I was one of the earlier first-year students to arrive at check-in, but I wasn't the first, nor was I that far ahead of the crowd. My check-in was in the central social area of the female dorms, and there was a line forming by the time my parents had gotten their badges so they would be allowed into the gender-restricted part of the dorm area to help me. It seemed everyone had the same idea of trying to get there early. I wondered if it might have been less busy if I'd checked-in later.
I spotted Maggie checking in right before I did, but didn't get an opportunity to speak with her. It seemed like she was fussing with her father. Her father was often somewhat controlling, and whenever anything remotely official was happening, he tended to try to take over all the talking and treating Maggie like a child, much to Maggie's chagrin. My parents, by contrast, were letting me take the lead on everything, only asking a brief question here and there. I knew Maggie loved her dad, but she was also dying to have more independence.
I honestly didn't have all that much to move in, not compared to humans. Humans had to bring tons of clothes with them, and I was always surprised at how many sets of clothes your average human would wear. I'd worn clothes only a few times in my life, and they'd been strictly for special occasions. Aside from a dress that my mom bought me when I was tiny and still kept as a keepsake, I'd never even owned any of the clothes I'd worn. They'd all been rentals. I suppose I had worn them when I was human since I didn't usually see four-year-old humans running around naked, but my human years hardly counted.
My luggage consisted of my bathroom stuff, art supplies including my easel, my computer, my pony strap with its bag of accessories, my phone, a few decorations, my bedding, and of course, my new set of legos. A human could probably carry all that up to their dorms with ease, but it was a lot for a chubby pegasus. There was plenty I was leaving at my parents, but all of that was going to be packed up and put into storage until I ended up getting my own apartment.
My parents and I had most of my luggage with me as we got in the elevator. I had a full saddlebag, and they each had one of those trunks on wheels. Stepdad grinned down at me as it rose. "I feel like an explorer, venturing into the forbidden realm of the all-female dorm."
I grinned back and raised a feather to my mouth. "Don't reveal all our dark secrets, or we'll unleash our Amazon griffon warriors to hunt you down."
"Amazons and griffons? That's some powerful security. I'd better watch myself," Stepdad replied with a chuckle. Mom giggled at our antics.
My mom's giggling stopped when the elevator opened, and we were all given a view of my griffon RA.
Greta was not waiting to get on the elevator this time. She was sitting a short distance away, next to a box, and had a list at the ready. She looked us over and made a mark on the list. "Rebecca Riddle? Correct? I remember you. Thank you for not crashing into the building this time."
I waved a wing as I trotted off the elevator, leaving my parents to gape behind me. "Hi, Greta! Are you having a good day?"
She gave me a look that I couldn't interpret, but then looked over at the stairwell door. "You won't be the most annoying pony I have to deal with today. I still have plenty of freshmen who are just arriving for the first time today, and at least one of you in the stairwell I want to strangle already."
I noticed then there was a rhythmic pounding coming from it. "What are they doing?"
Greta gave a harsh flick of her cat-like tail. "That brilliant mare decided she was going to haul her stuff up on a cart using the stairs instead of taking the elevator. I'll never know how some of you got into college." She shook her head, disparagingly. "You're noted, are those two humans with you?"
"Yeah, they're my parents."
She nodded. "I've visibly noted them. They may move in between the elevator and your room. They are not allowed in any other student's room. Male visitation is strictly off-limits for this floor, and your father will not be able to enter this area after today. Your mother may enter in the future, but must still get a visitor's pass from the guard on duty downstairs; the same goes for any other female visitor who is either not a currently enrolled student or employed by the college. If you order a pizza or something like that, the delivery will be made to the desk downstairs, and they will call you to inform you it has arrived. Don't try to sneak visitors through your balcony; I will find out. Are you clear about all visitation rules?"
I nodded and grinned. "All clear! I have a question, do I have a curfew?"
Greta shook her head. "No, you can go out whenever you please. Please, try to keep noise levels down, as students may be studying. Also, if you are going to be gone for more than a day, please let me know where you're going and how long you expect to be gone. It makes it much easier for me if someone comes and asks me. I won't give out personal information unless it is the police or something, but I've had students up and vanish without a trace for days before, and all that happened was they needed to leave to see their sick grandmare or whatever, but they left everyone here clueless and worried. My room is marked RA, and if I'm not present, there's a slot in the door to slip notes in."
"No problem," I said happily. However, I did wonder if I was going to have to take off anywhere for a few days because of the whole Dreamwarden thing. What was I supposed to say for that if it came up?
