//------------------------------//
// Chapter 32: The Next Phase of Life 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
//------------------------------//

I woke up before my alarm had a chance to go off, feeling nervous and excited. Move-in day had finally come. This was the last day for a while that I would be waking up in this house. It occurred to me tomorrow was going to be the first time I'd be waking up in a place without at least one of my parents a room or two away. I'd never been away from both of them for even a sleepover or school trip. Sometimes my mom had to leave for a few days, but I still had my stepdad with me. Tomorrow I'd be waking up with Julie and Nightscape. 

I was still in bed thinking about the day when the music started playing to start my day. The station I had it set to in the morning usually played bouncy and upbeat songs, which were great for me to dance along to as it set the tone for the day. Today it chose to play something different. Today the somber tones of a Green Day song came over the airwaves. Even though it wasn't my usual fare, I still found myself singing along. It wasn't something to dance to, but it was the perfect song for my mood. I silently thanked whoever the DJ was who chose to shake things up this morning. 

"-take the photographs and still frames in your mind."

Yeah, it was the song I needed this morning.

I did a small jump as my phone started ringing. Who could be calling me this early in the morning? 

I answered the phone. "Hello? Who's this?"

"It's Jess. Sorry for the early call. I hope I didn't wake you."

I relaxed. "It's okay; I was already up—today's move-in day. Did you already talk to your dad?"

"Yeah, he's nervous, but he wants to do it. I explained to him how it works, but didn't tell him who you are. When is a good time for you to do it?"

That was a good question. "I'm not sure. I'm going to be busy almost all day, and I'm sure there'll be stuff I'm doing even after I'm all moved in. Maybe sometime very late tonight? Perhaps around eleven? I'd generally be asleep by then, but I figure it might be hard to fall asleep anyway tonight, in a new place and all."

"That works. Will your ability be able to reach Phobia's house from your dorm?"

"Yeah, that's no problem. I can reach most places in the city. I'll call you if there's going to be any problems."

"I appreciate you doing this, Rebecca."

I smiled. "I'm glad I can do something good for your dad." I stopped smiling. "Hey, Jess? What's it like? Moving into college and being away from home?"

She laughed. "I think you forgot I'm only fourteen, and thanks for that." Her voice got more mellow and wistful. "I never moved into a dorm. I still live with my parents. I've never been away from my family aside from a sleepover or two. Even when I'm visiting here, I'm still with my brother. I'm also guessing my general college experience with classes would be radically different from what you'll have. Sorry for not being much help."

"I've never even had a sleepover."

I heard her tongue click. "Really? Well, my first one ended with being chased by crazed ponies, having the city blow up, and getting skewered like a pony shishkabob. I think it's safe to say your first time away from home should go better."

City blowing up? I knew what event she was talking about, the Cataclysm. "You must have been little when that happened. Do you remember it well?"

I could hear her licking her lips. "It's funny the stuff I remember and the stuff I don't. I can remember so much of my early childhood- or foalhood, as it were. What I can't remember well is myself as a foal during it. That day is an exception to that. Every detail about that horrible day is preserved, perfectly etched in my memory, including me. I still have nightmares about it that play like a horror movie in my head, and it never gets less frightening. Sometimes, things happen when I'm awake that will trigger some memory of it, and I find myself there again, a scared little foal with my entire world imploding around me."

"I heard they were making a movie about what happened to you."

She let out a long breath. "You heard about that? Yeah, I know. They paid my parents a lot of money to interview me and have me tell them what happened. My parents almost refused to let them, but I agreed to it. They had to have a counselor standing by to help me get through it, but they heard everything from my perspective. I'm sure they'll take some liberties with it, and that's fine. It's not like I'm not going to go see it so I can have a panic attack. My parents needed the money, that's the only reason I agreed to recount what happened to all the writers. My parents sacrificed so much for me; they deserve to get something back."

My ears folded. "I'm sorry all that bad stuff happened to you."

"Bad things happen, and if you're lucky, life goes on," she replied. "That does remind me, I wanted to tell you something about what you and Phobia were talking about the other day that you refused to do. Something from experience. I know I'm younger than you, but I've had an eventful life, and I've been thinking about this since I heard you two talking."

My ears perked back up. "Yeah? What is it?"

"There can come moments where people you care about are in danger, and you have to make hard choices. In those moments, you find you are willing to do things you would never have considered otherwise. That day, I had more than one moment like that. On any other day, I would say I couldn't and wouldn't do what was necessary for those situations, but when you are standing there, with lives on the line, you find you're capable of doing anything."

