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// Chapter 34: The Bathroommates 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
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My parents helpfully put my bedding in place, said their final goodbyes, and just like that, I was officially moved out of the house and into the dorm.

I did a tiny amount of unpacking. A few posters were hung up in my spaces, my box of legos was placed on my desk, and my laptop was plugged in to charge up. I also took a few minutes to investigate my new textbooks. Some of them were much bigger than my textbooks from high school. My calculus textbook, in particular, was a monster of a book, and I was glad that I didn't have any classes scheduled immediately before or after that class, as I was unsure I'd be able to carry much else but that book and the accompanying notebook. I was going to build some muscles from hauling that thing around.

Meadow stuck her head in, this time from the bathroom, and gave a light knock on the door to get our attention. "Ready to do introductions and go over the bathroom rules?"

Julie had been doing wingups (that's like pushups only using her wings) to this point and stood up. "Yep. Time to find out if any of the newbies are going to freak out over the shower rules."

Nightscape giggled. "It was great last year when Meadow screamed."

Meadow blushed. "Hey! Don't embarrass me in front of the newbies! It was an understandable reaction."

"I didn't scream," Julie replied. 

"Well, you're weird, and you thought they were kidding," Meadow replied. "Still, it's going great not to be the newbie this time around."

"Want to do the honors, since you've got two newbies in your room?" Nightscape asked.

Meadow looked back towards the other room. "Ashley isn't technically a newbie, just a room transfer, so she already knows. I'll do the honors with Sunflower and Rebecca, and then we can do the meet and greet over in our room."

Nightscape nodded. "Rebecca's all yours then. Rebecca, go into the Den of Fear- I mean bathroom- with Meadow."

This entire conversation had me a little worried. "Am I about to get hazed? I heard about first-year hazing, and this sounds like I'm about to get hazed."

"Naw," Julie replied while shaking her head. "Just going over the bathroom rules. Hazing comes later."

Meadow nervously rubbed a hoof against her leg. "Actually- I think we should lay off the hazing altogether with Sunflower. I don't think she's the type that can take it, and if we don't do any hazing of her-"

"Then it's unfair to do it to Rebecca," Julie finished. "Darn it, I had been looking forward to my chance to be on the other end of it this year, and I was sure Rebecca could take it without any problems. I can tell she's made of sterner stuff."

"Sorry, Sunflower just isn't, and if it is possibly going to hurt her, then it isn't worth it," Meadow replied. "We can come up with some other group initiation thing with them, but we all live together, and that makes us like a little family. We need to look out for each other."

"Fair enough," Julie lamented. "Go on in the bathroom, Rebecca. There are no killer clowns in the drain or anything like that to worry about."

I blinked. "Killer clowns? "

"Old horror movie," Nightscape explained. "We'll be doing a watch of those in a few days. You can let Julie squeeze you during all the jump scares. Hurry into the bathroom."

I hesitantly walked to the bathroom as Meadow disappeared deeper inside. I heard her calling into the other room. "Hey, Sunflower. Come on in here. We need to go over bathroom rules."

I entered the bathroom and looked around. Along one side was a single counter that ran from one-bedroom door to the other, with an available mirror that spanned that entire area. There were three sinks, each with handles to adjust hot and cold water. The counter was big enough for a pony to walk on and had some cabinets underneath. The other wall had two small toilets right next to each other with no privacy divider and a large shower. Everything was in white tiles, and the light was a large fluorescent one. The shower area had a small raised line of bricks at the bottom to keep water from getting out on the main floor, along with a clear plastic shower curtain.

"Welcome to our shared bathroom," Meadow announced. "There's six of us sharing this thing, and there are some rules to make it so we aren't getting on everyone's nerves and each getting our fair use."

She opened one of the cabinets to show a feather bin. "Preening you should do up on top of the counter and be ready to get the feathers in your bin right away. Don't stand around preening in the middle of the walkway, or the shower, and definitely not on the toilet. Most of us, except Nighty, all need to get ready in the morning, and we don't have time to wait for people in the way."

