was going to happen."

"She's supposed to be the expert on all things related to dream magic. It's her job to know that this could happen to you!"

"Maybe it hadn't happened to anyone yet when she gave me dreamwalking powers," I said in my friend's defense. "It's not like there were lots of us that got those powers, and we're all just now getting old enough to realize there are problems."

"Baby, she messed your magic up for life. How can you be defending her?" Mom asked in confusion and concern. "Aren't you angry?"

Was I angry? I was definitely upset. I was definitely feeling hurt. Anger was something else though, and it wasn't there. I shook my head. "No, it had to be an accident. She's my friend. She's always been good to me. She's always done everything she can to help me. She believes in me."

My mom wasn't having it. "But she's responsible."

Was Miss Seapony responsible? In a way yes, but again, I couldn't believe she would have known. "I'm the one that asked her to let me dreamwalk. She didn't just volunteer for me to do it. I'm the one who wanted to see my old friends whenever we moved. You could blame me just as much, or more."

She looked at me, then started to cry again. "So is it my fault? I'm the one who had to keep with a job that moved us over and over again. If we hadn't then you wouldn't have had to ask that."

I don't know why, but I had a realization at that moment. I reached a wing out to my mom. "It doesn't need to be anyone's fault. It is what it is, and blaming anyone doesn't make it go away or make it any better. No one wanted it to happen, no one intended for it to happen, and everyone wishes it didn't happen, but it happened. I don't want to be mad at anyone."

It took a long time for my mom to stop wanting to find someone to blame. It was months before she stopped talking about it, and I think years before she stopped thinking about it. For all I know, she still thinks about it, but doesn't say anything. However, I made a decision that day. I was never going to get mad at someone for anything unless they did something on purpose to hurt someone, or knowing it could hurt someone. Faults were rarely ever just from one person, and if you sat around worrying about whose fault every single thing was you'd just be unhappy. Worry about fixing the problem, and making sure it doesn't happen again, don't worry about blaming. Blaming was pointless.

The elevator opened, and I found myself staring at a beak, attached to that beak was a being with a lionlike body, and a falconlike head.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Something wrong, pony?"

I blinked and produced my most intelligent response possible. "Beak."

She narrowed her eyes. The door for the elevator tried to close, but she stuck a talon out and stopped it. "I take it you've never met a griffin?"

I shook my head. "I've seen pictures, and videos, but never one face-to-face. You're a lot more feathery than me."

"And you're a lot more…" she gave me a dubious look. "...round than I am. Are you the pony that just decided to moon all the students on the balconies while laying against the side of the building?"

Had the balconies been right above where I landed? I couldn't remember. "Um, maybe? It wasn't really a decision on my part. It's just where my rump ended up. It sometimes ends up in strange places."

"Your rump just ended up facing up?"

"Yep."

Her beak parted slightly (I still thought that it was really interesting, and tried to see what her tongue looked like) and I got the impression she was gaping at me. She closed her beak (before I could spot her tongue) and shook her head. "Are you a freshman or a visitor?"

"Well, I'm a freshman, but today I'm a visitor, because I haven't moved in yet. I'm getting my key so I can move in a few days from now."

She flexed her talons, which I was unsure what it meant, but was sure it meant something. I didn't really know griffin body language. "Who are you rooming with?"

I pointed down the hall. "With Nightscape and Julie… I just realized I don't know Julie's last name; it's definitely Julie for the first name."

"Wojciechowski."

"Bless you!" What a strange sneeze.

She shook her head again. "I didn't sneeze, chub-butt!"

"Oh, is that some griffin word then? What's it mean?"

"It's not a griffin word. It's Julie's last name!"

"Oh, no wonder she didn't tell me what it was. I'd never have remembered it was Wojciechowski."

She flexed her talons again. "You just remembered it perfectly right now, having heard it once and thinking it was a sneeze."

I smiled. "Hey! I suppose I did."

She shook her head again. "Forget it. I'm Greta, and I'll be your RA this year. Just try to keep out of trouble, okay?"

I put out my hoof to touch hooves with her. "Okay. Nice to meet you, Greta. I'm Rebecca."

She gave my hoof a look, and flicked her tail, but she then closed up her talons and gave it a bump. "Now, can you please step out of the elevator so I can go down to the pool?"

I hastily got out of the elevator and turned to face her. "Sorry. Guess I'll see you around."

She shook her head again as she entered the elevator. She seemed to shake her head a lot, and she started mumbling to herself. "Ponies. Every year they get more and more pony." I had absolutely no clue what she meant by that.

I watched as the elevator closed and then went down the hall to go get my key. I needed to hurry, or Maggie would finish eating without me.

Chapter 17: Continuing to Dream

Questions are powerful things. Someone asking a question can change the course of history. What would the world be like if no one ever asked how do we get across that big body of water? Or whoever first asked is this fair? Or why don't we dunk our cookies into some milk? These are little things, but they lead to much bigger things. When I was a young filly I asked a question, and it changed the course of my life.

I was dreaming, and having a cloud party. What's a cloud party? That's when you invite all the clouds over and have cake and ice cream of course. What else would a cloud party be? All the clouds were wearing top hats and monocles, because that made it a high class party. I was sitting on a floating toadstool in the sky, having a conversation with Mister Storm Cloud and Mister Cumulonimbus about important things like whether tabby cats or orange cats were cuter kittens, when Miss Seapony arrived at my party and grabbed a large chunk of pineapple left-side-up cake and ranch dressing ice cream.

She gobbled down her food as she came over to me one mighty bite. She licked her muzzle and raised an eyebrow at me. "Salad dressing as ice cream? It works in a dream, but I'm not sure it would work in the waking world."

I giggled. "But ranch dressing is great! How is the cake?"

The massive dream avatar turned it around in her mouth. "Tastes like pineapple. Although it definitely looked different."

Mister Cumulonimbus reached a cloudy appendage up and adjusted his monocle and top hat. "Miss Seapony. Perhaps you can settle this pressing discussion. Which is cuter, an orange kitten or a tabby kitten?"

She spread her fins wide. "The orange kitten, although I'm biased. My fur is orange, so I am partial to the color."

I examined her closely. "But Miss Seapony, you don't have any fur. You just have scales."

"Well, I don't keep it with me here, but in the waking world I have orange fur and a red mane," my friend explained, and then created a cup of tea and sipped from it.

One of my ears flicked. "You look different when you're awake?"

She nodded to me, and looked at the two clouds. "I wanted to clarify that tabby kittens are cute as well. I think it depends on the owner. If you love your kitten you will find it cute no matter what."

"Hear, hear! Wise words, Miss Seapony," Mister Storm Cloud said with a pump of his puff. He then started leaking rain, and reached down to cover himself. "Oh my, how embarrassing."

I didn't pay much attention to my dream friend as he tittled. I was more focused on what Miss Seapony said. "Why do you look different?"

She smiled at me. "Because I'm a Dreamwarden and I choose to. Ponies need to recognize that I'm something different here in the dream realm. If I appeared in my waking body I would look pretty normal. In the waking world I am very normal, but here I'm something extraordinary. This is the true me, the extraordinary me."

"Can I be extraordinary?" I asked.

"You are extraordinary, Rebecca. Don't doubt that," Miss Seapony assured me.

I shook my head. "But I'm not like you. You can be whatever you want here. You can visit anyone, anywhere. You know everything."

She raised a fin in objection. "Not everything, and knowing things is not all it's made out to be, especially when you can't use that knowledge. You should be happy being yourself."

"But if I was like you I could help make everyone happy," I countered.

The massive seapony froze in place and then drew close to me, looking me in the eyes. "Is that so? Is that what you would do with power such as mine? Just find ways of bringing joy?"

I looked her in the eyes, unafraid. "Yes! I like people being happy. People being happy makes me happy. You've always been really nice to me, and I'd never have met you if you couldn't do all the cool things you do. There have to be a lot of other people that need to have a friend, but I can't meet. You can meet them."

She pulled back, grabbed Mister Storm Cloud, and sat on him. "I'm friendlier than my brothers and sisters, but we have a history people do not forget. I have been a monster in my time, and people will never forget that."

"Well, I'd be something friendly, and try to be everyone's friend," I insisted, giving my wings a quick snap to punctuate my words.

"Some people would not want to be your friend. What if they didn't?" Miss Seapony questioned.

My ears sagged. "I wouldn't make them do what they didn't want to do, so I guess I'd leave those ones alone. I'd still try to be friends with anyone that wanted a friend."

"What if you had to choose?" She continued. "There are a lot of people in the world, and only so much of you to go around. Even I can only reach so many people at once, unless I die, which I'm not so keen on doing. What if you had to choose?"

My ears sagged further. "Um, I don't know. I guess try to pick out the ones that needed me most."

Miss Seapony flicked her tail against the cloud, making Mister Storm Cloud rain even more. "And what does the world get out of it? All the power of a Dreamwarden being used just to make a few people happy seems like an underuse of power. Miss Nightmares makes Sha'am find aid for those in danger of dying. She does this on a grand scale. Mister Potty-Mouth says that he has big plans once he dies to help victims and law enforcement. Wouldn't those be a better use of power?"

"Those are good things," I agreed, "but one person can make a difference. Maybe being that friend that person needed makes them better, and they make other things better for everyone else because of that. Friendship changes everything."

My friend just sat silently watching me. Mister Storm Cloud spoke up from below her. "Don't mind me down here. I'm happy to be providing a service."

"You are doing an excellent job, my friend. Even if you are wrong about tabby kittens," Mister Cumulonimbus said as he adjusted his hat again.

Miss Seapony glanced at the cloud in the top hat and smirked. "I do love your dreams, Rebecca. We are having a serious discussion, yet your dreams seem unimpeded by it. There's something to be said about never losing your dreams." She focused on me. "Something to be said indeed. You dream so simple yet so big. Perhaps one day we will see how your dreams turn out. I must be going for now. I have much to think about."

Little did I know at the time that I had set myself on a path that few ever walked. Just by asking a question, being asked a question back, and giving the answer in my heart. I asked if I could be like Miss Seapony, and so I would be given my chance to be.

Julie opened the door to the dorm room and smiled at me. "There you are! I was wondering when you'd finally drop by today. Come on in. Nightscape's here too, but she's sleeping. Don't worry about keeping quiet, she'll sleep straight through anything."

I stepped in and looked at the curtains middle bunk of the triple bunk bed. "Are you sure? I don't want to be rude and wake her up."

Julie waved one of her wings. "Believe me. We had a clogging team practice down the hall once, mostly earthly ponies. It was so loud I could barely hear myself think, and Greta got so many complaints she had to tell them to leave. But Nightscape... slept right on through the entire thing like it didn't even happen. If she could sleep through that she’s not going to wake up from any noise you’ll make."

I giggled. "Guess night ponies are just deep sleepers."

She nodded to me, but raised up a wing to cover a whisper. "Fair warning, don't try to prank her in her sleep. I once tried to set a prank up right over her as she was sleeping, and she woke straight up and smacked me silly with her wings. Those things hurt! Anyway, she doesn't wake up to normal noise, just tunes it out, but if there's anything her brain registers as 'wrong' she'll be up and wide awake in a second; normally ready to attack something and ask questions later."

"She won't get that way with having a new roommate walking around the room, will she?" I asked, giving her bed another concerned look.

Julie shook her head. "Naw, she didn't have a problem with me last year when I was the new one, or our old roommate before she graduated, and Felicia was always either streaming videos or playing music with no headphones. Nightscape's brain is kind of wired to be expecting roommates to be walking around, talking, and generally making noise."

I relaxed and stopped worrying about keeping my voice down. "Alright. How are you doing today? So far I've crashed into the building, got my birth control prescription, and met some new friends, including a partial. I also met our RA, Greta, but I'm not sure if she likes me yet. Meeting a griffin and a partial on the same day was really great."

Julie blinked. "What a thorough report. My day hasn't been half as interesting. Just took a morning flight after I woke up, and have been lounging around here waiting for you to show up since then. You said you crashed into the building?"

"Don’t worry, it happens all the time. Just some broken feathers, no big deal."

She used one of her huge wings to lift one of my wings up. After a quick inspection of my wing she let my wing go and gave a small frustrated whinny. "Take it from an athlete, you need to take better care of your feathers. You said you have trouble flying as it is, don't make it worse by dismissing broken feathers. You may think it’s not a big deal to break a few, but we need them. They're part of what helps channel our magic, like hundreds of little unicorn horns."

"Night ponies fly fine without feathers, better than me," I countered.

Julie shook her head. "Night pony wings work differently than ours. They are designed to work without feathers. Our wings are designed to work with feathers, and we need healthy feathers to be at our peak performance."

"I just end up crashing a lot," I explained. "I'm supposed to fly a certain amount every day, right? I can't really avoid breaking feathers if I do that and crash. It's not my fault, it's my magic; I have MPDS."

She cocked her head. "What in the heck is MPDS?" She then took a few steps back. "It isn't contagious, is it?"

I shook my head. "It is what I was kind of telling you about before. MPDS is short for Magical Prepubescent Dreamwalking Syndrome. It means that my magic is all blahflablahba because I started dreamwalking too young."

"Is blahflablahba a scientific term?"

I lifted my head high. "It should be!"

She lifted up one one of my wings again and gave it another critical look. "Be that as it may, you aren't making things any easier with all these damaged feathers. I have special oils for my feathers you can try. They help keep feathers from breaking under stress. That's helpful for ponies like me who really push my wings hard, but you might benefit from them too. It might not stop all the crashes, but it might help reduce the number a little."

I raised my left wing up and looked at it. I did end up having to preen a lot of feathers every day (which reminded me I needed to dump my feather bin still). My flying would never be perfect, but any improvement was improvement. Plus, having more feathers in good shape just looked better in general, and though I wasn’t known for my conventionally good looks I still had some personal pride. I was still a pegasus, and pegasus with no ego at all wasn't much of a pegasus.

"Sure," I replied as I lowered my wings. Then realized I had gotten distracted. "Um, can you tell me all about it the day after tomorrow when I actually move in. I was just stopping by to get my key. I told my friend I'd be back in less than an hour, but then I almost flew into the Remembrance Monument, and there was the crash into the building, and then I talked to Russell, and then talked to Greta, and now I’m talking to you. I need to hurry or she'll finish lunch without me!"

"Oh my! That would be a tragedy!" Julie said in mock horror, looking at my extra padding with a smirk. She still walked over to a nearby desk and scooped up a key off it with her wing. It was a typical pony door key, which means they are a little bigger than human door keys just to make them easier to manipulate. My mom calls them toddler training keys, but I don't know why. The key passed from her wing to mine, and I stuffed it in my little carry pouch.

"This key is mainly for the start of the semester and as a backup," Julie explained. "In about a week Greta will come by and program the lock to read your cutie mark if you bump it against a certain part of the door. They wait to make sure everybody is moved in first before they send RAs out to set that up. Keep the physical key on you after that, because if power goes out or if you are really dirty the scan thing doesn't work. Not sure how it tells what it's scanning to tell the truth, but it can tell the difference between a real cutie mark and a fake."

I nodded. "Okay, well, I'll get flying then. Can I go out from the balcony?"

She gave me a flat look. "Yeah, I have it unlocked while I'm here, but are you sure? You said you tend to crash."

"Not every time," I answered as I headed towards the balcony.

"Knock yourself out then." She paused as if considering what she just said, and then lifted a hoof. "Don't knock yourself out! Have a nice, safe, and happy landing!"

I was already out the door to the balcony. It was wide enough for maybe four ponies to sit comfortably, or one pony and another pony with their wings spread out. Wiggling my rump, I jumped into the air, beating my wings just hard enough to get me over the edge of the railing. I evened them out so I could simply glide down. My path did try to dip and sag a little, but I was able to adjust my weight so it more or less evened out. As I got down near the ground I did a few beats of my wings to try to slow down and lowered my legs.

My legs came down and I wanted to jump for joy at my perfect landing. Take that expectations! However, there's this little thing called momentum I had forgotten about.

TROTTA TROTTA SHISHH SPLAT!

Well, I hadn't crashed while flying. I'd crashed while trying to slow down on the ground, doing an awkward canter, and then planting my face in the grass. I casually observed that this was very well kept grass, so nice, green, and soft. Whoever kept care of it deserved a raise.

I picked myself up and shook the loose grass out of my fur and feathers. Time to go run and see if I could still get lunch.

Chapter 18: The Ties to Our Pasts

One of the things humans don't get about ponies in school is literature, and why we don't tend to like it much. Sure, there are ponies that love to read, but classic literature is just a chore to get through.

The heart of the matter is we don't feel like it is particularly written for us. True, that can be applied to a lot of stories and humans, but at least those stories are filled with humans. There aren't ponies in classical literature at all. This isn't really the fault of those classical authors, as there were no ponies on Earth when they wrote their stories, but it is something that as a pony you can't help noticing. It gives you a disconnect from what you're reading to not have any ties to it. Some ponies can, but I wasn't one of those ponies.

It wasn't like all the school boards didn't recognize this problem. There were attempts to get a more balanced reading curriculum with ponies in mind. They liked to include books with animals in places of humans, such as Animal Farm. Reinterpreted things from fantasy literature as classics, like The Last Unicorn. They also tried getting translations of many of the Equestrian classics. All those things did a little better, but they didn't really hit the mark. Even the Equestrian classics didn't really reflect the ponies on Earth, and the absence of humans in those books was just as off-putting.

We were a people without a long history. We did have some ties to human history, but there was a disconnect from that history that was hard to explain to humans. Just like they couldn't understand why we couldn't get into the Equestrian classics instead, it wasn't our culture and history; we didn't have that long culture and history. Again, some ponies loved all those old books, but the number of us who were bored to tears by them was far higher than humans bored to tears by their books.

That didn't mean that the rest of us hated reading. There were plenty of books that were being written in the present day that filled the void that the classics could not. Maybe one day some of them might become classics themselves, and fill that hole. There was also a vibrant community of writers that reimagined popular TV series and books with a mix of human and pony characters. I followed a bunch of these kind of loosely. My friend Maggy was really into the reimagined Star Trek, and I knew enough about it to recognize most of the characters and a few of the major plots.

There were 'purists' and 'true fans' who objected to these remaking of their beloved things, and they'd yell and scream about how we should just write fresh new things and leave their old things alone. I could understand where they were coming from. They had strong attachments to these older versions, and it was understandable they had strong attachments to the versions the first fell in love with, but they didn't seem to understand where the rest of us were coming from. These were things that were established in the culture, with established fandoms, and those established things kind of left ponies sitting out in the cold, wanting to be included, but not feeling included. It was really hard to introduce new pony characters to already crowded casts. So we found ways of writing ourselves in by switching out some of the old characters with pony ones. Most older fans were fine with it, as it brought in new life and concepts to things that hadn't had the status quo shaken in years, but there was always that very vocal minority that wouldn't stop complaining about ponies having to insert themselves into their beloved franchises.

There were also the ponies that tried to express the experiences of Earthling ponies as compared to Equestrians using writing. An Earthling earth pony had very different experiences in their lives than an earth pony born in Equestria. They'd write about taking up farming for the first time as an adult, having worked some retail job as a human. They'd talk about their experiences trying to defend the land that they'd started trying to farm. An Equestrian might not understand the experiences of a pegasus who had never seen a city made of clouds. The Equestrian night ponies couldn't understand the pain and suffering the gender imbalance brought to the Earthling night ponies. Earthling crystal ponies and Equestrian crystal ponies weren't even alike in magic. No, Equestria's culture and experiences were not ours.

However, I did find an olda old classic from human literature that I did enjoy very much, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Here the protagonist being human was actually something that I could bond with, because she was a lone human in a world full of strange creatures. She had that outsider-looking-in mentality that only saw everything as strange, while the residents saw everything as perfectly normal. The world of Wonderland also was awash with creativity. You never knew what kind of thing was around the next corner, or by what logic it operated. It was truly a world of wonder, beauty, and excitement. As a creative type I found the images from the story captivating.

The most captivating of the characters was the Cheshire Cat. The character would challenge preconceived notions, seemed to always be happy and having fun, and many of his abilities and physical attributes lined up with my own; he could float around weightless, turn invisible, shift shapes, and be completely immaterial. Those things sounded a lot like my abilities when I was projecting, so it felt like Alice was encountering an enigmatic version of me. I could imagine it as me, trying to guide Alice to look at things in different ways, without ever telling her how she should think.

This is how I first began to associate myself with the Cheshire Cat. This strong association with him also made me want to try to emulate a few of his other characteristics. I viewed him as a friend and helper, but also mischievous and a prankster. I got up to a number of pranks over the years, but never too often. If you prank too often then people expect it, and you can't take them by surprise, and that dulls the effect. I also never did anything really mean, because I could only enjoy a good laugh if my pranked victim was capable of laughing along with me.

I was very happy to see Maggie had waited for me at the cafeteria, and had even bought me a slice of strawberry cheesecake and a veggie-burger. I related to her all that I'd been up to while I was getting my key and she rolled her eyes playfully at me. It didn't take long at all for me to scarf down my food, and then we were off to sign up for clubs and sororities.

The sign-up and information area about the different groups was actually in the cafeteria. The cafeteria had two floors to it, with the second floor overlooking the first. That meant all we had to do was go up the stairs and we found humans and ponies standing around information tables displaying colorful Greek letter banners along with a few other groups with Latin names.

One thing that we definitely wanted was to join groups together. There were some limitations, of course. Some groups wouldn't let you join other groups of similar nature (primarily the sororities). There were however some groups that were open to having members in multiple different organizations, mainly groups dedicated to specific causes, politics, or fields of study. We spent a long time browsing each of the tables.

Maggie laughed as a Shimmerist group tried aggressively to interest her in coming to their meetings. Shimmerism had apparently been strong in the old city from before the Cataclysm, and while it wasn't as strong these days it still had a large enough following that the school had two distinct Shimmerist groups, one with lots of humans and one that was exclusively pony. From what we could gather those two groups loathed each other. However, they both combined forces and started shouting when a Blessingist club tried to get our attention. A security guard had to come by and break up their arguing before it turned into an open brawl, with a statement this was the final warning before they were all asked to pack up and leave. I overheard a student whispering about how the three groups had actually started trading blows last year, and had almost been banned from the school. Personally, I didn't understand why they were allowing the Shimmerist groups to operate at all, they seemed blatantly speciest to me.

We spent a lot of time there, but eventually settled on pledging to Kappa Pi together, which was more an honor society than sorority. I got some information about the AIA (American Institute of Architects). I couldn't actually join that until after I graduated, but the man handing out information said it was a big thing for architects, so no harm learning about it and reading their stuff early on. I also picked up some information about a co-ed group focused on providing resources for architecture students. Maggie grabbed some similar things for graphic design groups, and we both grabbed information for the Amatuer Writers Club.

We were about to go when a blue pegasus mare with black mane, wearing what looked like yoga pants that hid her cutie mark, came over from the Association of Naturalized College Students (what a weird name) table to give me a disapproving grimace. "You are Rebecca Riddle?"

I looked at Maggie and she looked as confused as I was. Had I done something wrong? I turned back to the mare that was glaring at me like I was the scum of the Earth. "Um, yeah, that's me."

Her grimace turned into a scowl. "I am Lántiān."

"Um, hi, Lántiān. Did you need something from me?" I asked, still completely confused about what was going on.

Her eyes narrowed, and her feathers started to fluff out in a way that indicated she was really on edge. "Does my name mean nothing to you?"

I shook my head, and stepped back. Maggie stepped between the hostile mare and myself. "Hey! You got a problem with Becky? She doesn't know who you are, and I know I've never met you before. Don't come up to her acting like you want to rip her throat out. What's your problem?"

Lántiān turned her glare upwards at Maggie. "Step aside. I want to see what makes her so special."

I was so confused. I'd never had a stranger come up to me this hostile before. "Who are you? I've never even met you. If I did something wrong I'll try to make it right."

Lántiān cocked her head to the side. "You really don't know who I am?" I shook my head side-to-side so hard it felt like I was rattling my brain. The other pegasus stared at me for a moment more before muttering to herself in some other language. She did an angry stomp of her hoof before turning away and walking off without a word.

Maggie looked back at me. "What the holy hay was that? Have you been sending hate mail or something to the… whatever her group was named?"

"I don't know," I replied. Then resolved to do something about it. "I'm going to go talk to her."

Maggie put a leg in front of me. "Are you nuts? She very clearly does not like you. I don't know what you did to piss her off, but going right back to her isn't going to win her over. If you're really determined to find out then maybe you should try approaching her after she's cooled down some more?"

I shook my head. "Nope. There has to be some misunderstanding. I want to make whatever it is right."

She covered her face. "Beck, you can't just… if you're really determined to do this can you just back off if she rebuffs you?"

"I can't promise anything."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Okay, I'll just stand right here and watch. If she tries to pummel you I'll come to your rescue, but it's still going to be your own fault if it happens."

I didn't answer. I just silently, and quietly started walking to where the mare was sitting. She watched me and glared the entire time I was approaching.

I gulped as her eyes bore into me. "Hi again. I think that you must have me confused with some other Rebecca Riddle. I've never met you or heard of you. Um, you wouldn't happen to have cookies, would you?"

Her mouth opened slightly, mouthing the word cookies. "Why are you asking me for cookies?"

I plopped my butt down and tapped my forehooves together, giving my answer all in one breath. "Because I eat when I'm nervous and you make me really nervous and right now I really really want to eat something sweet so I can forget the fact that I want to pee all over the floor."

She snorted. "Don't pee on the floor, it's unsanitary. I have no cookies for you. Now leave."

I wasn't going to be deterred. "Well, I will, and really quickly too, but I want to know why you don't like me and how you know my name."

"Why do I need to explain myself to you, you butter-covered rice ball?" She asked with a hiss.

I cringed. "That's a very creative insult for me. I've never heard that one before, but it works really well; since butter is yellow like my mane, and my fur is white like-"

"I don't need you to explain how my insult works! Why would you even do that? Why won't you leave?"

My ears had been flat against my head the entire time, but now we're trying to push down so hard I could feel the strain. "I just want to make whatever I did wrong better."

With two beats of her wings she was down in front of me, her face in my face. I jumped backwards in fright, but I noticed tears in her eyes as she continued advancing towards me. "You can't make it better, nothing can make it better. I am not even truly mad at you. I am mad at her for loving you so much. It wasn't fair. You've made it worse now by not even knowing who I am. She never even told you my name."

I blinked rapidly. "Who are you talking about?"

She was openly crying now. "My mother, Yinyu Wu Yan. She chose the United States to run to because of you, and died in the process. I might still have my mother if not for you. There were safer places to try to run."

I gasped as I stepped further back. She stopped crying and narrowed her eyes again at me. "You should not be the target of my rage, but seeing you makes it boil. Get out of my sight. You can't make this better. My mother is still dead at the end of the day, and if not for you there is a chance she might still be alive." She turned away. "She couldn't even take the time to tell you our names."

And she left out of the area, leaving me sitting confused and hurt. Miss Seapony told me she had foals, but had never told me their names. It never occurred to me that they might blame me for what happened to her. Why hadn't she ever introduced me to them or told me their names?

There was only one person that I could get that answer from.

Chapter 19: Love Hurts

The first time I ever saw Miss Seapony's other form was the night after the Cataclysm of Riverview.

I don't remember what I was dreaming, because she didn't give me a chance. The first thing I was aware of were hooves and wings wrapped around me, and a pony sobbing on my shoulder. She had dark orange fur, and a dark red mane. Her cutie mark was something that made me blush to even look at, and I won't describe what it was. She didn't seem that old, maybe my mom's age, or even younger than that. She looked entirely unlike her normal form in the dream, yet I knew somehow this was her.

"What's wrong, Miss Seapony? Is it the thing that happened to that city?"

"Oh, Rebecca." She sniffled. “Today I have lost my beloved sister.""

"I don't understand? You have a sister?"

Still not letting me go, she answered. "Had… Sha'am Maut. She was so cruel and hateful, she did horrible things to ponies and I hated her for it. She’s the main reason why so many people hate us Dreamwardens, and she’s gone forever now."

"But you said you loved her too?" I was still confused.

"My brothers, and my other sister-- well, sisters again now, in the Dreamwardens knew her better than anyone. She had so much hurt happen to her, so much injustice, so much loss, that it became all she knew. Yet there were still rare moments where she could still be kind and gentle. Enough to give us hope that she could one day escape her darkness. People never saw her with foals, or those she went to in their last moments. When she’d drop her guard and show the gentle soul buried under all her hate, something worthy of love. Unfortunately, all her other moments reminded us how far removed she was from that goodness."

She stopped and choked out more sobs. "We tried time and time again to plead with her, tried to offer her help, tried to make her understand, but in the end she never came back into the light. I hope that where she is now that she somehow gets her spirit healed and knows some peace."

I had a rare moment of needing to be bluntly honest. I thought Miss Seapony might be blinding herself to how bad Sha'am Maut was. She'd told me lots of stories about her in the past, and I knew Sha'am was a very BAD pony. "Even bad people can do good things. Didn’t Hitler love dogs?" That was something I always heard people say.

Miss Seapony pulled back from me and growled. "I'm well aware that she was evil, Rebecca. My siblings and I are not naive. We just lament that we weren't able to save her from herself."

"I still don't know how you can both love and hate someone," I confessed.

She sighed. "Love and hate are not always separate things and family complicates things even more. I know the good that Sha'am was capable of in her softer moments, but I was not blind to what she did in all her other moments. I felt nothing but sympathy and woe for the hardships that made her into the monster she became, but I could not deny the woe she caused as a monster. She was a broken and sick person that we wanted so desperately to heal, and we failed so horribly at doing so. Now she is gone."

I didn't know what to say as Miss Seapony wrapped her wings around me again. She put her head once more on my shoulder and whispered. "Let me just cry for my lost sister. Today I'm asking you for comfort. People around the world will soon be cheering her passing, but the dream realm mourns."

And so she started crying again, and I wrapped my wings around her as she did.

I was now a mare on a mission. Miss Seapony had deliberately kept me from knowing anything about her foals, and I wanted to know why. I knew it was deliberate; there was no way with all the years we spent together that she wouldn't have told me more about them than they exist if she hadn't been keeping it from me on purpose. I didn't even know how many more there were. Were more ponies going to come at me like that?

There were more questions. Out of the whole world what were the chances of actually running into one of them? There were more than half-a-billion ponies in the world, yet somehow the two of us still met, and she knew who I was. She knew me by name on sight, and everything about her was a mystery to me. The only way she could know about me was if Miss Seapony told her. Why would Miss Seapony tell her about me and not tell me anything about her?

Why did she think Miss Seapony loved me more than her? Was it true?

I told Maggie that I needed to go home. If she wasn't ready to leave that was okay, because I could fly if I needed to. Maggie didn't argue with me about it. She simply said I had enough crashes already today, and flying around mad wasn't a good idea. I don't think she knew how to deal with me right then. I rarely got mad, and never lasted more than a few seconds. This was new, this was me seething with bottled-up anger. I wasn't even completely sure what I was angry about, but the hurt, anger, and resentment in Lántiān's words made something in me snap.

Maggie drove me home, and when she dropped me off I told her I would give her a call tomorrow afternoon. I didn't mention I needed to face Miss Nightmares tomorrow morning, because all that mattered was facing Miss Seapony tonight. She knew about my intentions for tonight. I didn't have to say anything for her to know. Maggie likely had no intention of getting involved with me yelling at a Dreamwarden. Like most people she had a fear of them, and no desire to provoke them; not that she could, since she couldn't encounter a Dreamwarden in a dream. She'd never meet Miss Seapony.

I accidentally slammed the door to the house shut after walking in, and my mom lightly admonished me from the kitchen for it. "Hey! Easy on the door. The door didn't do anything to you. You're home earlier than I expected. How did the-"

I walked straight by her towards my room. "I'm going to be projecting. I don't know how long I'll be, but I need privacy."

She immediately picked up on my mood. "What's wrong? Did you and Maggie have a fight? Did someone at the school make fun of you?" She paused briefly and lowered her voice. "Is this about the stuff we aren't supposed to talk about?"

"No, I don't know what this is about, but I'm going to find out!" I closed my door with a more deliberate slam and retreated over to my bed.

At this point I realized there was a major miscalculation in my plan. I was too worked up to project. In order to project I needed to be relaxed, calm, in my happy place. I was most certainly none of those things at the moment. Trying to force it when I was like this wouldn't work either. That meant I either had to calm down, or I needed an alternative method of getting to talk to Miss Seapony.

I tried to calm myself and find my happy place, but it became apparent that wasn't going to be happening. I needed to do something else. With a beat of my wings I was back down off the bed and headed back to my door. I marched down the hallway to go see my mom in the kitchen.

"Do we have any of that stuff… what's it called? The stuff that makes people sleepy?" I asked her as I entered the kitchen.

It looked like she was making dinner. My stepdad wasn't around, which meant he must have had a later shift at the restaurant today. She pursed her lips as she laid down the knife she'd been cutting vegetables with. "Melatonin, is the name. Yes, we have some. Are you going to tell me what has you acting like this? I'm almost done prepping the food, and you can try to calm down with a meal."

My first instinct was to snap, but I restrained myself. Snapping at my mom would be unfair to her. She hadn't done anything wrong, and was just trying to help me. There was no guarantee that the sleep aid was going to do much to get me to sleep faster either if my adrenaline was running. I clenched my wings against my side and took a deep breath.

"I met a pony named Lántiān today. She says that she's Miss Seapony's daughter," I explained.

My mom blinked and grabbed a chair. She straddled it and sat down so she could lean over the back of the chair and cross her arms. "That's interesting. Not something I would have expected. It doesn't explain why you're so angry though. Did she say something to you?"

I plopped my rump down and stared down at the floor. "She says that Miss Seapony died because of me. She says that Miss Seapony loved me too much. She acted like she hated me, but said she was really angry at Miss Seapony."

