Marshmallow Dreams

by Halira

Chapter 117: The Night Isn't Over Yet

It was late when we all got back to Phobia Remedy's house. Maggie had been waiting the entire time for me, so I figured I'd let her drive me back to the dorms so she didn't waste her time. Sunflower and Ashley joined us. I wasn't sure where Yolanda and Jonathan took off to, but Yolanda had told Maggie she'd be back late and to tell Blanche not to worry.

"Moses is a little sweetie," Sunflower said as she continued to stare out the window.

I nodded. He'd been thrilled to have the attention and ponies playing games with him. "Yeah, he is. I wonder who Phobia is going to get to watch him."

"Isn't Ulga going to watch him, out on that farm Phobia was talking about?" Sunflower asked.

"But Ulga is blind, somebody else has to be there, in case something happens with Ulga again. Plus, Ulga can't run a farm, even a small farm, by herself," I replied.

"For a kid you can't tell me anything about, you guys sure like to talk about him a lot," Maggie said.

Sunflower and I both looked down. "Sorry," we said in chorus.

"He's a scary kid with powerful mind magic. That's all you need to know," Ashley said to her, then looked back and forth between me and Sunflower. "He's the type of kid that OMMR agents are scared to get near. I don't think you could send anyone but a Dreamwarden to deal with him. I have no idea who Phobia is going to put to foalsit him and his mother. You saw how those doctors and nurses reacted to his outburst."

"I didn't see!" Maggie fussed.

"They were all hiding out in the entrance lobby together, all the staff and all the patients. Most of them were crying. They were all terrified. The guy in charge of the place was threatening to call the army," Sunflower said.

"I don't know why they didn't all just leave if they were that scared. Why hunker down in the entrance lobby?" Ashley asked.

I frowned. "Because that place is essentially a prison and they couldn't let the patients leave. They think they're too dangerous. That little courtyard we had to go through is there so they can have people gun them down if they try to get out. Then if any make it through, there's only one way in or out to the outside world."

Sunflower whipped her head around and stared wide-eyed at me. "What?! You can't be serious! Who told you that!"

"Think about it. The architecture has a very clear and practical design. They all have to go through there to get out. There are no obstructions, nothing to take cover behind, it's a place designed for guards on the roof to get a clear shot at anyone in the courtyard or going out the lobby entrance. It is just like a prison yard with a gate system," I said grimly. "I'm guessing the guards got trapped on the roof when everything happened."

Ashley blinked. "I hadn't thought about it until you just explained it, but you're right. I guess you have to think like an architect to notice it if you aren't looking for it…or think like a prison guard. I don't think I give the fact you are in school for architecture enough credit. I bet Nightscape would have noticed too and rubbed it in my face that I didn't. What kind of freaky magic do those patients have?"

"We know at least two of the unicorns spontaneously combust like kirin when they get angry or scared," Sunflower said.

"Huh, that explains the remains of that fire in the courtyard," Ashley said with a grunt. "I hope they're okay."

"I'm sure they would have mentioned it if anyone else but the one guy died," Sunflower replied.

"Wait, this kid killed someone!?" Maggie asked in shock.

"Not on purpose!" I yelled in his defense.

"We aren't supposed to talk about what he does," Ashley reminded us.

"Kills people with his mind, apparently!" Maggie yelled. "And you just walked in there and spent time with him? What were you thinking!"

"Dreamwardens are supposed to deal with people who have dangerous mind magic," I said.

"Dreamwardens are immune to mind magic. You aren't a Dreamwarden yet. You could have died!" Maggie fussed.

"We were fine. We've met him before. He just had a little accident," I assured her.

"A little accident that left someone dead and them wanting to call in the army, is that all?" Maggie questioned critically. "You don't even seem horrified that he killed someone."

"We are, but, like Rebecca said, it was an accident, and certain circumstances involved make it harder for us to have it sink in that person died," Sunflower asserted. "I mean, we were talking to-"

Ashley let off a loud whinney. "You two are the worst at keeping secrets! You know what, I'm just going to blab everything so neither of you can. That way you two can't get in trouble; it will be on me. Maggie, if some OMMR guys haul you off to force you to sign some non-disclosure agreement that requires you to do a contract with a Dreamwarden to ensure it holds, don't go fussing at me. You were digging for this!"

