Eventually, Jess, Jordan, and Crystal were called back to Phobia's house. Phone numbers and promises to keep in touch were exchanged, and Maggie headed home as well. That left me alone with my parents, who had burning questions that they couldn't ask in front of guests. I knew those questions were coming when they started turning all the electronics off that were hooked up to the internet.
My parents sat down on the couch together. This was bad, that meant they were getting ready to form a unified front against me. I took up a spot on my throw pillow on the ground across from them.
"So…" Mom began. "I remember that partial woman, Jess, from the clinic. You had a conversation with her there. I didn't think much of it at the time, since you always seem drawn to speaking to unusual people, but it doesn't seem like it was just a one time meet with her."
I shifted a little. "She's a friend of Phobia Remedy's. She's really smart, and can do all kinds of things with sound. She was there when I was speaking with Phobia Remedy, and she heard all of it, but kept everyone else from listening in. She's also fourteen, but no one ever explained to me why she looks like she's twenty-something. I really should have asked. You kind of forget about it when you're looking at her. She doesn't like being called a partial either, she's rehumanized from being a full pony, just like you mom."
Mom brought a hand up next to her lilac colored eye with a considering expression. Maybe she was considering if she counted as a partial too, since she had a single eye that was pony colored. At what point did any human with pony features go from being a human to a partial in other people's eyes? I wondered if anyone ever called Mom a partial because of her one eye. I'd never asked about it before.
"Just be careful about telling people your secrets," Mom finally said. "We all worry about you. Your father and I have had a lot of talks about your safety in the past, and so have I and Yinyu."
My ears shot up. "You talk to Miss Seapony? Since when?"
She gave me a deadpan look. "Since way back when I first became aware she was visiting you regularly. She doesn't visit me as often as she does you, but she still takes time to talk to me a few times a month. Do you think I'd have let her spend so much time with you if she didn't take time to talk to me once and awhile?"
"I never really thought about it," I replied honestly. I was finding there were more and more things that I'd never thought about that seemed obvious to others. How many things were there that I still hadn't realized that everyone else around me already had?
Stepdad pulled out an old electronic tablet and turned it on. My mom raised an eyebrow at him and he explained. "This thing has no microphone, so it can't pick up anything said. I was going to check some things." He then started entering some information into the tablet.
Mom watched him for a second then turned back to me. "Back to the main conversation. What happened at the Dreamwarden's house?"
I rubbed a wing against the back of my head. "We talked about how Dreamwardens inherit traits and things from previous Dreamwardens, and she watched how I reacted to that. She kind of deliberately guided the conversation into one that would upset Jess, and then let me be the one to try to soothe her."
"Deliberately upsetting the poor girl sounds kinda like a jerk move," Mom replied with a grimace.
"I thought so too, but she said this was something that could fester and make Jess depressed if it wasn't taken care of," I explained. "I can't really talk about it, since it's kinda her private business. I probably shouldn't have even mentioned it was her that was upset."
Mom nodded knowingly, and smiled at me. "We understand, and it's a good practice to not be giving out any private information. It is always important, but it's especially important if you're going to be in a position where you have easy access to people's secrets and they need to trust you."
"Wow!" Stepdad suddenly shouted. They both turned to him as he looked up. "I just found out that they're making a movie about your friends Jess and Jordan."
I cocked an ear and stood up. "Really?"
He nodded and turned back to his tablet. "It's loosely based on their experiences during the Cataclysm of Riverview. They're going to be taking some artistic license with it, and I think they're aging them up for the sake of the movie a little, since it has some action sequences that would be too intense to have small foals do. The actors playing them are both preteens and they'd have been much younger than that back then. That Jess girl as a pony is supposed to be the main hero of the movie."
"Phobia did say her foals and sisters were saved by Jess way back when, but didn't say how," I replied. "When's it supposed to be coming out?"
He scanned down the webpage. "Summer next year, it has a pretty big production budget too, but I guess that makes sense if it is supposed to be during the Cataclysm. That would be a lot of special effects. Has a pretty big named supporting cast as well, aside from the foals. They even got Leta Ortega to play Wild Growth. Looks like they are trying for it to be a blockbuster."
"We'll have to check it out when it comes out," Mom said with a smile. "What's it called?"
"Shadow of Demeter," Stepdad answered.
"Noted," Mom replied. She then turned her attention back to me. "What else happened? You were pigging out on cake pretty hard when you got in, and that means you were upset."
I stared downward. "I can't tell you the exact details, but she had a third test for me after those two things, and I failed that one. She told me about a bad thing that could happen, and talked about this old doll- maybe I shouldn't talk about the doll. Anyway, if this bad thing happened she said that Dreamwardens had a responsibility to do something, and the thing was something I said I wouldn't do."
She gasped. "So you aren't going to be a Dreamwarden now?" My stepdad was now focused on me instead of the tablet.
