//------------------------------//
// Chapter 36: Cafeteria Antics and Table Talk 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
//------------------------------//

Going to lunch together had some early hiccups. 

Ashley obviously couldn't fly down from the balcony, and while she did have a teleport license, it only allowed her to do what people called blinking unless it was an emergency. Blinks were extremely short-range teleports of no more than four feet. Some unicorns, at least the ones who could teleport- a minority, used blinks to get to difficult to reach locations around their homes. The balcony to the ground below was more than four feet, and it wasn't an emergency. In addition to this, Sunflower was very uncomfortable riding elevators. We would turn to the stairs, but there were lots of humans, earth ponies, and unicorns on the stairs by this point, enough to make Sunflower now feel claustrophobic even in the stairwell. Sunflower needed to fly down. 

In short, we needed to divide up as we went downstairs. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a short delay to us going off to lunch as a group. By the time we made it to the cafeteria, it was packed. As I looked around, I couldn't help noticing how humans and ponies kept separate from one another.

"Everything seems segregated here," I observed, as I was waiting my turn to be served. Even the lines for food were divided between ponies and humans.

"It's like that the first few days every year," Ashley explained. "It's because the dorms are segregated, and people tend to hang out with their roommates and bathroommates a lot the first few days. It doesn't last that long, maybe a week. Once people start getting to know their classmates, it desegregates fast. As for the lines, they serve different food. You don't want the food in the human line, believe me, and they'd probably get sick just thinking about eating our food."

"Oh, that's good then," I replied. I wanted to spend some time with Maggie, but she might be spending time getting to know her new roommates. She didn't have many human friends, since our high school was mostly ponies, so I couldn't begrudge her getting to spend time with her new human roommates. 

I got near the front of the line where I could grab a tray. It was a relief to see they had the friendly easy to carry trays for ponies that had a mouth grip on them. I watched as my bathroommates ahead of me were served. There weren't a lot of choices. There was a choice between rice or potatoes, with or without gravy. There was a choice between one or two daisy sandwiches or a small salad. There was also a small selection of different types of fruit. On the bright side, there was an ice cream machine set up at the end that gave options for chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, or combinations of either two or all three flavors. I was the last of our group in line, with Ashley directly ahead of me. 

Sunflower blanched as the server gave Nightscape gravy on her rice. "Isn't gravy made from meat?!"

Nightscape licked into her gravy right away, eliciting a shudder from Sunflower. "Just the juices, so it won't make you sick," the night pony explained as she licked her lips. "It's mostly water, cornstarch, and onions. It's calories, and you need your calories."

Sunflower gave the gravy another long look, and turned to the server waiting for her selection. "Um, rice with just a tiny bit of gravy, I guess, just enough to taste it, a daisy sandwich, and an apple."

"You don't have to get gravy if you don't want it," Ashley said. "Lots of ponies don't care for it."

"I want to try new things," Sunflower replied, though she still looked a little queasy as the gravy was added to her rice and added to her tray.

"No problem with that," Ashley replied as the server got ready for her. She turned to the server. "I'll have some potatoes with no gravy, a salad, and can I get two bananas?"

I was almost bouncing as I eagerly awaited my turn. The second Ashley's food was set out in her tray; I launched into my selections. "I'll have the rice with plenty of gravy, two daisy sandwiches, an apple, and an orange, pretty please!"

Ashley chuckled. "Someone's hungry."

I grinned at her. "It's a lot of work maintaining this physique."

"Extra work for Julie to turn you into a bowling ball, I guess," Ashley replied as she picked up her tray with her magic. 

I couldn't give any witty reply, since my mouth was now occupied carrying my tray. I instead followed the others out towards the tables. 

There were a lot of people, both ponies and humans, walking around the cafeteria. Meadow and Julie were already sitting and waiting for the rest of us at one of the tables. I tried to look around to see if I could spot Maggie. With so many people moving about, it was hard to get a good look. 

CRASH! SPLAT! CLATTER! RARARA!

Maybe I should have kept my eyes forward. 

I was on the floor; my tray was on the floor; my food was now a mess on the floor. I was now the center of attention, and it wasn't positive attention. Other ponies might be deeply embarrassed in this situation, but I had a long history of crashes, slips, trips, and splats. I knew exactly what to do. 