I looked down. "I can't say you're wrong, because I've never been in that position, but I don't want to believe you."

"I hope you never have to have that put to the test," she replied. "I'll let you go. I know you have a lot to do."

I absently nodded. "Hey, Jess? Remember, the most important thing your parents got for their sacrifices was you, and I'm sure they'd have willingly sacrificed even more if they had to. Never forget how much you're loved."

I could hear the smile in her voice. "I'll remember. Keep up the good work, Miss Future Demi-God. See ya tonight."

The call ended, and I looked around my room. Everything was packed up except my bedding. There were still pictures on the walls, and the furniture wasn't going anywhere, but it still felt somehow empty. I could hear my parents' shower going, which meant they were getting ready. We were going to try to arrive early so we could beat the rush of other first-year students checking in, and planned on picking up breakfast along the way. There wasn't a lot I needed to do to get ready, but there was no point delaying. 

I grabbed my toy out from my pillow and shoved it in my bag before I forgot it. A quick sniff of my rump said that it might still be needed again tonight, as well as deodorant for today. I realized I'd forgotten to apply my deodorant yesterday, but thankfully nobody seemed to have noticed. I'd have died of embarrassment if Phobia Remedy had said I wasn't taking care of my hygiene, or if someone had smelled it when we were all crammed together in that van. I know Maggie would never have let me live it down. I could hear it now, 'What stallion are you trying to entice, Bec? I see how serious you are about that whole virgin thing'. Yep, I'd have been a pink pony. 

I'd considered before having a fur and mane dye job done to hide my easy to see blushes. I just didn't want to cover up my spots and stripes, even if I am the only one who realizes they are there. Humans are always shocked when they see a pony blush, but pony fur isn't like any other fur. It isn't normal hair; it has small amounts of magic in it that reflects what the flesh underneath is doing, which makes it more like an extra fluffy extension of our skin than fur. If you shaved all the fur off over our cutie mark, you'd see the same mark on our exposed flesh, and it also meant we could blush. Pink and red ponies have it lucky; no one notices when they blush. That's probably why people always assume pink or red ponies are extra bold and brave; it's harder to tell when they are embarrassed. My fur is snow-white, which means it is easy to know if I am blushing. 

I trotted into the bathroom and took my morning shower, taking extra time to scrub and groom myself well. Once out of the shower, I gave myself a good preening and remembered to empty my feather bin this time around (although that might only be because I needed to bring my bin with me to school). Deodorant was applied liberally to my rump, and I swallowed the pills that Mom was dead set on me taking every morning. With all that done, I packed all my bathroom stuff into the now conveniently empty feather bin and set it out in the hall. 

By the time I finished with the stuff from the bathroom, my parents were already dressed and out in the kitchen. I could smell that they had just brewed a pot of coffee.

"Want some, Becky?" Stepdad asked as he held up the pot. 

I stuck out my tongue and shook my head. "Yuck, no. You know I don't like coffee."

"You might change your mind now that you're in college," he replied. "I know it's an acquired taste, but you might find you need some liquid energy with all those late-night study sessions and mornings after being up too late."

"Haven't had any of those yet, and typically I just need a good dance to get the blood moving," I replied, then shook my flanks.

Mom took a sip of her coffee. "You need to be mindful that you'll have roommates and people living below you. You might not be able to do that every morning anymore."

Hold it. It never even occurred to me that my morning routine was going to be thrown so far out of order. Other things started occurring to me. I was going to be sharing a bathroom with five other ponies. There were Julie and Nightscape, but our bathroom was connected to and shared with the next dorm room over. I didn't even know who was there yet. I was used to having a bathroom all to myself; I didn't know how it was supposed to work with five other ponies. I was assuming that we were all pegasi, except for Nightscape; where would all the feather bins go? Were we going to have to schedule shower times? Were we going to drown in preened feathers?

"Having a moment?" Mom asked with a knowing smile. I could tell she knew what I was thinking. 

I wasn't going to let that get me down. Sure, my usual routine wasn't going to be possible, but millions of students had gone off to college and dealt with their habits being forced to change before me. I could adapt and persevere. The feathers couldn't be that bad if it were a whole floor full of feathered students that didn't have problems with this before. I'd find some other way of shaking my flanks as well. This was going to be okay. 

I smiled up at Mom. "I've got this. No worries."

She smiled back. "Good to hear. There are a few other things we need to go over before you check-in. You probably know most of this, but I want to make sure we are clear. First, I cut off your credit line and access to the family account as of last night. You'll need to survive off your own funds."

