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."