My mom took that news in with a long exhale. "Wow.. Okay, sounds like there is some serious family drama going on there. I always thought that she spent an inordinate amount of time with you. If I was her daughter I might be a little resentful too. What kind of pony is she? Tribe I mean."

I flicked an ear. "Pegasus. She's got blue fur, a black mane and tail. She was wearing yoga pants that blocked me from seeing her cutie mark. She was giving out information about some organization at the school, and all the people doing that were seniors or recent graduates, so she has to be older than me."

My mom frowned. "She's a student at your school? That's quite a coincidence."

I went full scowl. "Yeah, I thought so too. One of the things I wanted answers from Miss Seapony about."

My mom leaned the chair towards me a little so it was on two legs then plopped it back down on four. "You know. It must be tough being a pegasus with a night pony for a mother, much less a Dreamwarden."

I looked up at my mom and cocked my head. "Why do you say that?"

She shrugged. "Think about what it must have been like for her growing up. Her mom is always asleep when she's awake, and when she's asleep her mom is awake. She doesn't ever get to see her own mom. In the meantime her mom is giving you plenty of attention in the dream realm. That probably changed after Yinyu… after what happened when she tried to reach the states, but that was years of time where she never got to have her mom. Judging by the age you describe those were the years she would have most wanted her mom's approval, and she never had her there to get it."

I lowered my ears and head, and wrapped my tail tightly around myself. "I- I never thought…" All that time she had been giving me all the care and attention any filly could ever ask for, Lántiān had been sitting there wanting. Miss Seapony had planned to come to the USA to train me in person, so her final days were partially my fault. I now was starting to understand the anger Lántiān directed at me, but I still didn't understand why Miss Seapony had never said a word about Lántiān. It didn't explain why we ended up together at the same school. It also didn't answer why Miss Seapony had told Lántiān about me if she was so quiet about her own foals.

Thinking about how Lántiān must have felt took the seething anger out of me. I was still angry at Miss Seapony, but it was a more subdued anger. A lot of it was actually at me wondering how Miss Seapony could leave her own daughter feeling like that.

I stood back up. "I think I'm calm enough to project now. I don't need the melatonin. Thanks for talking to me. You've been a big help."

"I'm always here for you, for anything," Mom replied. She didn't stand up, only watched me. "After you're done come back and talk to me some more. It doesn't have to be about anything important. You're going to be moving into the dorms soon, and I won't be seeing you as much. It won't be long before you're moved out of here altogether, and starting a new life on your own. I want my time with you; I only get so much."

I turned and half galloped back to her. Grabbing a hold of her leg and giving it a squeeze. She reached down with both of her arms and gave me a proper hug. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you just as much or more. Don't ever doubt it," she replied.

Chapter 20: Tale of Two Sisters Part 1

I remember the first time I dreamed after I'd been told that my pegasus magic didn't work right because I'd started dreamwalking at too young an age. Even though I had been putting on a brave face about it, it was impossible to keep my hurt and disappointment from impacting my dreams. I could lie to myself while awake but I couldn't lie to myself while asleep.

Dreams can reflect all the scrambled thoughts that go on in the back of our heads. A lot of it doesn't make sense because they aren't fully formed thoughts, they are feelings that our minds are trying to make sense of and give images to. I had it explained to me once that our minds are like computers, but sometimes all these bits and pieces of hanging information gets our minds fragmented, so dreams are there to defragment them. Magic gets fragmented too, and the dream realm aided in fixing that, like an extra layer of protection. The entire dream realm was essentially a big virus control and tune-up system. If you go without sleep for extended periods these fragments pile on top of one another and your mind stops working the way it should. Some people needed a lot of sleep, some less, but they all needed time to defragment.

I don't get nightmares often. Dreamwalkers are different from others since they tend to have that defragmenting process going on in the background when they are asleep, since they have stronger ties to the dream realm. It is one 'perks' of being a dreamwalker. They also tend to be vivid dreamers as a result as well, and more in control and aware they are dreaming. This doesn't mean they don't ever have nightmares, or are never at the mercy of their own dream (unaware they are in a dream). High amounts of stress (good or bad stress) can make a dreamwalker involuntarily retreat back into a regular dream, if it gets to be too much for the passive effects of the dream realm to cope with.

My fragments weren't too bad, at least in types. I say this because my mind seemed to know exactly how to visualize my feelings. That's something you can say that is healthy about nightmares that you can understand completely, your brain can't be too scrambled if that happens. So, hooray for having a healthy brain! I take those silver linings where I can find them! However, I still had enough of them to put me in a nightmare outside my control.

I was flying along, quite peaceful and gracefully. That should have immediately alerted me to the fact that I was in a dream, since graceful was one of the last things I was in the air, but that part of my mind was off at the time. I was high in the air, so high that I could only see clouds beneath me. That should have been the next warning, since I never ever flew that high. The air got thinner that high up, the wind currents got rougher, and I just didn't like those things. Plus, even a pegasus who could fly really well could be hurt by a crash from that height. I wasn't nearly as cushy back then, and even with my adult cushiness my bones would go splat.

My flight suddenly came to an abrupt halt. A giant catfish flew through the air towards me, it stopped right in front of me and said something profound.

"Squirrels only fly to Atari!"

Well, I'm sure whatever that meant was extremely profound, even if I didn't understand what it meant. The way the fish said it sounded like it was the answer to everything. Wisdom from flying fish is no less profound if no one can understand it. That a flying catfish decided to share its wisdom should be profound enough. Perhaps some future generation will understand those words and it will bring world peace.

Or perhaps it is just a dumb fish saying nonsense. I guess I'll never know.

All the feathers on my wings just fell off. One moment they were there, the next moment my wings looked more like fatty versions of night pony wings. I beat my wings as hard as I could, but they didn't do anything, and I fell, just like a cartoon character who'd walked off a cliff and needed to realize they had before gravity took hold.

My fall wasn't too far, as I hit the clouds. This was a short lived reprieve though. My fat on my body started expanding, till I couldn't even move my head or legs because they were invaded by the fat of my body. I became so heavy that the cloud could not support my weight, and so I began to fall again. My face turned downward, and I could now see the hard bedrock below me, rapidly approaching. I screamed.

"I think this has gone on long enough to satisfy Miss Nightmares."

I stopped, right in the middle of the air. My body resumed its regular figure, and my feathers returned. A massive cloud cover set in, bathing everything around me in white and grey. Finally, Miss Seapony appeared before me.

I tried to put together what had just happened. "Did you do that?"

Miss Seapony swam up next to me. "I put an end to the nightmare, but was not responsible for it. You were the source of all that."

"Why didn't you stop it sooner?" I asked, crying now. "I was scared. I thought I was going to die!"

She wrapped her tail around me and sighed. "Phobia doesn't like us to stop nightmares too early. She says they serve a purpose, and we're negating that purpose if we end them too soon. Technically, she can't do more than complain if I stop a nightmare right away, but she'd be mad at me for it, and I don't like my sister being mad at me. She's not wrong either, about them serving a purpose. They reflect our feelings and anxieties, and it is important to recognize those things."

I hung my head. "It's about me not being able to fly right."

"And you are angry at me, aren't you?" She asked softly.

"I'm- I don't know."

She wrapped a fin around me and hugged me. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it would happen, and I don't know a way of fixing it. I wouldn't have done this to you if I had. It's alright to be angry. Mister Potty-Mouth yelled at all of us already, but you can yell some more, if you like. It can be very stress relieving."

I shrugged. "What's yelling about it going to fix?"

"It isn't about fixing it. It is about venting your frustrations. You have a right to do that, and don't ever let anyone tell you that you don't. It's just a matter of how you vent them that can be right or wrong."

I buried my head against her side. "I don't want to yell at you. I don't want to yell at anyone. It just hurts your feelings."

"Yelling isn't always the best choice, true, but you need some sort of release. Holding all that stuff inside… it isn't good, Rebecca. Believe me, I learned it the hard way. Little frustrations happen, and they are just little things, so you dismiss them. Then more and more of them happen, and you keep ignoring them. Then the next thing you know your beating someone you care about with a blunt object over something stupid, all because you couldn't ever voice your feelings for years… I'm getting off track."

I looked up at her, and she had her face turned away from me. "Did you- did you hurt someone?"

She sighed. "Rebecca, no matter how I try not to, I always end up hurting someone. I did once hurt someone a lot more though."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"It's an old hurt, Rebecca. It's best to let it be."

"You just said don't hold it all in."

She turned and looked at me, then smiled. "Nothing like having my words turned on me right away." Her smile went away. "If I tell you this you might not look at me the same. Only my brother and sister Dreamwardens know about this. It's something I'm deeply ashamed of, something more than anything I wish I could take back."

I rubbed against her. "I trust you. If you say you're sorry for it, I believe you."

She didn't reply right away. I thought she was going to just ignore me with howls long she was silent, but then she started talking. "A long time ago, when I was a young human girl, I lived with my parents and my older sister. People from elsewhere sometimes think there aren't different economic classes in China; I'm not sure where they get that idea. My family is what you Americans would consider upper class. We had a nice house, we got nice things, I went to a nice school, everything was… nice.

"I was what you might consider lazy, or at least my parents thought so. I didn't do well in most of my classes, I tended to never be where I was supposed to be, and I was generally rude. My sister was just the opposite. She was seemingly perfect about everything. She wasn't arrogant about it either. She never spent time reminding me how she did better at everything than me. She didn't really have to, it was obvious, but she did worse. She still treated me with love and respect."

I frowned. "I don't understand. Why is that last part bad?"

"Because it made me feel guilty about thinking anything bad about her. I wanted so much to be mad at her, but she never gave me a reason I could justify. If she had just held one thing over my head, just once, and been a brat about it, then I could have expressed all my built up resentment about her. There was nothing. She was perfect, I was not, and I was so angry about it.

"My parents always heaped praise on her, and told me I should do better, like my sister. I just dug in and refused to apply myself, convinced that I couldn't compete with her. That changed though, when I finally found something I was passionate for. Something I wanted to be great at, the violin."

A violin appeared, and Miss Seapony took it into her fins and gazed at it. "I practiced my heart out, day after day. It took a long time, but I became very good at it. Enough that my parents seemed like they were proud. My sister played the violin too. Listening to her had been what had inspired me, but I never thought about comparing myself to her when it came to that. I loved to play my music. It was mine. The one thing I could say I was good at. The one thing I cared to be good at. It was my passion… and my undoing."

She sniffled, and raised the edge of her long tail up to wipe her nose. "There was a recital. My sister and I were going to perform together. We were the two Huáng sisters, and I actually had some pride that I was being listed right along my sister like an equal partner. Fate was against me though. That day I had a cold. I didn't tell anyone, because I didn't want to lose my chance to perform. I just took some medicine. We took to the stage, and began to play."

I listened as Miss Seapony's breath became labored. I never understood why that kind of thing happened, since it was a dream, and by that point Miss Seapony didn't even have a real body anymore, yet she still physically reacted to things.

"Things seemed to be going great. We had three pieces to play, and the first was done with no problems. However, halfway through the second piece I had to stifle a sneeze. You can't be doing that when trying to play an involved piece on the violin. Any little sudden jerk of the body causes the note to come out wrong, sometimes very noticeably wrong. That is what happened to me. I messed up, right there in front of an audience. My sister kept playing as if it hadn't happened, and I tried to resume, but after that I just kept making mistakes one after another. I wanted to cry, and that just made the notes come out worse."

She turned away again. "The third piece went better, but the damage had been done. When it was all over I had to listen to how my sister had continued on perfectly when I had done an inadequate job. It wasn't fair. I was just as talented as her at the violin. I cared more about it than she did, and she had so many other things she could be better at. This was my thing, and here I was being put down as not good enough again."

"So, what did you do?" I asked.

"That night my sister came to me. She wanted to tell me that she was sorry about what happened. That I would do better next time. That it was just bad luck. With each attempt to soothe me I became more and more angry at the reminder of my failure." Miss Seapony's breath caught, and the next part came out in an anguished sob. "I don't know why I did it, but I grabbed my sister's violin from the wall, and I just started beating her with it, screaming like an animal. She begged for mercy, but I wouldn't stop."

I flinched away from my friend, and she looked down at me with such a sad look in her eyes. "She survived my assault. I'm glad I didn't kill her. But my attack had disfigured her face. My parents didn't press charges against me, didn't have the authorities come get me, they just kicked me out of the house. I was dead to them. I think it might have been more of a mercy if they had me taken away, perhaps that's why they didn't."

I was speechless. I never in my life thought Miss Seapony would do such a thing.

"And that is how my passion and built up frustrations led me to hurting the person who loved me most, and led to me finding myself trying to figure out how to survive on the street. I have never forgiven myself for what I did." She looked forward at nothing. "I did face my sister one more time though. It was about a year later. I was doing petty theft at the time, but decided to rob my parents house. I broke into my old room, and to my shock my things were still where I left them. I walked over and found my violin, sitting right where I left it on the bed. I picked it up and heard movement. There was my sister, her face looked better, you couldn't even see the stitches if you weren't looking for them. She and I stood staring at each other silently for what seemed an eternity, just frozen where we were. She then reached a hand out to me and said my name. Then I took my violin and ran. That was the last time I ever hurt my sister."

I only felt sorry for Miss Seapony, and hugged her while telling her I forgave her for what she did. There's a caveat to this story though. Sometimes history repeats itself, and resentment between siblings is one of the longest repeating stories. I had a sibling, an angry one, I just didn't know it at the time.

Chapter 21: Tale of Two Sisters Part 2

I decided to just go to sleep at my normal time that night. My talk with my mom gave me some idea of what Lántiān must have been feeling. I thought back to the story Miss Seapony told me years before about her own sister, and I couldn't help wondering… how could she do the same thing to her own daughter that her parents had done to her? Miss Seapony was always so nice to me. She'd always been there for me. Why had she been there for me and not Lántiān? I knew about the whole sleep schedule thing, but for the past seven or so years Miss Seapony had always been in the dream realm. She should have been able to spend just as much time with Lántiān as she did with me.

After I fell asleep I immediately found myself in an unfamiliar place, and not one of my making.

It was some sort of shipping location. There were those huge metal containers everywhere, those ones that were put on train cars or loaded high on ships. Everywhere I looked was more of them, some stacked several containers high. Most of them had Chinese writing on them, but there was also writing in English, German, Russian, Italian or Spanish (I had a hard time telling the difference), Arabic, and I even saw one with Equestrian writing. It must have been a port, although I couldn't tell for sure unless I flew up and looked around.

"This is where it happened. This is where I died."

I turned and saw Miss Seapony, only she was in her night pony form, the one with the dark orange fur and the scarlet mane. She even had her cutie mark exposed instead of censoring it (the silhouettes of a night pony being sexually mounted by an earth pony, one of the most graphic and least subtle cutie marks I had ever seen or heard of). She was sitting and looking around at our surroundings with her ears hanging low.

"This is where I set myself on fire. I'd anticipated something might have gone wrong, and had a friend give me something to do it with if it came down to it. I'd hoped that the worst would be having to use that flame to distract the people chasing us, or to create a temporary barrier, but there were too many. I couldn't let them get my foals."

I walked over to her, ears flat and wings stiff. "Miss Seapony, why does Lántiān think you love me but not her? Why didn't you ever tell me about her. Are there more foals of yours out there that hate me too?"

Miss Seapony chuckled. "Mister Potty-Mouth should be happy, he always complains you don't get angry often enough." Her moment of mirth abruptly ended just as fast as it had come, and she stared at me with sad eyes. "Lántiān is mistaken. I love her very much. I love you as well, and would give my life for either of you. However, and don't take this too badly, if I was put in the impossible position where I could only save one of you, I'd save her. She is my daughter, and though you're like a daughter to me, she is the genuine article."

It was fair that she should put her real daughter first, but hearing I'd lose if she was forced to make a choice between us still hurt. Although Lántiān must have felt that a choice had been made already, and she had come out the loser in that. "You didn't answer why she thinks that."

My oldest friend and mentor shook her head. "No, I didn't. My daughter's thoughts and feelings are her own, and they are private. They're not for me to share with you. I can't answer your question the way you want me to do. It is against my oaths to do so. If you become a Dreamwarden you'll understand. It isn't even a choice I can make."

"You have to be able to tell me something!" I objected. "You can tell me what you did. How you treated her compared to how you treated me, and you can tell me why you did that. Those things are your secrets, not hers."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Very well, though don't make assumptions and treat them as facts based on this information."

"I'll try not to," I replied, and plopped my butt down so I could listen.

She looked around again and then laid down. "You need to understand some things about Lantiān growing up here in China, all my foals really, but her especially since the others weren't old enough to be fully exposed to things. I wasn't a nobody who could be ignored, I was a Dreamwarden. They courted me, provided me with the best housing, food, all I could ever ask for. My foals were put into the best schools. In terms of material things my situation was even better than when I was a child, but it was a far more dangerous position to be in.

"What I said and did were always watched by the government," she continued. "By extension, everything my foals said and did were watched as well. I love them all, but if I had been open about things to them it would have been inevitable one of them would let something slip. Then the government would have come down on us. It was better to keep them in the dark, to keep us all safe."

She gave her head a regretful shake. "Lantiān grew up for years under the false pretense that everything was fine. She was taught the government's lies as facts, and I did not reward her for learning her lessons well. I just distanced myself from her. When she got a little older, and a little more mature, I started trying to talk to her about how I disagreed with things she'd been taught. We fought, quite a bit, about those things. Perhaps I should have spoken up sooner, but it seemed too risky. My love for her was no less, but my years of silence had built a wall between us. In time, everything became an argument with her."

"In the meantime you were out treating me with all the love and approval she'd always wanted," I interjected.

She nodded. "Oh, yes, that was definitely going on. There was more to it than that though. I always kept her from the dream realm. To this day she cannot dreamwalk, only my one night pony foal can. She's asked when she was younger, and I denied her."

I gasped. "What? Why? You're part of the dream realm, you and the dream realm are inseparable from one another. Not letting them dreamwalk is like pushing them away from you."

"I'm not sure if you realize this yet, Rebecca, but being close to a Dreamwarden is dangerous business. You will be seeing Miss Nightmares… Phobia tomorrow. You'll get to see more of her family when you visit. Take note of what you witness and ask yourself, do you want that kind of life for your loved ones? We're keeping your identity from going public if you join our ranks, so your loved ones won't face the same dangers, but my identity, like Phobia's, was public, and the impact on our families is very real."

"Refusing to let her dreamwalk doesn't change anything about that," I countered. "Why wouldn't you give her the ability."

She sat still for several long seconds before replying. "If I was being honest with myself, I was just wanting her to live a life separated from mine. I didn't want to put expectations on her that she'd be like me. I didn't want her to be like me. And finally, and this is selfish, I didn't want her to hear things other dreamwalkers may have said about me. Bad things happened in the early days of the Dreamwardens, and I didn't want her to hear about those and think of me as a monster."

"Lantiān isn't a foal, she's a grown adult, older than me. She should be allowed to hear those things and make her own decision," I replied, then gave an irritated flap of my wings. "Why does she even know about me if you are so secretive with your foals? Not that I think that I should have been kept secret, but it seems inconsistent that she should be allowed to know if you're so bound and determined not to tell them anything."

"It was a mistake on my part," Miss Seapony whispered. "In the days that followed my death she demanded answers. It was a very hard time for us all. I owed it to her to tell her why I made the decisions that led to my death. She was still young, still of high school age, but she'd been raising her siblings much of the time to that point, and had a filly of her own. She was a young mare forced to be an adult too soon, but I was going to treat her like an adult. Anything else would be an insult. I told her what my plans had been, and that included the training of you."

One of my ears sagged. "And she didn't take it well, I guess."

"That's private information."

I huffed. "I want to request to speak with her, here with you, right now. Can you ask her if she's willing to speak with the two of us, if she's asleep?"

Her eyes went wide, and for the first time ever I thought I saw a small flicker of fear in those eyes. Miss Seapony, this immortal with powers and knowledge beyond comprehension, was scared of having to face me and her daughter together.

She turned her face away from me. "Very well. Hold a moment while I present your request. You'll know your answer shortly."

I sat and waited. The conversation could have continued, since Miss Seapony was capable of holding hundreds, if not thousands, of different conversations at once and they'd all be as if she was giving them her undivided attention (even if the attention was divided so much it would be impossible for anyone else to possibly follow half of what was going on). I didn't want my unexpected nemesis to show up in the middle of me talking, and Miss Seapony could read my intent and wishes.

It seemed like the silence stretched on forever as she talked to Lantiān. I wondered what was being said. Just because I was typically cheerful and tried to be friends with everyone didn't mean I couldn't read what was going on with others. It couldn't have been Lantiān just saying yes, otherwise she'd already be talking to me. It couldn't have been a no either, since Miss Seapony would have just told me so and left it at that. That meant it was a negotiation, perhaps with angry words being exchanged.

Eventually, Lantiān appeared. This time around she wasn't wearing those weird pants (seriously, what pegasus just casually wears yoga pants around in public?). Her previously hidden cutie mark turned out to be the red and yellow stylized sun peaking out from behind a cloud. That mark basically basically screamed 'Shimmerist' and I wondered if that was the reason she had it hidden under a garment previously.

Her eyes followed mine to her flank, and she turned back to me with a scowl. "Don't mention my mark to anyone at school. It's private."

I blinked in confusion. "I learned about it in a dream, so I'm not allowed to talk about it without your permission anyway. I've got a human mom and dad, who I love very much, so I don't like it, but why hide it? There's still plenty of ponies that wouldn't have any problem with it, and those of us who don't like it wouldn't get rude with you or anything because of it."

She snapped her wings out and then shut. "Just don't! It's my mark and none of your business. What do you want?"

"I just wanted to clear the air between us, and try to understand why Miss- why your mom treated you so differently than me," I explained. "She can't tell me what you're thinking. You have to tell me your side of things."

She began to pace back and forth. "I don't have to tell you anything. I'm assuming you interrogated her. I'm assuming you aren't as dumb as you look, although you look pretty dumb. She loved some rollie-pollie pegasus from America more than she loved me! I told you I shouldn't even be mad at you, because it isn't your fault she treated you that way and treated me like the unloved stepchild. Clearly you don't have much going for you to earn that love. Maybe I wasn't chubby enough. It was her choice though, not yours."

"Lantiān! Since when are you so cruel?" Miss Seapony demanded in outrage. "Name calling? Putting others down? I didn't raise you that way, and neither did the guardian I gave you."

Lantiān turned and sneered at her mother. "I'll apologize, because Ma'am would be disappointed in me if she heard me saying such things. I'm beyond caring if you're disappointed in anything." She looked over her shoulder at me. "I'm sorry. I have a hard time not directing my anger at you, but that's no excuse."

"Um, whose Ma'am?" I asked.

She turned back fully towards me. "The pony who had been appointed my guardian. Before you ask, I understand that's an odd way to refer to her when she is not here. It's something personal between me and her that I don't expect others to understand. It's not intended to be rude towards her, in case you're wondering."

"Um… okay," I said slowly. "So whoever Ma'am is she's like your second mother, right?"

She nodded. "I don't quite see it that way, but I don't find it completely wrong for you to suggest it. I'm no longer in her care, but we call each other often and sometimes visit. I'm actually attending the school in Skytree partially on her suggestion."

"What's the other parts?" I asked curiously, hoping to try to settle her down with more casual conversation.

"I am an art student, and it is an art school," she said briskly, then narrowed her eyes. "And I learned you were in Skytree."

Oh dear, that seemed ominous. So much for casual conversation. "You- you wanted to run into me?"

She flicked her tail. "I don't know, honestly. Maybe?" She paused and seemed to grapple with what to say next. "You… you're the pony that my mother always devoted attention to. The one she took the time to show pride in your accomplishments. I always felt like… "

Miss Seapony cleared her throat and we both looked towards her. "That's always been your problem. You do things seeking approval from me, rather than what is good for you."

Lantiān jerked her head up and flattened her ears. "Is it wrong of me to want your approval and love!"

Miss Seapony shook her head. "You always had my love, and still do. What I can't approve of is you doing things just to get my approval. Continue on, explain it to her."

Lantiān looked like she had been struck, but turned to me slowly again. "I found out that you were an artist, so I took up art so I could show I could be better at it than you."

I stepped back. "But, I never wanted to compete with you. I didn't even know about you. If you don't have any particular love of art you shouldn't be trying to do it as a career. You can't be happy that way."

"I'm happy with my career choice," she snapped. I blinked, and she softened her expression. "Let me explain. It started off being about you, but it turned into something of my own. My art reflects me, and my experiences. I may have learned how to draw because I wanted to outdo you, but now I use it to express myself."

This was getting a little better. "I'd like to see some of it sometime. If that's okay. I love seeing what other people make."

"If you think of a particular piece I can conjure an image of it from your memory," Miss Seapony announced.

Lantiān stared at her mother for a moment and licked her lips nervously. "Alright. I'm thinking of one. My favorite one."

As soon as she finished speaking our black expanse of nothing (I hadn't even noticed when the setting had changed to an empty expanse, I was too focused on Lantiān and her mother) now had a massive painting high above it. I recognized the setting right away; it was the front of the Forbidden Palace in Beijing. I'd seen pictures of it before. It was set at sunset, and there were lots of humans walking around outside it. They were all just silhouettes and shadows, nameless black shapes upon the canvass. There were two humans that were standing to the side, the only ones standing still, and the only ones given detail. It was a woman and a little girl in plain looking clothes you could find on any human bundled up for winter up north. The woman held the girl's hand and pointed to the palace with the other. The girl looked up at the palace with pure wonder on her face, and stood pressed against her mother as she looked on. The shades of the entire painting were dark, with deep oranges and nighttime colors that did justice to the coming evening, but those two humans, even standing to the side, were filled with brightness that made them the focus of the piece, even as the palace filled most of the view.

"It's very pretty. I love what you did with the colors, and the contrast between the shadowy figures and the woman and child, and how you made them the focus even when they take up so little space," I said as I gazed up at the painting. I wasn't exaggerating, it was gorgeous to look at. "My art is typically all bright and colorful, with fantastical settings, but you capture a lot of feeling with this that mine can't do. I should take tips from you."

"Thank you, I am very proud of this one, and it is very special to me," she replied softly. I could hear tears in her voice.

"It is very special. It is my favorite as well, in terms of any art," Miss Seapony whispered, just loud enough for us to hear. Lantiān and I turned to her and saw her looking up at the art with a faraway look. "I remember this day, and I was surprised that you did. You were so young, and it was before ETS, back when it was just you and me. You were so mystified by the things I showed you, the things from our heritage. I think that was when you first developed pride in it. Yet, it is our personal heritage that is the focus of this painting, mother and daughter during simpler times."

"Back when you had pride in me," Lantiān said bitterly.

"I am proud of this painting, and so many other things," Miss Seapony whispered again. "You assume I'm not, but I am."

"You never say so!" Lantiān hissed with a snap of her wings. "Are you just trying to make yourself look good in front of her?"

"Miss Seapony…" I said timidly. I didn't like calling out a friend, but I didn't like that Lantiān felt so hurt either. "I believe you if you say you're proud of her, but you don't sound proud. You just sound sad. You don't sound as if you're taking her feelings seriously either. I mean- you started to sound maybe a little proud when you talked about the painting, or maybe more like you were wistful, but now you're pulling away again. Why is it so hard for you to show you're proud of her?"

"Because she isn't!" Lantiān snarled, then spat on the ground.

My oldest friend looked straight at her daughter. "Let me tell you how we got to this point. We had been living in slums for years, barely staying off the streets. Soon after the Dreamwardens made themselves public our government back in China gave us a wonderful place to stay. They put you in the very best school. If there was anything we could ask for they would provide it. For a while, things seemed to be going well. You remember this?"

Lantiān nodded. "Yes, I remember. I even remember telling you how much I wanted to be a weather pony, and you encouraging me. You hadn't changed towards me yet, but you did."

"Yes, I did," Miss Seapony confessed. "The Shimmerists soon started coming to power. China saw the future full of magic, and magic meant ponies. They believed to dominate the future China must become all ponies. I love my homeland, I taught you to love it too, but it is not always the best place in some regards. You can't be important there and speak up against the government. There are consequences to this, severe ones. They started teaching you the most wretched things in school, and I had to keep silent. They couldn't hurt me, not directly, but they could hurt you. You sat and repeated their propaganda, and I had to keep my mouth shut. I grew distant from you, and I am sorry for that."

"That was years ago! I haven't lived in China since- since you- you know what happened. Things are different now, but you are still unchanged from then," Lantiān struggled to protest.

"We had already set ourselves against each other by then," Miss Seapony whispered. "I remember the point we both turned on one another. I was so disappointed you were having a foal because the government told you that it was your duty. It was cold of me, but I couldn't believe you were treating yourself like some horse to be bred. We fought so much about it. It was the first time I ever dared to contradict the government directly."

"It seemed hypocrisy coming from you. You had me at a similar age," Lantiān fired back.

Miss Seapony grit her teeth. "I was a child on the streets selling her body for food and shelter. I should never have rightfully had you so young. I wanted better for you. I could have even accepted it if you were out having sex for fun and something happened. No, you let yourself be told you were stock to be bred and expected me to be happy you accepted this as your lot in life. I was not proud, I was furious that you thought so little of yourself. What made it worse was you thought that doing that would please me. It was partly about getting my approval by doing so well at what they wanted. Where was my little filly who dreamed of busting clouds? They took her from me."

"This coming from a courtesan," Lantiān snarled. "Or should I use Ma'am's word for you? Whore."

I tried to think of how to rescue this situation, but they weren't going to give me time to think.

"Whore is the right word, and don't be afraid to say it," Miss Seapony snapped back. "Yeah, I chose to keep that job after I could have put it behind me. It is what I am. I took pride in my ability to please clients, and loved the pleasure. It was not what you were though, and not something you would take the same pleasure in. Tell me now, with full honesty, that you would want that for your life." The blue pegasus mare kept silent and my mentor smirked. "I didn't think so. You still defended that decision, and we fought. I grew more distant from you and you grew more angry with me."

"You could have been the bigger mare. I was a foal."

"A foal who had been raising her brothers for me for years. A foal who thought herself old enough to have a foal," Miss Seapony reminded her, then looked down. "But… you're right. I could have done better. I am a creature of passion, and although I give warning about the dangers that come with it, I myself am the prime example of what I am warning against. I'm sorry, I failed you in that."

Lantiān seemed like she wanted to yell back, but instead looked up at the painting and took a deep breath."Why didn't you ever tell me you loved this painting?"

Miss Seapony looked taken aback. "You never shared it with me."

The pegasus glared back at her. "You see into my head. You knew about it."

"Until you give me permission your private thoughts are your own, and I must act as if I don't know them. You do that too, assume that because I must know that I can act on it. You'd never behave in such a way if I weren't a Dreamwarden. You never treat me as just your mother," Miss Seapony reminded her.

"Miss Seapony, you're starting to do it again," I warned.

She looked at me then back to her daughter. "You have never given me that permission, and I never really wanted to do things as a Dreamwarden towards you. Yes, I knew about it. Yes, I do indeed love it."

Lantiān's mouth dropped open as she stared at her mother. She mouthed something I couldn't follow and then turned to me. "I need to thank you. Your presence here has changed the- let's say the dynamic of conversation." She turned back to her mother. "I'm giving you full permission to discuss and respond to my thoughts with me now, and anytime going forward. You're a Dreamwarden, and trying to pretend you're not with me is not helping anything. My mother is a Dreamwarden, and all her choices were impacted by that. It's about time I got to talk to her rather than the phoney you keep rolling out in front of me."

Miss Seapony frowned. "Very well. If you choose to do this then that's your right. Only a few have granted me such free access. You may choose to take it back anytime in the future." She then looked at me. "Rebecca, I'll be sending you back to your own dreams now. What is discussed here is between me and my daughter. Her thoughts are still private, and you don't have a right to them."

I was disappointed, but figured that was coming. "I understand."

"Hey!" Lantiān called out. "I will speak with you later about how this conversation went. I feel guilty for the way I treated you, and would like to start fresh."

I smiled back at her. "I'd like that."

And the next thing I knew they were gone, and I was dreaming about trying to fly to the top of a giant tree that kept getting taller, while a white dragon sat atop it demanding to know why I was trying to fly so high.

Chapter 22: Two Interviews

When I was fourteen years old-

"You may cease with your recollections, for now."

I stopped thinking of my next memory in line, returning my surroundings to just the grey stillness that was waiting to be filled with whatever was on my mind. All that existed was the blank slate, me, and the pony who'd been my audience through all my memories. "Are we out of time?" I asked her.

Princess Luna nodded. "Indeed we are. Or at least we soon will be. My visits to your world cannot be overly long. I must soon be returning to Equestria. I do need to get some permissions from you before I go, and there is another matter that I need to discuss with you that Tikhiy Krik has brought to my attention in the time since his retirement."

"Okay," I replied, a little disappointed that my session was at an end. "What do you need permission for?"

"I need to be able to share all that you have shared with me in turn to Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, and Mi Amore Cadenza. Before you give that permission let me tell you that they will be using this information to assess whether they have any objections to your nomination to the post of Dreamwarden. So this would be information learned in a dream that would be used in the waking world. I need your permission to have it used in such a way. Equestria may be in a different universe, but many of the same rules that govern your Dreamwardens govern me as well. Do I have your permission to use this information thusly?"

"Um, sure. That's why you've been following along after all. I don't mind."

She nodded to me. "Thank you. I have other questions that need to be addressed before I leave you. The first of which is a matter that may not be of any immediate importance, but may someday long after you are gone be of pivotal importance. As the system with your Dreamwardens stands now the Dreamwardens retire to Equestria. They are not Dreamwardens of Equestria and are not the embodied will of my dream realm as they are here. However, they are capable of still creating Dreamwardens for my dream realm. This raises several far-reaching concerns that I think you'll understand."

My ears sagged. "You're worried we might make some new Dreamwarden there without your permission."