I got to my hooves and raised my wings and head up high. "Let me present my newest piece of abstract art! I call it Oops!"

Laughter rang out all around me, and I just grinned and laughed along with them.

"You okay there, Rebecca?" 

I looked at the person I walked into and smiled when I saw it was Russell. "I'm great. Told you, I crash a lot." I looked at his pants and saw a mess on them. "Um, let me wipe that off."

He beat me to it by lifting his leg and brushing it off. "Nah, don't worry about it. How bout I do you a favor and get you another tray of food."

I blushed. "You don't need to. It is my fault for not looking where I'm going."

He and I stepped out of the way as a janitor came over and started cleaning up the mess.

"It's all good," he replied. "I'm friends with the staff. My mom provides fruit for them. They'll let me cut in line to help you out."

"Well, if you're sure. I guess that's alright," I said and pointed over at the table with the rest of my friends, minus Ashley, who was still standing by me. "I'll be sitting over there."

He looked over the food to see what I had gotten and nodded. "No prob, be over there in two shakes."

As he headed off, Ashley came over to me and grinned. "Your tail's up, your wings are up, and you're pink, Beach Ball."

I turned a deep red, put my wings to my sides, and whipped my tail between my legs as Ashley giggled. "It's nothing!"

"Sure," Ashley continued to giggle. "But let's go take a seat before your boyfriend comes back with your food."

"He's not my boyfriend!"

She didn't answer; she just started walking to our table with a smirk spread from one end of her face to the other. I had little choice but to hurry after her. He was just really nice to me, and I appreciated that. It didn't equal attraction. He was just really nice to the klutz that he felt sorry for, that was it. 

I took up a seat between Nightscape and Meadow. Ashley took a seat opposite me between Julie and Sunflower. Nightscape gave me a smirk to match Ashley's. "So- committed virgin or just didn't have to worry about foals because you're into humans? Nothing wrong with being into humans."

"I'm not-" I started, but stopped myself as I saw him coming over already with a fresh plate of food. 

"Here you go," Russell said as he set it down in front of me. "Server remembered you and made sure I had everything right. They were already making a fresh tray, honestly. I stopped and picked up some ice cream from the machine for you. Didn't know your preference, so just got chocolate; can't go wrong with chocolate."

He got me ice cream too? I put my full pegasus willpower into not blushing. Hopefully, it was working. "Thank you. That was very sweet of you. Especially since I ran into you like that."

"Becoming a habit," he replied with a chuckle. "Hope to see you around tonight for the big get-together party out on the green. This time with no crashing."

"I'll be there," I answered without thinking. I didn't know there was a big party out on the green till that moment. 

"See ya then, and try to avoid any big crashes," he said, and walked away with a smile and a final wave. 

All the faces at the table turned to me and batted their eyes. 

"He's not my boyfriend!" I said flusteredly.  "He's just a guy I met the other day." 

Nightscape whistled. "Day one, and she's already wrapping a guy up in her tail."

"Not wasting time at all," Julie agreed. 

"Do you have any tips? I wish I could get a stallion that fast," Meadow said half-wistfully, half-playfully. 

I wasn't going to let this continue any further. "I can't help that I'm big and sexy. Anyway, it's Nightscape's turn to share."

Nightscape blinked. "Hey! I thought we were doing this later! And you know we're just twisting your tail about the guy, right?"

"Nope, your turn now," I replied, and dug into my gravy covered rice. 

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'm keeping it extremely quick and brief."

She cleared her throat. "Hi, I'm Nightscape. You all probably heard of me, since I live with you. I'm a third-year student. I'm originally from Florida, like Meadow, but from Pensacola. There weren't many other night ponies around, and they were all older than me, so I spent a lot of nights just sitting out on my roof by myself, staring at the city. They were always doing construction, and every night I'd see all these new things that went up in the day, like magic. That's how I got interested in architecture. I came here because it had the program I wanted, and it was near a Dreamwarden and lots of other night ponies, which is a big plus. Oh, and I'm engaged to the Dreamwarden's godson. The end."