I shook my head. "I don't know. She says it was brave of me to tell her the truth instead of just saying what she wanted to hear. I even told her I understood why the thing was necessary, and agreed with her about it, but it just wasn't something I could bring myself to do. She said I wasn't disqualified, and that she would continue to consider my candidacy, right before sending me home. I'm not sure if she was just being nice about it. I wasn't even at the top of her list of candidates anyway."
"Oh my baby, I'm sorry to hear that!" Mom gasped. "She just doesn't see how special you are."
"It's okay," I replied quietly. "After talking to her, and after talking some with Jess, I'm not sure I want the job anymore. There's so many dark and unpleasant things about the Dreamwardens- that's just not me."
"You don't want to be a Dreamwarden anymore?" Mom asked, seeming more concerned. "I'll support you no matter what you want to do, but you haven't been living under a rock, so that there are unpleasant things involved with the Dreamwardens shouldn't be news to you, but it never made you not want to be one before. What else has changed?"
I crossed my forelegs and laid my head down on them. "There was that thing Phobia wanted me to say I'd do. There's also how Maggie reacted to Miss Seapony being able to see her. She was afraid. Miss Seapony never hurt anyone as a Dreamwarden, but even still people are afraid of her. I don't want people to be afraid of me like that. The last thing is I'm wondering if they just want me for my powers."
My parents looked at each other then turned back to me. "Sweetie, while your powers might have been part of why the Dreamwardens wanted you, I think the greater part of why they wanted you is that you aren't like them, and that's very important."
"They're all different from one another already," I said dismissively.
"Yes, and so are you, and you aren't giving yourself credit for what you bring that they can't," Mom said firmly. "You're right, a lot of people are scared of Dreamwardens. For a long time now, dreams have become something else than what they were before ETS, they've lost their innocence. That's what you bring with you that the Queen of Nightmares and the rest can't bring, making dreams something to be loved and not feared again. You can bring back the wonder for dreams."
I looked up at her. "But… Arbiter has been trying to-"
"Arbiter is focused on utility not joy, and she's no innocent," Mom said forcibly. "I've talked to every one of them I could in my dreams, which is all of them except the Warden of Fear and the Warden of Peace. None of them are the types for that. You've got one obsessed with sex, another that died in a genocide, another who attempted murder, and the Warden of Order is nothing but a glorified accountant. None of them are the types to make dreams into dreams again."
I flicked an ear and looked at her straight-faced. "The Warden of Order is a glorified accountant?"
"That's what you took out of all that?" Stepdad asked in shock.
I shook my head. "Well… no, but I think that surprised me the most. I never met the Warden of Order, and they've always been kind of mysterious. It kinda kills the mystery to learn they basically are the dream god of doing taxes."
Mom touched her fingers to her forehead and breathed. "Aside from the fact that you just learned that he is really boring-"
"Now I learned he's a he! I'm learning all kinds of stuff about him today!" I said with a grin. I then let my grin fall. "All that stuff is great, and I appreciate you saying all those nice things about me. Even if that was all a hundred-percent true I'd still have reservations about this. You don't know what Phobia suggested was necessary, and that's going to mess with me for a while."
"So are you just going to decline the offer if they say you're definitely the one?" Mom asked. "Again, I'll back you no matter what, but I think it might be a mistake to turn this down. This is your future we are talking about, and how you can impact the future."
I stood back up. "I don't know. Psychic Calm hasn't even officially announced he's retiring yet. So it isn't like I have to say yes or no tonight. I don't even know if I'll be the pick after today, so all this stressing might be about nothing." I smiled again. "But I do know that my first semester of college starts in a few days and it's going to be exciting! I'm going to pretend that's all I have to worry about. That and getting to where I can stick a perfect landing flying down from the balcony of my dorm."
Mom stood up, and clapped her hands once. "And we were planning on helping you get your stuff together before today went all weird." She walked over and bent down beside me. "My baby, all grown up and going off to college! I never thought we'd get here when we were living in our car. I'm really proud of you."
"Stop it, Mom. You're going to turn me pink," I giggled. She pulled me into a hug and I leaned into her. "Thanks for always believing in me. I'm going to make some awesome places for people to see."
"I know you will. You have always been meant for great things," she whispered in my ear. Then released me and smiled as she ruffled my mane. "Now let's go work on packing what we can. You can deal with that thing in your pillow."
"Uh… I might wait until tomorrow to pack it."
She sighed and stood up. "I didn't need to know that. Don't forget to take your pills!"
I laughed one more time. "Anything you say."
As we were going off to my room to pack it occurred to me that my mom had just told me that she had a lot of contact with just about all the Dreamwardens. It seemed from what she was saying it was a lot of contact. She never really talked about this with me, and neither had Miss Seapony. Heck, my mom knew more about the Warden of Order than anyone else aside the Dreamwardens, or at least it seemed so. So what had she been talking about all this time, and why was I just finding out about it?
It didn't matter. If it was important either she or Miss Seapony would have told me already. They loved me, and wanted the best for me. She was probably just being a protective mother.