Sunflower, Ashley, and I were engaged in a game of two truths and a lie when my roommates and Meadow were heard coming in together through the other room.
"How'd it go with the human?" Sunflower asked as Meadow came back into her room through the bathroom.
Meadow gave a dejected shake of her head. "No spark, but not because he's a human, and I'm a pony. He didn't respond to my flirting at all, but it might not be a joke that he could be interested in Rebecca, though. He seemed genuinely disappointed not to have seen her at the party." Meadow turned her attention to me. "What're you doing that I'm missing? I tried all last year to find a special someone, and no one seemed interested."
I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe you're trying too hard. I'm not trying at all."
"You might want to lay off some of the Blessingist talk too," Ashley added in. "It's great you're so devoted to your beliefs, but if you talk too much about it, you end up sounding like a fanatic. That's a huge turn-off."
"Unless your preferred partner is a die-hard Blessingist fanatic, in which case, keep it up," I decided to add in as well jokingly.
Meadow flew up to her bunk and flopped. "I attend the Young Blessingist meetings held on campus every month, haven't had any luck there either."
I blinked. "I was sorta kidding. I could tell that stuff was somewhat important to you, but didn't realize you really are that passionate and into it. In that case, keep going to those meetings, let your passion for your beliefs shine, and stop trying so hard to attract a guy. If they're attending those meetings too, then they'll be more impressed by your convictions than you trying to flirt."
"Yeah, focus on being you and letting everypony see you for who you are," Sunflower agreed.
"Everybody," Meadow corrected. "More than half the people at the meetings are humans. You're all probably right. I need to step back and stop trying so hard to impress guys."
Nightscape wandered into the room. "While all of you were partying and whatever, I was sitting through class. The professor was as boring as I expected him to be, and I'm ready to move around. I'm probably going to head out again soon and go check in on Robby. His dad is in town for the night, getting ready to take Robby's sister back home. I wanted a chance to say hi, I'm your future daughter-in-law. It seems like a good thing to do while I've got a chance."
I flicked an ear. "I may be taking up some of their time if you do. I promised to do something for Jess and her dad. Something that I'm the only one around here who can do it."
The night pony gave me a quizzical look. "I'm guessing this has to do with your secret special magic that you were going to tell us about? Maybe you should get to showing us that. It's your turn to share anyway, Marshmallow."
I nodded and stood up. "We should all go to the other room. It is best if I do this while in bed."
"Aww! You mean I have to leave my nice comfy bed to go watch you be comfy in bed?" Meadow lamented.
"Just as long as you don't make a habit of it. That would be weird," I replied as I started walking through the bathroom.
"That's my job," Nightscape said with a chuckle. "I watch you all sleep."
"That's creepy, and I didn't need to be reminded of that!" Meadow shouted.
Nightscape ignored being called creepy and turned to me as we entered the other room. "Are you going to be flying out with me, Rebecca? I don't mind since I can track you in the dark better than in the daylight, but I worry about you trying to fly back here at night when you're tired since you are prone to crashing as it is."
I walked past Julie, who was looking over her class schedule, and hopped up on my bed. "I'll be fine. I'm not going to be doing my normal flying. In fact, I don't think even Julie would be able to keep up with me with the type of flying I'll be doing."
Julie whipped her head away from her schedule to look at me. "What?! I understand a bit of pegasus ego, but no offense, there's no way you could outpace me in the air."
I pulled my headphones over to myself. "You'll have to see what I'm talking about, and then you'll understand."
Julie snorted. "I'll believe it when I see it."
I put on my headphones but didn't start my music. I took a deep breath and launched into my monologue. "I owe you guys my story first since everyone else gave their stories. I'm Rebecca. I have two human parents. I'm planning on being an architect and was inspired to be an architect when I first saw that monument across the street. My mom is an executive for PonyCo, and I spent most of my foalhood moving from place to place due to her job. I'm a dreamwalker, and I started dreamwalking at a young age. So young that it ended up making my magic go all screwy. That's why my pegasus magic isn't very good. I have other magic as a result, though. That magic is what I'm going to show you. Please, don't tell anyone about it. It could cause me problems if you did. I have to show you because sooner or later you'll end up catching me doing it and freak out."
"I've seen some pretty freaky magic before, so don't count on it," Ashley replied, unconvinced.
I started flipping through my playlist. "I have an easier time doing this when listening to music. I can do it without, but it's much more challenging. It will take a moment or so to happen. Don't distract me, or it will take even longer."
I turned on an old Disney song from Treasure Planet and let myself get lost in the music as my friends all watched. A moment or two later, I was staring at myself, and my eyes immediately fell upon my mane.
"Hey! Why didn't anyone tell me I have yucky duck pond leaves stuck in my mane?" I flusteredly asked. "Can someone pull them out? I can't touch anything right now."
I turned around and was greeted by five mouths hanging open.
"How are you doing that?" Julie asked. "You aren't a unicorn. You can't cast illusion spells."
I floated away from my body, and my friends backed away. "I'm a projection. It's like my mind gets up and goes where it wants to go." I stuck a leg through a bedpost. "I'm not all here. I can't touch anything. I can turn my projection invisible or change shape. I can move really fast like this since it doesn't depend on my wings, and there's no air resistance or anything. Now, can someone get the leaves out of my mane?"
"So, you can go through walls?" Sunflower asked. The ordinarily timid pegasus got brave, stepped forward, and put her wing through my belly, and wiggled it around.
