//------------------------------// // Chapter 27: Speaker from Beyond // Story: Marshmallow Dreams // by Halira //------------------------------// 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!"