"Just tacking that on at the end, huh?" Julie asked. 

"Yep. Got a problem with it?" Nightscape asked. 

Julie shook her head. "Nope. Rebecca, you're up."

It was my turn to blink. "Actually, can we wait till tonight for me? I need to show you all something, but I can't do it right here, right now. It has to do with my magic. It's normally a big secret, but if we're living together, I need to let you see, so you don't freak out or anything."

"It's not going to involve any crashes, is it?" Julie asked. 

I shook my head and grinned. "Just the crashes of you dropping to the floor in shock and awe before my mighty powers of pudge."

Julie snorted. "Okay, just as long as it doesn't get us in trouble with Greta. Don't want the RA coming down on us. I guess it's my turn by default then."

"Yep," Meadow confirmed. 

Julie sat up straight. "I've lived here most of my life, even back before the Cataclysm. My family is originally from Augusta, but the humans in Augusta kicked all the ponies out after we transformed."

She took a quick sip of water before continuing. "I remember the day of the Cataclysm, and the days after. There were all these clouds of smoke and ash. They were so thick in the sky that they caused lightning strikes. The streets were so choked with the stuff that you couldn't see five feet in front of your face. It was like that movie Nightscape made us watch last year, Silent Hill."

"That movie was the one that gave me nightmares," Meadow mumbled. 

"Huh, that one didn't bother me as much. You'd think it would trigger some PTSD about the Cataclysm, but it didn't do anything to me," Julie said thoughtfully. 

"Maybe because you lived through the real thing and the movie was just a bad imitation?" Sunflower suggested.

Julie shrugged. "Could be. Anyway, I noticed how sad and depressed the weather made everyone, and how frightened they were of everything. I thought to myself. Hey, if the weather can cause all these bad feelings, can it do the opposite too? It turns out; I wasn't the only one thinking that. They started up this whole cloud shaping industry to help impact moods. I wanted to get into that. This school had one of the few programs for it, it was local, and they gave me a full flight team scholarship. So here I am. I'm on the flight team, and going to be a professional cloud shaper."

"What was it like, being here when it happened?" Sunflower asked timidly.

Julie rubbed her head with a wing. "Well, school got canceled earlier that day. There were a lot of protests going on or something. I remember there was this big announcement that started playing on a loop that you could hear everywhere. It was telling us to abandon our homes and run. My parents were fussing with things and running behind, and a bunch of humans drove up to our house and told us there was no time, we needed to get in the car with them and go. My parents were going to argue, but then there was this big quake. I could see what happened from my house. This whole area we are sitting in now, and out by the monument, was under this huge magic dome, and inside the dome was just fire."

Meadow whimpered, and the rest of us leaned in intently to hear the first hooved account of the Cataclysm. 

Julie looked down. "My parents didn't argue anymore. They got right in the car, and practically shoved me in. There were lots of cars to help ponies flee, lots of ponies running, and the sky was filled with pegasi flying away. It was scary."

"But you got away?" Sunflower asked in a low voice. 

Julie nodded. "We'd just gotten clear of our old neighborhood when it happened. Wild Growth had already gone super Saiyan and started reinforcing the barrier before that, even if we didn't know what the heck was happening at the time. Roots, the size of houses, started popping up in the area behind us. There was another massive quake, and when I looked back, it looked like a volcano had gone off, a volcano made out of trees instead of rock."

We all held our breath as she took another deep breath of her own. 

Julie closed her eyes as she finished her story. "Then we could all feel it. Wild Growth's magic was just pouring out of her like crazy. I don't even know how to describe what it felt like. It was like she was in everything, even us, and we knew she was fighting the blaze. It seemed like it just kept going forever, even though it must have just been a few minutes. Then it all just stopped, the magic, the eruption, the shaking. All that was left was the embers raining down from the sky, the smoke, and the ash. I spent the next four months living in a tent after that, out where the farmland used to be. Our home was gone. If Wild Growth hadn't been there, all of us living in the city would be gone too."

On that somber note, we all turned our attention back to our food. It was one thing to hear about tragedies like that on the news or read about them in history, but it was another to listen to a friend who went through it tell about it. I hoped I never had to see such a thing happen.