"That is one of my concerns, as well as a concern of my fellow princesses," Luna agreed. "Mind you, I do not think any of the current Dreamwardens or you would have such nefarious intentions. However, it is well known that becoming a Dreamwarden can alter some aspects of your personality. You are gaining colossal power and have access to large amounts of memories of all the Dreamwardens that preceded you. It is difficult to judge how this can impact any individual, or change how drastically their thought processes work."

That hadn't been something I'd been deeply concerned about before. I couldn't imagine going from my happy self to some horrible dream despot. Still, Princess Luna was like the most powerful Dreamwarden in terms of having less restrictions on her and actually having huge amounts of power when she was awake. If I was chosen as Dreamwarden I'd technically be the most magically powerful Dreamwarden when awake out of the Earth Dreamwardens (making an assumption that the mysterious Warden of Order didn't have super magic powers), but I wouldn't even be a drop in the magic jar compared to Princess Luna. She was also the one who made Miss Seapony a Dreamwarden, but also the one who made the big meanie Sha'am Maut a Dreamwarden. If she was saying getting all those Dreamwarden powers could change me it was worth taking seriously.

"So… what do you want to do to stop me from doing something bad like that?" I asked hesitantly.

She gave me a kind smile. "Tikhiy Krik has been working tirelessly to craft some additional oaths that will alleviate my concerns about how you could impact Equestria. Completely blocking you from making a Dreamwarden on my world is not something that would be advisable either."

I blinked. "Uh, I don't understand."

"Let me illuminate the matter then," she said gently. I found I liked listening to her voice. It was very calming. "If for some unforeseen reason our worlds were cut off from one another permanently, and I ended up trapped in this world, my world would need a new Dreamwarden. Having all of you retire to Equestria is what you Earthlings would call an insurance policy- in the case of the most dire events occurring. That is also why our opinion of Dreamwarden nominees is given weight. The retired Dreamwardens potentially hold electing power over my successor. I don't foresee a circumstance where this will happen, but it defies my ability to predict it by its very nature. It is not only your world impacted by your election, it's Equestria as well."

Fate of two worlds on your haunches, Rebecca. No pressure!

Actually, it wasn't really that big a deal. The chances of that happening in my lifetime seemed slim, and they had lots of smart and powerful magic users who could fix it if the portal temporarily went down. Plus there was that Discord guy. Miss Seapony said he kind of moved between universes and realms as he pleased. At least, she said he'd opened up portals straight into our dream realm before. That didn't make much sense to me, but Miss Seapony had said to not try to make sense or apply logic to Discord. It would make my brain hurt. The only consistent thing she said he did was be inconsistent.

"Well, I hope that never happens," I replied. "Did you have any other questions for me?"

"I have one more, although I will wait until my next visit to get your answer. It is not a simple question to answer, but it impacts many aspects of the position. What do you find threatening in general, and why?"

I looked at her, wondering if she was trying to play some joke on me. "That's kind of a big question."

"It is indeed. That's why I'm giving you time to think about your answer. Perhaps you should consult Phobia for assistance. Although, mind you, her assistance in such things, while helpful, is not always pleasant."

I meeped. I couldn't help myself. The thought of letting Miss Nightmares have her way with my nightmares was a terrifying thought. "I'll think about doing that."

The alicorn laughed at me. "It's okay to be afraid, little pegasus. It's important to understand how that fear impacts your decision making process. I made a mistake by letting my fear guide my own decision making process when choosing your forebears. They in turn made the mistake of letting their fear rule them. We have all learned to do better since then, but it is best not to repeat history."

What did I fear? Someone coming up to me and being mean and nasty was scary, but I'm not sure mean and nasty people counted as a fear. I'd outgrown my fear of not ever being a great flyer. I didn't want my friends or family hurt, but didn't want anyone to get hurt for that matter. I wasn't aware of any 'phobias' that Miss Nightmare could make me more aware of. Maybe fear of the unknown, because I was still scared of whatever she might bring, and I didn't even know what it could be.

She started to simply fade away. "Good night to you, Rebecca Riddle. We shall meet again.

At least I was getting to take a break from recounting memories. Finding things I thought she thought might possibly be important was exhausting. I was about ready to start describing my toys I had as a foal. The adventures of how my stuffed caterpillar Mister Wiggles and all his friends might have been interesting to me, but I think it might have bored her. I didn't think she'd find my many foalhood crushes that I never asked out would be very interesting either. I wasn't down to the bottom of my barrel yet, but I had been getting there.

I let myself fall back into a normal dream.

My parents usually left for work before I even got up in the morning, but they'd both decided to take vacation as my move in date for college approached. We were just finishing up a rare family breakfast when there was a knock at the front door.

My parents gave each other a look of confusion at the knock before my stepdad got up and answered it. I couldn't see who was at the door from where I was sitting, but I could hear them.

"Hi there! I'm Crystal, and I'm here to pick up a pony named Rebecca. This is the Riddle residence, right?"

I could see my stepdad look even more confused. "It's technically the Stanborn residence, but my stepdaughter has her mom's maiden name still, which is Riddle."

"I see," the voice cheerfully replied. "Is she here? I don't want to keep my boss waiting."

My step dad turned to me. "Becky, it's for you. Were you expecting someone?"

I hopped down from my seat and started to hurry over. "Yes. I just didn't expect them so early."

When I reached the door I saw an olympic blue crystal pony mare with a bleach white mane, and her cutie mark was just a plain red heart design. She smiled at me as I came into view. "You must be Rebecca. I'm Crystal, Crystal Dreams. I'm a bodyguard for Phobia Remedy and her driver. She's extended an invitation to come visit her. Are you ready to go?"

I was a little confused because she didn't say the code phrase. "Do you know why Miss Nightmares wants to see me?"

Crystal snort-laughed at me. "Miss Nightmares? I love that. I have no idea why she wants to see you. I'm just following orders. I was given the impression you expected to be picked up to go see her. Was I misinformed? I'm not going to haul you to her against your will if you don't want to go. It's a little odd to be sent to go fetch someone anyway. Are interviewing for some OMMR job or something?"

"Or something, I guess." Miss Nightmares' personal bodyguard didn't know anything about me. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing, bad thing, or a 'whatever' thing. "I can go right now. I was expecting this."

"Any idea when you'll be getting back?" My mom asked. "We wanted to help get your things in order to move, but I don't feel comfortable going into your room without you present."

"I'm not sure," I replied. I then gave her a mischievous grin. "But you're welcome to start without me. Just beware the huge drawer full of drug paraphernalia at the bottom of my dresser, the dildo hidden in my pillow, and the dead body in the closet."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, I get it. You don't have anything to worry about in your room."

My grin turned sheepish. "Actually… one of those things might really be there. Quick hint, don't go checking inside my pillows."

My mom crossed her arms and gave me a stoney look. "Young lady, what have we said before about needing to put on some filters in front of strangers?"

Crystal chuckled. "It's okay. I deal with three teenaged night ponies every day. Nothing shocks me. I'll keep her safe. No one's died while I was watching them. A few came close once or twice, but they're all still kicking." I wasn't sure if that reassured my mom at all, but since I was fine with Crystal my mom didn't object. She then bowed and pointed a leg out to the driveway. "Miss Riddle, your chariot awaits."

I walked past her and my stepdad closed the door behind me. Out in the driveway was a big white van. Crystal hurried by me towards the driver's door and the doors popped straight up with small ramps extending out so we could easily climb up into the vehicle. I followed her and got into the back seat. Inside was very spacious, with plenty of seating. I picked a spot and started harnessing myself into my seat.

Crystal's driver seat was one that put her sitting almost like a human, with a hole in the back of the seat for her to fit her tail through. She harnessed herself up, closed the automatic doors, and I heard the electric hum of the engine start.

"So, your name's Crystal… and you're a crystal pony," I observed as she pulled out of the driveway.

"Yep, makes it easy for everyone to remember. My human name was Crystal Heart as well, but the Heart part was spelled H-A-R-T back then."

"Oh, I guess that was really easy to convert into a pony name. My parents always told me I was allowed to have a pony name if I wanted one. I think they kind of expected me to take one, because they never asked if I wanted to take my step dad's last name. Would be a hassle, changing my name twice. I just never really had anything that appealed enough to me."

"No reason to take a pony name just to take a pony name, I say," Crystal replied as she drove along. "Of course, that is just my opinion, and opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one. If a pony wants a pony name that's their personal preference."

"What's your cutie mark mean?" I asked. It was just a plain heart, and that was pretty broad in scope. It also didn't scream bodyguard.

"Mine? It's nothing much. It just represents how I tend to get very passionate about whatever I do. Put my whole heart into everything. I don't have any special talent or anything, but I give things my all," she explained.

"That sounds nice. I guess it means you're very flexible on finding jobs you like."

I saw her glance at me in her mirror. "I suppose that's true. So is this an interview I'm taking you to? Phobia doesn't do many of those. I know she is in the market for third and forth full-time bodyguards now that the foals are getting more independent, and therefore not always in the same place as each other, but you don't really look the part for a bodyguard- no offence."

"You never know, no one would ever suspect a killer marshmallow," I said, gesturing a wing at myself.

She chuckled. "Don't let the night pony mares around the house hear you call yourself that. I'm still dealing with being called the rollie pollie crystal pony. I'm not even fat, I just have a larger frame than a lot of other crystal ponies. Those mares are merciless with the verbal jabs though."

"I had another pegasus call me rollie pollie the other day. Maybe she overheard one of them?"

"Could have," Crystal replied. "What does she look like? I know most of the pegasi that come near the house."

I didn't want to say her name, but was curious if Lántiān did visit Miss Nightmares sometimes. "She has blue fur and a black mane and tail, a little older than me."

"Lántiān," Crystal confirmed. "Don't let her get to you. She's an odd one. She isn't a bad natured mare, but she can get opinionated- at least from what little I've seen. She's been by the house a few times, but isn't a frequent visitor."

"Why does she visit Miss Nightmares?" I asked.

"They're god sisters. They aren't close, but Phobia's mother is Lántiān's godmother. Lántiān gets a courtesy invitation whenever there's a family event going on. Sometimes she accepts it, sometimes she doesn't."

"Oh," I wondered what Miss Nightmare's mother was like. I thought I recalled hearing about her once somewhere, but I must not have been paying much attention at the time.

"Pulling into Old Town now," Crystal announced. "Be on your best behavior. Every pony, and even some of the humans, are all deeply loyal to Phobia here. No one likes troublemakers."

I looked out the window. All the houses were older here. None of them were really fancy, although some had really nice yards. There were lots of trees and no sidewalk along the road. I could see people sitting out on their porches, just watching us as we drove by. I'd never been to Old Town before. I'd heard stories about it though. As the name implied it was the oldest part of the city. Most of the humans that lived here had lived here since before ponies ever came to Skytree. The main thing about Old Town that everyone talked about was the fact that the Warden of Fear lived there, and her presence attracted people that treated her almost like she was a god or something. There was supposedly a cult dedicated to her that had members here, even if she didn't endorse it. Old Town was Miss Nightmare's personal stronghold, and protesters would not willingly go into it. It also had a zero crime rate, even though the police almost never came here.

There were lots of side roads that curved off deeper into the neighborhood, but Crystal stayed on the main road. I saw a sign that labeled this as Main Street, and guessed that it went into the historic main street area that had all the old shops and restaurants that had been there for over a hundred years. I kept waiting for her to turn, but she never did. I was starting to wonder if we were going to just bypass Old Town altogether, since I could see newer buildings off in the distance- I think the part of town that had grown up around the military base.

She suddenly stopped the car in front of a Main Street house that was on the very edge of Old Town and put the car in park. "We've arrived. I'll need to escort you up to the house. Otherwise you'll get a flock of night pony mares coming down on your head."

A flock of night ponies attacking me didn't sound like a good time. The fact it was even a possibility didn't really make me feel welcome.

I followed Crystal up the path to the house, and my ears flattened at the sound of fighting. I looked around and saw the source. There were two night pony fillies, who could only be twelve or thirteen years old, directly above us trying to crash one another.

"You're going down this time, Arachne!" One of them yelled.

"You wish, Char!" The other yelled in turn.

"Less yelling and more technique! Be aware, we have a guest down below you. If you hit any non-combatant I'll have you both doing wing-ups for an hour!" A third voice yelled from somewhere nearby.

The fight… at least it looked like a fight- had a large audience. The house at the end of the path had every visible inch of the roof covered in night pony mares, and there were even a few hanging off the sides of the house and in a nearby tree. A night pony colt and teenaged unicorn filly (who both looked about the same age as the fillies in the air) sat together off to the side staring up at the conflict. A dark skinned human lady with a bright magenta mohawk stood watching them with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. She had a weird looking scar right on the center of her forehead that drew my eyes for some reason. Standing on the house porch was a familiar face, Jess the partial lady… or was it Doctor something…

Crystal paused and pulled me to the side, apparently wanting to wait until the two fillies were done before going forward. I understood why. There was a good chance that if we didn't keep out of the way I really would have a night pony come down on my head. The rest of the audience shouted encouragement to the two fillies, and different people seemed to favor one or another. I even heard one of them yelling to whichever one Arachne was that she better win because they had a hundred bucks on her.

They weren't being gentle with one another. They were landing kicks on one another regularly, and I saw quite a few winced of pain, and muffled oww's. They seemed to be evenly matched, and there was no sign this was going to be over soon.

Out of nowhere the one I think people were calling Char hurled her whole body towards the other one and instead of kicking wrapped her wings around her opponent tightly. The other one cried out in shock as she tried to break the grip, but it didn't work. With neither of them flapping their wings they came down together into the grass with a crash that even I would feel.

"Point goes to Charlotte!" The dark skinned human yelled out.

The filly who had been tackled in midair jumped to her hooves like she hadn't just taken a hard crash. "What! She crashed both of us! How does she get a point?! She should be disqualified for cheating, or at the very least it should be a draw."

The human glared at her. "There's no such thing as cheating in this. The only parameters are the ones I set. Her job was to bring you down using only her body as a weapon. Your job was to prevent her from doing that without any assistance from a weapon or your little spider friends. She brought you down. It doesn't matter if she went down with you. Point goes to your sister."

Charlotte feebly raised up a wing from where she was laying. "Woohoo! I'm happy. I'd hate to have bloodied my nuzzle for nothing."

"Try not to do that in the future, Charlotte," the woman instructed. "I don't want to be running any of you to the hospital again." Again? They've sent each other to the hospital before?

The woman turned to the other two foals. "Your turn. I want you two to start off at ten paces. Jordan, your goal is to keep Nightmare Moon from landing a blow on you for three minutes straight. Nightmare Moon, your goal is to land any blow you can on Jordan. Neither of you may use any objects or get any outside assistance. Attacks from the air are permitted, as is the use of magic."

"Three minutes?" The unicorn squeaked. "I can't keep a shield up for three straight minutes of him hitting it!"

The woman pointed for the two of them to go. "Then you'll have to figure out some alternative strategy. Get moving!"

"I'd much rather be reading a book. I'm a scholar, not a fighter. I wanna teach. How many teachers have to learn self defense like this?" Jordan grumbled, but she moved to take her position. The night pony colt stoically walked out to his assigned distance without a word.

"Come on, Jordan! Woo!" The partial lady cheered from the porch.

Crystal tapped my side. "Come on. Let's get moving before they start." I nodded and followed after her towards the porch.

"Why are they doing that?" I asked as we reached the porch.

"Self defense," Crystal replied. "The three night ponies are Phobia's foals. They have targets on their heads because of that. That little unicorn is her half-sister. There's another one, a pegasus filly who's Phobia's step-sister, who'd normally be here too, but she lucked out and had junior flight team practice today."

Was that what Miss Seapony wanted me to see? This looked brutal. I couldn't imagine having to do the same thing, or asking my friends and family to do that.

"Hey, Jess!" Crystal called over to the partial lady. "Phobia wants to make use of you for her meeting she's about to have."

Jess frowned. "But I wanted to cheer on Jordan."

"Better if you come inside," Crystal said slyly. "I know for a fact that when this fight is done Tempest is going to be demanding you have a bout with her. She can't do that if you aren't present."

The partial lady paled as she glanced hurriedly towards the woman out in the yard. "Um, okay, you convinced me. I don't feel like having her bruise me up today. Doctor Jessica Middleton is at Phobia's service."

Crystal gave her a flat look. "Please tell me you haven't started referring to yourself in the third person? That's not a good sign."

Jess blushed. "Just goofing around. Lighten up!"

Crystal chuckled. "Well, glad you learned to goof around. You've always been way too serious."

Jess looked back towards where the night pony was unleashing a rapid barrage of kicks on Jordan's magical shield as the unicorn filly cringed back with her horn glowing brightly. "I just seriously don't want to even try to fight Tempest Shadow. Your coworker is scary."

Crystal shrugged. "Won't argue with that. She's even scarier now that she has hands. She can handle all kinds of weapons she couldn't before. Not that she needs them. Let's get inside before Jordan loses."

"She could win!" Jess protested.

"And you could beat Tempest in hand to hand combat, but the chances of that are about the same."

Jess snorted, but didn't voice any disagreement. Crystal pushed open the front door of the house, which seemed to lead into a pitch black void. "After you, Miss Riddle. Phobia awaits."

I gulped. It was time to face Miss Nightmares, and find out exactly how scary she could be.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the delay. Summer heat has been making me sick. It's hard to focus on writing when dealing with heat exhaustion, headache, and nausea.

Chapter 23: Inside the House of Nightmares

The inside of Miss Nightmare's house was black as night, with only an occasional nightlight along the wall to give illumination and let me know where the boundaries of the room were amongst the void. It was exactly the kind of place I would expect one of the most frightening ponies in existence to live.

"Sorry, forgot to turn the lights on before I left to get you," Crystal said.

A moment later the room suddenly lit up with a soft light and the inside of the house took on a very different character. In place of the oppressive dark cave I had first entered there was now a room that looked almost disappointingly domestic. There were two sofas, both done in navy blue, with lots of plump frilly pillows piled along their sides, as well as a big cushy looking armchair in the same color. There was a perfectly normal computer desk with a desktop computer and a stool. On every wall were framed photos, most of them featuring a family of night ponies, although there were other photos that featured other ponies and humans. There were even a few with Wild Growth and one that had two griffins and a griffin chick. There was no television set, but there were lots of bookcases, and a small glass display case. This didn't look anything like what I expected from the Queen of Nightmares. I wasn't sure what I expected- some medieval dungeon or something like the Addams' Family mansion- but definitely not something like this.

Crystal started walking towards a stairwell. "I'll go let Phobia know you're here. You two can relax while you wait for her. Jess, Phobia wants this room muted to everyone outside of it, so make yourself useful."

"I figured as much," Jess replied, as she walked over to the chair and flopped into it. "It's done. No one can hear what is being said in this room, even if they have their ear up to the door."

Crystal seemed to focus on something unseen for a moment before nodding. "Confirmed. I'll be right back with Phobia. Make yourselves at home."

Jess tapped the arms of the chair with her hands. "Already have. Hey… do you think you can let me change out your fluids in your car? I'm planning on getting a mechanic's license at some point."

The crystal pony turned back. "I don't mind, but you aren't even old enough to drive yet. Don't you think a mechanic's license needs to wait until after you have your driver's license, and aren't you already working on a second doctorate or something already? What are you planning to do; launch their spaceship and give them an oil change on the side?"

The partial human shrugged. "Never hurts to expand my expertise- and I have my learning permit for driving, just so you know. I like cars. I want to get a classic corvette and covert the engine to a clean one."

Crystal chuckled. "I approve of your hobby. We can talk about cars later. Let me get Phobia before she starts wondering if something's wrong."

I didn't know anything about cars other than they should have four wheels and someone needed to start color coding pony harnesses compared to human seat belts. I instead decided to further investigate the room.

All the framed photos looked pretty much like normal family type photos. Every tribe of pony was represented, along with humans, and more. Some even looked like they were taken in Equestria. I spotted even a photo of Lántiān joined by three foals and a red unicorn mare with a purple and yellow mane that had just a small touch of grey to it. That same unicorn was featured in other photos, and I wondered if that was Miss Nightmare's mother.

"There's me," Jess said, as she pointed to some photos. "Me twice, actually. You can see what I looked like when I was a pony."

I looked at the indicated photos. It was easy enough to pick the photo of Jess in her partial form out. She was in a graduation cap and gown with Robby, two adult humans, and a young boy all standing around her looking proud- except the young boy who looked like he'd rather not be standing still for a photo. Next to that photo was another photo; this one had the same human couple, what looked like a Robby as a younger teen, and a tiny little yellow earth pony filly with a blue mane that matched Jess's hair.

"You were so cute as a little filly!" I gushed, flapping my wings to hover just a little and get a better look.

"Well, most ponies look cute and adorable, little fillies even more so. It's your secret weapon against us humans," Jess said with a smirk. Her expression turned wistful though. "Every once and a while I wonder what it would be like to still be a pony; mainly because I hate picking out clothes to wear. I wouldn't go back to being a pony if I had the option, since I do not want to give up my hands, and can't imagine functioning without them- I'm not even sure how you ponies function without hands, and I spent six-and-a-half years as one."

I thought about pointing out she still had the tail and ears of a pony, so she looked adorable too, but remembered that Robby said not to bring up the fact Jess was a partial. "That's a long time to be a pony. I didn't know you could rehumanize that late."

"They don't advertise it, and it is an extremely complex spell, but they can turn any pony that doesn't have a cutie mark permanently into a human- if they are accepting of the spell. I'm not the only one here to have it done; Tempest Shadow used to be an Equestrian pony, and had been a pony her entire life until she humanized. They did a better job on her than me, but I was kind of the alpha subject for the procedure. They had the spell better ironed out by the time they did it to her."

I couldn't help it any more after that, I had to touch on the subject. "Are you mad you still have pony parts?"

She was silent, and her ears had gone flat. I worried that I offended her. I was about to apologize when she spoke up. "I'm not mad about it. In a vacuum, I have no problem with my so-called pony parts. What I don’t like is how people get misconceptions about me, or the way I get treated because of them. Anyway, I'm human, therefore they're a human tail, human fur, and human ears- just different from what most humans might have."

"Is it my stripes or my spots you see…" I mumbled to myself.

Her ears perked up and she gave me a puzzled expression. "What was that about stripes and spots?"

I landed and shook my head, and then gave her a big smile. "Nothing, just musing about how we all see ourselves one way, and everyone else seems to see something different." My attention was diverted as I looked over at the glass case, and finally found something nightmarish in the room. My wings stopped flapping and I dropped to the ground with an audible thump then pointed a wing at the case. "Ack! What is that?"

She looked at where I was pointing. "Oh, that? That belongs to Phobia, and she's never really explained why she has it sitting out in a glass case. I agree, it's creepy looking."

The item in the glass case was what looked like a very ugly, and very dirty, old human doll. It was a dirty brown-grey color, had two black button eyes, was in a slumped over sitting position, and was otherwise featureless. Since it was obviously extremely old I wondered if it was some old family heirloom. It felt completely out of place with everything else in the room.

"That was left to me by someone very close to me who has now passed away. I take it as a personal reminder and warning."

I turned to see who spoke, and saw a night pony in a jet black gown, her green mane and tail were well styled, and I could tell she was wearing mascara. She wasn't old, I'd say somewhere in her thirties, although if someone told me she was in her twenties I'd believe it by just looking at her. She also looked very delicate and thin, definitely not someone who fit the night pony fighter archetype. If it came down to a physical confrontation she didn't look like she could put up a strong fight against a foal. I might have been the last kid always picked in gym class, but if I had been in class with her there might have been competition for that role.

The night pony glanced at Crystal, who had followed her into the room. "Thank you for bringing her here, but can you please step outside? This is going to be a very private conversation." Her voice was soft and calm, but I still got the sense it was one that was used to being obeyed.

Crystal blinked in shock. "Um, okay. I didn't think she was that big a deal, but I can give you your privacy. I do need to ask, as your bodyguard, is she dangerous in any way? I know better than to underestimate a pony just because they look harmless."

"My little sister is more dangerous," Miss Nightmares deadpanned. "If Miss Riddle tried to attack me for some reason Jess would be more than capable of defending me on her own… even if she doesn't keep up with her martial arts training like she should." Jess snorted and crossed her arms in annoyance at being called out.

Crystal bowed her head briefly. "Okay, you're the boss. I'll know when you're done when I feel Jess's sound dampening field go down. Is that alright?"

Miss Nightmares nodded. "It may actually go down for a minute or so very soon. So when it stays down for five minutes or more you may check on me. Let me stress that no one is allowed inside while we are talking; not you, not Tempest, none of my foals, not even my wife. Only break that order if it is a life or death situation. Don't make a big deal about it to anyone, but don't let anyone in. Do I make myself clear?"

Crystal whistled and gave a salute. "Real hush-hush. Clear as crystal, boss." The crystal pony gave me an appraising look before she left. "I meet so many interesting people on this job. Anyone that Phobia is being this secretive with must be pretty interesting. Good luck with whatever she's putting you up to."

Crystal left the room and Jess cleared her throat. "We have full privacy."

Miss Nightmare's posture had never been stiff and remained relaxed. "Good. First thing on our agenda actually involves you, Jess. I need to put another compulsion for secrecy on you."

Jess jerked up in the chair. "What?! You know I don't like the idea of my head being messed with. Haven't you given me enough of those?"

Miss Nightmares nodded. "I would not be insisting if it were not important. This is for Miss Riddle's protection that what is discussed here doesn't get out. If you refuse she and I can have this conversation in the dream realm, but I prefer one face-to-face. It lets me present myself to her as a pony first, instead of a Dreamwarden."

Jess seemed to mull it over for a moment before seemingly relenting. "I'll do it, but only because you've stirred up my curiosity. You can't be all secretive like this and not have me itching to know about it. Though I'm guessing you already anticipated that."

Miss Nightmares just smiled and said nothing. Jess groaned and got up from where she was sitting. "So how does this work? You just say something and I'm compelled to obey it?" I was actually curious myself. I'd never seen a compulsion done before. I'd heard about them. Miss Seapony said she did them all the time, but I'd never seen one done.

The night pony gestured with a wing to right in front of her. "Come sit down here. I need to put you to sleep for a moment. My compulsions that I do in the waking world are too weak to hold properly. My compulsions I lay down in the dream realm are far stronger."

Jess walked over. "Isn't putting me to sleep a compulsion?"

Miss Nightmares nodded. "A relatively weak one. One you could resist with ease. My stronger compulsions in the waking world are ones I don't tend to use, the ones that bring out anxiousness and fear. They are hard to control or make consistently useful, and too easy to fall into abuse with, so I rarely use those."

I watched as Jess sat down with her legs crossed in front of Miss Nightmares. The night pony put her hooves up on Jess's knees and stared her directly in the eyes as she said some things too quietly for me to hear. I suddenly heard snoring, which was a second later joined by another snore. That was the fastest I had ever seen two people fall asleep.

They weren't asleep long before Miss Nightmares woke back up and patted Jess's face with a wing. "Wake up, and thank you for your cooperation." The night pony stepped back as Jess roused herself and stood back up.

"Um… Miss Nightmares? Aren't people going to think it's weird you being so secretive about me?" I asked hesitantly.

Jess laughed. "You don't deal with Dreamwardens much, do you? Everything is secretive, the only weird thing about this is why she bothered to bring you straight to her instead of just dealing with you in a dream where she could lock down any chance of anyone finding out what you discuss. There's things that she shares with me in dreams that I'm not allowed to tell a soul the details of. Since seeing you in person is actually a bit of a security risk in terms of her normal secrecy I am just wondering what she considers what warrants less secrecy. Are you here to discuss plans for the demons' birthday party or something?"

Miss Nightmares shook her head. "Can you put your field back up, please?"

Jess rolled her eyes. "Fine, there, it's done. Now what did I get compelled into not talking about."

The night pony smiled. "Nothing too major. Rebecca here might be the next Dreamwarden, and perhaps before the year is out."

The pony-eared human just stared at Miss Nightmares with a blank expression for a moment before turning and looking at me in disbelief. I could see her looking me over and sizing me up, judging me. She then turned back to Miss Nightmares. "Real funny. I know you never directly lie, but you can be misleading. You said might and perhaps. Those same things could apply to just about anyone."

"True," the night pony confessed. "They could apply to you as well. If the thirty or forty thousand people ahead of you- depending on which Dreamwarden you ask the list of- suddenly fell lower. Rebecca is number one currently on all but two of our lists."

I raised a wing up. "Um, which lists am I not number one on?"

She flicked an ear and looked at me. "Mine and Ghadab's; we have other candidates we value higher, but you still rank quite highly with us. You might be number one with me before today is out, who knows? Would you like some cake? I'm told you enjoy chocolate cake, and I baked one just for you."

This was more serious than I thought. I didn't realize I needed to prove myself to Miss Nightmares. I'd just assumed that they all wanted me to be a Dreamwarden. I knew there were other candidates, but I didn't know this was actually going to be a competition.

"Yes, please. I'd love some cake," I squeaked.

Jess shook her head. "Can I get some coffee? I need to sit down and think."

Miss Nightmares turned and started walking towards the kitchen. "Of course, I'll put a pot on for you, although you'll have to go fetch it yourself when it's ready." She looked over her shoulder at me. "I'll be right back with the cake. Just relax, and don't let your fear get the best of you."

Easy for her to say. She didn't have her future on the line.

Chapter 24: Tests

Miss Nightmares, known to be the most fearsome Dreamwarden, was in the kitchen, putting on a pot of coffee and fetching her homemade cake. Supposedly chocolate cake. I didn't know how to feel about one of the most frightening ponies alive having specially made me a chocolate cake. I mean… she's the Queen of Nightmares, but it's chocolate cake… those things shouldn’t go together.

"You know, I feel kind of honored," Jess said slowly.

I looked over at her. "About what? Getting to hear this conversation?"

She did a brushing off gesture with her hand. "This conversation? No, hearing you might be the next Dreamwarden was a tiny shock, but I can see some logic to it. It's not the most shocking thing I've ever heard of out of Phobia. She's been hitting me with one crazy revelation after another since I was a tiny little filly. It starts to get mundane after a while. She could walk in here with irrefutable proof that the world is being run by a pair of parakeets and I would just figure out how to roll with that."

I sat and flicked an ear. "So… what do you feel honored about?"

"I'm in the top thousandth percentile of people that they would consider for Dreamwarden," she said with a laugh.

"Huh?" I tilted my head. "But she said there were like thirty or forty thousand people ahead of you on the list."

She nodded. "Yep, which puts over ninety-nine point nine-nine-seven percent of people with magic that I'm ahead of; that's statistically impressive."

Okay, that made me giggle. "Always great to look on the bright side!"

“Eh,” she shook her head. "I'm not going to lie, I don't want to be any higher on that list. Dreamwarden is not a job I want. I've known Phobia most of my life, and I know she doesn't enjoy her job. I don't think any of the Dreamwardens do."

I tilted my head. "Why wouldn't they? Dreamwardens can help everyone. Why would anyone want to turn up that?"

"Because-" Jess began.

"Because of how many restrictions are put on us, unwanted knowledge we're forced to know, the terrible decisions we might be required to make, and how helpless we feel in most situations," Miss Nightmares answered as she walked into the room holding a small cake laden plate in her wings. The night pony carefully set the plate down on a small table in the middle of the room. "Jess, your coffee should be about ready. You may fetch it now."

I watched as Jess hurried out of the room, and then went to investigate the slice of cake. It was indeed a chocolate cake with a layer of dark fudge inside and yellow frosting covering the exterior. It looked really moist and really good.

"There is more, if you wish. You can dig right in," Miss Nightmares said, as she flapped her wings a few times to fly up on one of the couches and relaxed against one of the frilly pillows.

She didn't need to tell me twice. I bit right into the side and started chewing. My eyes half-lidded as I savored the taste. "Soo good."

"Thank you for the compliment. I never baked before becoming a Dreamwarden, but we tend to inherit traits from predecessor Dreamwardens here and there. This is a trait I think you'd inherit as well."

I swallowed, suddenly something about the cake felt sinister. "So who did you pick baking up from?"

"Sha'am was a very avid baker of sweet treats," Miss Nightmares replied with a smirk.

The cake didn't seem so appetizing now, and I stepped back from it.

"I was wondering how'd you react to that news," Miss Nightmares replied lazily.

I perked my ears up and looked at her. "Is this a test?"

She shrugged. "If you wish to view it that way. I thought this might be a good way of introducing the concept of inherited traits among Dreamwardens." She patted a hoof to the sport beside her. "Come, sit with me, I don't bite."

She didn't look dangerous, but she was also Miss Nightmares. At the same time, if I needed to impress her I didn't want to look cowardly around her. I mustered my courage, determined to impress her, and jumped up on the couch right next to her without flying, and was surprised when she flinched and yelped.

"Sorry," she said after taking a breath. "I didn't expect you to jump up that close to me. I thought I'd need to ease you over. I at least expected you to fly to give me warning. I misjudged you."

I immediately scooted back from her. "I'm sorry! Did I land on your leg or hoof? I only normally land on my parents, and they're big enough that it just makes them go oooffff. Why do you have human sized furniture that we need to jump up on anyway?"

She steadied herself. "Don't worry, you didn't land on me. I just get a little jumpy when things come near me quickly. A reflex from a bad experience." Explaining it seemed to calm her down. "As for the furniture; I host humans often, and Tempest lives here full time, and she makes the most use of the living room. My wife and I also have a love for vintage furniture- now that our foals are old enough they won't destroy anything of value. It also gives me little excuses to stretch my wings, since I don't fly nearly as much as I should."

"Oh," I replied dumbly, and did a little hop on the cushions. "Um, it's a very nice couch, very cushy. I don't fly as much as I should either. I'm not a very good flyer."

