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// Chapter 28: A Humble Request 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
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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.