The stairwell door opened and a tired-looking yellow pegasus with a pink mane with green highlights collapsed in a panting heap. She looked at us and gave a weary grin. "That's a lot of stairs!"
Greta narrowed her eyes and lost interest in me as she advanced on the mare. "I'm the RA for this floor. Are you one of mine? What's your name?"
The mare picked herself up. "Sunflower Smiles. I'm supposed to be here. This is my floor. I got the key the other day."
"I'll be checking you off my list as arrived," Greta replied. "Do you have any help with you? Why are you dragging a cart up the stairs?"
Sunflower blushed. "It's just me, nopony else. I'm sorry about the cart and the stairs. I just really don't like elevators. I feel all boxed up."
Greta flicked her tail. "You could have asked someone to take your cart up the elevator for you, and you could have flown up or taken the stairs without causing all that racket. Don't make all that noise in the future."
Sunflower blushed some more. "Sorry. I don't know anypony here yet except for my roommates, and they weren't downstairs. I didn't want to impose on anypony." She then blinked in surprise, as if just realizing who she was talking to. "Hey, you're a griffon! I thought you were just a funny looking pony."
"You Earthling ponies are going to be the death of me," Greta muttered. She then turned back towards me. "I've got other check-ins to worry about. Be on your way."
My parents were already out of the elevator and had been waiting for me. The door to the elevator was already opening up to reveal another first-year student with her parents ready to check-in.
I hurried to get out of the way, and my parents followed behind me with my stuff.
"Sorry I left you standing there," I said to my parents as I walked towards the room. I had to step out of the way as a green pegasus I'd met the other day, Meadow, came trotting down the hall saying something about needing to save Sunflower.
My parents stepped out of Meadow's path before Mom answered. "It's okay. You were just getting things in order with your RA. That's the first griffon we've ever seen, and it was fascinating watching her. I'm proud you seemed so at ease about talking to such a strange creature."
I shrugged. "Greta might be a little different than other students, and I still want to find out all about what it's like to be a griffon, but she's just another person. I also already met her before, so it wasn't as shocking this time around. The first time I saw her, my brain froze, and all I could think of was beak."
We reached my dorm room, and I decided to knock rather than try to fish out my key. It only took a second before the door opened to reveal Julie.
Julie was a hugger, and she didn't take more than an instant to use one of those massive yellow wings of hers to pull me into a tight one. "You're here! Hey, Nighty! Rebecca's arrived!"
"Morning, Rebecca," Nightscape called out from within the hidden enclosure of her bed. She then stuck her head out of the curtain that was drawn around her part of the bunks. "Julie, I know she's nice and squishy, but don't hug her to death. Even squishy ponies need to breathe."
I was released from Julie's powerful feathery grip, and Julie stuck her tongue out at Nightscape, who stuck her tongue out in turn.
"Mom, Dad, these are my roommates, Julie and Nightscape," I said, gesturing to each of them. "Julie's on the flight team, and Nightscape is in the architectural design program like me."
Julie posed and flexed her wings. "Best flyer on the team." She stopped posing and quickly demonstrated her hugging prowess by wrapping her wings around both my parents' legs.
"Um, hi there," Stepdad said as he looked down at my roommate. "I'm guessing you and Becky are going to get along great."
Nightscape emerged fully from out of the curtains and out into the middle of the floor. "Julie's a big softy. Come on in; Greta won't fuss if we leave the door open."
Julie released my parents and went looking for something to prop the door open, finding a textbook, and shoving it up against the door.
My parents stepped in, rolling the luggage behind them. "Where do you want all this?"
Nightscape stepped back and pointed a wing at a big closet-like area. Closet-like because it didn't have any door. It seemed to be subdivided into three sections. Two of those sections were filled with various odds and ends, while the third was empty.
As my parents were getting my luggage into the storage area, Meadow stuck her head in the room. "Hi! I collected Sunflower. It will take a few minutes for us to help her settle in, but when do you want to go over bathroom rules with the newbies?"
"Not sure," Nightscape replied as she looked at the open door leading into the shared bathroom. "Give us around an hour, and then the three of us here will come over to your room. We can get the bathroommate introductions all done with Rebecca and Sunflower then. I'll go to bed late today, so maybe we can all have lunch together to do some bonding or whatever."
"Sounds like a plan. See ya in a bit," Meadow replied, then hurried back on her way.
Seeing both my parents walking around a dorm room designed for ponies made them seem even more giant than they usually did. They seemed big in my room back at the house, but they usually didn't intrude on my private space, so I wasn't used to seeing them in there together. If they felt out of place, they didn't show it bothered them in any way.