She nodded. "A fact about you I knew, but only by way of dreams." She let out a long sigh. "Knowing things as a Dreamwarden is rarely very helpful. It is part of why I wanted to deal with you face-to-face. It’s a much better experience when I’m not waiting for you to speak because I know what you’re thinking."

"You knew I like cake," I replied.

"Well, I have spies, don’t I? They left out the part about the flying, so it was as if I didn't know it, even though I did," she explained.

"I don't really understand," I confessed.

She settled back down into a fully relaxed position. "It's something you have to experience to fully grasp."

"Oh…" I replied, not really understanding how she could know and not know something at the same time. I decided to just drop it. I was supposed to be impressing her. "You were telling me about inherited traits. I heard from Miss Seapony about those, but she said they were unpredictable. You acted confident I would pick up the baking."

Miss Nightmares chuckled softly. "Yinyu is very good at many things, but she takes less interest in studying our nature than me or Psychic Calm. There's no surefire way of knowing what traits might be inherited, but there are patterns that we can use to make educated guesses. It's even really simple patterns; we tend to inherit traits that compliment who we are already. With you being so fond of what comes out of the oven, it isn't much of a stretch to think you'd inherit a love for baking."

I looked down. "I just worry about inheriting bad things."

"A good concern to have," my companion replied. I jerked my head up and looked at her. "The Dreamwarden mantle is a powerful one, and you should be fearful about inheriting the worst in us. No one wants another Sha'am or another Joss, no one wants someone whose worst traits fall easily in concert with other bad traits. That fear means you're aware of the danger that poses, and it will help protect you against it."

I didn't know who Joss was, and decided not to ask. "How much does it change you?"

She shook her head. "For me, it was hard to say. I was still figuring out who I was when I became a Dreamwarden. I understood some things about myself, such as my connection with fear, but many other things I was still discovering. I can tell you things I suspect I inherited from each of my brothers and sisters, as well as Luna."

I asked about the first one that popped into my head. "What do you think you inherited from Miss Seapony?"

She gave a dramatic flip of her mane. "A love for being pretty, although I didn't inherit her very famous love of sex. I'm very much the polar opposite of her in that department."

"And Mister Potty-Mouth?"

"You mean Ghadab? I helped in his creation, so I inherited nothing from him. He no doubt inherited some things from me, but that's for him to discuss with you, not me. I'm told I have some of Luna's bearing, and I can see that, so I suspect it is something I got from her. I think Yinyu inherited a greater part of Luna's compassion than me, not that I'm without compassion, just that she is more compassionate than me. She became much more compassionate after becoming Dreamwarden and she didn't get that extra compassion from Sha'am or Krik- not that Krik is a bad guy, he just isn't what I'd call a bleeding heart."

"So...Miss Seapony is only nice because she inherited that from Luna?" I wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Miss Nightmares shook her head. "No, what she inherited complimented what was already part of her. She already had a kind heart, it just became even kinder after getting mixed with Luna's kindness. It is traits that enhance who we are that we inherit, not traits that change who we are at the core. We are still us, just an enhanced version of ourselves. Ghadab is still all about his justice and righteous anger at injustice, Arbiter is still the supporter lurking in the background, Psy is still the calm and logical psychologist, we are still individuals."

Jess walked into the room in an annoyed huff, gripping a coffee mug with both hands. "You need to take down those stupid chains from your kitchen ceiling! It's been years since you needed them, and I keep running into them."

Miss Nightmares raised an eyebrow at her human guest as Jess flopped back into the chair. "Apologies, I'll get around to it, sooner or later. Rosetta's the one that put them up to start with. We don't normally have anyone as tall as you walking around the kitchen. Tempest is a full head shorter than you."

I gave the two a puzzled look. "Why are there chains hanging from your kitchen ceiling?"

"Phobia and Rosetta have some really freaky parenting concepts," Jess replied, and took a sip of her coffee. When she lowered the mug back down she looked right at me. "They used to hang things their foals wanted from the ceiling, back when the demons were all too young to fly. It was like a game where they had to figure out how to get the item and make off with it before anyone could catch them. They dragged me into it once, when I was a filly."

"Rosetta encouraged them to have critical thinking, work as a team, and develop survival skills," Miss Nightmares explained in defense. "They also had fun doing it, and got some treats. Also, night ponies at that age tend to need to burn off a lot of mischief and aggression, otherwise there's no telling what trouble they can get up to."

"They all but destroyed your house each time," Jess countered.

Miss Nightmares shrugged. "Oh, it was chaos, but it was a controlled chaos. You learn to accept some chaos into your life when you become a parent."

Jess's face went blank for some reason, and she went back to quietly sipping her coffee. I got the impression it wasn't just a disagreement, but something else that bothered her. Miss Nightmares stared at her for a moment before saying anything else to her. "I'll be visiting your dreams tonight to help you. I can't fix it, but I can help you work through your feelings."

"I don't need help," Jess snapped.

Miss Nightmares leveled a glare at her. "Yes, you do. This is something that can fester, and I am not having that happen. We will address it head on. Face your fears."

Jess set the mug down on a nearby end table and crossed her arms. "I face my fears just fine, thank you very much.'

"Then you won't be bothered if I tell my son, as well as Arachne, and Tempest that you find all of them very attractive, in a turn you on type of way. Oh! And tell my wife you think that same way about me."

Jess sat bolt upright and pointed a finger at Miss Nightmares. "You aren't supposed to reveal things you learn in dreams!" Her eyes went wide and she immediately covered her mouth.

Miss Nightmares giggled like a school filly. "I have eyes, and I'm pretty sure Rosetta and Tempest already know. You can calm down. It's flattering, really. I won't say anything else about your teenage crushes."

Jess still looked mortified. She looked at me and pointed a finger at me. "Keep your lips zipped!"

I ran a hoof in front of my mouth. "Lips are zipped."

She stared at me as if judging my sincerity for a few seconds before turning back to Miss Nightmares. "What I'm dealing with isn't a fear."

"You aren't dealing with it, you're trying to pretend you're okay with it. I'm the Queen of Nightmares, and sometimes the worst of all nightmares don't involve fear," the Dreamwarden replied sagely. "The fear you do have is admitting how much you hurt."

Jess glared at Miss Nightmares and then glanced at me. "I guess if she's going to be a Dreamwarden she'll find out anyway, so let's talk about it, here and now. Yeah, I'm upset my eggs are only capable of being fertilized by a statistically improbable partial. It wasn't exactly planning on having kids until I was much older, but hearing that I can't hurts, it hurts a lot. What's worse, it isn't because of any common fucking defect women get- no, it's because I'm not fully human and not a pony either. I'm just a thing unto myself. My own little species of one. I see myself as human, but my biology calls me a liar."

This was a lot of very personal information, and I wanted to object that I wasn't definitely going to be a Dreamwarden and that I had no right to be hearing all this. She wasn't done though.

"I figured, maybe when I was about thirty or so I could think about having kids," she said, tears streaming from her eyes. "Robby is probably going to have lots of foals, and unless my little brother turns out to be gay, he'll have kids when he grows up too. I imagined big family gatherings where all the cousins were playing together, and I would cuddle up with whoever I ended up with and just watching them play. Yeah, I'm a scientist, but I don't want that to be all of who I am. Is it wrong for me to want something resembling a normal life? One where I do normal things like raise a family, instead of spending every second trying to figure out how to save the world? Is that so wrong?"

"You could adopt," I suggested.

She sneered at me. "Look at me! It might not be right, but do you think social workers look at me and don't immediately start thinking of excuses I can't adopt? They are hesitant to let parents adopt outside their species already, what are they going to think when they see me? I live every day of my life getting those looks. I refuse to try to hide what I am, even if I deny it to myself. I wouldn't have acceptance in scientific circles if scientists weren't looking at my work long before meeting me. It isn't fair, but it's reality."

"You're ruling out the possibility too soon," Miss Nightmares said quietly. "Just because it might be harder for you to adopt doesn't mean it isn't possible. You're letting your fear of what they may think of you rule you."

Jess slammed a fist against the arm of the chair. "Okay, so suppose I managed to adopt a human child or a pony foal. That kid gets to grow up with others picking on him or her over his adopted freak mother!"

"This isn't about not being able to have kids, is it?" I asked. She gave me a sullen glare, and I climbed off the couch. She watched me as I walked over to her and put a hoof against one of her legs. "You're upset because you're being forced to face the fact you aren't fully human, and it hurts."

"You wouldn't understand," she mumbled.

I sat down. "Maybe not, not all the way. I can understand not feeling part of the group you think you belong to though." She continued to silently watch me, and I sighed and raised a wing up. "Look at me. I'm a pegasus, but I'm a cruddy pegasus. I can't really cloudwalk, can't do any weather magic, and my flight is an embarrassment to even watch. I have a lot of night pony magic, but I don't really fit with them either; I'm not aggressive, I'm still a worse flyer than them, I'm not nocturnal, just to name a few things. I know what it's like to be kind of caught between two worlds, and not fitting all the way in either of them. It might not be as extreme as your case, but I do get the concept. It's lonely, and you wish you could be a little more normal, or at least what counts as normal.

"They stare at me like I'm some sort of freak when they watch me fly. I pretend it doesn't bother me, but it does," I confessed. "I always need to put on a brave and happy face. I'm forced to laugh at myself, because if people don't laugh with me they'll surely laugh at me. I learned that a long time ago. I know people can be cruel."

"I'm not in a hurry to be the butt of any joke, even my own," Jess replied bitterly.

"Then don't be," I answered. "But acknowledge what they're seeing and be loud and proud about it. You're not normal, and that's great. You wouldn't be normal if you were just a human or a pony. You told me proudly that you were one of the smartest people on Earth or Equestria, and you owned that. Own the fact you aren't fully human either. Don't let others determine that's something to be ashamed of. You have cool magic that's all your own. You can hear like a pony, better than a pony using your magic. You're a super genius. Any kid should be glad to have you as a mother. Any person should be glad to know you, because they aren't going to get a chance to meet anyone else quite like you."

She sat still for a moment, then suddenly stood up. "I need to go wash my face, but… thank you for the words of encouragement. It's things I know I should do, but it helps hearing it from someone else. I'll keep the sound barrier up while I'm gone, don't worry."

She walked out of the room, leaving me alone with Miss Nightmares. I wondered how much I helped, if I helped at all. I didn't like seeing people hurt like that.

An odd sound from behind me caught my attention, and I turned to see Miss Nightmares oddly clapping her wings together. "Excellent job."

My mouth fell open. "Was that a test? Did you set that up to happen on purpose?"

She smiled at me. "Another thing I picked up from Sha'am. She was quite the manipulator. Yes, that was a test."

I narrowed my brow. "How could you? She is so upset, and you used her to test me?"

"Jess needed that, and I would have seen that she faced things herself. Maybe not as gently or directly as you did, as it is not my way, but I would have guided her to it in my own manner," Miss Nightmares replied, then her expression became sad. "This may sound cold, but she is important to other plans of mine, and I can't afford her getting depressed. I care deeply about her, as she is essentially family, but I have other things I must assure go as planned. Things too important to leave to chance. Things that she brought to my attention as being urgent."

"What kinds of things?" I asked, still mad that she was using Jess just to test me.

She shook her head. "Nothing you need mind yourself with right now. If you become a Dreamwarden you'll be glad for every moment you didn't know about them, and I'll not take those moments away. Jess knows what is at stake, and her logic will agree with me. I don't doubt for a second she is eavesdropping on us right now."

I didn't know how to respond to that. I just looked back towards where Jess had exited the room. "Do you think she'll be alright?"

"Jess is a tough girl, and can be very brave. Do you want to know why she had to rehumanize?"

I looked back in interest. "I don't want to pry into her private business-"

"Oh, it's public record. You can find news articles about it," Miss Nightmares replied with a wave of her wing. "When my foals, my sisters, and her were all small they got into a very dangerous situation. Jess ended up sacrificing herself to save my little sister Jordan. It was a far far braver thing than most foals could have done in a similar circumstance, but it left her gravely injured. She rehumanized because it was the only way she was sure to live. That girl is a hero in addition to all the things you said. She continues to be a hero in other ways, as she helps me prepare for the most important conflict that this planet will ever face, and I'm glad I have someone as brave and capable helping me."

"You said she was eavesdropping."

"That I don't doubt she is eavesdropping," Miss Nightmares corrected with a chuckle. "And as Jess can tell you; I don't lie."

"I just hope she's alright," I said softly. "People shouldn't feel ashamed of themselves like that, even if they've tried to convince themselves they aren't."

"There are certainly things people should be ashamed of," Miss Nightmares countered.

"Not things that they have no control over and that aren't bad things," I clarified. "She has no control over what she is and it isn't even a bad thing. Why do you have to keep testing me, Miss Nightmares?"

"I think we can dispense with the foalish term for me. My name is Phobia Remedy, and I'm the Warden of Fear," the night pony said gravely. "I test you because I don't want mistakes to happen. I promised myself that I would make sure we would never again let a Dreamwarden hurt people like Sha'am did. Which brings me to my key question before we end this meeting, and my final test for you."

My ears flattened as I stared at her. "What is it?"

Phobia narrowed her eyes. "If it came down to it. Would you be willing to erase all the Dreamwardens from existence for the sake of the world?"

Chapter 25: Maybe This Job Isn't the Right Fit

I stared dumbfounded at Phobia Remedy, unsure if I had heard her right. Maybe I didn't understand the question. I wasn't stupid, but that didn't mean I couldn't misinterpret things. There were lots of things I didn't understand.

"Um, I'm sorry, could you clarify that question for me?" I asked in a tiny voice. "I think I got the wrong impression."

The night pony stood up on the couch and then did a few quick flaps of her wings to fly to the other side of the room. She landed next to the case with the ugly old doll and put a wing against it as she gazed upon it.

"This doll belonged to Sha'am Maut," she began. "She left it to me in her will. It belonged to her long dead daughter, and she kept it as a keepsake after her daughter died. She wanted to remind me of how the world is cruel, and can swallow us up if we are not strong enough, as was consistent with her outlook on life. I instead look at it and see the reminder of how even a good soul can be twisted and perverted into something sinister. Sha'am was a good woman, once upon a time, a kindly mother who did all she could to care for her children. Time and injustice after injustice warped her into something darker, something terrible."

I was confused. I felt like I got confused way too often. "Okay… but what does that have to do with the question you asked me?"

She looked back at me. "Sha'am becoming a Dreamwarden was a mistake, but we cannot ignore to others' detriment that any one of us have the potential to turn into something vile and dangerous, no matter how good a person we may be now. I have been asked, and have also questioned myself, about what would have happened if Sha'am had not stood down? What if she had defied the rest of us and kept doing what she was doing? What if I had not been able to intimidate her into good behavior? What were we supposed to do then?"

I couldn't believe what I was saying. "So your solution is to kill all the Dreamwardens?!"

"I have considered many methods on how to deal with a rogue Dreamwarden," Phobia replied. "We have many advantages in what we can do in our day and age that weren't available billions of years ago. Unfortunately those advantages won't last forever, and I continue to consider more permanent solutions and more methods. One of the methods I have devised involves completely rebooting the dream realm, which would erase any Dreamwarden trapped within. It is not the only possible method I have devised, but the most effective we currently have."

I still couldn't believe it. "But- Miss Seapony, Mister Potty-Mouth, the Angel Lady, that would kill all of them for good. What if they didn't do anything wrong? Why should we erase them?"

Her eyes were hard as they locked on me. "Because it is our duty to protect the minds that enter the dream realm. If a threat arises from our own ranks we must not hesitate to do what is necessary to fulfill our duties. Yinyu, Ghadab, and Arbiter are all in grim agreement with me, and they are prepared to do what they must if the need ever arises."

I didn't want to hurt anyone, much less kill anyone. I started to cry and her expression softened before she continued- not by much, but there was a slight relaxing of her gaze. "I hope that none of us will ever have to make that kind of choice. We do everything we can to choose good candidates and support one another in our hours of need. I don't see any of us being so corrupted, but we would be foolish to not be prepared for the worst. Even with all our efforts it can still happen, and given enough time and enough generations of Dreamwardens we will inevitably come to one who will force us to make that choice- if not us then future generations. We must be resolute and do what must be done when that happens, even if it costs some of us our very existence."

I knew the answer she wanted to hear, but I couldn't bring myself to say I would do it. It was just too horrible a thing to agree to. At the same time, I understood why she felt that was needed, and I knew that she was right.

"I-I'm sorry," I finally replied in a choked voice. "I understand what you're saying, and I agree with you, but I just can't do something like that. I want to be able to help people and make their lives happier, and I understand how a corrupt Dreamwarden can ruin lives, but to ask me to kill them… I-I just can't. Maybe that means that I'm not cut out to be a Dreamwarden, but I won't ever do something to hurt or kill, even if it might be better if I did."

"I see," she said in a flat tone. I imagined it was hiding disappointment. "It is good and brave of you to be honest with me. Many would have simply told me what they thought I wanted to hear. If you had told me you would do whatever was necessary I would have known it for a lie. The truth is written too loudly in your body language for you to lie to me, even if I had never seen into your mind."

I nodded dejectedly. "I guess you will be voting against me."

She surprised me by shrugging. "I shall continue to consider your candidacy, just as I have since you were first proposed. I simply have more information to weigh into that decision than I did before. I think our time is up for today though. I will pack up the remainder of your cake so you may take it home with you." She lifted her head up high and flicked an ear. "I might not have your powers, Jess, but still can I hear you lurking by the stairs. Come on out."

Jess came slowly around the corner with a sad expression. She glanced at me then turned to Phobia. "Are you serious about that? That my aunt agrees to let herself be killed off for good if it came to it?"

That sparked my instant curiosity. I was meeting lots of relatives of Dreamwardens. "Who's your aunt?"

"Arbiter," Jess said shortly. "My older brother and I talk to her all the time, even if my parents can't. We tend to pass messages back and forth between her and my dad."

"I'm serious and so is Arbiter," Phobia replied. "Do you really think she wouldn't lay down her undead life as quickly as she laid down her life in the waking world if that was what it took to protect others?"

Jess shook her head. "I believe you. Does Auntie Sunset know about that?"

Phobia shook her head. "We didn't feel there was a need to tell her. You knowing we have such plans if need be is privileged information. We don't exactly want to broadcast that there are methods to destroy us. The people that need to know it have been informed."

"Who needs to know?" I asked.

"Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess Cadance, a few key world leaders- although I won't go into specifics about which ones," Phobia answered. "My own family doesn't know. As I said, I hope never to be forced to make that choice, and will do everything I can to make sure I don't have to, but it doesn't mean I don't prepare all the same."

Jess's brow creased. "You conspicuously left Princess Luna off your list of princesses."

Phobia nodded. "So I did." She didn't elaborate on that. I didn't have to be as smart as Jess to figure out why. These plans were just as much meant to take out Luna if need be, and they didn't feel the need to give her a heads up that they had plans in place to destroy her if it came down to it. Princess Luna was the one responsible for creating our Dreamwardens, and it seemed cold that they would make plans to destroy her if they needed to do so.

Jess didn't reply further. I knew she had to have figured it out if I did. She just looked tiredly around the room as if this was just one more weight on top of many for her. I wondered what things she did for Phobia and what was so stressful about them.

"You may want to make yourself scarce," Phobia continued. "I have other guests arriving in about an hour, some leaders of Humanity First."

Both my head and Jess's head shot up. "What?" I blurted out. "Why would you invite them over? They hate ponies!"

Phobia didn't bat an eye at our shock. "Just to talk, have some tea, and enjoy the afternoon."

"Talk about what?" I asked in disbelief. "Are you telling them hating ponies is wrong? I don't think they're going to listen to a pony about that."

"We'll discuss the weather, sports, the stresses of parenting, maybe some good books or movies that we've seen or read," she replied in that same calm tone. "It's just a friendly visit."

"A friendly visit with a bunch of speciest humans that hate your guts," Jess replied in a half growl, balling her hands into fists.

Phobia nodded. "I'm glad I was clear."

Jess huffed and stomped a foot. "I've known you my whole life, and I still don't have a clue what goes on in your head sometimes!"

"That is likely a good thing," the Dreamwarden replied. "Would you be a dear and go put the cake lid on her cake and bring it out here? You may lower your sound barrier now as well. Our conversation is at an end."

Jess didn't verbally answer, she just threw her hands up in the air and stormed out of the room. An uneasy quiet settled over the room between me and the Dreamwarden after she left, and I wondered if I was supposed to be saying or doing something.

"Jess is a good girl," Phobia said, breaking the silence. "But she's still a fourteen-year-old with all the issues that come with that."

"She's just fourteen?" I asked in surprise. Jess definitely didn't look fourteen, she looked as old as me, or older.

Phobia chuckled. "A very mature fourteen, but still just fourteen, and don't let her try to fool you into thinking she's older, because she will try."

"I hear you, Phobia!" Jess shouted from the kitchen.

"I know," Phobia replied without raising her voice even a single decibel. "Perhaps you should spend some time with Rebecca for a few hours, since I need you away from the house anyway. Crystal can take you both to her house and can bring you back when the coast is clear."

Jess walked back into the room holding the cake in a container. "I was wanting to spend more time catching up with Jordan before I needed to get on a plane back home."

"She can join you as well. I will let my father and Amanda know. I prefer she not be around either for these guests. You'll have Crystal with you to defend you both."

Jess looked towards a window. "And your foals?"

"They'll be going to bed," Phobia answered.

"I guess my parents won't mind some unexpected guests," I added in. I wouldn't mind getting to spend a little more time with Jess as well, and I supposed meeting Phobia's little sister would be interesting too. It occurred to me just then that I hadn't thought of her as Miss Nightmares since she ordered me not to, and wondered if there was some subtle mind magic at work.

"I suppose it is okay then," Jess relented. "I'm still going to need a few minutes to cheer Jordan up after Moon kicked her flank."

I gave the partial human a confused look. "But you didn't get to see the fight, and you were rooting for her."

Jess just flicked both of her ears. Oh yeah, she heard everything in a certain range. She just had to choose to listen in. How did she sort through all those different sounds without it driving her crazy? Her manipulation of sound was such a cool bit of magic unlike anything I'd ever heard of, and I wanted to know all the stuff she could do with it. Melissa had a weird magic radar sense too, although it seemed to work differently than Jess's. Why did humans all get such cool magic and ponies just got basic stuff?

Well, I supposed mine wasn't basic, but there were other ponies, even if they were very few, that could do the same thing.

"Am I allowed to talk to Jess and Jordan about my powers?" I asked.

Phobia gave a lazy shrug. "Who you speak to about them is always at your discretion, at least since you ceased being a minor. We discourage you from making them public knowledge, but we can't actually ban you from talking about them with whoever you wish. I would classify Jess as generally safe when discussing such things. Jordan you might want to use a little more caution with, not that I don't trust my little sister, just that she is also a young teen and has never really been expected to keep any major secrets. If word gets out about what you can do it is ultimately your problem to deal with, not the OMMR's. That is all in the bylaws for your classification, you might want to re-read them. Don't tell about any others with the ability, that is not your secret to tell."

That made me feel a little embarrassed not to know. It seemed like one of those things I would have been extra super excited about when I turned eighteen. I just always assumed I wasn't allowed to talk about them because they always told me not to since they first manifested. That, and the fact that anyone inquiring from the OMMR about them were always denied access to knowing. I wasn't about to just go announcing it to everyone, but surely I could safely tell Maggie about them. I always felt bad keeping them a secret from her even though we were supposed to be best friends.

"You two really should be going now," Phobia reminded us. She then flapped her wings and crossed the room so she was behind Jess. "It was a pleasure meeting with you, Rebecca. I'll be in touch. Have a pleasant rest of your day." She then just walked off out of sight.

With our dismissal Jess and I just looked at one another and she shrugged at me. "At least she didn't monologue too much. She must have been distracted. Let's get going. Crystal is right outside the door and Jordan is still out in the yard. Arachne and Moon are sparring right now, so beware of falling night ponies when you go out the door."

That was such a cool ability.

Chapter 26: Girl Talk

Jess gave Crystal the list of Phobia's instructions when they exited the house. Crystal nodded and immediately began barking out orders to everyone present.

"Arachne, Charlotte, and Nightmare Moon, the three of you are to go to your rooms for the remainder of the day. Do not come downstairs or go flying off anywhere."

"Why? That's not fair!" Arachne complained with a savage beat of her wings. I was fairly sure that one was Arachne anyway, since she had a spiderweb for a cutie mark.

"Humanity First people are going to be here," Crystal explained. "All the foals need to be out of sight."

Charlotte, who had what looked like a heart in army camouflage as a cutie mark, joined her sister in objecting. "I can't believe Mom is bringing them here again. It's stupid talking to them. They're the enemy!"

The human that had been overseeing their fights pointed to the house. "You can question your mother's judgement all you wish, little filly, but you will not disobey her. Get in the house."

Charlotte glared back at the human. "I'm not little! I can fight, I can fly, and I have my cutie mark! I'm a young mare, and I shouldn't be told to go to my room while the grown-ups talk!"

"Enough of that!" Crystal yelled. "You're a minor living under your parents' roof, and shall continue to be one until you're eighteen. If you want to argue about how you're a young mare in five years when you can take off on your own you are free to do so at that point, but for right now you'll do as you are told."

Charlotte glowered at Crystal. "Can't wait until I'm old enough to join the army and get away from this stupid place."

"You're in for a nasty surprise when you get to boot camp if being made to follow orders bothers you so much," Crystal countered. "Consider being here pre-boot camp. With the way Tempest drills you now you should be at the top of your class at whatever fort you end up training at, if you can learn to follow orders without a fuss."

Charlotte stormed off towards the house with her sister hot on her hooves. "Whatever."

The human softened her expression and turned to Crystal. "I'll speak to her in a few minutes. Rosetta being out of town for an extended period is wearing on her more than the others. She's missing her primary confidant."

Crystal nodded and looked at the third of the trio, a colt with a moon and what looked like a big bandage over it for a cutie mark. He simply shrugged and started making his way to the house. He seemed the strong silent type, since he hadn't really said anything when I arrived either, or right before he started pounding away on Jordan's shield.

Jordan got up and started walking towards the house until Crystal stopped her. "Not you! You'll be going with Jess and me as she visits Rebecca here. The three of them need to be getting to bed soon anyway, so it isn't as if you'll have any company here."

The violet unicorn glanced at me then back at Crystal. "I'm fine with that. It gives me more time with Jessie. Will I be coming back here, or do I still need to get my stuff?"

"You'll be coming back, so feel free to leave it," Crystal confirmed. "Thank you for being cooperative, at least one filly around here can be counted on to do what she's told without a fight. I'm sure if Jackie were here she'd be giving me lip too."

"I'm cooperating," Jess objected.

Crystal looked up at her with one ear bent back. "You aren't a filly. Go ahead and get in the car. It's unlocked."

Jess, Jordan, and I all went to the car and filed into the back. Jess quickly buckled herself in and Jordan was quick finding her own harness and put it on with well practiced ease. Me, I once again was left trying to sort out what strap went to what.

"Let me help you with that," Jordan offered. Her horn lit up in a yellow light that matched her mane and the appropriate straps for the harness moved and buckled themselves around me.

"Thanks." I pulled to check if the harness was on too tight; which ended up not being the case.

"No problem," the unicorn filly happily replied. "You're a lot different than most of the people that come visit my eldest sis. What did you come visit her about?"

I nervously shifted in place. "Um, I can't really talk about it. It's kind of a secret."

The filly's face fell. "Oh… well, I understand. Most things end up being secret with Phobia. I know Jessie has like a million things she can't talk about."

"Not quite a million," Jess corrected. She then turned to me. "And I need to make a quick point, only Jordan, my older brother, and my parents get to call me Jessie, got it? Don't go calling me Jessie just because it's okay that Jordan does. To everyone else I'm Jess, or Jessica, or Doctor Middleton. No Miss Middleton's either, I earned my doctorate and want that respected."

I nodded. "Alright. I know ponies with pony names that only let certain people use their old human names, or no one at all, so it's not that different."

Jess relaxed. "It's actually very close to that. Everyone called me Jessie as a filly, and me switching over to Jess instead was kind of a symbolic gesture that I wasn't a pony anymore, at least to me. Jordan and I have a special history and friendship, so it doesn't upset me at all to hear her call me Jessie."

I looked between them. "Are you two like special-special friends?"

Jordan's eyes about popped out of her sockets. "What!? No, eww, no! I'm very-very straight, and not into humans either. I don't think I'm really Jessie's type either. She doesn't care if you are a mare, stallion, man, or woman, but she likes people who are really prissy or really tough."

"Jordan!" Jess screamed while turning red.

"Well, you do! There's nothing to be ashamed about for having preferences," Jordan said defensively.

"You just started noticing colts weren't just cootie factories a year or two ago, you barely know your own preferences," Jess shot back.

Jordan smiled dreamily. "I know there's this colt that sits in front of me in my pre-algebra class. He has the cutest stripe of blue that goes straight down his red mane. I don't think he even knows my name, but I wish he would notice me. Just because you can't date doesn't mean I shouldn't try to."

"Why can't you?" I asked. "I'm sure there are plenty of people that would find you attractive."

Jess crossed her arms and slouched in her seat. "Because if I tried dating someone my actual age I'd be called a pedophile, and if I tried dating someone who looked the same age as I do they would be a pedophile. It's a no-win scenario."

"How about you?" Jordan suddenly asked me. "Do you have a special somepony?"

I shook my head. "I don't really date."

Jordan pouted. "I'm the youngest person here and the only one interested in dating! I want someone to give me pointers on how to ask a guy out."

Crystal got into the driver's seat and looked back at the three of them. "How about you start by just going up to the guy and starting a conversation? Don't make it more complicated than it is. Jess, if the three of you are going to be chatting about that stuff all along the drive I would appreciate you putting up a sound barrier so you don't drive me nuts."

"Sure thing," Jess replied. Crystal cocked an ear, then nodded, and began putting the car in drive.

Jess then turned back towards me. "Okay, Crystal can't hear anything, and I'm ninety-nine percent certain that she can't read lips. You can tell us all about your secret powers now, if you want."

Jordan's ears shot up. "Wait, I get to hear something secret for once? This is like the fifth best day of my life!"

"If you can keep her secret to yourself instead of blabbing it out like you did with what I'm attracted to," Jess said in a short tone.

"I can!" Jordan asserted. "And anyone who spends a lot of time with you can figure out who you're attracted to. You do this thing where you stare at them for a long time and slowly lift your tail up. It's kind of obvious, so I didn't consider it a secret."

Jess glared at her tail like it was a traitor and then stuffed it in her lap without a word.

I looked at the two of them, feeling kind of put on the spot. I hadn't actually fully decided if I was going to tell Jordan yet, since Phobia had cautioned me about it, but now Jordan was expecting me to.

"It's easier for me to show you than to describe it," I answered. I then had a thought and lifted up my leg with the attached phone. "Hey, can I still be heard by the person on the other end of the line if you have your magic sound thing going?"

"If I allow it," Jess replied. "Sound behaves pretty much as I choose around me."

"I know I said it already, but that's a really cool power," I said in admiration.

She sighed. "It's okay, now that I have full control over it, but when it first manifested it was a nightmare."

"How bad was it?" I asked curiously.

She shook her head. "Sound just went berserk and chaotic around me. Everything would be at the wrong volume, or seem to come from the wrong place, sounds would mute or blast at random times, and we'd be treated to loud background noise that didn't seem to have any origin. I couldn't even hear people speaking to me because they were drowned out by the noise. It was also exceptionally energy efficient, so it didn't even stop from overuse. It was hell, and if I didn't have crystal ponies working to cancel things out it would have never quit at any hour of the day. It took from when I was eight till when I was ten to gain full control of it."

My ears sagged. "I'm sorry you went through that. When my own powers first started they were kind of scary, but they were nothing like that."

She gave me a small smile. "I had some great people that helped me through it. I'm really intelligent, and like to think I can figure everything out on my own, but everyone needs some support and help sometimes. Go ahead and make your call. I've got you covered."

I hit the autodial for Maggie and waited as the phone rang. It only took a few seconds for her to pick up. "Hey Bec, what's up?"

I took a deep breath as I committed to this. "Hey, do you have time to come over to my house right now? I have something I need to show you. Something I've been keeping secret from you, but I just found out I don't have to."

"What are you talking about?" She asked in a confused tone.

"You know I have an OMMR license, right? I wanted to show you exactly why."

"Okay, you got me curious, but you better not be trying to mind control me or anything."

I chuckled. "It's nothing like that. Don't worry."

"I'll head right over. I'm not doing anything right now that I can't procrastinate on a little."

"I'm on my way home now, and have some new friends with me that I'll be showing as well. If you beat me there I'll be there soon."

"New friends? People from the college?"

I absently shook my head. "No, a super genius human who has pony ears and a tail, and Phobia Remedy's little sister."

There was a pause. "Alright then… you sound like you've had an adventure today."

I giggled. "Yep, walked into the Warden of Fear's den and lived to tell the tale."

My two current companions both rolled their eyes at that. They might not think facing Phobia Remedy was a big deal, but it felt like one for me.

"I'll have to hear about this one," Maggie replied in a bemused voice. "I'll be over there shortly. See you soon."

I clicked off the phone and Jordan immediately spoke up. "If you're done with that, can we please get back to helping me figure out how to ask a guy to notice me? I need to figure out what to say when I talk to him!"

I laughed. "Alright, let's figure it out."

Chapter 27: Speaker from Beyond

Maggie was waiting in the driveway when we pulled up to the house. I watched her examining Jess carefully as we all filed out of the car, and wondered if there was any way to tell her to not comment on the fact Jess was a partial without Jess overhearing. Given Jess's powers that seemed basically impossible.

Jess was immediately distracted though, by Melissa waving at her across the street. The partial gave Melissa a baffled look, but waved back.

"Do you know her? She and her husband just moved in the other day," I explained. "I like them. She has cool powers and her husband is a cyberpony!"