Meadow pointed at the toilet. "That's the toilets. There are two of them and six of us. Do your business on it and go. You should not be sitting on the toilet for more than five minutes unless you're sick with something. If you are sick, you better let everyone know and go to the doctor. We all come in here and all risk getting exposed to whatever you have."

She pointed to each door. "The doors remain open unless we have guests. That means if you're used to privacy in the bathroom, you'd better get unused to it quick."

She pointed to the shower. "There's one shower and no tub. None of us want to go out without a shower, but we all get up to get ready at the same time, except Nighty. So guess what else isn't private? If you get in the shower, be prepared for one of us joining you if we need a shower too. If you have someone in the shower with you and they get out, don't be shocked if someone else takes their place right away. We don't have time to wait. Luckily, I've never seen the shower run out of hot and warm water, even when going for hours."

We had to shower together and couldn't use the toilet without everyone able to see? That was uncomfortable. I'd always had a bathroom to myself. I'd never had to share the same space.

"Each of us rotates who has bathroom cleaning duties each week, and everyone gets a turn," Meadow explained. "Basic cleaning duties are clean the toilet, wipe the soap scum off the shower, empty the feather bins, wipe down the counter and mirrors, and give the floor a sweep and mop. If everyone does their job with that, it stays nice and clean in here for everyone. We'll decide on the schedule for that tonight. Also, it goes without saying, but I'll say it because everyone's got a story about walking into it, please don't be an idiot and go rubbing your marehood in the shower. Any one of us can climb into the shower at any time, and we don't want to walk into that. Keep that under the covers of your bed."

"Rubbing my marehood? What do you mean?" Sunflower asked in what seemed honest confusion.

Meadow blinked. "You indeed are the most innocent, sheltered pony I have ever met. College life is going to be a whole new world for you. I'll explain it to you later, or find you a website or something to explain it."

Sunflower's ears fell. "Sorry, I guess I am kinda sheltered. Is that bad?"

Meadow looked at me, and I shook my head. Then Meadow turned back towards Sunflower. "No, nothing wrong with that at all. It just means you're going to be getting a lot of new experiences. Don't worry, Ashley and I will look out for you, and I'm sure our bathroommates will too. Hey, you got through the whole bathroom rules without getting upset about the lack of privacy, that's great. I about had a panic attack last year when I got this talk."

Sunflower looked confused again. "But, back home, everypony on the farm had to shower and take dumps together. Is that not normal around here?"

Meadow coughed. "Um… it wouldn't be normal for me."

"Or me, " I added.

"You wimps never had to shower in a gym!" Julie called out from the room. 

"Those wimps don't go checking the drain for clowns," Nightscape called out in turn.

"Will you lay off that? It was just that one night!" Julie replied in outrage.

"It sounds like a great time to do introductions!" Meadow announced. "Everybody, into the room."

Sunflower and I followed her into the adjoining dorm room. The room was a mirror of my room, with the only exceptions being different decorations and a set of three easels in a row near the balcony doors. I still needed to unpack my easel.

There was also Meadow and Sunflower's other roommate lying in the bottom bunk, watching us. Ashley was a light grey unicorn with a dark grey mane. Her cutie mark was a sketch pad with a knife drawn on it, which was somewhat weird and disconcerting. Ashley also had scars along her muzzle, neck, and along her flanks. They looked like they were old, scars she had for years. I did a quick look at Sunflower's cutie mark and saw it was a sun with a simple flower with white petals in the middle (but not a sunflower). Meadow's mark had nothing to do with meadows or leaves; it was a brush and a wooden ruler crossed over one another.

"I thought this floor was all winged ponies," I said as I looked back at Ashley. 

She shrugged at me. "Enough of the students on the lower floors don't like me that I asked to get moved up here."

"And we're going to make sure no one gives you a hard time!" Meadow said proudly. "Time for introductions. I'll go first. Hi, I'm Meadow Leaf. I'm working on becoming an art teacher. I was born and raised just outside of Orlando, and I LOVE Disney stuff. My parents used to take me to Disney World all the time since it was practically in our backyard. Both my parents are earth ponies, and they changed my name from Samantha to Meadow Leaf after ETS, because they thought it was pretty, and I'm green. Some ponies claim I'm kinda motherly, so if I get too motherly, just tell me. My family are all proud Blessingists, and having said that, I really hope none of you are Shimmerists."

