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// Chapter 11: The Siblings 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
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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.