I shrugged my saddlebags off near the bed as my parents finished putting my other stuff in place. Nightscape pointed to a big box near one of the three desks. "Those are your textbooks; they arrived yesterday. The desk that they are next to is all yours to use. We can figure out together how to manage the rest of your stuff, even if Julie has to cut back on some of her exercise space."
Julie gave a look of mock horror, then laughed. "I'll live. It just means more time in the gym and the air. I think Nighty and I do most of our homework and studying in our beds. I just dump stuff on my desk when I'm in a hurry instead of using it for what I should. Nighty likes to play with her Legos on hers."
I looked over at the other desks with excitement to see if I could spot what Nightscape was building, but was disappointed when I only saw a big red box.
"I haven't started on a new project yet if that's what you're looking for. I've been kind of lazy since we got back in the dorms. I'll get something going this week," Nightscape replied in answer to my search.
"I just got my own set of Architect's Legos. Maybe you can give me some tips."
Julie gasped. "You better keep a good track of those things. Nighty is pretty good about hers, but our bathroommate who graduated last year had them too, and she let those things get everywhere. Hurts a lot to step on one."
"Studio would spend hours in a single sitting working on a giant lego construction, and then, without fail, she'd end up throwing it off her desk with a wing as she was leaving. Then she'd spend even more hours trying to gather scattered lego blocks," Nightscape recounted with a shake of her head. "That's my first protip, don't go accidentally thwopping the stuff you just built with your wing."
I blinked and tried to imagine having to pick several thousand blocks off the floor. I could be a klutz, so I'd need to be extra careful. "That sounds like good advice."
Mom stepped beside me and touched a hand to my head. "We're going to go fetch your bedding from the car. It should only take a few minutes." She bent down next to me and rubbed my ears. "I never got to go to college, and I'm so happy you've gotten yourself here. I hope you enjoy your time here, and make some great friends and memories."
I hopped up and grabbed her with my forelegs and wings. "Love you, Mom. Love you too, Dad."
"We love you too, " Mom replied as she hugged me back.
"Aww, that's so cute," Julie said in a sappy tone.
"Eh, I'm a night pony to the core, " Nightshade gagged. "It isn't that cute if it doesn't have the mare who was trying to flirt with your stallion crushed under your hoof."
"You night pony mares scare me; you know that, Nighty? You're a bunch of psychos sometimes," Julie said warily. "And you can admit you think it's cute."
"And I'm not going to have any stallion to crush my enemy over," I chimed in.
"Well, if a mare breaks your heart, I'll kill her just as quickly as I'll kill a stallion who does," Mom said as she stood up.
"Mom! I don't look at mares that way!"
Nightscape chortled. "I like your mom. She must have rehumanized from being a night pony."
Mom smirked. "Sorry, I was actually a pegasus."
Nightscape stopped chuckling. "Really? I saw your eye and thought night pony. Rehumanized night ponies always have something about their eyes that isn't fully human, no insult intended. But you never know, people change, and what tribe it picked for you back then might not be what it would pick for you today. You've got the spirit."
"No insult taken, but as you said, we'll never know," Mom replied. She leaned down and kissed my head, then ruffled my mane around my ears. "We'll be right back with your bedding."
I watched my parents leave the room then turned to look at Nightscape. "What do you mean, my mom has the spirit of a night pony?"
"She's highly protective of you, and willing to get very aggressive to protect you," Nightscape replied as if it were obvious. "That's two of the three parameters ETS had in the selection of night ponies. It didn't always get everything from all three of its big parameters, but if one was lacking and the others were extreme, you still got some night ponies for that."
"What were the parameters, oh informed disciple of Phobia Remedy?" Julie asked in a playful mocking way.
"Being very protective by nature, having a propensity for aggression, and having some fear that impacted how you thought of everything," Nightscape listed off. "Some night ponies were lacking in one of the traits but had an excessive amount of the other two. Plus, there were number quotas that kept the overall number of night ponies down, so a lot of possible night ponies ended up becoming other tribes. Plus, old Miss SS thought human women were naturally passive and less willing to fight than men, and to try to correct the imbalance she thought would go to night pony stallions, she had it favor females more heavily; huge mistake. We have a ridiculous gender imbalance the other way around now."
"Huh, that's interesting," I replied. Maybe Mom might have fallen into that category, if not for quotas, or became more night ponish with time. Not that it really mattered, Mom was human and was staying that way. It gave me a different way of looking at night ponies though, and I wondered how Miss Seapony fit into those things. I could definitely see how Phobia Remedy did, but wasn't as sure about Miss Seapony. It made me wonder how well I knew I really knew her.