"We've met a few times," Jess said slowly. "Kind of an odd coincidence to have them choosing across the street from you to live."

"The world is a weird and wonderful place," I said with a happy grin.

"Is that the old police chief?" Jordan asked as she followed our gaze.

"Yep," Jess replied quickly.

"She came by Phobia's house the other day," Jordan said as she looked out at the human across the street, then snorted. "I hadn't seen her in forever before that. I didn't find out why. Everything is secret with Phobia. It's so frustrating!"

Jess continued to stare and chewed her lip as she did so, and I could tell she knew what was going on.

"Let me introduce you all to Maggie!" I exclaimed, and trotted over to my best friend.

"You weren't pulling my tail about them," Maggie said as I reached her.

"You're human, you don't have a tail to pull," I replied smartly. I instantly realized that comment might have been insensitive to Jess, but it was already said now.

She stuck her tongue out at me for a second before replying. "Smart ass."

I stretched my grin out wider. "I’m a pony, not a donkey, but thank you for calling me smart."

"I'll boop your nose if you don't stop," Maggie said with a giggle. "Go ahead and introduce me to your new friends before you start going on about I'm about to sexually harass you by booping."

"Oww, but I had a great fake outrage all planned out," I pouted. I gave her my puppy dog eyes. No one can resist the puppy dog eyes.

She crossed her arms and leaned back against her car with a smile. "Not going to work, Bec. I know all your tricks. Come on, stop stalling, and introduce me. I want to get to hearing about this big secret."

"I wanna hear it too!" Jordan added in with a little hop.

"Okay," I replied in defeat, a little sad that my back and forth banter was being cut short. "Maggie, the unicorn here is Jordan. She's Phobia Remedy's little sister, so be nice to her or Phobia will get you."

"I don't have any magic, so she can't enter my dreams," Maggie pointed out.

I pointed to the car. "Well, she's got a really tough crystal pony bodyguard in the car there, and an army of night ponies to sic on you still."

"Point taken," Maggie replied. Then she smiled at Jordan. "Nice to meet you."

I gestured to Jess. "And this human here is named Jess- excuse me- her name is Doctor Jessica Middleton, and she's a super genius." I turned to Jess. "Um, I kind of forgot what your doctorate was in."

"I have a PhD in astrophysics, and am one of the leading experts in my field," Jess replied smugly. "I also have a masters in electronic engineering which I'm working towards a doctorate in, and planning on getting my mechanic's license as well."

Maggie blinked. "Okay, someone is an overachiever. How old are you if you accomplished all that? You don't look that old. You couldn't be older than twenty-five."

"She's fourteen," I answered before Jess could get a reply out, which made her scowl down at me.

Maggie stared at Jess for a moment, then turned to me and laughed. "Okay, nice prank. You had me going on the doctorate and all, but there's no way she's just fourteen. She's at least our age."

"She is fourteen!" Jordan insisted. "Go ahead and look her up on your phone, Doctor Jessica Middleton."

Maggie pulled out her phone. "I can call that bluff." She tapped her phone and spoke into it. "Wikisearch Doctor Jessica Middleton." She then looked at her phone's screen with a grin, which quickly dropped off as she blinked. "Holy sh-"

"Hey, no cussing. There are minors present!" I exclaimed.

"You've never heard what Jordan mumbles under her breath when Tempest is putting her through drills," Jess said with a chuckle.

"That's the only time I ever do that. I'm a good filly," Jordan protested.

"A good filly with a mouth like a sailor," Jess replied.

"I picked it up from you," Jordan countered.

Jess turned to her. "Oh, don't put that all on me. I know about those really smutty romance novels- and I use the term romance lightly- that you've been reading."

Jordan quickly looked away. "I read them for the plots."

"Riiiight…" Jess, Maggie, and I all said at the same time.

Jordan laid her ears back and glared up at Jess. "This is to get me back for what I said in the car, isn't it?"

Jess looked upwards and pursed her lips. "Possibly…"

"Are we even now?" Jordan asked.

Jess held out the palm of her hand to Jordan. "We're even. No hard feelings?

Jordan touched a hoof to Jess's palm. "No hard feelings."

"It's okay, Maggie actually writes that kind of stuff," I said while chuckling. Jordan's ears and tail instantly picked up as she turned to look at Maggie. "And to finish up the introductions. Jess and Jordan, this is Maggie. She's been my best friend for a few years. She is a graphic design major at my college, and she likes to write Star Trek fanfiction."

"Since introductions are all done now can we hear what this big secret is?" Maggie asked.

I pointed to the front door. "Come on inside." And began leading the group towards my house, with Crystal staying in her car. She hadn't seemed interested in leaving it.

My parents were both in the living room as I walked in. "Hey, how'd your meeting with Phobia Remedy go?" My mom asked.

I pointed to the group following me. "It was… interesting. I'll talk about it later. Meet my new friends Jess and Jordan."

"Pleased to meet you," my stepdad said as they walked in. He didn't even blink about Jess being a partial, but then again he just had a cyberpony and a human that magically turned into Wild Growth show up at the house the other day, and after that most things must seem normal. Plus he lived with me. "Can we get you anything to eat or drink?"

"Um, I'm fine," Jordan replied. Jess just shook her head.

I waited till everyone was in and the door was shut. "I'm going to be showing all of them my powers."

My parents exchanged a worried glance. "I'm assuming you have permission to do that, but are you sure that’s a good idea?" My mom asked.

I nodded. "I actually just found out that I have the right to tell whoever I want. I just have to deal with the repercussions myself if they tell other people. I trust my friends."

"Not throwing any shade on your new friends, and I trust Maggie completely, but Jess and Jordan haven't known you that long," my stepdad replied. "You know as a pony you can be a bit trusting."

"We understand," Jess spoke up. "We also hang around the Warden of Fear all the time and we are used to keeping secrets." Well, Jess was at least, but she didn't seem ready to out Jordan.

"I can keep a secret!" Jordan insisted. "Big sis Phobia lets me hang around her house all the time and I don't tell anyone about what goes on there." I chose not to comment on the fact that Jordan didn't seem to know much about what went on there to tell anyone. I was going to trust her though.

My mom still looked nervous about it. "Well, you're an adult, and it's your decision. Just be careful about who you tell."

"I will," I promised. I turned back to my friends. "Okay, take a seat and prepare to be amazed by the incredible magical marshmallow!"

Maggie and Jess both rolled their eyes, but went and sat down on the couch next to my mom. Jordan just sat down on her haunches where she was. I lifted up my leg and picked out a song to play from my playlist. I decided to go with something a bit different this time, as I thought I could zone out to something a bit more upbeat. I'd also been practicing a new trick and wanted to wow my parents.

I put on a song from David Bowie, Dance Magic, and listened to it as it started to play. Everyone gave me confused looks, even my parents, since this wasn't my normal zoning out type of song. I just smiled at all of them and started dancing with the music.

"I don't think your dancing qualifies as a major magic power," Maggie snarked.

"Hush, let me do my thing. I've got to get in the mindset and zone the world out." I said, and reset the song to play from the beginning, and put it on loop.

It took longer than it normally did, but it ended up working, and working with the extra effect that I'd planned. I was standing next to my body which was still happily dancing and shaking its rump along with the music.

"Oh my god, there are two of her!" Maggie shouted out. "I think the world is about to end, it can't take two of her."

"How's your body still dancing?" My mom asked. "You normally can't do that."

"I'm still zoned out in my own little world," I explained with a grin, they waved a wing straight through my dancing body at everyone.

"So… she can duplicate herself?" Jordan asked in confusion.

"It's a highly complex illusion spell of some sort," Jess replied. "That new version of her isn't really there. There's no sounds of breathing, heart beating, or even the sounds of dust hitting her fur. The only sounds coming from her is her voice."

"You can hear dust hitting a pony's fur?!" I asked in amazement.

Jess frowned. "Believe me, you don't want to know what I'm capable of hearing if I'm listening for it. Thankfully I can tune things out or I'd be listening to everyone's digestive tracts."

"Hmm, I might have a rumbly in my tumbly. I think you left my cake out in the car," I replied thoughtfully.

"I'll make sure you get it before we leave. Just don't ask me to focus on your rumblies," Jess said with a slightly pale face.

I let myself drift into the air, just kind of casually floating about. "I can do all kinds of things, float through the air, pass through walls, turn invisible, mute myself, change shapes. I just can't touch anything. I've got a pretty good range too. I don't need to stay near my body."

"So you could go invisible and spy on your neighbors in the bathroom," Maggie suggested.

"Eww! Why would I want to do that? That's nasty!"

"I'm not saying you would, just that you could," Maggie clarified, she then frowned at me. "You never used this to spy on me, did you?"

I shook my head. "No, I usually just go sightseeing around town, and I snuck into a movie theater once."

"Rebecca! That's technically theft!" My mom scolded.

"It was just one time," I asserted.

"And I chewed you out for it already," came a voice from beside me. "Having fun, Rebecca?"

I turned and saw Miss Seapony in her giant dragon-seapony form. "I just learned I could show my friends this. Why didn't you ever tell me I could after I turned eighteen?"

Miss Seapony spread her fins. "You never asked."

"Who are you talking to?" Maggie asked.

I turned back to my confused looking friends. "Oh! It's just Miss Seapony. She likes to talk to me when I'm doing this."

Maggie took a step back with her eyes as wide as they could go. "Miss Seapony as in Yinyu?"

I smiled. "Yep! I'm kind of in-between awake and asleep right now, and she can see what I can see and talk to me, and I can see her."

"She can see what you can see? As in she can see this room, and more notably- us, right now?" Jess asked with concern.

"Oh! I can see the gears turning in her head. Jessica is a smart one. She's about to figure it out," Miss Seapony said mischievously. "It's really interesting having to try to guess what someone is thinking based on their expression and what they say. I never get this experience in the dream realm. It's so exciting."

"Figure what out?" I asked in confusion.

"You're giving the undead Dreamwardens a view into the waking world; something that should otherwise be impossible," Jess answered in wonder. "Not only that, they can have you as kind of the middle-pony in a direct conversation with someone with no magic. Do you realize how big a deal that is?"

"And the girl has got it!" Miss Seapony said with a cackle.

I sat kind of dumbfounded. It had never once occurred to me that the Dreamwardens might want me because of my powers. I had always assumed it was just because I was a nice pony. My powers were just something to play with. I decided not to talk about that right now. That would involve revealing to Jordan and Maggie that the Dreamwardens wanted to make me a Dreamwarden too. I wasn't ready to share that with even Maggie yet.

Turning back to Jess I plastered my best smile back on my face. "I mean it's big yea, but in the grand scheme of things not that big. I mean have you seen my dance moves? Those are huge!"

"Well, swan princess, you might want to do something about your body," Maggie said while pointing.

I turned just in time to watch my body start dancing into the chairs in the dining area and knocking them over. That didn't stop it though. It kept on dancing all the same. Maybe letting my body just aimlessly dance without me in it to direct it hadn't been the best idea.

"I'll talk to you later," I told Miss Seapony, and then went back into my body and stopped dancing. My rump was actually sore, and I had a feeling it was because I'd been smashing it into things.

Turning back to everyone as a flesh and blood pony again I continued to grin. "Okay, that's my secret. So let's eat some cake now. I'm starving!"

Chapter 28: A Humble Request

Jess brought in the cake and I greedily tore into it, although I made sure to give a small slice to each of my friends… a small one.

"You are going to get diabetes yet, Bec," Maggie said as she watched me chomp through my cake. "I don't mean that to be mean. I just worry about you. Aren't you supposed to be on a diet?"

"I'm not sure that diabetes is a thing in ponies," I replied after swallowing the bite in my mouth.

"Well, it still can't be healthy," Maggie asserted. "You need to eat better."

"I stress eat! And you're not my mom," I fussed.

My mom walked over and took the now empty plate away. "But I am, and she's right. You really need to do better at your diet. Your pudge might be cute and cuddly, but it could lead to health problems. You could develop issues with your blood pressure, or you could wear out your legs from making them carry all that extra weight. I don't want you ending up miserable by the time you're my age."

"You do look kinda heavy," Jordan inserted.

"You too? Et tu Jordan?" I asked in exasperation.

"Et tu, Iordanis," Jess corrected, and I looked up at her. "The proper way of saying Jordan's name in that phrase and converting it to Latin in a classical form would be Iordanis. Classical Latin doesn't have a letter J, although the sound might come off sounding a lot like a Y."

"I thought you were like a rocket scientist, not a language professor," I grumbled.

"I studied Latin as a second language in high school," Jess replied.

"I think she's just finding things to complain about, Jessie," Jordan informed her friend.

Jess blushed. "Oh! Sorry."

"You normally don't get grumpy when you're stressed, so what are you stressed about?" Maggie asked. "Does it have anything to do with what Jess said was a big deal earlier?"

"I'm just a chubby pony you are trying to seperate from her food," I fibbed. It wasn't a total fib, as I didn't want people separating me from my food either. It just wasn't the main reason I was grumpy.

"I think I know what it is," Jess said.

"So what's bothering her?" Maggie asked.

Jess shook her head. "I can't really talk about it. It's Dreamwarden business, and Phobia would have a fit if I did, not to mention my aunt. I can understand how she's feeling, if I'm right about it."

"Urgh! Stupid Dreamwarden secrets, it's not fair," Jordan complained, stomping dramatically.

"Let's just change the subject," I said, and forced a smile on my face. "So, Jordan, other than getting frustrated about not ever getting to hear secrets, what's it like having a Dreamwarden for a big sister?"

Jordan plopped her rump down and shook her head. "People at school ask me that all the time. It really isn't that special. The school gets extra security because me, my sister Jackie, Moonie, Charlotte, and Arachne all go there. I also have to do those stupid self-defense drills with Tempest and Crystal all summer long, and on weekends."

"You'd do better at those drills if you would just fight back," Jess said sagely. "There isn't always going to be someone there to save you. You've got to learn to do more than throw up a shield and run."

"But I don't like to fight!" Jordan protested. She then got up and pointed at her cutie mark, an open book with a heart in it. "See, I'm just a reader of books. I don't want to hurt anybody. I'm going to be a teacher when I grow up, not some army soldier like Charlotte."

I decided not to brood on people getting hurt. "Well, besides all that. What's Phobia like around you? Does she behave more like a sister or is she still kinda like do what I say and don't argue about it?"

"Kinda both, I guess," Jordan replied. "She's only my half-sister, same with Jackie. Except Jackie and I have different biological dads and Phobia and I have different moms. I never met Jackie's biological dad, since he died before even she was born. I've met Phobia's mom; she's okay. She doesn't visit that much, but when she does she always takes time to teach me a new spell. She knows way more magic than my dad, or anyone else I know."

"Did she teach you how to make a shield?" I asked.

Jordan shook her head. "No, my dad taught me that one. He's really-really good at that spell, even if he doesn't really know many others. She taught me my word search spell, spells to heat things up, and she's helped me with my teleportation the last few times she visited. I want to get my teleportation license when I'm good enough to take the test. It still needs work though."

"Word search spell?" Maggie asked.

Jordan nodded. "Yeah, apparently all the big mages in Equestria know it. I can flip through a book with the spell and find particular words or phrases. It's really helpful in trying to find what I'm looking for in a book really quick."

"Auntie Sunset is very well versed in magic. It's good she takes time to share with you," Jess said with a grin.

"So you two are like cousins or something?" Maggie asked.

"That's not how cousins work," Jess said dryly. "Neither of us are blood related to Sunset Blessing, but Sunset Blessing did marry my aunt Arbiter, and she is Phobia's mom. We both just call her Auntie Sunset because she's kind of family and she likes us calling her that."

"She adopted Yinyu's foals didn't she?" I asked. "I don't know much about them. What are they like? What are their names?" It was a good chance to find out some more about Lántiān and her family.

"Sorry, but I don't really know them that well," Jordan replied. "Miss Lántiān and her daughter visit sometimes, but she tends to be very quiet when she does. I think she's an artist or something like that. There's a couple younger ones, like my age or younger, but they've only visited once or twice during big family gatherings, and I don't remember a lot about them. They stay with Auntie Sunset."

My eyebrows rose. "Lántiān has a daughter?" They gave me a funny look. "Sorry, I met her the other day, and she didn't mention it, and Miss Seapony never talks about her foals."

Jordan blinked. "Oh, well, yeah. I always forget her daughter's name, because it's some weird Chinese name. She's kind of cute, in the way little fillies are cute and adorable. She likes to bring everything she finds up to people and tell them all about the great thing she found, and I mean everything. Last Thanksgiving she brought one rock after another up to me and had to tell me where she found each rock and all about the shape and color of the rock, then she started doing the same thing with bugs. I wanted to tell her to go bother someone else, but she acted so proud about each thing that I couldn't bring myself to do it."

"If she's a little kid, kids do things like that," Maggie said with all the authority of her eighteen years. "Maybe she thought you were Twilight Sparkle, and was trying to impress you."

Jordan's ears shot up. "You think I look like Twilight Sparkle?"

"Well, you are both nerdy lavender ponies," Jess suggested.

"But she's got a completely different mane than me, and she's got wings, and she's much bigger than me," Jordan listed off. Then her eyes narrowed. "And I'm not nerdy! I'm hip! I'm cool! I've got the groove!"

"Okay, now you sound extra nerdy," Jess said with a laugh. "But don't worry. I'm a nerd too, and so is Twilight Sparkle. It's okay to be a nerd."

"You're just saying that because you've got multiple degrees, speak like a million languages, and have science websites interview you all the time," Jordan pointed out.

"A few corrections; I only speak eight languages, languages that I'll remind you that I took the time to study and learn the old fashioned way. If I just learned them by spell I'd probably have learned more, but I like learning things on my own. And those websites don't interview me all the time, just every once and awhile," Jess objected.

"Nerd!" I called out, then broke down laughing. Jess gave me the evil eye, but then smiled knowing I was only poking fun at her.

"So, enough of me, my freaky family, and my overachieving best friend," Jordan declared. She pointed a leg at me. "What do you do, other than have weird powers?"

I sat up straight. "I'm studying to be an architect. I'm about to enter my freshman year at the college."

"Architect?" Jordan asked. "Well, you jumped over me in the nerd category. There's no catching up to Jessie there, but you're firmly in second place out of all of us."

Maggie raised her hand. "I write Star Trek fanfiction. I think I should get some honor nerd points for that."

"She writes super-gay shipping between all the males," I added inwith a smirk.

Jordan's eyes lit up. "I really want to read some of it."

"I'm sure you do, you horny little pervert," Jess giggled. "It's okay to show her. No matter how perverted it is, I'm sure she's read worse. Just don't let her parents know she's reading that stuff. Her dad will flip his lid."

"I'm pretty sure my mom knows already," Jordan replied with a blush.

"Your mom isn't as old fashioned as your dad, and she realizes that you are getting to an age you have an interest in colts," Jess countered. "She also knows there's no way of keeping you from reading that stuff, and is probably just happy that reading is all you do. Your dad looks at you and sees his perfectly innocent little baby filly still."

"Hey, at least your parents trust you," I said. "My mom just insisted I get put on birth control, and I've never even gone on a date and don't have any plans on doing so anytime soon."

My mom, who had been silently reading on the couch, looked up. "I'm just making sure no accidents happen that end up making you have to quit college to raise a foal. You're a young mare, and young mares have certain urges. Did I ever give you the birds and the bees talk?"

"I knew about the birds and the bees already before you tried giving me it, remember?" I called over to her. "And there aren't going to be any accidents because there isn't going to be any sex. My only sexual relationship is going to be with my vibrator!"

"Whatever you say, dear. Just remember not to miss any of your pills," she replied, and went back to reading.

"Dad, back me up!" I called out to the kitchen.

"Just make sure you're taking your pills, Becky, and I won't ask any detailed questions about your love life," he responded. He paused for a second. "And please, don't give us details about your relationship with your toy. There are things no one needs to know, but you don't have much of a filter."

"Dad! Why is everyone betraying me today?" I fake sobbed.

"You're such a ham!" Maggie chortled.

"I have a serious question, Rebecca, and maybe a request," Jess said while looking down.

I stopped my dramatic display and cocked an ear. "Um, sure. What is it?"

Jess looked at the others. "Do you mind if she and I step away for a moment? This is kind of a personal thing."

Jordan's ears went full erect. "Are you going to ask her out?"

Jess did a double take. "What? No! I've got no interest in her like that. She's not my type and you know it. She's also four years older than me, if you hadn't noticed. This is about my aunt."

Jordan's ears fell immediately. "Oh… that I get. Well, maybe not exactly, but I get it's a really personal subject. Yeah, I don't mind you getting some privacy."

"We can talk in private," I replied while standing up. "Do you want to go outside or to my room?"

"Whichever you prefer, or we can just go into a corner and I can put a sound barrier up," she answered.

I walked towards the front door. "Let's sit out front then. My parents have a bench out there that will be more comfortable for you to sit on than any of the pony sized furniture in my room. You're pretty big, even for a human. How tall are you?"

She outpaced me to the door with her long legs, and opened it for me. "I'm six-foot-one, not counting my ears, and the tallest person in my family. Thanks for thinking about that. Pony furniture is so low I feel like I might as well be sitting on the ground half the time."

We walked outside and Jess shut the door behind us before going and sitting on my parents' red bench. I gave a quick flap of my wings and joined her on the bench a second after.

"So what's up? What about your aunt?" I asked.

She clasped her hands together on her lap. "You said you can change shape and sound while doing your powers. You can also see and talk to the Dreamwardens at those times too. Is that all correct?"

I blinked. "Um, yeah, but why is that important?"

She took a deep breath and gripped her hands tighter together. "My dad is coming to pick me up tomorrow and fly me back home the next day. My older brother and I pass messages back and forth between my aunt Arbiter and him, but it isn't the same as him getting to actually see and talk to her."

I shook my head. "I see where this is going, but it won't work. I can't make her visible or anything like that. I can only adjust myself. I can't even make a dream construct like a dream cupcake unless I was turning myself into a cupcake."

"But could you mirror her?" Jess asked. "Copy what she looks like, sounds like, does, and says? She could be present with you and you could just repeat back what she says while imitating her body and voice."

I frowned. "Maybe? If she talked really slow, and sat really still. I know I could make myself look and sound like her, but am kind of iffy about imitating the rest. I've never tried something like that. I'd have to have her permission too, since I think impersonating a Dreamwarden might be illegal or something."

"I'm sure she'd agree, and it would mean a lot to my dad if he could have a more direct conversation with her. I know going through you isn't direct, but it is as close as he can get when he has no magic."

I looked back and forth. Then whispered. "Wild Growth came to my house the other day in disguise, and she used her disguise thing to give my dad a tiny bit of magic. Couldn't your dad do that? That way he could just talk to Arbiter just like you or I can."

She narrowed her eyes. "What kind of disguise?"

"She looked like a human. She turned my dad into a pony for a few minutes," I explained. "You seem to be in on all the secret stuff."

She closed her eyes and brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "I wasn't in on that. Of all the secretive Area fifty-one bullshit-" She took a breath, released her nose, and opened her eyes. "I suppose I can't complain too much. I'm involved with plenty of secret crap that the public would have a cow if they found out about. Still, I'm upset. My dad has been on a waiting list for volunteers to test temporary transformation magic for years, and here they have some method already developed that can do it without a team of unicorns by someone that can't even channel magic!"

My ears dropped. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

She shook her head. "I'm not upset at you, and I really don't have a right to be upset. Just don't assume because someone is made aware of some secrets that they've been made aware or were supposed to know other secrets. It will get you in trouble. I wasn't supposed to be aware they were that far along in developing that magic. I'm wondering if there are even new tests being run or they are just pretending there are."

"So… do you still want to try the thing where I act like I'm your aunt?" I asked.

She nodded. "We are just going to pretend I don't even know about the other thing and no one will get in trouble about that. My dad won't find out that they've been basically pretending they needed volunteers for no reason and he'll probably never get a call to do it. So, yeah, I still want you to act as a link to her."

"We'd still need to talk to her first, and warn your dad about what we planned on doing. He might not be okay with it," I said, trying to be as cautious about this as I could. "I'd like to be incognito if we were going to do this. You can say a friend is doing it, but not me specifically or how I'm doing it. My mom and dad are right, I need to be careful about telling too many people I just met or don't know well. I also can't promise I'm going to do great at this, since I've never tried it before."

"I understand, and I'll make that clear to my dad," Jess replied with a nod. "We can talk to my aunt about it together tonight when we're sleeping. I'm pretty sure she'll say it's okay, and I'll talk to my dad about it when he arrives tomorrow. I'll give you a call to let you know what he says and we can arrange someplace private for it if he says yes."

I held out my leg with the phone and she pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it up to it. We heard the little ding that confirmed numbers had been exchanged and she put her phone away while I put my leg down.

"You know," she said while glancing at Melissa who was still watching us from across the street. "You being able to do something like what I want you to do with my dad might be one of the main reasons the Dreamwardens want you as one of them."

I stared down. "I thought of that after you made a big deal out of it. I feel stupid for not realizing it before. I also don't know how I feel about it. Before now I always thought it was because of my personality and that I was a nice pony. Hearing that it might be because of powers that happen to come with the package kind of makes me feel… I don't know."

She nodded. "I get it. You don't have to tell me who else has powers like you do, but Phobia implied there are others. Those others aren't at the top of their lists, so it isn't just your powers they're looking at."

"I guess," I muttered, not feeling completely reassured. Though it did bring up the question of why weren't they talking to Josie. Josie had the same powers as me, even more powers than me actually- and stronger, but she wasn't ahead of me.

"Why'd you say you wouldn't want to be a Dreamwarden?" I asked.

She leaned back and fluttered her lips. "Well, for starters, it's not something I really have an interest in. On top of that, they've shared lots of knowledge with me over the years, and a lot of it is extremely unpleasant. I know that even then they are holding things back, possibly much worse things. I don't want to know those things. Then you take in the fact you get to see all the suffering people go through but don't tell or show anyone- I just couldn't do it. If you can, then more power to you."

We watched as Crystal got out of the car and walked over to us. "What are you two conspiring about? I can feel the sound barrier is up, and I felt some odd magic earlier that I've only felt a time or two before. Pretty rare stuff, that magic, and I know it didn't come off of Jess or Jordan."

"We were just having normal teenager talk," Jess replied sweetly.

Crystal snorted and smirked. "You ain't a normal teenager and I have a feeling she isn't either, but I'll let that go. Mind if I come in? Boss lady still isn't ready for us to return and I'm getting kind of bored out here in the car."

"Sure, I think Jess and I are done out here anyway," I said as I hopped down from the bench.

Jess stood up. "And I need to intervene with Jordan before she gets herself too excited reading whatever Maggie wrote."

As we all headed back inside I continued to wonder what the Dreamwardens wanted me for, and whether I wanted to be one myself.

Chapter 29: Parental Reassurances

Eventually, Jess, Jordan, and Crystal were called back to Phobia's house. Phone numbers and promises to keep in touch were exchanged, and Maggie headed home as well. That left me alone with my parents, who had burning questions that they couldn't ask in front of guests. I knew those questions were coming when they started turning all the electronics off that were hooked up to the internet.

My parents sat down on the couch together. This was bad, that meant they were getting ready to form a unified front against me. I took up a spot on my throw pillow on the ground across from them.

"So…" Mom began. "I remember that partial woman, Jess, from the clinic. You had a conversation with her there. I didn't think much of it at the time, since you always seem drawn to speaking to unusual people, but it doesn't seem like it was just a one time meet with her."

I shifted a little. "She's a friend of Phobia Remedy's. She's really smart, and can do all kinds of things with sound. She was there when I was speaking with Phobia Remedy, and she heard all of it, but kept everyone else from listening in. She's also fourteen, but no one ever explained to me why she looks like she's twenty-something. I really should have asked. You kind of forget about it when you're looking at her. She doesn't like being called a partial either, she's rehumanized from being a full pony, just like you mom."

Mom brought a hand up next to her lilac colored eye with a considering expression. Maybe she was considering if she counted as a partial too, since she had a single eye that was pony colored. At what point did any human with pony features go from being a human to a partial in other people's eyes? I wondered if anyone ever called Mom a partial because of her one eye. I'd never asked about it before.

"Just be careful about telling people your secrets," Mom finally said. "We all worry about you. Your father and I have had a lot of talks about your safety in the past, and so have I and Yinyu."

My ears shot up. "You talk to Miss Seapony? Since when?"

She gave me a deadpan look. "Since way back when I first became aware she was visiting you regularly. She doesn't visit me as often as she does you, but she still takes time to talk to me a few times a month. Do you think I'd have let her spend so much time with you if she didn't take time to talk to me once and awhile?"

"I never really thought about it," I replied honestly. I was finding there were more and more things that I'd never thought about that seemed obvious to others. How many things were there that I still hadn't realized that everyone else around me already had?

Stepdad pulled out an old electronic tablet and turned it on. My mom raised an eyebrow at him and he explained. "This thing has no microphone, so it can't pick up anything said. I was going to check some things." He then started entering some information into the tablet.

Mom watched him for a second then turned back to me. "Back to the main conversation. What happened at the Dreamwarden's house?"

I rubbed a wing against the back of my head. "We talked about how Dreamwardens inherit traits and things from previous Dreamwardens, and she watched how I reacted to that. She kind of deliberately guided the conversation into one that would upset Jess, and then let me be the one to try to soothe her."

"Deliberately upsetting the poor girl sounds kinda like a jerk move," Mom replied with a grimace.

"I thought so too, but she said this was something that could fester and make Jess depressed if it wasn't taken care of," I explained. "I can't really talk about it, since it's kinda her private business. I probably shouldn't have even mentioned it was her that was upset."

Mom nodded knowingly, and smiled at me. "We understand, and it's a good practice to not be giving out any private information. It is always important, but it's especially important if you're going to be in a position where you have easy access to people's secrets and they need to trust you."

"Wow!" Stepdad suddenly shouted. They both turned to him as he looked up. "I just found out that they're making a movie about your friends Jess and Jordan."

I cocked an ear and stood up. "Really?"

He nodded and turned back to his tablet. "It's loosely based on their experiences during the Cataclysm of Riverview. They're going to be taking some artistic license with it, and I think they're aging them up for the sake of the movie a little, since it has some action sequences that would be too intense to have small foals do. The actors playing them are both preteens and they'd have been much younger than that back then. That Jess girl as a pony is supposed to be the main hero of the movie."

"Phobia did say her foals and sisters were saved by Jess way back when, but didn't say how," I replied. "When's it supposed to be coming out?"

He scanned down the webpage. "Summer next year, it has a pretty big production budget too, but I guess that makes sense if it is supposed to be during the Cataclysm. That would be a lot of special effects. Has a pretty big named supporting cast as well, aside from the foals. They even got Leta Ortega to play Wild Growth. Looks like they are trying for it to be a blockbuster."

"We'll have to check it out when it comes out," Mom said with a smile. "What's it called?"

"Shadow of Demeter," Stepdad answered.

"Noted," Mom replied. She then turned her attention back to me. "What else happened? You were pigging out on cake pretty hard when you got in, and that means you were upset."

I stared downward. "I can't tell you the exact details, but she had a third test for me after those two things, and I failed that one. She told me about a bad thing that could happen, and talked about this old doll- maybe I shouldn't talk about the doll. Anyway, if this bad thing happened she said that Dreamwardens had a responsibility to do something, and the thing was something I said I wouldn't do."

She gasped. "So you aren't going to be a Dreamwarden now?" My stepdad was now focused on me instead of the tablet.

I shook my head. "I don't know. She says it was brave of me to tell her the truth instead of just saying what she wanted to hear. I even told her I understood why the thing was necessary, and agreed with her about it, but it just wasn't something I could bring myself to do. She said I wasn't disqualified, and that she would continue to consider my candidacy, right before sending me home. I'm not sure if she was just being nice about it. I wasn't even at the top of her list of candidates anyway."

"Oh my baby, I'm sorry to hear that!" Mom gasped. "She just doesn't see how special you are."

"It's okay," I replied quietly. "After talking to her, and after talking some with Jess, I'm not sure I want the job anymore. There's so many dark and unpleasant things about the Dreamwardens- that's just not me."

"You don't want to be a Dreamwarden anymore?" Mom asked, seeming more concerned. "I'll support you no matter what you want to do, but you haven't been living under a rock, so that there are unpleasant things involved with the Dreamwardens shouldn't be news to you, but it never made you not want to be one before. What else has changed?"

I crossed my forelegs and laid my head down on them. "There was that thing Phobia wanted me to say I'd do. There's also how Maggie reacted to Miss Seapony being able to see her. She was afraid. Miss Seapony never hurt anyone as a Dreamwarden, but even still people are afraid of her. I don't want people to be afraid of me like that. The last thing is I'm wondering if they just want me for my powers."

My parents looked at each other then turned back to me. "Sweetie, while your powers might have been part of why the Dreamwardens wanted you, I think the greater part of why they wanted you is that you aren't like them, and that's very important."

"They're all different from one another already," I said dismissively.

"Yes, and so are you, and you aren't giving yourself credit for what you bring that they can't," Mom said firmly. "You're right, a lot of people are scared of Dreamwardens. For a long time now, dreams have become something else than what they were before ETS, they've lost their innocence. That's what you bring with you that the Queen of Nightmares and the rest can't bring, making dreams something to be loved and not feared again. You can bring back the wonder for dreams."

I looked up at her. "But… Arbiter has been trying to-"

"Arbiter is focused on utility not joy, and she's no innocent," Mom said forcibly. "I've talked to every one of them I could in my dreams, which is all of them except the Warden of Fear and the Warden of Peace. None of them are the types for that. You've got one obsessed with sex, another that died in a genocide, another who attempted murder, and the Warden of Order is nothing but a glorified accountant. None of them are the types to make dreams into dreams again."

I flicked an ear and looked at her straight-faced. "The Warden of Order is a glorified accountant?"