I blinked. That was unexpected. 

"Second," she continued. "I want you to put in your phone a daily reminder to take your pills."

I rolled my eyes, but nodded in agreement.

"Third, you are always welcome to visit here, but I expect you to give your father or me at least a few minutes' heads-up unless it is a real emergency. At least a few hours' heads-up if you are planning on having dinner here. You're officially shifting to being a guest when here, and I expect you to have the same courtesy as any other guest. You don't need to ask about whether you can spend holidays here, but we expect to know when you plan on arriving and how many days you plan on staying."

That didn't seem like it would be much trouble.

"Fourth, the expenses I'm paying for you are your phone and your medical bills, including prescriptions. I am not paying for any streaming services, extra food, entertainment, or anything else. If you have a financial emergency, you may come to us for help, but I expect you to try to deal with it yourself first."

I'd kinda expected her to tell me a point when I needed to start paying for my phone service as well, so that was more leeway than I had anticipated. 

"And finally, if you get into a steady relationship-"

"Mom!"

She frowned at me. "Young mare, let me finish. As I was saying, if you get into a steady relationship, I expect you to let us know. We don't need to know the finer details, like what goes on when the lights go out-"

My face turned a dark red. "Mom!"

"-but I'd like to know who my daughter is dating, so I know who to kill if he breaks her heart."

I laid my ears back. "Really, Mom?"

"She's already planning on getting a shotgun," Stepdad said casually.

"Isn't it supposed to be the father who does that?" I asked.

He shrugged. "We don't discriminate by gender in this family. You know why she feels that way. Don't worry; I'll make sure she doesn't murder any of your ex's."

"There aren't going to be any ex's, so it won't be a problem," I groaned. Why did no one have any faith in my commitment to virginity? 

I did understand Mom's feelings, considering what happened to her, but she needed to stop projecting all that. In the unlikely event that I did even consider striking up a relationship with someone, I'd be terrified of introducing them to her because I knew she'd be judging them as critically as possible. My stepdad would be cool about the whole thing, I knew he wouldn't make a fuss, but Mom would scare any guy off after a single meeting. I knew they weren't joking about the shotgun either. Mom might want me to be self-sufficient, but there would be hell to pay if anyone hurt her little filly. Oh, and if a stallion got me pregnant and then left me, every alicorn and Dreamwarden combined wouldn't be able to save him from Mom's wrath.

Yeah, I was going to be a virgin for life, even if I wasn't already committed to being one. At least Mom made it easy for me.

"There's one more thing," Stepdad said with a smile. I glanced at him curiously. He reached up to the top of the refrigerator and pulled down what looked like a Christmas present, which he held out to me. "Sorry about the wrapping paper, we were sure we had some, but then realized it was for the wrong occasion."

I took the present in my forehooves. It was wrapped in bright red wrapping paper, with Christmas wreaths all over it, and was wide and long, but not tall. I set it down on the floor and put my nose down to sniff it. There were no smells of cake or sweets. It smelled kind of like tinsel, honestly. I found an excellent spot to bite into the paper and gave it a good rip. I then proceeded to do a mix of ripping with my teeth and pushing paper aside with my hooves. Once the paper was all cleared, I looked upon my gift.

"Legos?" I asked in surprise as I looked at it. It wasn't just any Legos, though. It was a Lego Architecture Studio Set with over five thousand monochrome blocks, sorting trays for the blocks, a set of specially designed mouth tweezers to make it easier for ponies to grab and place blocks, and a massive book with advice from the top architects in the industry. 

I turned the box over, listening to all the pieces inside shift as I did, and by chance, spotted a price tag on the thing. My eyes almost bulged out of my head when I saw it. "You spent this much?! On Legos?! For me?!" I never in my wildest dreams imagined a Lego set could cost half of what this did. It was equal to at least half a semester's tuition. 

"I had the same reaction, but your mom pays most of the bills," Stepdad chuckled.

"I asked every architect that I have contact with at PonyCo what were the best gifts for architects, and everyone agreed that this was the best that could be given," Mom explained. "This is a big day, and I wanted to show you how proud I am of you. I can't wait to see the things you do."

I could imagine designing lots of things with this, and couldn't wait to see what was in the book. My eyes welled up with happy tears as I smiled. "Thank you. This means a lot to me."

They both knelt next to me and wrapped their arms around me. "We love you so much," Mom whispered. "I hope all your dreams come true."