"I honestly can't-" Maggie started, but Ashley launched straight into her explanation.

"The kid's a necromancer. He literally takes some dead person's mind, shoves it into a body, and reanimates the body, and he's the reincarnation of Sha'am Maut or something– I wasn't really clear on that part. He also creates graphically violent images of you dying when you're around him and if he gets upset you don't even have to be in the same room with him for them to affect you. They get so bad people can die of fright. That's how he accidentally killed somebody. His mom got hurt, the kid got upset, visions got bad, orderly who had a bad heart or whatever got caught up in the visions, and bing, bang, boom, the orderly is dead. Then that upsets the kid more, and his magic goes even more cuckoo, and next thing you know, that dead orderly is a zombie Sha'am Maut. Hospital staff sees the kid accidentally killed an orderly and then made a zombie out of him, so who they gonna call? Since there's no ghostbusters, they call Miss Queen of Nightmares to come deal with it. She then packs us all up and tells us, hey, this is what OMMR agents and Dreamwardens are supposed to do. Do you want this job? What are we gonna say to that, huh? I mean, she's not wrong. We get over there and, turns out, zombie Sha'am can keep the little terror's visions in check, so the kid's harmless while she's walking around in a fifty-year-old man who had a bad heart suit. Sunflower and Rebecca are told to keep the kid busy while Phobia Remedy talks with her ex-sister who is like triple-dead at this point. They work something out to help manage him away from the facility, and we all go home. The hospital slash prison is going to release the kid to Phobia, and she's going to move him to some farm outside of town where he can't hurt anybody but can at least spend time with animals, run around, play, do farm chores, and be something that resembles a normal kid living on a farm while he works on learning to control his freaky powers. Actually, I just figured out who is going to watch him and help out on the farm, since they were talking about procuring a corpse– a zombie. A zombie is going to do it. That makes it all nice and tidy. I guess everybody's happy, except for anyone who was related to or friends with the orderly who died and we didn't even learn the name of."

We all watched as Ashley took several deep breaths. That'd been a lot of talking, and she said it very fast.

"I think his name was Steve. That was the name on his uniform," Sunflower said quietly.

"I think that covers everything," Ashley concluded a second later. She was huffing.

"Do you need a drink of water?" I asked her.

She waved a hoof at me. "I'll be okay. Let's just get home and get to bed. Meadow and Julie are probably freaking out, Blanche too."

"I already called everybody when you got back to Phobia's house, so they know you're okay. Why don't any of you ever wear your phones?" Maggie asked.

"Security, people can be listening. We really shouldn't be talking around you if you have your phone," I answered.

"Why does nobody ever tell me these things!?" Maggie asked in exasperation.

"Because you aren't even supposed to be involved in any of this and are only here because Rebecca throws caution to the wind and tells any goddamn person everything like an open book," Ashley answered snidely.

"She's my best friend! And Russell-"

Ashley glared at me. "Your boy toy knows too? Do you even know the definition of secret?"

"How serious are you two?" Sunflower asked. "Are you close to…you know…?"

"Yeah, Beck, dish on that," Maggie said. "How close are you to turning in your virgin card?"

I blushed "I don't know. We've talked indirectly about it. We've talked enough about it that we've had dinner with both sets of parents. I don't want to do anything yet, not until this is all over. Maybe not after, I don't know. I mean, if I come out as the heir, and I get weird stuff in my head because of that, I don't know if it is going to work out or not."

Sunflowers frowned. "I hadn't spent much time thinking about that. Phobia Remedy doesn't like being touched."

"Yinyu has a ton of libido," I reminded her. "Not to stereotype too much, but with us being horny college mares, I think we're more likely to get that extra libido than Phobia's rape survivor fear. I'm more worried about things like being super authoritarian, which might put some strain on a relationship. There's a lot of manipulation in there too. Can you think of one Dreamwarden who isn't manipulative?"

"Luna?" Sunflower speculated weakly.

I shook my head. "I doubt it. She's over a thousand years old, so she's probably that much better at hiding what she's doing. You want to introduce that manipulative streak into a relationship?"

"Yet you're still dating the guy," Maggie said.

I shrugged. "I want to hope it will work out, it works for Phobia, and if I don't get the job, no fear of anything weird going on with my head. I'm not dropping out of this, the job is bigger than any relationship."