"That's what you took out of all that?" Stepdad asked in shock.

I shook my head. "Well… no, but I think that surprised me the most. I never met the Warden of Order, and they've always been kind of mysterious. It kinda kills the mystery to learn they basically are the dream god of doing taxes."

Mom touched her fingers to her forehead and breathed. "Aside from the fact that you just learned that he is really boring-"

"Now I learned he's a he! I'm learning all kinds of stuff about him today!" I said with a grin. I then let my grin fall. "All that stuff is great, and I appreciate you saying all those nice things about me. Even if that was all a hundred-percent true I'd still have reservations about this. You don't know what Phobia suggested was necessary, and that's going to mess with me for a while."

"So are you just going to decline the offer if they say you're definitely the one?" Mom asked. "Again, I'll back you no matter what, but I think it might be a mistake to turn this down. This is your future we are talking about, and how you can impact the future."

I stood back up. "I don't know. Psychic Calm hasn't even officially announced he's retiring yet. So it isn't like I have to say yes or no tonight. I don't even know if I'll be the pick after today, so all this stressing might be about nothing." I smiled again. "But I do know that my first semester of college starts in a few days and it's going to be exciting! I'm going to pretend that's all I have to worry about. That and getting to where I can stick a perfect landing flying down from the balcony of my dorm."

Mom stood up, and clapped her hands once. "And we were planning on helping you get your stuff together before today went all weird." She walked over and bent down beside me. "My baby, all grown up and going off to college! I never thought we'd get here when we were living in our car. I'm really proud of you."

"Stop it, Mom. You're going to turn me pink," I giggled. She pulled me into a hug and I leaned into her. "Thanks for always believing in me. I'm going to make some awesome places for people to see."

"I know you will. You have always been meant for great things," she whispered in my ear. Then released me and smiled as she ruffled my mane. "Now let's go work on packing what we can. You can deal with that thing in your pillow."

"Uh… I might wait until tomorrow to pack it."

She sighed and stood up. "I didn't need to know that. Don't forget to take your pills!"

I laughed one more time. "Anything you say."

As we were going off to my room to pack it occurred to me that my mom had just told me that she had a lot of contact with just about all the Dreamwardens. It seemed from what she was saying it was a lot of contact. She never really talked about this with me, and neither had Miss Seapony. Heck, my mom knew more about the Warden of Order than anyone else aside the Dreamwardens, or at least it seemed so. So what had she been talking about all this time, and why was I just finding out about it?

It didn't matter. If it was important either she or Miss Seapony would have told me already. They loved me, and wanted the best for me. She was probably just being a protective mother.

Chapter 30: Emotion Doesn't Work at a Certain Processing Speed

Everything was packed and ready to go. I was spending my final night living at home. It wasn't like I was going to be far away, or that I wasn't going to visit my parents on a regular basis, but this felt like my final evening before going out into the wide world.

I wouldn't be returning home for the summer. My mother had made it clear that she expected me to be out on my own from here on out. I still had her as a safety net, and she would be paying for deposit and first few months rent for me for an apartment when school let out- if I wasn't immediately able to sustain it with some roommates, but she expected me to figure it out after that. I needed to learn to be an independent adult. My scholarships paid enough that I could put some money towards rent next year instead of paying for dorms, but I'd still need to get a job to support some of it. I didn't doubt that she'd let me return home if it all fell apart, but the expectation was I would still make a full effort to make it work.

Well, if I became a Dreamwarden I would get paid for that. Dreamwardens were listed as OMMR agents, and paid accordingly. It wasn't a top paying job, but it was plenty to live off of; enough to cover rent, utilities, and food, just so long as I didn't splurge on anything. I'd make far more as an architect than I could as a Dreamwarden, once I graduated and found work in my field. But my future status as a Dreamwarden was still questionable anyway, on both my end and the Dreamwardens'.

My stepdad prepared a big dinner, with eggplant casserole, mac n' cheese, side salads, and they even poured me a glass of champagne. My parents had let me have champagne previously on special occasions- like New Year's Eve, the last two Thanksgivings, and my most recent birthday. I didn't like it as much as just plain fruit juices. It wasn't horrible, but I doubted I'd ever have a strong craving for it. I did appreciate the gesture of having It served, and how it marked this as a special night. My stepdad took the special meals very seriously.

Conversation around the table that evening didn't touch on subjects of Dreamwardens or powers. We talked about whether I was excited or nervous (I was a bit of both). We talked about the classes I was going to be taking for the first semester. My stepdad talked about his job a little. My mom didn't really talk too much about her own job, as she rarely did, but she talked about conversations she had with friends. There was a brief mention that they'd be visiting Melissa and Locutus of Bear's house in a few days for dinner, but nothing else was said about that. It was just a normal conversation one might expect the night before someone was going off to college. I might have teared up at some point from emotion, but this was still a happy time.

I went to bed a little early that evening, knowing I had to get up early. Actually falling asleep still ended up being a difficult proposition. I went to bed around nine, and was so full of nervous energy that I found it hard to sleep. I even took steps to burn off some energy and make myself a little more sleepy, but even doing those things it was nearly midnight before the Sandman finally decided to visit me.

Once dreaming, my first impulse was to reach out to Miss Seapony, but I stopped myself. I had told Jess that I'd talk to the Arbiter about pretending to be her tomorrow. I wasn't sure when I was going to have time to do this thing, given I had to move into the dorms tomorrow and get settled, but it meant a lot to my friend, and I wanted to do what I could.

"Rebecca Riddle, it's a surprise to have you desiring my company," Arbiter's voice rang out.

I found myself in what looked like a pearly white temple, with big marble columns on either side of me, and open blue skies beyond them. The ceiling was a simple white dome, and in front of me was a silver throne with Arbiter sitting on it while looking at me. Even though it seemed to be daytime she had a pair of fire filled braziers to either side of her, and her bronze staff stood perfect in one hand as she leaned against the side of the chair. There was no other decoration, but there was a sense of power about the place. She sat smiling, and waiting for me to speak.

"Hi there," I began, not used to greeting any Dreamwarden but Miss Seapony in a dream. "Do you think this place might be a little much?"

She shrugged in a very undignified way, but kept smiling. "Maybe for a casual chat perhaps, but when someone intends to entreat upon me for something it is best to remind them who they are dealing with. It helps discourage the more petty requests if people are at least a little intimidated by their surroundings. I don't mind listening to and doing what I can to help, but you'd be surprised at the absurd requests we get sometimes."

"Like what?" I asked, not used to hearing about this aspect of being a Dreamwarden.

She waved a hand. "It goes without saying that I can’t get into any specifics but I get plenty of requests for things that would be violations of my oaths, others I would never consider doing, and things where they must think I can just wave my hands and make anything happen. These range from requests to force someone to fall in love with them, make them rich, make their bosses nicer to them, tell them other people's secrets, or just grant them magic good luck. I let my surroundings reflect what I think of their requests in that case, something I inherited from Psychic Calm, I believe."

Well, the place didn't look menacing in any way right now, so I supposed she was in a good mood so far. I knew she could read my mind to know what I wanted, but I hadn't given her permission to act on that yet. My searching her out could be seen as looking to make a request- which I was. I guessed I'd know quickly how she felt about what I had to ask by looking around me after asking.

"I talked to Jess today, your niece, she was wanting to do something, and I said we could talk to you," I began, then decided to just make this easier. "Um, you have permission to act on my thoughts in relation to that."

There was an instant change in the atmosphere. It was no longer blue skies outside, but grey ones, with gentle rain falling. I wasn't sure what to make of this. As a pegasus rain like this was actually kind of a pleasant thing, and she'd been a pegasus too- when she had been alive. She wasn't a pegasus since her death though, and she had a certain human aspect to her as well that could be harder to read in regards to the weather. A lot of humans saw rain as a sign of unhappiness. It was definitely not the same mood as before in any case.

"Give me a moment," she said calmly.

I sat silently waiting for her to say or do something, but she just sat as she had been, minus her smile. She wasn't frowning, but didn't seem happy either. It was what someone might call a poker faced expression. The rain continued to gently fall outside the columns.

After a short wait, Jess appeared in front of me. She was missing her pony parts as she looked at me. "Rebecca?" She said, seemingly confused. Then she seemed to realize she was in a dream. She turned around and looked at Arbiter, and for some reason briefly turned into a full yellow earth pony mare for just a second, before shifting back to her normal partial self. "Hi, Aunt Arbiter."

Arbiter's smile returned. "Jessie, you really must get a better grip on your dream form. Having it shift around like that can be a little strange for others. I could help you with that, if you give me permission."

Jess stepped back, and shook her head. "No thank you. I'll figure it out on my own. It only flickered this time. You know how I feel about anyone messing with my head."

The Dreamwarden looked a little sad. "As you wish. Although I do think you should spend more time considering why it happens. However, that's neither here nor there for right now. The two of you are wanting to give me an opportunity to speak with my brother, correct?"

Jess relaxed. "Yes, Aunt Arbiter. If you both agree to it. Rebecca said she would try to do it."

Arbiter sat still, and the rain continued to fall, although harder than before- a downpour, but not a storm. The fires of her braziers seemed to be a little less blazing, and the pearly white columns seemed a little less pearly. She just sat, quietly observing us.

Jess didn't seem to care for her silence. "You can think faster than I can. Why are you taking so long to give an answer?"

A single lighting bolt flashed outside, but Arbiter's expression didn't change. "Just because I can think quickly doesn't mean every decision is easy for me, or that I consider things with the same logical outlook you do. This holds emotional impact. I may now be something far beyond your ability to fully comprehend, but deep inside me is still the girl that wants her big brother's love and acceptance. These are things that touch upon my emotional needs, and I don't give those as much consideration these days so I am not used to dealing with them. Please, don't rush me."

"Rushing you is you asking for a few seconds," Jess impatiently countered. "You can process everything that I could think to consider and more in milliseconds."

Arbiter sighed and looked at me. "Do you see what I have to deal with? Even my niece treats me like I'm some sort of computer. I'm sure if you asked her she would sit down and calculate out my exact processing power and maximum memory storage. It probably wouldn't even take her that long to do, since she is rather brilliant."

Jess shifted back into pony form. She gave herself a look over and scowled at her body, while stomping a hoof. "Ooohh, stop that and behave!" She then reverted back to her partial form.

My curiosity was driving me crazy. "What's with-"

She turned and cut me off. "It's nothing."

"How very illogical of you," Arbiter said with a smile. "Emotions and reflections on yourself are powerful forces, and that is why I need time to consider. All the processing power in the world- which I have- doesn't speed such things up by much. I'll be glad when you get a little older and a little more patient."

Jess crossed her arms and snorted. She seemed to realize immediately after that she was letting her true age show through her behavior, and relaxed her posture. "Sorry, I guess I was being unfair. I don't mean to act like a child."

Arbiter stood up and approached her niece, then laid a hand on Jess's shoulder. "You aren't a child, you're a grown adult, despite your age. However, you had a very rushed childhood, and even your puberty wasn't typical. There's maturity that comes from age and there's maturity that comes from experience, and those two are not always in line with one another. I have faith the experience will catch up, eventually. You're too smart a young woman not to have that happen."

Jess frowned. "I feel like you're patronizing me."

Arbiter removed her hand and smirked. "My apologies about that. It's a little hard for me to avoid at times. As you like to point out, I am a superior being."

Jess smirked back. "Okay, now you're just trying to get a rise out of me."

"Is it working?" Arbiter asked.

Jess crossed her arms. "No."

Arbiter returned to her silver throne and sat down. "I see… I guess you're making progress then." She sat up straight after that. "I'll do it, if my brother agrees. Although we might want to do a test run right now. Having Rebecca try this with no practice at all is not fair to anyone, least of all her."

That was my cue. "How do you want to do this?" I asked. Still not sure how this was going to work out.

"You can shapeshift here as well as you can while projecting, so make yourself look like me to start," Arbiter instructed. She then pursed her lips. "Actually, let me give you a different avatar to copy. One that should be easier for you, and one Paul will be more comfortable with."

The Dreamwarden stood up and then shifted shape. She now had the body of a normal looking orange pegasus mare with a purple mane and tail. Her cutie mark was an odd circle with a cross going straight down at the bottom and an arrow jutting off at an angle from the top that I felt like I'd seen before, but wasn't able to place the exact meaning of at the moment- something to do with gender, if I was remembering right.

"This was how I looked as a pony in life," she informed me. "He'll probably refer to me as Tonya, and I have no objection to that. It was my name, and there's at least one pony who still calls me that more often than she calls me by my proper name. Close family gets to have some privileges."

I looked at Jess. "You never call her Tonya?"

Jess shrugged. "It's not her name anymore, and I didn't know her as well as a pony as I do now."

The rain came down even harder than before. "I regret I didn't get to spend more time with you back then. I did try, but you were such an odd little filly. It was hard to have a conversation with you. Although, part of that was me not fully respecting how intelligent you are. I was trying to be a cool aunt to a normal small foal, but I should have maybe tried treating you less like a typical small child."

"You still treat me like a child," Jess grumbled. She shifted again to a pony mare and glared down at herself, but she just rolled her eyes and pouted this time around.

The rain was now nearly deafening as Arbiter frowned. "I now remember hunting the ancestors of ponies as food, and a very young Triss being scolded for stealing treats before there were even microbes on Earth. They aren't memories from me, but they are part of me. You have no idea how much you all seem like children to me. Still, I should try to be better at treating you as if you are adults."

"Are all the Dreamwardens like that?" I asked hesitantly. "Stuck remembering things from long long ago like they're your own memories?"

She turned back towards me, and the rain lessened. "More so for those of us who are dead. Those who are still alive don't walk around remembering that stuff in the waking world all the time- but dead, with the ability to use the full power of the dream realm, and no escape from it, they get to be more oppressive. If you become a Dreamwarden you'll be forced to remember it all during your binding- and for the unprepared that alone can be fatal, but it is your choice whether you summon those memories up again while you are here. It's one of the benefits of not being trapped here all the time. Don't go dying, being undead isn't a fun time."

"Definitely not something I'm interested in, but more power to you if you are," Jess said in echo of what she told me before. She'd shifted back to her full human form sometime while I was focused on Arbiter speaking and just seemed to take notice of that as she went feeling with one hand for her ears and another for her missing tail. "Seriously, dream! Can't I just be me without you trying to change me!"

Arbiter stretched a wing out towards her. "If you would just let me-"

Jess reverted to pony form briefly and then immediately back to her partial form. "No! I've got this!"

I really wished I understood what was going on with Jess, but she didn't seem like she wanted to talk about it. I was focused on what Arbiter had been saying anyway. I shivered as I worked up the nerve to ask Arbiter some questions. "What was it like… dying?"

The rain lessened some more, and Arbiter looked at me sympathetically. "For me it happened so fast I couldn't say much about it. The hours before were painful, but I'd been walking around with a gunshot wound, so that kinda hurt. I was terrified up until the last few minutes, but in the end I felt a certain calmness about my fate. I was dying so others wouldn't, and that brought acceptance and peace. It's hard to explain if you've never been in that position. Jessie understands it, sadly. I hope you never have to understand it by being in that position."

These were all aspects of being a Dreamwarden that Miss Seapony never talked to me about. Phobia had talked to me about even different things, which again, my oldest friend had neglected to say anything about. Miss Seapony had chosen to die, just like Arbiter, and it stood to reason she had to deal with the same type of experiences and memories. Why hadn't she talked to me about this?

Arbiter cocked her head as if listening, and nodded. "Yinyu says she will speak to you when we're done, but doesn't want to intrude upon our practice. Let's get to work. I doubt this will be a perfected art before tonight's done, but hopefully it will be good enough to give me and my brother some quality time. I know I miss him, and my niece and nephew assure me that he misses me."

I nodded, and shifted my appearance to try to match Arbiter's. I'd get to question Miss Seapony later. Right now I needed to practice this so I could help Jess's dad. It occurred to me that being dead granted Arbiter, Miss Seapony, and Mister Potty-Mouth unfathomable power, but they were far less free than the average person. Becoming a Dreamwarden was a big risk, because I could end up like them if I wasn't careful.

I pushed those considerations out of my mind as I focused on the task at hoof. It wasn't until we'd been working at it for a long time that I realized that I'd stopped thinking of Arbiter as the Angel Lady.

Author's Notes:

Chapter 31: One Last Dream Before School

After practicing my imitation of Arbiter for a while, I reached a point I could fairly convincingly mimic Arbiter's appearance, her voice, and even match her facial expressions- for the most part. What I wasn't so great at was keeping my eyes on whoever I was supposed to be talking to, and ended up watching Arbiter instead. In theory, I should be able to alter my form in a way it appeared I was looking in the correct direction, even if I wasn't, but theory and practice were two very different things. Ultimately, we decided I was good enough at it, and Jess's dad would just have to understand his sister's mime might end up staring off at what seemed like nothing.

If my career as an architect didn't pan out, I could rest easy knowing that I could still make it as the best darn Elvis impersonator ever. Uh-huh huh. Thank you very much.

Jess eventually needed to return to regular sleep; since she wasn't a dreamwalker, that meant her mind wouldn't get a good night's rest while she was in a shared dream. Once Arbiter was satisfied that no further progress to be made in our routine, she and her temple left as well, and that meant it was Miss Seapony's turn to visit.

The dream shifted, to an endless star-filled expanse, and Miss Seapony appeared in her standard seapony form.

"I understand you have some questions and concerns for me," Miss Seapony said in a solemn tone.

I fluffed my wings, trying to appear larger, even with my rotund shape. "Yeah, I do. Why did you think I would in any way be okay with killing you!"

"Technically, I'm already dead. Therefore you wouldn't be killing me. You'd simply be erasing me, along with Arbiter, Ghadab, and whatever Dreamwarden proved to be a threat- if it wasn't already one of the three of us," she replied. She said it so casually that she may as well have been discussing the weather, or what she had for breakfast, instead of being erased from existence.

"You're still alive, even if your body is dead, " I protested. "I don't want you to die."

She gave me a sad look. "Rebecca, have you ever considered that Ghadab, Arbiter, and I might want to be erased at some point? Even if there were no Dreamwarden that became dangerous, the time would still come when we would wish to depart. Eternal existence might be something fools long for, but for those of us that can remember living for far too long, it is the worst thing you could do to us."

I teared up. "Don't say things like that."

She touched a fin to the side of my face. "I'm in no hurry to end my existence, but I know it is a goal I intend to reach someday. The Eternal Dream might be better than it once was, but it is still a prison, much like the one we are in now. I wish to escape this prison someday, and I don't intend to trade one prison for another. In truth, my days are already numbered. Arbiter is on a countdown to when she must be erased or go into the Eternal Dream, and when the time comes, Ghadab and I intend to help see she gets to go free."

I shook my head. "You might change your mind."

She nodded. "Indeed, that is possible. We will deal with that when the time comes. I do not think there will be another corrupt Dreamwarden, like Sha'am, again in that span, so we have time yet. I know that, for right now, I don't want to have the same fate as my poor lost sister."

I sat down. There was nothing to sit on, but that didn't matter here. "You talk about being able to help people forever is such a terrible thing."

"It is, and that is why we do everything we can to make sure those of us who are still able to wake get to retire to Equestria, " she replied. "Try to understand. I am a prisoner here. I have three options; go to another prison, stay in this one, or cease to exist. While here, I get to see everyone I ever loved and cared for pass away in a world I can no longer touch. I get to experience the pain of loss generation after generation. We had forebearers that watched their entire species pass into the void. At some point, it needs to end. I wish to pass on as a loving and caring person, not one that has had every ounce of compassion crushed by endless losses. Even in my few short years that I've been a Dreamwarden, I've had my joy diminished. There was no Dreamwarden so devoted and loving as Joss, but even he was warped into a monster by despair. I won't be another Joss."

"But, you want me to be a Dreamwarden? That’s why you’ve spent all this time visiting me, right?" I asked accusingly. "Won't I lose my joy, if that's the case?"

She stared down at me. "I think not. You won't have to endure the same hardships I did, and you will get to retire happily to Equestria when your time comes. We have been going through- growing pains- in our first few years. It is time we moved past the misery. We need your joy. We need your optimism. I used to be the one to try to bring some of that, but these past fourteen years have not been kind. Now the best I can do is compassion."

That brought me to my other concern. "And my powers didn't play a role in me being picked?"

"Your powers helped differentiate you from other individuals with similar character traits, " she answered. "Just like your character traits help differentiate you from others with similar powers. You are high on our lists because of many factors, not merely any one thing."

I shook my head. Her reasons for wanting me didn't matter in the end. "Well, I won't kill, and Phobia wants me to, so I guess I'm not up for this job."

She tilted her head. "That's too harsh. You say it like she's looking for opportunities to knock us off. She simply wants us to be prepared to do what we must to protect against another Sha'am. Do you think that disqualifies you? Why?"

One of my ears tilted at a similar angle to her head. "Because I won't do what is necessary if there was a rogue Dreamwarden. That's why."

She smiled kindly. "Silly filly, you misread what Miss Nightmares was testing you on with that question."

My ears perked up again. "So, she doesn't really want me to help kill you if a Dreamwarden went rogue?"

Miss Seapony waved a fin. "Oh, she does want that. My sister doesn't lie."

I blinked. I then flicked my ears to make sure they were clear because I wasn't sure we were discussing the same thing. "Then how could I have passed her test?"

Miss Seapony giggled. "First, you're a little confused about a detail; failing a test from one of us does not instantly disqualify you- although that might lessen your standing in rankings. Second, she already knew you were unwilling and didn't need to test you on that."

I remembered something Phobia said."So- was she testing to see if I would lie?"

"In part, " Miss Seapony answered. "She wanted to see if you would stand up for what you feel is right. She wanted to know if you would let your morals cave under intimidation and the desire to please others. She wanted to see if you'd dissent or if you'd be a pushover. That is something I struggled with in my early days as a Dreamwarden- all of us did- aside from Sha'am. You stated your position clearly and stood your ground. We're all happy to see you not fall into the same trap."

I tried to wrap my head around this. "But I disagree with her- and you too!"

She nodded. "And that's good. One line of thought shouldn't dominate us all. We need members that will stand up and say I disagree, and we need to find another way. Hopefully, those voices can suggest alternative actions. It doesn't mean those voices will always get their way, but we must be made to stop and consider our actions instead of just following the leader."

"Don't Dreamwardens all agree to do the same thing?" I asked.

"In the end, yes, after everyone expresses their opinions, and we have a vote, " she answered. "Sometimes we even have to include non-Dreamwardens in those votes, because no majority can be reached- and sometimes we have to debate who those third-party votes should come from. It can get very drawn out."

My ears wilted. "That doesn't sound very fun at all. Why have you never talked to me about these things? Shouldn't I already have known about all this?"

She settled at a lower elevation. "I'd have informed you sometime during your training if I had lived, and I'm telling you now." Miss Seapony then frowned. "There is another thing you need to be warned about; votes are binding for the newer Dreamwardens. If a vote doesn't go the way you want it to go, you're still bound by that vote. You can argue for a new vote all you want, voice your displeasure with the decision all you want, but you will comply- the oaths give you no choice in the matter."

I flinched back. "So if a vote were called for eliminating a rogue Dreamwarden, I would have to help with that if the vote said we do it?"

She nodded. "Indeed. Ironically, if it is a newer Dreamwarden, they'd be compelled into assisting with their destruction as well. That makes it more likely we would simply shift them to the Eternal Dream or banish them into Equestria, and a vote for eraser would essentially be a vote to assist a suicide. Only me, Phobia, Psychic Calm, and Ghadab lack that oath and can defy votes… well, and Luna, although she gets into very complicated territory."

"So when Phobia is talking about voting to kill a rogue Dreamwarden, she's talking about that rogue being one of the original six?"

"Remaining original six, which will be down to just three once Psyche-Wikkie is gone," Miss Seapony replied miserably, and tears filled her eyes. "We were supposed to keep each other company for eternity, but now half our number are gone, in only a little over fourteen years. I'm not sure if that is a sad or happy thing. I've been told Krik is enjoying his retirement, and I hope Psy does as well."

"You've gained Arbiter and whoever the Warden of Order is, " I reminded her.

"Yes, I have, " she agreed. "And like all my fellow Dreamwardens, they are dear to me." She dried her eyes and looked at me again. "That reminds me; you shall soon start getting visits."

I blinked. "Visits?"

She nodded. "The United Nations will be appointing a psychiatrist to meet with you. Equestria shall have Luna evaluate you. Ghadab will pick a time to visit you in your dreams, and the Warden of Order shall find time to see you in person. All of them will judge you, just like Phobia, Arbiter, and I have already. You aren't the only candidate and not the only one receiving these visits. I am visiting another of the candidates as we speak, and I'm making judgments about them."

I forgot she wasn't tied to being in just one dream at once. "What are they like?"

She shook her head. "That isn't something you are permitted to know. This candidate is one that Ghadab favors heavily, and without getting into details, I can see why. Just like you, they have valuable traits they could contribute to our ranks- just different things than you."

I signed and frowned. "I hate feeling like I'm competing against others. I've just never got into the whole competitive spirit thing."

"It's an interview process, and interviews are inherently competitive, " she said with a knowing smile. "Concern yourself only with you. For right now, you still lead."

I bit my lip and looked into her eyes. "And if I decide I don't want to be a Dreamwarden?"

"Then, no one will make you one. I hope you don't decide that, but that is your choice to make," Miss Seapony answered in a solemn tone. "You have time to consider that- just like we have time to consider you. There are a few months yet before the decision must be made. This won't be like Arbiter, where we had to decide yes or no at the spur of the moment."

I chuckled. "She must have been an amazing candidate."

That made Miss Seapony laugh out loud. "Not really, there were so many better candidates. She was chosen out of grim necessity. Arbiter was in the worst place at the worst of times with the worst job to do for us- which is how she ended up dead. I love her no less for being a subpar candidate, and she has done well with her position. She may well have been a better candidate than me. I love Luna as well, but I found Luna's choices to be rushed, and her decision to only choose night ponies was probably not a wise one- in retrospect." She shrugged. "But, we all sometimes make mistakes. Every bad decision looks far more obvious several years after the fact. We just have to do our best to learn from mistakes."

Well, at least I had time to sit down honestly and think about whether I actually wanted to do this. I had considered the drawbacks before, but never to this extent. I had anticipated some of them, but the amount I knew about had grown considerably. I'm an optimist, but there's being optimistic and then being just plain dumb. They wanted my happy disposition, but I needed to be confident I could be happy as a Dreamwarden. If I couldn't, then I was just a mistake waiting to happen. It was reassuring they all thought that I wouldn't be a mistake- and they saw and knew a lot more than me- but even they could make errors in judgment.

"Perhaps you should let yourself dream regularly for the rest of the evening, " Miss Seapony suggested. "You've had a stress-filled day, and your dreamwalking tonight has only added to it. Even dreamwalkers need to let their minds rest from time to time. You've got a very busy day coming tomorrow."

I grinned. "That I do. I've got the first day of school jitters."

"I hope you have a lot of fun with this new stage in your life, " she said enthusiastically. "I hope you meet lots of new friends, learn lots of new things, and maybe have some fun with a guy or two."

I turned pink. "Miss Seapony! Not you too!"

"What? I'm the Warden of Lust, and you aren't a kid anymore. It's part of my job to talk to you about this. You also have way too much natural libido to stay a virgin forever- at least not happily, " she replied firmly. "I'm not saying go jumping right into bed with someone, or to actively seek a relationship, but you should be more open to the idea of having a romantic relationship. Having a loving partner that you can lean on makes life better, and your burdens feel less heavy. Ask Miss Nightmares how miserable she'd be without Rosetta."

"Or- just making a suggestion, so hear me out- you could use your Dreamwarden powers to take away my libido, " I suggested in a sheepish tone.

She gave me a deadpan expression. "No."

"You do it for other ponies, " I pouted.

"Other ponies make a case that they are actively hurt by something involving their sexuality. You don't have any legitimate claim for that. You're just going to have to deal with things the same way most people do."

"But-"

"Rebecca, get some regular sleep, or I'll dump you in a dream that makes you squeal so much that sex will be all you'll be able to think about for the first half of the day."

I fled straight back into my regular dream.

Chapter 32: The Next Phase of Life

I woke up before my alarm had a chance to go off, feeling nervous and excited. Move-in day had finally come. This was the last day for a while that I would be waking up in this house. It occurred to me tomorrow was going to be the first time I'd be waking up in a place without at least one of my parents a room or two away. I'd never been away from both of them for even a sleepover or school trip. Sometimes my mom had to leave for a few days, but I still had my stepdad with me. Tomorrow I'd be waking up with Julie and Nightscape.

I was still in bed thinking about the day when the music started playing to start my day. The station I had it set to in the morning usually played bouncy and upbeat songs, which were great for me to dance along to as it set the tone for the day. Today it chose to play something different. Today the somber tones of a Green Day song came over the airwaves. Even though it wasn't my usual fare, I still found myself singing along. It wasn't something to dance to, but it was the perfect song for my mood. I silently thanked whoever the DJ was who chose to shake things up this morning.

"-take the photographs and still frames in your mind."

Yeah, it was the song I needed this morning.

I did a small jump as my phone started ringing. Who could be calling me this early in the morning?

I answered the phone. "Hello? Who's this?"

"It's Jess. Sorry for the early call. I hope I didn't wake you."

I relaxed. "It's okay; I was already up—today's move-in day. Did you already talk to your dad?"

"Yeah, he's nervous, but he wants to do it. I explained to him how it works, but didn't tell him who you are. When is a good time for you to do it?"

That was a good question. "I'm not sure. I'm going to be busy almost all day, and I'm sure there'll be stuff I'm doing even after I'm all moved in. Maybe sometime very late tonight? Perhaps around eleven? I'd generally be asleep by then, but I figure it might be hard to fall asleep anyway tonight, in a new place and all."

"That works. Will your ability be able to reach Phobia's house from your dorm?"

"Yeah, that's no problem. I can reach most places in the city. I'll call you if there's going to be any problems."

"I appreciate you doing this, Rebecca."

I smiled. "I'm glad I can do something good for your dad." I stopped smiling. "Hey, Jess? What's it like? Moving into college and being away from home?"

She laughed. "I think you forgot I'm only fourteen, and thanks for that." Her voice got more mellow and wistful. "I never moved into a dorm. I still live with my parents. I've never been away from my family aside from a sleepover or two. Even when I'm visiting here, I'm still with my brother. I'm also guessing my general college experience with classes would be radically different from what you'll have. Sorry for not being much help."

"I've never even had a sleepover."

I heard her tongue click. "Really? Well, my first one ended with being chased by crazed ponies, having the city blow up, and getting skewered like a pony shishkabob. I think it's safe to say your first time away from home should go better."

City blowing up? I knew what event she was talking about, the Cataclysm. "You must have been little when that happened. Do you remember it well?"

I could hear her licking her lips. "It's funny the stuff I remember and the stuff I don't. I can remember so much of my early childhood- or foalhood, as it were. What I can't remember well is myself as a foal during it. That day is an exception to that. Every detail about that horrible day is preserved, perfectly etched in my memory, including me. I still have nightmares about it that play like a horror movie in my head, and it never gets less frightening. Sometimes, things happen when I'm awake that will trigger some memory of it, and I find myself there again, a scared little foal with my entire world imploding around me."

"I heard they were making a movie about what happened to you."

She let out a long breath. "You heard about that? Yeah, I know. They paid my parents a lot of money to interview me and have me tell them what happened. My parents almost refused to let them, but I agreed to it. They had to have a counselor standing by to help me get through it, but they heard everything from my perspective. I'm sure they'll take some liberties with it, and that's fine. It's not like I'm not going to go see it so I can have a panic attack. My parents needed the money, that's the only reason I agreed to recount what happened to all the writers. My parents sacrificed so much for me; they deserve to get something back."

My ears folded. "I'm sorry all that bad stuff happened to you."

"Bad things happen, and if you're lucky, life goes on," she replied. "That does remind me, I wanted to tell you something about what you and Phobia were talking about the other day that you refused to do. Something from experience. I know I'm younger than you, but I've had an eventful life, and I've been thinking about this since I heard you two talking."

My ears perked back up. "Yeah? What is it?"

"There can come moments where people you care about are in danger, and you have to make hard choices. In those moments, you find you are willing to do things you would never have considered otherwise. That day, I had more than one moment like that. On any other day, I would say I couldn't and wouldn't do what was necessary for those situations, but when you are standing there, with lives on the line, you find you're capable of doing anything."

I looked down. "I can't say you're wrong, because I've never been in that position, but I don't want to believe you."

"I hope you never have to have that put to the test," she replied. "I'll let you go. I know you have a lot to do."

I absently nodded. "Hey, Jess? Remember, the most important thing your parents got for their sacrifices was you, and I'm sure they'd have willingly sacrificed even more if they had to. Never forget how much you're loved."

I could hear the smile in her voice. "I'll remember. Keep up the good work, Miss Future Demi-God. See ya tonight."

The call ended, and I looked around my room. Everything was packed up except my bedding. There were still pictures on the walls, and the furniture wasn't going anywhere, but it still felt somehow empty. I could hear my parents' shower going, which meant they were getting ready. We were going to try to arrive early so we could beat the rush of other first-year students checking in, and planned on picking up breakfast along the way. There wasn't a lot I needed to do to get ready, but there was no point delaying.

I grabbed my toy out from my pillow and shoved it in my bag before I forgot it. A quick sniff of my rump said that it might still be needed again tonight, as well as deodorant for today. I realized I'd forgotten to apply my deodorant yesterday, but thankfully nobody seemed to have noticed. I'd have died of embarrassment if Phobia Remedy had said I wasn't taking care of my hygiene, or if someone had smelled it when we were all crammed together in that van. I know Maggie would never have let me live it down. I could hear it now, 'What stallion are you trying to entice, Bec? I see how serious you are about that whole virgin thing'. Yep, I'd have been a pink pony.