"Not a Shimmerist," I replied. 

"Not a Shimmerist either," Ashley replied.

Julie snorted. "You already know I'm not."

Nightscape bared her teeth. "I converted to Shimmerism over the summer. All Blessingists are blood traitors!" She then laughed as Meadow's eyes went wide. "Just yanking your chain. I'm definitely not a Shimmerist."

Sunflower just looked confused again. "What's a Shimmerist, or a Blessingist?"
 
"Um… I'll tell you later,"  Meadow answered. "How about you share some stuff about yourself, Sunflower."

Sunflower blinked. "Okay. Well, my name is Sunflower Smiles. I'm from a little farming pony community in Kansas that doesn't even have a name. We just got internet and electricity about a year ago. I've never really been anywhere. This is the first city I've ever been in, and it is so big- and loud. I suppose I came from one back when I was human, but I can't remember that. I want to be an illustrator. I've always enjoyed art more than weather stuff and copied the illustrations off of old novels that were lying around, but I do original work too. My parents encouraged me to apply to art schools since there wasn't much of a future for an artist in a no-name farming community. I honestly don't remember even applying to this school, but they gave me a full scholarship when other places wouldn't. So here I am. I guess that's everything."

"No electricity until last year? Do you even know how to work a computer?" Nightscape asked.

Sunflower nodded. "Yeah, we have a library back home, and they have a computer. Dewey Decimal- that's our librarian- showed me how to use one. That's how I did all my applications. I'm not great at it, but I'm getting better." Sunflower's ears perked up as she looked at Nightscape. "I just got the ability to dreamwalk, since I wanted to talk to my parents back home while I'm here, and they don't have phones or email. Can you teach me about that?"

"Eh, I'm not asleep at the same time you are," Nightscape replied, then pointed at me. "But Rebecca here can dreamwalk too, so maybe she can teach you a thing or two."

I blinked, surprised to be put in a mentor role about anything. "Sure, I don't mind. It's not that hard. I've been doing it since I was a little filly."

Sunflower beamed at me. "Thanks a lot! It will help me so much to have somepony teach me who knows what they are doing. I suppose I could ask the Dreamwarden that I asked the ability from, but I don't like to impose, and they must be so busy."

I chuckled. "They don't mind, depending on which one you asked. Which one was it?"

"The one that looks like a seahorse, she has a funny name, but I can't remember it," Sunflower answered. 

"Yinyu Wu Yan," Ashley answered before I could. "I know all the Dreamwardens, except for the newer guy, the Warden of Order. I even met the ones that are gone now; Sha'am and Krik. Ghadab's my favorite. I don't dreamwalk though, thought about asking for the ability, but don't really feel a need to. Although I only met Yinyu for the first time last night."

She knew all the Dreamwardens? I didn't even know all the Dreamwardens! Why had she talked to all the Dreamwardens and didn't even know how to dreamwalk? 

"I talk to Yinyu a lot, I call her Miss Seapony," I said. "What were you talking to her about last night?"

"Possible job opportunity, can't really talk about the details," Ashley replied. 

It was like there were red flashing lights and alarms going off in my head. Was Ashley my competition for the Dreamwarden job? Was that why she was here? Miss Seapony said she was meeting my competition last night, and becoming a Dreamwarden certainly counted as a job opportunity. Ashley also said Ghadab was her favorite, and he was one who liked whoever Miss Seapony was talking to. 

I'd never been competitive, but that competitive pegasus spirit decided it was time to rear its head for one time in my life. Why was Ashley here? What did she have that I didn't? Had she guessed I was her competition already?

I grinned at her. "How about you share next. Finding out how you met all the Dreamwardens sounds like it is quite a story."

The unicorn frowned at me. "I guess we can go ahead and get this over with. A quick warning; Dreamwardens never get involved with ponies when they are young foals unless there's a reason, and it usually isn't a happy one."

She took a deep breath. "My name is Ashley Santos, and the story of how I met Sha'am Maut and Ghadab begins when I was just a little filly, living in Houston… "