"Same," Sunflower said.

I smiled at her. "And what about you? Does our favorite country filly have her eyes on anyone? Have you been dating and not letting the rest of us know because you're too shy?"

She blushed. "I haven't seen anypony…anybody, but there is this cute earth pony in my intro to print media class that I think likes me. He stops to talk to me a lot. We've eaten dinner at the same table in the cafeteria a few times when the rest of you were busy with other stuff. He came from a no-name farming community too, so it is easy for us to get stuff the other is saying that you city people just wouldn't get. It isn't anything serious, just talk. He doesn't even know about my episodes where I blank out and draw things."

Ashley gave me a smirk. "See, that's how you keep secrets. You should take notes from Sunflower." She turned to face the Sunflower. She must be getting whiplash, having us on either side of her in the back seat. "And you're way more sneaky than I gave you credit for. I'm your bodyguard. I'm supposed to be watching you, but you somehow kept me from finding out about this guy."

"Maybe you just suck at your job," Maggie said.

"Hey! Be nice to Ashley, Mags. She had a big night too," I chided.

Ashley turned and glared at me. "Rebecca, I'm going to say this nicely. You can spill your secrets however you wish, but don't spill mine."

Sunflower raised a wing. "I think she was going to talk about how you got to talk to one of your foalhood heroes and thank them. I thought it was sweet."

I used one of my wings to my a shushing motion at Sunflower. "On'tday alktay aboutyay a'amshay inyay ontfray ofyay aggiemay."

Sunflower gave me a baffled look. "Huh? What language is that?"

"Pig Latin," Maggie said darkly. "And Rebecca is lucky that was way too much for me to follow other than don't talk and her saying my name."

Judging by her tone, she totally knew what I had said, but was going to let it slide. Talking about how the pony who had tortured Maggie's family member as being Ashley's hero seemed like nothing but an excuse to start a bitter argument. It was best to steer clear of that and maintain the peace.

Maggie pulled into a parking spot next to the dorms and shut off the car. "Anyway, we're back, and we can-"

There was a knock on Maggie's car window, making us all jump. It was a pegasus stallion who didn't look like a student. Several other stallions were behind him, along with a human man in a business suit, all standing near a large limo. Maggie rolled down her window. Which I thought was a very bad idea.

"We are from the OMMR international relations division. We require Sunflower Smiles and Rebecca Riddle to come with us."

"Um, can we see some ID to prove that?" Maggie said timidly. Her hand was reaching to put the key back in the ignition. Ashley's horn was glowing, spell at the ready.

The human came forward and pulled something from his jacket. He held it up to the window. Maggie stared at it.

"That looks official," Maggie said. "What do you want to do?" Her hand was still poised to put the key in the ignition.

"I recognize one of them from before. I think they're really OMMR," Sunflower said.

"I guess we go with them then," I said.

The three of us in the backseat got up and got ready to exit the car.

"You, in the middle, you aren't coming, only the two winged fillies," the pegasus snapped.

Ashley grit her teeth. "Where Sunflower goes, I go. Especially when a bunch of strange ponies are trying to take her somewhere. I've been foalnapped before so I'm letting it happen to her!"

The stallion withdrew and spoke to someone in their limo. They spoke for a moment then the pegasus turned and nodded to us.

"I guess we're doing this thing. Maggie, if we aren't back by morning, you might want to call the police," I said.

"I give it till two in the morning. I'm going to wait in the lobby till you're back," Maggie replied, not taking her eyes off the group of agents. Maybe she was memorizing their faces.

They said this was going to be an intense week. They weren't kidding around when they said that. What was this? The third or fourth thing in the last five hours, and this was just a day into the week. Who or what were we going to be facing now? At least it couldn't be any worse than any of the previous stuff.

I opened the car door and exited, ready to confront the next challenge.

Comments

[PonyofEntropy]

Awesome updates. Just now able to get caught back up. Great work!

[theoldenbrony]

At least it couldn't be any worse than any of the previous stuff.

Rebecca! When are you going to learn not to temp FATE?!!

[badninja]

I hope they can make all of their classes. They could be in trouble with how much they are missing.

[Chrome Masquerade]

11485636
Wish I knew. Like I said, it seems familiar, but I don't know where I have seen it before.