I'd considered before having a fur and mane dye job done to hide my easy to see blushes. I just didn't want to cover up my spots and stripes, even if I am the only one who realizes they are there. Humans are always shocked when they see a pony blush, but pony fur isn't like any other fur. It isn't normal hair; it has small amounts of magic in it that reflects what the flesh underneath is doing, which makes it more like an extra fluffy extension of our skin than fur. If you shaved all the fur off over our cutie mark, you'd see the same mark on our exposed flesh, and it also meant we could blush. Pink and red ponies have it lucky; no one notices when they blush. That's probably why people always assume pink or red ponies are extra bold and brave; it's harder to tell when they are embarrassed. My fur is snow-white, which means it is easy to know if I am blushing.

I trotted into the bathroom and took my morning shower, taking extra time to scrub and groom myself well. Once out of the shower, I gave myself a good preening and remembered to empty my feather bin this time around (although that might only be because I needed to bring my bin with me to school). Deodorant was applied liberally to my rump, and I swallowed the pills that Mom was dead set on me taking every morning. With all that done, I packed all my bathroom stuff into the now conveniently empty feather bin and set it out in the hall.

By the time I finished with the stuff from the bathroom, my parents were already dressed and out in the kitchen. I could smell that they had just brewed a pot of coffee.

"Want some, Becky?" Stepdad asked as he held up the pot.

I stuck out my tongue and shook my head. "Yuck, no. You know I don't like coffee."

"You might change your mind now that you're in college," he replied. "I know it's an acquired taste, but you might find you need some liquid energy with all those late-night study sessions and mornings after being up too late."

"Haven't had any of those yet, and typically I just need a good dance to get the blood moving," I replied, then shook my flanks.

Mom took a sip of her coffee. "You need to be mindful that you'll have roommates and people living below you. You might not be able to do that every morning anymore."

Hold it. It never even occurred to me that my morning routine was going to be thrown so far out of order. Other things started occurring to me. I was going to be sharing a bathroom with five other ponies. There were Julie and Nightscape, but our bathroom was connected to and shared with the next dorm room over. I didn't even know who was there yet. I was used to having a bathroom all to myself; I didn't know how it was supposed to work with five other ponies. I was assuming that we were all pegasi, except for Nightscape; where would all the feather bins go? Were we going to have to schedule shower times? Were we going to drown in preened feathers?

"Having a moment?" Mom asked with a knowing smile. I could tell she knew what I was thinking.

I wasn't going to let that get me down. Sure, my usual routine wasn't going to be possible, but millions of students had gone off to college and dealt with their habits being forced to change before me. I could adapt and persevere. The feathers couldn't be that bad if it were a whole floor full of feathered students that didn't have problems with this before. I'd find some other way of shaking my flanks as well. This was going to be okay.

I smiled up at Mom. "I've got this. No worries."

She smiled back. "Good to hear. There are a few other things we need to go over before you check-in. You probably know most of this, but I want to make sure we are clear. First, I cut off your credit line and access to the family account as of last night. You'll need to survive off your own funds."

I blinked. That was unexpected.

"Second," she continued. "I want you to put in your phone a daily reminder to take your pills."

I rolled my eyes, but nodded in agreement.

"Third, you are always welcome to visit here, but I expect you to give your father or me at least a few minutes' heads-up unless it is a real emergency. At least a few hours' heads-up if you are planning on having dinner here. You're officially shifting to being a guest when here, and I expect you to have the same courtesy as any other guest. You don't need to ask about whether you can spend holidays here, but we expect to know when you plan on arriving and how many days you plan on staying."

That didn't seem like it would be much trouble.

"Fourth, the expenses I'm paying for you are your phone and your medical bills, including prescriptions. I am not paying for any streaming services, extra food, entertainment, or anything else. If you have a financial emergency, you may come to us for help, but I expect you to try to deal with it yourself first."

I'd kinda expected her to tell me a point when I needed to start paying for my phone service as well, so that was more leeway than I had anticipated.

"And finally, if you get into a steady relationship-"

"Mom!"

She frowned at me. "Young mare, let me finish. As I was saying, if you get into a steady relationship, I expect you to let us know. We don't need to know the finer details, like what goes on when the lights go out-"

My face turned a dark red. "Mom!"

"-but I'd like to know who my daughter is dating, so I know who to kill if he breaks her heart."

I laid my ears back. "Really, Mom?"

"She's already planning on getting a shotgun," Stepdad said casually.

"Isn't it supposed to be the father who does that?" I asked.

He shrugged. "We don't discriminate by gender in this family. You know why she feels that way. Don't worry; I'll make sure she doesn't murder any of your ex's."

"There aren't going to be any ex's, so it won't be a problem," I groaned. Why did no one have any faith in my commitment to virginity?

I did understand Mom's feelings, considering what happened to her, but she needed to stop projecting all that. In the unlikely event that I did even consider striking up a relationship with someone, I'd be terrified of introducing them to her because I knew she'd be judging them as critically as possible. My stepdad would be cool about the whole thing, I knew he wouldn't make a fuss, but Mom would scare any guy off after a single meeting. I knew they weren't joking about the shotgun either. Mom might want me to be self-sufficient, but there would be hell to pay if anyone hurt her little filly. Oh, and if a stallion got me pregnant and then left me, every alicorn and Dreamwarden combined wouldn't be able to save him from Mom's wrath.

Yeah, I was going to be a virgin for life, even if I wasn't already committed to being one. At least Mom made it easy for me.

"There's one more thing," Stepdad said with a smile. I glanced at him curiously. He reached up to the top of the refrigerator and pulled down what looked like a Christmas present, which he held out to me. "Sorry about the wrapping paper, we were sure we had some, but then realized it was for the wrong occasion."

I took the present in my forehooves. It was wrapped in bright red wrapping paper, with Christmas wreaths all over it, and was wide and long, but not tall. I set it down on the floor and put my nose down to sniff it. There were no smells of cake or sweets. It smelled kind of like tinsel, honestly. I found an excellent spot to bite into the paper and gave it a good rip. I then proceeded to do a mix of ripping with my teeth and pushing paper aside with my hooves. Once the paper was all cleared, I looked upon my gift.

"Legos?" I asked in surprise as I looked at it. It wasn't just any Legos, though. It was a Lego Architecture Studio Set with over five thousand monochrome blocks, sorting trays for the blocks, a set of specially designed mouth tweezers to make it easier for ponies to grab and place blocks, and a massive book with advice from the top architects in the industry.

I turned the box over, listening to all the pieces inside shift as I did, and by chance, spotted a price tag on the thing. My eyes almost bulged out of my head when I saw it. "You spent this much?! On Legos?! For me?!" I never in my wildest dreams imagined a Lego set could cost half of what this did. It was equal to at least half a semester's tuition.

"I had the same reaction, but your mom pays most of the bills," Stepdad chuckled.

"I asked every architect that I have contact with at PonyCo what were the best gifts for architects, and everyone agreed that this was the best that could be given," Mom explained. "This is a big day, and I wanted to show you how proud I am of you. I can't wait to see the things you do."

I could imagine designing lots of things with this, and couldn't wait to see what was in the book. My eyes welled up with happy tears as I smiled. "Thank you. This means a lot to me."

They both knelt next to me and wrapped their arms around me. "We love you so much," Mom whispered. "I hope all your dreams come true."

Author's Notes:

https://youtu.be/mwnoNVOj1Fs

Chapter 33: Moving In

I was one of the earlier first-year students to arrive at check-in, but I wasn't the first, nor was I that far ahead of the crowd. My check-in was in the central social area of the female dorms, and there was a line forming by the time my parents had gotten their badges so they would be allowed into the gender-restricted part of the dorm area to help me. It seemed everyone had the same idea of trying to get there early. I wondered if it might have been less busy if I'd checked-in later.

I spotted Maggie checking in right before I did, but didn't get an opportunity to speak with her. It seemed like she was fussing with her father. Her father was often somewhat controlling, and whenever anything remotely official was happening, he tended to try to take over all the talking and treating Maggie like a child, much to Maggie's chagrin. My parents, by contrast, were letting me take the lead on everything, only asking a brief question here and there. I knew Maggie loved her dad, but she was also dying to have more independence.

I honestly didn't have all that much to move in, not compared to humans. Humans had to bring tons of clothes with them, and I was always surprised at how many sets of clothes your average human would wear. I'd worn clothes only a few times in my life, and they'd been strictly for special occasions. Aside from a dress that my mom bought me when I was tiny and still kept as a keepsake, I'd never even owned any of the clothes I'd worn. They'd all been rentals. I suppose I had worn them when I was human since I didn't usually see four-year-old humans running around naked, but my human years hardly counted.

My luggage consisted of my bathroom stuff, art supplies including my easel, my computer, my pony strap with its bag of accessories, my phone, a few decorations, my bedding, and of course, my new set of legos. A human could probably carry all that up to their dorms with ease, but it was a lot for a chubby pegasus. There was plenty I was leaving at my parents, but all of that was going to be packed up and put into storage until I ended up getting my own apartment.

My parents and I had most of my luggage with me as we got in the elevator. I had a full saddlebag, and they each had one of those trunks on wheels. Stepdad grinned down at me as it rose. "I feel like an explorer, venturing into the forbidden realm of the all-female dorm."

I grinned back and raised a feather to my mouth. "Don't reveal all our dark secrets, or we'll unleash our Amazon griffon warriors to hunt you down."

"Amazons and griffons? That's some powerful security. I'd better watch myself," Stepdad replied with a chuckle. Mom giggled at our antics.

My mom's giggling stopped when the elevator opened, and we were all given a view of my griffon RA.

Grenda was not waiting to get on the elevator this time. She was sitting a short distance away, next to a box, and had a list at the ready. She looked us over and made a mark on the list. "Rebecca Riddle? Correct? I remember you. Thank you for not crashing into the building this time."

I waved a wing as I trotted off the elevator, leaving my parents to gape behind me. "Hi, Grenda! Are you having a good day?"

She gave me a look that I couldn't interpret, but then looked over at the stairwell door. "You won't be the most annoying pony I have to deal with today. I still have plenty of freshmen who are just arriving for the first time today, and at least one of you in the stairwell I want to strangle already."

I noticed then there was a rhythmic pounding coming from it. "What are they doing?"

Grenda gave a harsh flick of her cat-like tail. "That brilliant mare decided she was going to haul her stuff up on a cart using the stairs instead of taking the elevator. I'll never know how some of you got into college." She shook her head, disparagingly. "You're noted, are those two humans with you?"

"Yeah, they're my parents."

She nodded. "I've visibly noted them. They may move in between the elevator and your room. They are not allowed in any other student's room. Male visitation is strictly off-limits for this floor, and your father will not be able to enter this area after today. Your mother may enter in the future, but must still get a visitor's pass from the guard on duty downstairs; the same goes for any other female visitor who is either not a currently enrolled student or employed by the college. If you order a pizza or something like that, the delivery will be made to the desk downstairs, and they will call you to inform you it has arrived. Don't try to sneak visitors through your balcony; I will find out. Are you clear about all visitation rules?"

I nodded and grinned. "All clear! I have a question, do I have a curfew?"

Grenda shook her head. "No, you can go out whenever you please. Please, try to keep noise levels down, as students may be studying. Also, if you are going to be gone for more than a day, please let me know where you're going and how long you expect to be gone. It makes it much easier for me if someone comes and asks me. I won't give out personal information unless it is the police or something, but I've had students up and vanish without a trace for days before, and all that happened was they needed to leave to see their sick grandmare or whatever, but they left everyone here clueless and worried. My room is marked RA, and if I'm not present, there's a slot in the door to slip notes in."

"No problem," I said happily. However, I did wonder if I was going to have to take off anywhere for a few days because of the whole Dreamwarden thing. What was I supposed to say for that if it came up?

The stairwell door opened and a tired-looking yellow pegasus with a pink mane with green highlights collapsed in a panting heap. She looked at us and gave a weary grin. "That's a lot of stairs!"

Grenda narrowed her eyes and lost interest in me as she advanced on the mare. "I'm the RA for this floor. Are you one of mine? What's your name?"

The mare picked herself up. "Sunflower Smiles. I'm supposed to be here. This is my floor. I got the key the other day."

"I'll be checking you off my list as arrived," Grenda replied. "Do you have any help with you? Why are you dragging a cart up the stairs?"

Sunflower blushed. "It's just me, nopony else. I'm sorry about the cart and the stairs. I just really don't like elevators. I feel all boxed up."

Grenda flicked her tail. "You could have asked someone to take your cart up the elevator for you, and you could have flown up or taken the stairs without causing all that racket. Don't make all that noise in the future."

Sunflower blushed some more. "Sorry. I don't know anypony here yet except for my roommates, and they weren't downstairs. I didn't want to impose on anypony." She then blinked in surprise, as if just realizing who she was talking to. "Hey, you're a griffon! I thought you were just a funny looking pony."

"You Earthling ponies are going to be the death of me," Grenda muttered. She then turned back towards me. "I've got other check-ins to worry about. Be on your way."

My parents were already out of the elevator and had been waiting for me. The door to the elevator was already opening up to reveal another first-year student with her parents ready to check-in.

I hurried to get out of the way, and my parents followed behind me with my stuff.

"Sorry I left you standing there," I said to my parents as I walked towards the room. I had to step out of the way as a green pegasus I'd met the other day, Meadow, came trotting down the hall saying something about needing to save Sunflower.

My parents stepped out of Meadow's path before Mom answered. "It's okay. You were just getting things in order with your RA. That's the first griffon we've ever seen, and it was fascinating watching her. I'm proud you seemed so at ease about talking to such a strange creature."

I shrugged. "Grenda might be a little different than other students, and I still want to find out all about what it's like to be a griffon, but she's just another person. I also already met her before, so it wasn't as shocking this time around. The first time I saw her, my brain froze, and all I could think of was beak."

We reached my dorm room, and I decided to knock rather than try to fish out my key. It only took a second before the door opened to reveal Julie.

Julie was a hugger, and she didn't take more than an instant to use one of those massive yellow wings of hers to pull me into a tight one. "You're here! Hey, Nighty! Rebecca's arrived!"

"Morning, Rebecca," Nightscape called out from within the hidden enclosure of her bed. She then stuck her head out of the curtain that was drawn around her part of the bunks. "Julie, I know she's nice and squishy, but don't hug her to death. Even squishy ponies need to breathe."

I was released from Julie's powerful feathery grip, and Julie stuck her tongue out at Nightscape, who stuck her tongue out in turn.

"Mom, Dad, these are my roommates, Julie and Nightscape," I said, gesturing to each of them. "Julie's on the flight team, and Nightscape is in the architectural design program like me."

Julie posed and flexed her wings. "Best flyer on the team." She stopped posing and quickly demonstrated her hugging prowess by wrapping her wings around both my parents' legs.

"Um, hi there," Stepdad said as he looked down at my roommate. "I'm guessing you and Becky are going to get along great."

Nightscape emerged fully from out of the curtains and out into the middle of the floor. "Julie's a big softy. Come on in; Grenda won't fuss if we leave the door open."

Julie released my parents and went looking for something to prop the door open, finding a textbook, and shoving it up against the door.

My parents stepped in, rolling the luggage behind them. "Where do you want all this?"

Nightscape stepped back and pointed a wing at a big closet-like area. Closet-like because it didn't have any door. It seemed to be subdivided into three sections. Two of those sections were filled with various odds and ends, while the third was empty.

As my parents were getting my luggage into the storage area, Meadow stuck her head in the room. "Hi! I collected Sunflower. It will take a few minutes for us to help her settle in, but when do you want to go over bathroom rules with the newbies?"

"Not sure," Nightscape replied as she looked at the open door leading into the shared bathroom. "Give us around an hour, and then the three of us here will come over to your room. We can get the bathroommate introductions all done with Rebecca and Sunflower then. I'll go to bed late today, so maybe we can all have lunch together to do some bonding or whatever."

"Sounds like a plan. See ya in a bit," Meadow replied, then hurried back on her way.

Seeing both my parents walking around a dorm room designed for ponies made them seem even more giant than they usually did. They seemed big in my room back at the house, but they usually didn't intrude on my private space, so I wasn't used to seeing them in there together. If they felt out of place, they didn't show it bothered them in any way.

I shrugged my saddlebags off near the bed as my parents finished putting my other stuff in place. Nightscape pointed to a big box near one of the three desks. "Those are your textbooks; they arrived yesterday. The desk that they are next to is all yours to use. We can figure out together how to manage the rest of your stuff, even if Julie has to cut back on some of her exercise space."

Julie gave a look of mock horror, then laughed. "I'll live. It just means more time in the gym and the air. I think Nighty and I do most of our homework and studying in our beds. I just dump stuff on my desk when I'm in a hurry instead of using it for what I should. Nighty likes to play with her Legos on hers."

I looked over at the other desks with excitement to see if I could spot what Nightscape was building, but was disappointed when I only saw a big red box.

"I haven't started on a new project yet if that's what you're looking for. I've been kind of lazy since we got back in the dorms. I'll get something going this week," Nightscape replied in answer to my search.

"I just got my own set of Architect's Legos. Maybe you can give me some tips."

Julie gasped. "You better keep a good track of those things. Nighty is pretty good about hers, but our bathroommate who graduated last year had them too, and she let those things get everywhere. Hurts a lot to step on one."

"Studio would spend hours in a single sitting working on a giant lego construction, and then, without fail, she'd end up throwing it off her desk with a wing as she was leaving. Then she'd spend even more hours trying to gather scattered lego blocks," Nightscape recounted with a shake of her head. "That's my first protip, don't go accidentally thwopping the stuff you just built with your wing."

I blinked and tried to imagine having to pick several thousand blocks off the floor. I could be a klutz, so I'd need to be extra careful. "That sounds like good advice."

Mom stepped beside me and touched a hand to my head. "We're going to go fetch your bedding from the car. It should only take a few minutes." She bent down next to me and rubbed my ears. "I never got to go to college, and I'm so happy you've gotten yourself here. I hope you enjoy your time here, and make some great friends and memories."

I hopped up and grabbed her with my forelegs and wings. "Love you, Mom. Love you too, Dad."

"We love you too, " Mom replied as she hugged me back.

"Aww, that's so cute," Julie said in a sappy tone.

"Eh, I'm a night pony to the core, " Nightshade gagged. "It isn't that cute if it doesn't have the mare who was trying to flirt with your stallion crushed under your hoof."

"You night pony mares scare me; you know that, Nighty? You're a bunch of psychos sometimes," Julie said warily. "And you can admit you think it's cute."

"And I'm not going to have any stallion to crush my enemy over," I chimed in.

"Well, if a mare breaks your heart, I'll kill her just as quickly as I'll kill a stallion who does," Mom said as she stood up.

"Mom! I don't look at mares that way!"

Nightscape chortled. "I like your mom. She must have rehumanized from being a night pony."

Mom smirked. "Sorry, I was actually a pegasus."

Nightscape stopped chuckling. "Really? I saw your eye and thought night pony. Rehumanized night ponies always have something about their eyes that isn't fully human, no insult intended. But you never know, people change, and what tribe it picked for you back then might not be what it would pick for you today. You've got the spirit."

"No insult taken, but as you said, we'll never know," Mom replied. She leaned down and kissed my head, then ruffled my mane around my ears. "We'll be right back with your bedding."

I watched my parents leave the room then turned to look at Nightscape. "What do you mean, my mom has the spirit of a night pony?"

"She's highly protective of you, and willing to get very aggressive to protect you," Nightscape replied as if it were obvious. "That's two of the three parameters ETS had in the selection of night ponies. It didn't always get everything from all three of its big parameters, but if one was lacking and the others were extreme, you still got some night ponies for that."

"What were the parameters, oh informed disciple of Phobia Remedy?" Julie asked in a playful mocking way.

"Being very protective by nature, having a propensity for aggression, and having some fear that impacted how you thought of everything," Nightscape listed off. "Some night ponies were lacking in one of the traits but had an excessive amount of the other two. Plus, there were number quotas that kept the overall number of night ponies down, so a lot of possible night ponies ended up becoming other tribes. Plus, old Miss SS thought human women were naturally passive and less willing to fight than men, and to try to correct the imbalance she thought would go to night pony stallions, she had it favor females more heavily; huge mistake. We have a ridiculous gender imbalance the other way around now."

"Huh, that's interesting," I replied. Maybe Mom might have fallen into that category, if not for quotas, or became more night ponish with time. Not that it really mattered, Mom was human and was staying that way. It gave me a different way of looking at night ponies though, and I wondered how Miss Seapony fit into those things. I could definitely see how Phobia Remedy did, but wasn't as sure about Miss Seapony. It made me wonder how well I knew I really knew her.

Chapter 34: The Bathroommates

My parents helpfully put my bedding in place, said their final goodbyes, and just like that, I was officially moved out of the house and into the dorm.

I did a tiny amount of unpacking. A few posters were hung up in my spaces, my box of legos was placed on my desk, and my laptop was plugged in to charge up. I also took a few minutes to investigate my new textbooks. Some of them were much bigger than my textbooks from high school. My calculus textbook, in particular, was a monster of a book, and I was glad that I didn't have any classes scheduled immediately before or after that class, as I was unsure I'd be able to carry much else but that book and the accompanying notebook. I was going to build some muscles from hauling that thing around.

Meadow stuck her head in, this time from the bathroom, and gave a light knock on the door to get our attention. "Ready to do introductions and go over the bathroom rules?"

Julie had been doing wingups (that's like pushups only using her wings) to this point and stood up. "Yep. Time to find out if any of the newbies are going to freak out over the shower rules."

Nightscape giggled. "It was great last year when Meadow screamed."

Meadow blushed. "Hey! Don't embarrass me in front of the newbies! It was an understandable reaction."

"I didn't scream," Julie replied.

"Well, you're weird, and you thought they were kidding," Meadow replied. "Still, it's going great not to be the newbie this time around."

"Want to do the honors, since you've got two newbies in your room?" Nightscape asked.

Meadow looked back towards the other room. "Ashley isn't technically a newbie, just a room transfer, so she already knows. I'll do the honors with Sunflower and Rebecca, and then we can do the meet and greet over in our room."

Nightscape nodded. "Rebecca's all yours then. Rebecca, go into the Den of Fear- I mean bathroom- with Meadow."

This entire conversation had me a little worried. "Am I about to get hazed? I heard about first-year hazing, and this sounds like I'm about to get hazed."

"Naw," Julie replied while shaking her head. "Just going over the bathroom rules. Hazing comes later."

Meadow nervously rubbed a hoof against her leg. "Actually- I think we should lay off the hazing altogether with Sunflower. I don't think she's the type that can take it, and if we don't do any hazing of her-"

"Then it's unfair to do it to Rebecca," Julie finished. "Darn it, I had been looking forward to my chance to be on the other end of it this year, and I was sure Rebecca could take it without any problems. I can tell she's made of sterner stuff."

"Sorry, Sunflower just isn't, and if it is possibly going to hurt her, then it isn't worth it," Meadow replied. "We can come up with some other group initiation thing with them, but we all live together, and that makes us like a little family. We need to look out for each other."

"Fair enough," Julie lamented. "Go on in the bathroom, Rebecca. There are no killer clowns in the drain or anything like that to worry about."

I blinked. "Killer clowns? "

"Old horror movie," Nightscape explained. "We'll be doing a watch of those in a few days. You can let Julie squeeze you during all the jump scares. Hurry into the bathroom."

I hesitantly walked to the bathroom as Meadow disappeared deeper inside. I heard her calling into the other room. "Hey, Sunflower. Come on in here. We need to go over bathroom rules."

I entered the bathroom and looked around. Along one side was a single counter that ran from one-bedroom door to the other, with an available mirror that spanned that entire area. There were three sinks, each with handles to adjust hot and cold water. The counter was big enough for a pony to walk on and had some cabinets underneath. The other wall had two small toilets right next to each other with no privacy divider and a large shower. Everything was in white tiles, and the light was a large fluorescent one. The shower area had a small raised line of bricks at the bottom to keep water from getting out on the main floor, along with a clear plastic shower curtain.

"Welcome to our shared bathroom," Meadow announced. "There's six of us sharing this thing, and there are some rules to make it so we aren't getting on everyone's nerves and each getting our fair use."

She opened one of the cabinets to show a feather bin. "Preening you should do up on top of the counter and be ready to get the feathers in your bin right away. Don't stand around preening in the middle of the walkway, or the shower, and definitely not on the toilet. Most of us, except Nighty, all need to get ready in the morning, and we don't have time to wait for people in the way."

Meadow pointed at the toilet. "That's the toilets. There are two of them and six of us. Do your business on it and go. You should not be sitting on the toilet for more than five minutes unless you're sick with something. If you are sick, you better let everyone know and go to the doctor. We all come in here and all risk getting exposed to whatever you have."

She pointed to each door. "The doors remain open unless we have guests. That means if you're used to privacy in the bathroom, you'd better get unused to it quick."

She pointed to the shower. "There's one shower and no tub. None of us want to go out without a shower, but we all get up to get ready at the same time, except Nighty. So guess what else isn't private? If you get in the shower, be prepared for one of us joining you if we need a shower too. If you have someone in the shower with you and they get out, don't be shocked if someone else takes their place right away. We don't have time to wait. Luckily, I've never seen the shower run out of hot and warm water, even when going for hours."

We had to shower together and couldn't use the toilet without everyone able to see? That was uncomfortable. I'd always had a bathroom to myself. I'd never had to share the same space.

"Each of us rotates who has bathroom cleaning duties each week, and everyone gets a turn," Meadow explained. "Basic cleaning duties are clean the toilet, wipe the soap scum off the shower, empty the feather bins, wipe down the counter and mirrors, and give the floor a sweep and mop. If everyone does their job with that, it stays nice and clean in here for everyone. We'll decide on the schedule for that tonight. Also, it goes without saying, but I'll say it because everyone's got a story about walking into it, please don't be an idiot and go rubbing your marehood in the shower. Any one of us can climb into the shower at any time, and we don't want to walk into that. Keep that under the covers of your bed."

"Rubbing my marehood? What do you mean?" Sunflower asked in what seemed honest confusion.

Meadow blinked. "You indeed are the most innocent, sheltered pony I have ever met. College life is going to be a whole new world for you. I'll explain it to you later, or find you a website or something to explain it."

Sunflower's ears fell. "Sorry, I guess I am kinda sheltered. Is that bad?"

Meadow looked at me, and I shook my head. Then Meadow turned back towards Sunflower. "No, nothing wrong with that at all. It just means you're going to be getting a lot of new experiences. Don't worry, Ashley and I will look out for you, and I'm sure our bathroommates will too. Hey, you got through the whole bathroom rules without getting upset about the lack of privacy, that's great. I about had a panic attack last year when I got this talk."

Sunflower looked confused again. "But, back home, everypony on the farm had to shower and take dumps together. Is that not normal around here?"

Meadow coughed. "Um… it wouldn't be normal for me."

"Or me, " I added.

"You wimps never had to shower in a gym!" Julie called out from the room.

"Those wimps don't go checking the drain for clowns," Nightscape called out in turn.

"Will you lay off that? It was just that one night!" Julie replied in outrage.

"It sounds like a great time to do introductions!" Meadow announced. "Everybody, into the room."

Sunflower and I followed her into the adjoining dorm room. The room was a mirror of my room, with the only exceptions being different decorations and a set of three easels in a row near the balcony doors. I still needed to unpack my easel.

There was also Meadow and Sunflower's other roommate lying in the bottom bunk, watching us. Ashley was a light grey unicorn with a dark grey mane. Her cutie mark was a sketch pad with a knife drawn on it, which was somewhat weird and disconcerting. Ashley also had scars along her muzzle, neck, and along her flanks. They looked like they were old, scars she had for years. I did a quick look at Sunflower's cutie mark and saw it was a sun with a simple flower with white petals in the middle (but not a sunflower). Meadow's mark had nothing to do with meadows or leaves; it was a brush and a wooden ruler crossed over one another.

"I thought this floor was all winged ponies," I said as I looked back at Ashley.

She shrugged at me. "Enough of the students on the lower floors don't like me that I asked to get moved up here."

"And we're going to make sure no one gives you a hard time!" Meadow said proudly. "Time for introductions. I'll go first. Hi, I'm Meadow Leaf. I'm working on becoming an art teacher. I was born and raised just outside of Orlando, and I LOVE Disney stuff. My parents used to take me to Disney World all the time since it was practically in our backyard. Both my parents are earth ponies, and they changed my name from Samantha to Meadow Leaf after ETS, because they thought it was pretty, and I'm green. Some ponies claim I'm kinda motherly, so if I get too motherly, just tell me. My family are all proud Blessingists, and having said that, I really hope none of you are Shimmerists."

"Not a Shimmerist," I replied.

"Not a Shimmerist either," Ashley replied.

Julie snorted. "You already know I'm not."

Nightscape bared her teeth. "I converted to Shimmerism over the summer. All Blessingists are blood traitors!" She then laughed as Meadow's eyes went wide. "Just yanking your chain. I'm definitely not a Shimmerist."

Sunflower just looked confused again. "What's a Shimmerist, or a Blessingist?"

"Um… I'll tell you later," Meadow answered. "How about you share some stuff about yourself, Sunflower."

Sunflower blinked. "Okay. Well, my name is Sunflower Smiles. I'm from a little farming pony community in Kansas that doesn't even have a name. We just got internet and electricity about a year ago. I've never really been anywhere. This is the first city I've ever been in, and it is so big- and loud. I suppose I came from one back when I was human, but I can't remember that. I want to be an illustrator. I've always enjoyed art more than weather stuff and copied the illustrations off of old novels that were lying around, but I do original work too. My parents encouraged me to apply to art schools since there wasn't much of a future for an artist in a no-name farming community. I honestly don't remember even applying to this school, but they gave me a full scholarship when other places wouldn't. So here I am. I guess that's everything."

"No electricity until last year? Do you even know how to work a computer?" Nightscape asked.

Sunflower nodded. "Yeah, we have a library back home, and they have a computer. Dewey Decimal- that's our librarian- showed me how to use one. That's how I did all my applications. I'm not great at it, but I'm getting better." Sunflower's ears perked up as she looked at Nightscape. "I just got the ability to dreamwalk, since I wanted to talk to my parents back home while I'm here, and they don't have phones or email. Can you teach me about that?"

"Eh, I'm not asleep at the same time you are," Nightscape replied, then pointed at me. "But Rebecca here can dreamwalk too, so maybe she can teach you a thing or two."

I blinked, surprised to be put in a mentor role about anything. "Sure, I don't mind. It's not that hard. I've been doing it since I was a little filly."

Sunflower beamed at me. "Thanks a lot! It will help me so much to have somepony teach me who knows what they are doing. I suppose I could ask the Dreamwarden that I asked the ability from, but I don't like to impose, and they must be so busy."

I chuckled. "They don't mind, depending on which one you asked. Which one was it?"

"The one that looks like a seahorse, she has a funny name, but I can't remember it," Sunflower answered.

"Yinyu Wu Yan," Ashley answered before I could. "I know all the Dreamwardens, except for the newer guy, the Warden of Order. I even met the ones that are gone now; Sha'am and Krik. Ghadab's my favorite. I don't dreamwalk though, thought about asking for the ability, but don't really feel a need to. Although I only met Yinyu for the first time last night."

She knew all the Dreamwardens? I didn't even know all the Dreamwardens! Why had she talked to all the Dreamwardens and didn't even know how to dreamwalk?

"I talk to Yinyu a lot, I call her Miss Seapony," I said. "What were you talking to her about last night?"

"Possible job opportunity, can't really talk about the details," Ashley replied.

It was like there were red flashing lights and alarms going off in my head. Was Ashley my competition for the Dreamwarden job? Was that why she was here? Miss Seapony said she was meeting my competition last night, and becoming a Dreamwarden certainly counted as a job opportunity. Ashley also said Ghadab was her favorite, and he was one who liked whoever Miss Seapony was talking to.

I'd never been competitive, but that competitive pegasus spirit decided it was time to rear its head for one time in my life. Why was Ashley here? What did she have that I didn't? Had she guessed I was her competition already?

I grinned at her. "How about you share next. Finding out how you met all the Dreamwardens sounds like it is quite a story."

The unicorn frowned at me. "I guess we can go ahead and get this over with. A quick warning; Dreamwardens never get involved with ponies when they are young foals unless there's a reason, and it usually isn't a happy one."

She took a deep breath. "My name is Ashley Santos, and the story of how I met Sha'am Maut and Ghadab begins when I was just a little filly, living in Houston… "

Chapter 35: The Other Candidate?

We were all staring in rapt attention at Ashley.

"I'm only saying this because you'll either keep staring at my scars and be afraid to ask, you'll hear things about me, or you will finally break down and ask at a time I can't bear talking about it," Ashley explained. "I’d rather get it over with now rather than watch you stare for weeks before you get the nerve to ask. I'm also mentally prepped to do it right now. I might not be later."

We all nodded in understanding.

"My brother, who was just a year younger than me, and I were playing together out on the public playground," Ashley recounted. "There wasn't much we could do, other than chase each other around the equipment, since it had been built for humans. Our mom was talking to some other ponies a short distance away from us, and only half paying attention. It was all ponies around that day, and everyone knew you could trust other ponies, or at least that's what we had believed.

"A unicorn stallion came up and talked to us. He had a funny beard and had a weird way of talking. When I told him my name, he called me Ash-Lee like it was two different words."

Nightscape abruptly turned towards the bathroom and started walking away. "I'm not sure I want to hear this story. Pretty sure Sunflower should skip it too if it is going to go the way I think it will."

Meadow looked nervous and uncertain. "Is it going to be that bad?"

"I'll leave out the worst of it," Ashley replied. "But it is going to be very unpleasant even then."

Meadow laid her ears flat and looked at Sunflower. "Maybe you should go to the other room until she's done with this story."

Sunflower shook her head. "No, I want to stay and listen. I want to know about the ponies I'm living with. I can take it."

"If you need me to stop at any point, just let me know," Ashley said in a low voice. Sunflower nodded, and Ashley continued. "He asked us to follow him so he could show us something. We did, and he led us away from the playground. About the time I started to think it was a bad idea, the world went black, and I was waking up somewhere else."

She took a deep breath before going forward. "I woke up in a dog cage. It was a big room, and there were lots of cages. Each of them had two or three foals in them. All the foals seemed hurt, hurt bad. I won't say the things I saw, but most of them had worse done to them than these scars. Many of them were already dead, and he had just left the body in the cage with the other foals."

The four of us who remained listening all whimpered in chorus. The story had hardly begun, and it was already one of the most horrible things I'd ever heard. I wanted to leave. This was too terrible. I sat still instead. I needed to know how she had escaped.

"I thought I was going to die there. I watched so many foals die in terrible ways," Ashley said, barely above a whisper. "I lost a lot of blood, and he never bandaged us up. He always just let us bleed to death, and left us in our cages rotting even after we died. We weren't allowed to make noise, or he'd hurt us more. So in my dreams, I called out to anyone to help us, since it was the only place I could. Finally, she came, the Warden of Death herself, ready to give us our last rites, and some final comfort."

"Wasn't the Warden of Death a monster?" Julie asked fearfully.

Ashley shook her head. "I know what everyone says she did, and I believe them, but she was the only kind face we got to see in there. She said life is filled with misery, but no foal should have to endure such misery and pain. She gave us comfort and good dreams. She was the main reason why those of us who lived through it didn't end up crazy. I'll never say an unkind word about Sha'am Maut. Whatever she may have been to others, she was a hero to us."

"How did you get out?" I asked, wanting just to get the story to a happy ending. There had to be a happy ending to this. After all, Ashley was here.

She licked her lips. "We pleaded with Sha'am to tell anyone where we were, and get help. She couldn't reveal information only our tormentor knew- such as exactly where we were, but we were allowing her to reveal all we knew. She brought in Ghadab, who was enraged at what had been done to us. They listened to all the foals, and gave that information to every night pony in the Houston area. The night ponies went to the police, and using our descriptions of our surroundings, they were able to figure out where we were being kept. They raided the place, freed all of us, and caught the bastard."

Ashley went silent, and I could see her eyes were red with tears. She'd made herself ready to tell this, but that didn't make it an easy thing for her to do. I couldn't imagine going through something like that. The other three were crying, and so was I.

"I met Phobia Remedy because we all had horrible nightmares after that, and she tended to them. Psychic Calm did the same. One time Krik accompanied Phobia Remedy into my dreams and just watched," Ashley explained. "Arbiter I met soon after she became Dreamwarden. She told me that the pony who had done those things to me and the other foals had been the last thing she saw while alive, and she wanted to tell us that he would never hurt anyone ever again."

Ashley turned her head and looked at her cutie mark. "I did get my cutie mark soon after I was freed. I learned about how they had people draw things that we had described and used those drawings to help figure out where we were. I knew that was what I wanted to do too. I wanted to help other people just like that."

Julie was on top of Ashley's bed in an instant, and had the unicorn wrapped up in a feathery hug. "That's the saddest story for a good cutie mark I've ever heard!"

A glow enveloped Julie, and she was pulled away and set gently on the floor. Ashley took a deep breath. "Thanks for the affection, but I don't feel comfortable being touched that much. Sorry about that."

Meadow wiped a tear from her eye. "We'll respect your boundaries. I'm sure we all understand."

Sunflower was still whimpering and crying. "I can't believe a pony could do something like that."

I was crying as well, but I hugged Sunflower, and she cuddled into it. I looked over at Ashley. "You said Ghadab was your favorite. I guess it's obvious why."

She nodded. "I still talk to him all the time. He's got a mouth on him. He can say things that hurt my feelings sometimes, but he's always honest with me and helps me work through my problems. He's my best friend."

"Well, we're all going to be your friends too, so you have some actual living ponies for friends," Meadow declared, then her eyes went wide. "I didn't mean-"

"It's okay; I know what you meant," Ashley replied, smiling softly.

Meadow looked around the room. "Maybe we should delay the rest of the introductions for a little while. Let everyone calm down. I think it's a good time to have lunch together, and hopefully, they'll have some ice cream. They did last year during first-year move-in day. I know that Nighty will be glad if we go to lunch sooner so she can get to bed before it's late in the day for her. I think her first class of the year starts tonight, and she'll want some shut-eye."

"I could definitely use some food and ice cream," I said as I released my grip on Sunflower to rub my tummy.

Sunflower stopped crying to look up. "I've never had ice cream."

I turned to her in astonishment. "You poor soul!"

"I think we can all tell you've had your fair share of ice cream before," Ashley said. Everyone gasped, and she looked around. "Hey! I hang out with Ghadab all the time. I picked up being blunt. I didn't mean to be mean."

"It's fine," I giggled. "This marshmallow is round and lays on the pounds! I'll probably lose a few pounds living off just cafeteria food. I might try going to the gym with Julie too."

Julie pumped her wings. "Woohoo! Workout buddy! I'll help turn you from a beach ball to a bowling ball!"

I cocked my ear. "Huh?"

Meadow and Ashley both looked equally confused. "Are you saying you'll make her heavier?" Ashley asked in confusion.

"I feel stupid asking all these questions, but what's a bowling ball?" Sunflower asked timidly.

Julie looked around at all of us. "Muscle is heavier than fat and is more condensed. So, if she is filled with fat, she's like a beach ball, but I'm going to tone her up and replace that fat with muscle so she'll be smaller and more solid. Maybe this wasn't the greatest analogy."

"I think that might be the first time I've ever heard comparing a person to a bowling ball as a compliment," Ashley replied. "I'm not sure it works, but I'll remember that one. If only to watch people trying to figure out if they've been insulted or complimented. Ghadab gets a kick out of that kind of humor."

"I'll go get Nightscape," I announced, and started back towards the other room.

Nightscape was seated at her desk and pulling out her legos as I walked in. "Hey, Nightscape, we're all planning on going to lunch now."

She glanced back at me. "Okay, I'll be right out."

I came up closer to her. "Are you alright? You left in a hurry."

She frowned. "I still heard it from here. I just didn't want to be in there with you guys when I heard it."

"Why not?"

She shook her head. "You're not a night pony, so you wouldn't understand. Hearing that kind of thing makes my blood boil. It's in our nature to be protective, and when we hear about things like that, all we want to do is find whatever was hurting whoever and attack."

"But whoever did that is long gone," I replied.

Her shoulders and ears slumped. "Still makes me go on edge. I don't want you all seeing me like that," she said in a soft voice.

"But it's part of who you are," I said as I touched a hoof to her.

"Not something I want to be defined by," she explained. "Don't get me wrong; I'm not ashamed of it. I wouldn't be doing what Phobia Remedy asked me to do if I was ashamed. I just don't want people to have their first impression of me being me hissing and spitting because I want to maul something."

I wasn't sure I had fully formed an impression of Nightscape yet. She seemed like she enjoyed poking fun at Julie, although it seemed good-natured. She was one of my bodyguards- like my personal bodyguard since she slept in the same room. Just like me, she wanted to be an architect. She was marrying a Dreamwarden's godson. Even knowing all those facts, I still hadn't gotten a full feel of her personality yet.

"I think you should be next up to share in the introductions when we start doing them again," I said in decision.

She chuckled. "Might be late tonight. I've got my computer modeling class starting tonight. Three hours straight of listening to a guy talk about computer stuff. I'm nocturnal, and I still worry that I'm going to fall asleep tonight. Especially since Professor Thomas is notoriously dry. At least it is a one night a week class."

My ears folded. "Am I going to have to take that class?"

She nodded. "It's part of the major. However, you might have a little more freedom on what time of day to take it. I had a choice between late night once a week and early morning three times a week. I'll suffer through once a week."

I needed to look over and plan out my future classes. I hadn't even spoken to my advisor yet, or looked to see who it was. I should probably do that soon. Was I being negligent not having done that yet? Now I was worried I was being a bad student.

Nightscape hopped down from her seat. "Let's go eat. I want to get into bed in the next two hours. You can call me Nighty if you want, everyone else does."

I smiled. "And you can call me Bec or Becky if you want. A lot of my friends and family do. Or you can just call me The Marshmallow, with a capital T."

"Well, The Marshmallow, I think I'll just call you Bec most of the time. Now let's get some grub."

Chapter 36: Cafeteria Antics and Table Talk

Going to lunch together had some early hiccups.

Ashley obviously couldn't fly down from the balcony, and while she did have a teleport license, it only allowed her to do what people called blinking unless it was an emergency. Blinks were extremely short-range teleports of no more than four feet. Some unicorns, at least the ones who could teleport- a minority, used blinks to get to difficult to reach locations around their homes. The balcony to the ground below was more than four feet, and it wasn't an emergency. In addition to this, Sunflower was very uncomfortable riding elevators. We would turn to the stairs, but there were lots of humans, earth ponies, and unicorns on the stairs by this point, enough to make Sunflower now feel claustrophobic even in the stairwell. Sunflower needed to fly down.

In short, we needed to divide up as we went downstairs. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a short delay to us going off to lunch as a group. By the time we made it to the cafeteria, it was packed. As I looked around, I couldn't help noticing how humans and ponies kept separate from one another.

"Everything seems segregated here," I observed, as I was waiting my turn to be served. Even the lines for food were divided between ponies and humans.

"It's like that the first few days every year," Ashley explained. "It's because the dorms are segregated, and people tend to hang out with their roommates and bathroommates a lot the first few days. It doesn't last that long, maybe a week. Once people start getting to know their classmates, it desegregates fast. As for the lines, they serve different food. You don't want the food in the human line, believe me, and they'd probably get sick just thinking about eating our food."

"Oh, that's good then," I replied. I wanted to spend some time with Maggie, but she might be spending time getting to know her new roommates. She didn't have many human friends, since our high school was mostly ponies, so I couldn't begrudge her getting to spend time with her new human roommates.

I got near the front of the line where I could grab a tray. It was a relief to see they had the friendly easy to carry trays for ponies that had a mouth grip on them. I watched as my bathroommates ahead of me were served. There weren't a lot of choices. There was a choice between rice or potatoes, with or without gravy. There was a choice between one or two daisy sandwiches or a small salad. There was also a small selection of different types of fruit. On the bright side, there was an ice cream machine set up at the end that gave options for chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, or combinations of either two or all three flavors. I was the last of our group in line, with Ashley directly ahead of me.

Sunflower blanched as the server gave Nightscape gravy on her rice. "Isn't gravy made from meat?!"

Nightscape licked into her gravy right away, eliciting a shudder from Sunflower. "Just the juices, so it won't make you sick," the night pony explained as she licked her lips. "It's mostly water, cornstarch, and onions. It's calories, and you need your calories."

Sunflower gave the gravy another long look, and turned to the server waiting for her selection. "Um, rice with just a tiny bit of gravy, I guess, just enough to taste it, a daisy sandwich, and an apple."

"You don't have to get gravy if you don't want it," Ashley said. "Lots of ponies don't care for it."

"I want to try new things," Sunflower replied, though she still looked a little queasy as the gravy was added to her rice and added to her tray.

"No problem with that," Ashley replied as the server got ready for her. She turned to the server. "I'll have some potatoes with no gravy, a salad, and can I get two bananas?"

I was almost bouncing as I eagerly awaited my turn. The second Ashley's food was set out in her tray; I launched into my selections. "I'll have the rice with plenty of gravy, two daisy sandwiches, an apple, and an orange, pretty please!"

Ashley chuckled. "Someone's hungry."

I grinned at her. "It's a lot of work maintaining this physique."

"Extra work for Julie to turn you into a bowling ball, I guess," Ashley replied as she picked up her tray with her magic.

I couldn't give any witty reply, since my mouth was now occupied carrying my tray. I instead followed the others out towards the tables.

There were a lot of people, both ponies and humans, walking around the cafeteria. Meadow and Julie were already sitting and waiting for the rest of us at one of the tables. I tried to look around to see if I could spot Maggie. With so many people moving about, it was hard to get a good look.

CRASH! SPLAT! CLATTER! RARARA!

Maybe I should have kept my eyes forward.

I was on the floor; my tray was on the floor; my food was now a mess on the floor. I was now the center of attention, and it wasn't positive attention. Other ponies might be deeply embarrassed in this situation, but I had a long history of crashes, slips, trips, and splats. I knew exactly what to do.

I got to my hooves and raised my wings and head up high. "Let me present my newest piece of abstract art! I call it Oops!"

Laughter rang out all around me, and I just grinned and laughed along with them.

"You okay there, Rebecca?"

I looked at the person I walked into and smiled when I saw it was Russell. "I'm great. Told you, I crash a lot." I looked at his pants and saw a mess on them. "Um, let me wipe that off."

He beat me to it by lifting his leg and brushing it off. "Nah, don't worry about it. How bout I do you a favor and get you another tray of food."

I blushed. "You don't need to. It is my fault for not looking where I'm going."

He and I stepped out of the way as a janitor came over and started cleaning up the mess.

"It's all good," he replied. "I'm friends with the staff. My mom provides fruit for them. They'll let me cut in line to help you out."

"Well, if you're sure. I guess that's alright," I said and pointed over at the table with the rest of my friends, minus Ashley, who was still standing by me. "I'll be sitting over there."

He looked over the food to see what I had gotten and nodded. "No prob, be over there in two shakes."

As he headed off, Ashley came over to me and grinned. "Your tail's up, your wings are up, and you're pink, Beach Ball."

I turned a deep red, put my wings to my sides, and whipped my tail between my legs as Ashley giggled. "It's nothing!"

"Sure," Ashley continued to giggle. "But let's go take a seat before your boyfriend comes back with your food."

"He's not my boyfriend!"

She didn't answer; she just started walking to our table with a smirk spread from one end of her face to the other. I had little choice but to hurry after her. He was just really nice to me, and I appreciated that. It didn't equal attraction. He was just really nice to the klutz that he felt sorry for, that was it.

I took up a seat between Nightscape and Meadow. Ashley took a seat opposite me between Julie and Sunflower. Nightscape gave me a smirk to match Ashley's. "So- committed virgin or just didn't have to worry about foals because you're into humans? Nothing wrong with being into humans."

"I'm not-" I started, but stopped myself as I saw him coming over already with a fresh plate of food.

"Here you go," Russell said as he set it down in front of me. "Server remembered you and made sure I had everything right. They were already making a fresh tray, honestly. I stopped and picked up some ice cream from the machine for you. Didn't know your preference, so just got chocolate; can't go wrong with chocolate."

He got me ice cream too? I put my full pegasus willpower into not blushing. Hopefully, it was working. "Thank you. That was very sweet of you. Especially since I ran into you like that."

"Becoming a habit," he replied with a chuckle. "Hope to see you around tonight for the big get-together party out on the green. This time with no crashing."

"I'll be there," I answered without thinking. I didn't know there was a big party out on the green till that moment.

"See ya then, and try to avoid any big crashes," he said, and walked away with a smile and a final wave.

All the faces at the table turned to me and batted their eyes.

"He's not my boyfriend!" I said flusteredly. "He's just a guy I met the other day."

Nightscape whistled. "Day one, and she's already wrapping a guy up in her tail."

"Not wasting time at all," Julie agreed.

"Do you have any tips? I wish I could get a stallion that fast," Meadow said half-wistfully, half-playfully.

I wasn't going to let this continue any further. "I can't help that I'm big and sexy. Anyway, it's Nightscape's turn to share."

Nightscape blinked. "Hey! I thought we were doing this later! And you know we're just twisting your tail about the guy, right?"

"Nope, your turn now," I replied, and dug into my gravy covered rice.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'm keeping it extremely quick and brief."

She cleared her throat. "Hi, I'm Nightscape. You all probably heard of me, since I live with you. I'm a third-year student. I'm originally from Florida, like Meadow, but from Pensacola. There weren't many other night ponies around, and they were all older than me, so I spent a lot of nights just sitting out on my roof by myself, staring at the city. They were always doing construction, and every night I'd see all these new things that went up in the day, like magic. That's how I got interested in architecture. I came here because it had the program I wanted, and it was near a Dreamwarden and lots of other night ponies, which is a big plus. Oh, and I'm engaged to the Dreamwarden's godson. The end."

"Just tacking that on at the end, huh?" Julie asked.

"Yep. Got a problem with it?" Nightscape asked.

Julie shook her head. "Nope. Rebecca, you're up."

It was my turn to blink. "Actually, can we wait till tonight for me? I need to show you all something, but I can't do it right here, right now. It has to do with my magic. It's normally a big secret, but if we're living together, I need to let you see, so you don't freak out or anything."

"It's not going to involve any crashes, is it?" Julie asked.

I shook my head and grinned. "Just the crashes of you dropping to the floor in shock and awe before my mighty powers of pudge."

Julie snorted. "Okay, just as long as it doesn't get us in trouble with Grenda. Don't want the RA coming down on us. I guess it's my turn by default then."

"Yep," Meadow confirmed.

Julie sat up straight. "I've lived here most of my life, even back before the Cataclysm. My family is originally from Augusta, but the humans in Augusta kicked all the ponies out after we transformed."

She took a quick sip of water before continuing. "I remember the day of the Cataclysm, and the days after. There were all these clouds of smoke and ash. They were so thick in the sky that they caused lightning strikes. The streets were so choked with the stuff that you couldn't see five feet in front of your face. It was like that movie Nightscape made us watch last year, Silent Hill."

"That movie was the one that gave me nightmares," Meadow mumbled.

"Huh, that one didn't bother me as much. You'd think it would trigger some PTSD about the Cataclysm, but it didn't do anything to me," Julie said thoughtfully.

"Maybe because you lived through the real thing and the movie was just a bad imitation?" Sunflower suggested.

Julie shrugged. "Could be. Anyway, I noticed how sad and depressed the weather made everyone, and how frightened they were of everything. I thought to myself. Hey, if the weather can cause all these bad feelings, can it do the opposite too? It turns out; I wasn't the only one thinking that. They started up this whole cloud shaping industry to help impact moods. I wanted to get into that. This school had one of the few programs for it, it was local, and they gave me a full flight team scholarship. So here I am. I'm on the flight team, and going to be a professional cloud shaper."

"What was it like, being here when it happened?" Sunflower asked timidly.

Julie rubbed her head with a wing. "Well, school got canceled earlier that day. There were a lot of protests going on or something. I remember there was this big announcement that started playing on a loop that you could hear everywhere. It was telling us to abandon our homes and run. My parents were fussing with things and running behind, and a bunch of humans drove up to our house and told us there was no time, we needed to get in the car with them and go. My parents were going to argue, but then there was this big quake. I could see what happened from my house. This whole area we are sitting in now, and out by the monument, was under this huge magic dome, and inside the dome was just fire."

Meadow whimpered, and the rest of us leaned in intently to hear the first hooved account of the Cataclysm.

Julie looked down. "My parents didn't argue anymore. They got right in the car, and practically shoved me in. There were lots of cars to help ponies flee, lots of ponies running, and the sky was filled with pegasi flying away. It was scary."

"But you got away?" Sunflower asked in a low voice.

Julie nodded. "We'd just gotten clear of our old neighborhood when it happened. Wild Growth had already gone super Saiyan and started reinforcing the barrier before that, even if we didn't know what the heck was happening at the time. Roots, the size of houses, started popping up in the area behind us. There was another massive quake, and when I looked back, it looked like a volcano had gone off, a volcano made out of trees instead of rock."

We all held our breath as she took another deep breath of her own.

Julie closed her eyes as she finished her story. "Then we could all feel it. Wild Growth's magic was just pouring out of her like crazy. I don't even know how to describe what it felt like. It was like she was in everything, even us, and we knew she was fighting the blaze. It seemed like it just kept going forever, even though it must have just been a few minutes. Then it all just stopped, the magic, the eruption, the shaking. All that was left was the embers raining down from the sky, the smoke, and the ash. I spent the next four months living in a tent after that, out where the farmland used to be. Our home was gone. If Wild Growth hadn't been there, all of us living in the city would be gone too."

On that somber note, we all turned our attention back to our food. It was one thing to hear about tragedies like that on the news or read about them in history, but it was another to listen to a friend who went through it tell about it. I hoped I never had to see such a thing happen.

Author's Notes:

The event has been brought up a few times, and has had a big impact on many of Rebecca's friends and family. Link to the even is provided below. Although there is nothing cute, funny, or heartwarming about it. It was a major in universe tragedy. Chapter below covers viewpoints of the last living moments of Tonya (Arbiter), Wild Growth fighting the inferno, and Jessie (Jess)'s moment of heroism.

The Cataclysm of Riverview

Chapter 37: A Brief Interruption

"I'm going to ask you to pause your recollection of moving into college to ask a question."

I sighed with relief. The little man had been just sitting there for hours without saying a word, while I just talked and talked and talked. He was honestly kinda creepy; due to how silent he was. The fact he was wearing a medical mask, glasses, and gloves made me feel like he was a doctor getting ready to dissect me. We were in a metal room with no decorations or windows, which didn't help me feel any more at ease. It was so hard to tell what he was thinking or feeling. I liked Luna better than the Warden of Order; even Phobia Remedy wasn't this uncomfortable to speak to.

"What is it?" I asked.

He had turned his recording device off right before he spoke; so, whatever this question was, it was off the record. "Do you feel closer to humans than you do your fellow ponies?"

One of my ears laid back. "I don't think so. I don't think I treat humans and ponies any differently."

"Yet, you were raised by humans," he replied in a neutral tone. "Most of the places you lived as a foal had you surrounded primarily by humans; your best friend is a human; you connected quite quickly with Jessica Middleton; you also showed arousal at a human man. I am wondering if your foalhood dispositioned you to engage more with humans."

I considered my answer. "While a lot of that is true, I think it is more a case that I like the outsiders. Jess is unusual, and Maggie was a human surrounded by ponies. Sure, my parents are humans, and I spend a lot of time around humans, but I like to think of everyone just being part of the whole."

"And the arousal?" He questioned, in the same dead tone.

I blushed, and was tempted to lie about it, but this was part of my extended interview. I was flustered by the subject, though. "Give a mare a break. I was on my time of the month, and Russell'ed been sweet to me more than once. It's not that hard to feel a little attraction in that case. If he'd been a stallion instead of a man, I'd have reacted the same way. I don't see a difference between the two."

"I see." His tone never changed. The only thing I could pick out of his voice was he was from Eastern Europe somewhere, based on his accent.

I tried to figure out what he was thinking, but I couldn't even properly see his face due to his dark glasses and mask. "Do you think there's a difference?"

He clasped his hands together and set them on the desk. "I think humans have many concerns that ponies do not. While the world may seem normal to you, for those of us who are human, and older, we see a world barely recognizable to the one we were born into. Even now, fourteen and a half years after ETS, there is much fear and uncertainty. I advocated for humanity's concerns among the Dreamwardens since I am the only one of us who was never a pony, and the only one who can truly understand what it is like to be someone without magic wondering how forces they can't master will continue to change the world further. As an advocate for my species, I am inquisitive about your feelings in regards to us, and our concerns about how ponies are continuing to change our world."

I could only shrug. "Humans, ponies, whatever, we all have things we struggle with and worry over, but we all share this world and need to be able to get along with one another. If one group persistently has concerns about something, it is worth talking about those concerns. Persistent concerns about something means there's a problem, and we need to figure out together how to fix it. That doesn't mean just changing things back to the way they were, because we can never go back, but we can find ways of helping everyone feel safe and secure."

He nodded. "That is a fair answer, although not one I thought you would have so ready to give with no hesitation."

I blushed. "I spent a while talking to Lántiān, and she has a lot to say about that stuff."

He reached over to his recording device. "I assume you will get to that later in your tale. Are you ready to continue?"

I groaned internally, but smiled. It wouldn't be over till I caught him up to date. "Yes, please."

He started the recording again.

After lunch, Julie and Meadow took Sunflower and me on a tour around the school. Nightscape had gone to bed, since she had her first class that evening. Ashley needed to visit her advisor about an issue with one of her classes, and said she would catch up with us later.

We wandered around campus for at least two hours. It would have gone faster, but both Sunflower and I kept stopping to look at the murals that seemed to decorate every inch of space on every wall. The entire campus was like one giant painting that displayed the history of Skytree and Riverview. Julie, as a living witness to this history, ended up acting as our guide to what all was depicted, and we ended up getting an extended history lesson about the city and the notable ponies and humans that lived here. Meadow, who probably got this same tour last year, took it all in stride, but seemed a little bored by it.

"I've seen this unicorn in a photo at Phobia Remedy's house. Who is she?" I asked as we came up to a mural depicting a red unicorn standing at a podium.

Julie walked over and looked at the mural. "That's Sunset Blessing; she practically built the city, at least the old city. She was the old mayor, a preacher, a skilled mage, and a big-time Shimmerist. She also had a huge role in the Cataclysm."

"Was a big-time Shimmerist," Meadow corrected, and looked at the mural with admiration. "She abandoned Shimmerism after the Cataclysm, and laid the foundations of what became the Blessingists. She's a great mare."

Julie's face hardened. "Meadow, I don't have anything against Blessingists, but Sunset Blessing is the part of the reason my home was destroyed. I'll never forget that, and others shouldn't either."

Meadow raised her nose and sniffed. "You wouldn't have even had your home to begin with without her. I know her past is a little spotty, and I'm not going to deny she played a role in what happened, but she has done everything she can since then to make things better. You should forgive her."

"Never," Julie replied, nearly spitting. "I don't want to fight about this again. Let's agree to disagree, and move on."

"I still don't know what a Blessingist or a Shimmerist is," Sunflower complained.

Julie and Meadow looked at one another, and Julie gave a shrug and pointed a wing at Meadow. Meadow took that as a sign she was to explain.

The green pegasus smiled. "Well, I'm a Blessingist. We believe that everyone, humans and ponies, should have access to magic, and that we can make the world a better place by advancing our understanding of magic. Honestly, I think that it is so obvious that everyone should agree with us, but a lot of people don't. We believe everyone has a right to magic, and support all efforts to bring magic to everyone."

Julie stepped forward. "Shimmerists, in contrast, are a bunch of speciesist bastards that think everyone needs to be a pony, and humans are inferior. Most of the first Blessingists were Shimmerists, but they figured there was no need for everyone to be a pony if you could give humans magic too. Most Shimmerists didn't accept the idea humans gaining magic was a good thing. I can deal with Blessingists, even if they are named after the pony that blew up my home. Shimmerists I can't stand, though."

Meadow hung her head. "My parents used to be Shimmerists, and were part of the original group that broke away. They didn't originally think they hated humans, but Sunset Blessing made them realize looking down on humans was a form of hate. They said they tried hard to convince their fellow Shimmerists to give up their hatred for humans, but they were rejected. I don't understand how ponies can cling to hate like that. They hate us too, and call us traitors."

Julie grabbed Meadow and pulled her into a tight hug. While they were hugging, I gave the mural one last look. Sunset Blessing was Lántiān's godmother. Did that mean Lántiān had similar beliefs? I wanted to be friends with her, and anything I could learn might help.

After being released from her feathery bonds, Meadow looked around. "Maybe we should go see if they have set up for the campus party. We could spend all day looking at all the art on the walls, and still have to go looking at the galleries."

Sunflower perked up. "There are galleries too?"

"It's an art school; we have art everywhere," Julie replied with a chuckle. "I'm in favor of taking a break. It would take forever to show everything, and you're going to be here all year. There's plenty of time to see everything."

The layout of the campus had all the buildings surrounding a central large reflection pond. The pond was a vast square with an area equal to the largest buildings on campus. It wasn't deep, any adult pony could easily wade through it without it coming up to their shoulders, and it had a large fountain in the middle. There were green grassy areas on all sides, with benches and a few scattered trees for students to relax among. I spotted a human on one of the benches, who looked like they were sketching the pond. I also saw a fair number of one of the most dreaded creatures to walk the Earth, geese.

I apprehensively stared at the devil birds. "Um, is it safe to be around the pond?"

"Yeah, it's perfectly safe," Julie assured me.

At that moment, a human started running as a pair of geese pursued. They were flying up and attacking his head.

Julie chuckled sheepishly. "Just as long as you give the little raptors their space." She looked up. "And whatever you do, don't be eating food by yourself out here. The gulls will come, even if the coast seems to be clear. It is as if they can smell food from miles away. They don't care if you're holding it, they'll try to snatch it right from you. They avoid large crowds, though "

Meadow fluffed her feathers, and I could tell she was reading the weather. "It's going to be a cold winter this year. We might even get snow. Hopefully, that will make all the monster birds migrate down to Charleston for the winter."

Julie also fluffed her feathers to check the weather. "Well, the party should be crowded enough that they'll all leave us alone. They have no problem going after one or two isolated people, but will avoid hundreds."

The vendors and clubs were still setting up their stands all around the green areas, and there weren't a lot of other people about yet. The four of us decided to walk around the pond, keeping our distance from the geese. After walking down one side, we stopped at a bench with a nearby tree to admire the view. I sat on the edge of the concrete border of the pond and gazed out at the fountain.

Something small, possibly small goose-sized, came up and touched me, and I did a startled jump away from it.

SPLASH!

"Hi, I'm Drizzle, and you're wet!"

Water dripped from my soaked mane into my eyes as I looked at who had scared me. To my surprise, it was a little pegasus filly, maybe somewhere between five and seven years old. She had blue fur and a black mane, and reminded me a lot of Lántiān.

"You okay, Rebecca?" Julie called out from the bench.

I climbed out of the pond and shook myself off. "I'm fine!" I then turned my attention to the little filly who was still smiling at me. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that."

She didn't seem perturbed by being chastised. "Okay. Look at the bug I found!" She then bent down and used her mouth pick to up the most gigantic roach I had ever seen in my life by one of its wings. It was still alive, and squirming to try to get away.

"Qīng Yǔ! I told you to stay by the table." Lántiān came up and glared down at the filly. "And put that thing down. It's dirty."

The filly dropped the bug and pouted. "Call me, Drizzle, Mama!"

Lántiān huffed. "Of course, my mistake, Drizzle. You still need to stay by the table, as I told you. You can't go wandering every time I turn my head."

Drizzle pointed a wing across the pond. "Can we go look at the big birds? I wanna see the big birds."

"No, you may not," Lántiān said firmly. "Those birds are mean, and will peck at you. Stay by the table, or I'll take you home, and you won't get any cake."

The filly looked put out, but turned and started walking. "Okay, Mama."

Lántiān followed her daughter's progress with her eyes until another pony, standing by a table, took command of the filly. Lántiān then turned and looked at me. "Apologies, Rebecca Riddle. My daughter is inquisitive and has a touch of wanderlust, always on the move. I would not have brought her, but her foalsitter canceled at the last minute."

"She's definitely-" I tried to find the right word. "-intrepid."

Lántiān frowned and fluffed her wings irritably. "She needs to learn to be more cautious and not wander off. There are still those who would happily foalnap her for my homeland, and they have tried before, yet she is too young to understand the danger."

Julie walked over and grabbed Lántiān into one of her patented hugs. "Hey, Sour Wings, ready for our first day of practice this weekend?"

Lántiān, somewhat surprisingly, returned the hug. "Dirt Nap, I shall be, if Drizzle's foalsitter doesn't cancel again."

Sunflower looked at the pair curiously. "Dirt Nap?"

"That's my flight team nickname," Julie explained. "We all have them, just for use among the flight team members. They're all kind of insulting, but it is a show of affection and friendship."

"Julie got her nickname because she tried to hug the captain in midair, missed, and ended up on the ground taking a nap," Lántiān explained.

"And Lántiān got hers because she reached to pick up an apple to eat and grabbed and bit into a lemon by accident," Julie continued. "Or so I've been told; it was before I started here. Don't be calling us those names; it is for flight team members to use among ourselves."

I noticed then that Meadow was standing back, away from the rest of us. She was looking fearfully at Lántiān's flank. Lántiān took notice of her around the same time as I did, and covered her flanks with her wings. "I must be going. I shall see you at practice, Julie. Apologies again for you getting soaked, Rebecca Riddle."

After Lántiān walked off, Julie glared at Meadow. "Why'd you have to go and scare her off? She gets self-conscious about her mark."

Meadow chewed her lip for a second. "It's a Shimmerist mark."

Julie gave an exaggerated sigh. "Do you know who her godmother is? It's that unicorn you hero-worship so much. She's not going to get on you about being a Blessingist. Even if she would have, which she wouldn't, she has no way of knowing you're a Blessingist."

Meadow's eyes went wide as she stared off in Lántiān's direction. "Her godmother is Sunset Blessing? The Sunset Blessing?!"

"Yeah, so don't go judging a pony by their mark," Julie scolded. She then turned back towards me. "Sounded like she already knew you. You two friends?"

My ears folded. "Well, I'm trying to be friends with her. I'm not sure she likes me that much yet, or if she'll ever like me. I just met her the other day, but we kinda have a history I just found out about recently. It's a long story."

Julie blinked. "Alright, well, I'm sure she'll get over it, whatever it is. Lántiān's a good pony, even if she's always busy with her art, her club, and her daughter. She's also the best cloudbuster on the team, probably one of the top five best cloudbusters in our conference. If she had time to practice as much as the rest of us, she could probably make a go at the top cloudbuster, but as I said, she gets busy."

"I hope so," I replied. There'd been signs of hope that Lántiān might decide she liked me, but it wasn't at a point yet where I was sure of it. I really shouldn't have been bothered by it, because not everyone was going to like everybody, but her reasons for not liking me stung. I wanted to make things right.

Meadow pointed off in the distance. "Hey, I see a food vendor that just opened to start taking orders. Let's go get some. It's time to party and enjoy ourselves, because come tomorrow we'll all be busy with classes."

Julie grabbed me into a one-wing hug. "Come on, eat while you can. Starting next week we start workouts!"