"Do you have a limit on how far you can go?" Meadow asked.
"What else can you turn into?" Ashley asked.
"How fast can you move? Is it legal to use for the flight team?" Julie asked eagerly.
I shook my head. "I'm pretty sure it breaks some rule for me to use for flight competitions. Can we focus on priorities, like getting the wet gooey leaves out of my mane?"
Ashley lit her horn, and the leaves in my mane were yanked out one at a time.
I smiled gratefully at her. "Thanks. I need to take a good shower in the morning." I then turned to look at all my friends. "Okay, lightning round of answers. Yes, I can go through walls. I can go many miles away from my body. I'm not sure how fast I can move, but it will take me less than a minute for me to fly from here to Phobia Remedy's house, and that's on the edge of town."
"And the shapeshifting?" Ashley prompted.
I considered what to do for a moment and decided to have fun with it. After picturing my new shape in my mind, I shifted.
Nightscape burst out laughing after I changed shape, but the rest of my friends looked horrified.
Ashley gave me a dubious look. "Is she supposed to be a crazed stuffed animal, or a ghost, or a—"
"A marshmallow…" Julie said breathlessly.
Meadow looked like she wanted to upchuck her last meal. "I'm going to be having nightmares about giant smiling marshmallows that want to eat me."
"Me too," Sunflower said as she closed her eyes and shook her head. "It's just something about the big empty sockets for eyes and the mouth that just opens into a dark void, like something out of a scary movie."
"Can you please stop that? I need to sleep in the same room as you, and you're going to have me looking for monster marshmallows as I try to sleep," Julie whined.
Nightscape just kept laughing. "Oh my god! I don't know why that's so funny, but it is! The marshmallow has ascended to ultra-marshmallow. The queen and alpha marshmallow! All shall tremble before the marshmallow and despair. I've got to turn away. I'm going to bust my gut laughing!"
Ashley seemed to have recovered from her initial discomfort. "Okay, Miss Stay Puft—" She paused as Nightscape went into a fresh round of laughing and continued again after Nightscape waved a wing and walked away, still chortling to herself. "—can you turn back to normal now?"
"Please!" Meadow whined.
"Oh, okay," I grudgingly said before shifting my shape back to normal. "Anyway, I have a promise to keep. I'm going to turn invisible and go project to Phobia Remedy's house." I pointed at my gently swaying physical body. "My body is still going to be doing that the whole time. Um, you can pull my curtain closed around my bed, so you don't have to look at it."
Ashley didn't waste any time lighting up her horn and pulling the curtain closed. The others looked slightly relieved after it was shut, except Nightscape; Nightscape was still getting her last few mirthful laughs out.
I grinned at my friends. "I'll be out late and will immediately go to sleep when I get back. I'll see everybody in the morning. Have a good night!"
I didn't wait for a reply. I just turned invisible and started moving. Within a second, I was high above the school and trying to orient myself to where Old Town was. It didn't take long, and I immediately took off in the appropriate direction. Within another few seconds, I was across the street from Phobia Remedy's house.
The night ponies all around the outside of the house gave me pause. While I was telling more ponies about my powers, I was only telling my friends, not the whole world. Some night ponies were able to spot me when I was invisible—not all of them, or even most of them, but enough of them that I needed to be cautious. It had something to do with being more aware of dreams.
After spending a moment judging the distance to the house, I dipped down underground and zoomed forward so I would come up from underneath it. I rose through the earth and found myself in the living room, under a couch.
I did a quick glance around, and the coast looked clear. Then I decided to rise a little higher up, which turned out to be a big mistake.
It all happened so fast. First, there was the sound of a mare screaming. I turned quickly enough to see Phobia Remedy jumping over the edge of the couch. Crystal came rushing into the room and focused on me, still invisible, and I started to feel woozy as the crystal pony started to glow. The next thing I knew, I was back in my body, in my room, with a splitting headache.
"Owwww," I moaned and fell over into the curtain of my bed, getting tangled in it.
"Rebecca! Are you alright?" Nightscape yelled with worry from somewhere nearby.
Someone was working on getting me untangled, and I didn't struggle while they worked at it. It turned out to be Julie, who immediately pulled me into a hug upon getting me free. I saw the other three come hurrying into the room.
"What happened?" Sunflower asked.
"She cried out and fell out of bed," Julie explained, not letting me go.
"Oh, no! Poor Rebecca!" Meadow cried out and came over to start checking me for bumps and bruises.
Nightscape came closer and gave me a concerned look. "Are you actually hurt?"
"No, just a big headache," I replied with a wince.
She nodded. "Let me guess, you went into Phobia Remedy's house unannounced and invisible? Crystal nailed you, didn’t she?"
"Uh-huh," I moaned weakly.
Nightscape started laughing again. "The crystal pony came through on her job. Everyone jokes that Tempest is still Phobia's physical bruiser, and Crystal is just there to deflect magic threats. She finally got to show she's useful. She'll be proud as a pufferfish about this."
My phone started ringing, and Nightscape stuck her head forward to look at the screen. "Hey, that's Jess calling you. Want me to answer it, or do you have it?"
My head was still pounding. This felt much worse than crashing from a flight or tripping. "Answer it for me, please."
Nightscape reached a wing around and tapped it. "Hi, Jess. It's your future sister-in-law. You'll be glad to know Rebecca isn't dead. She just has a little headache."
"She scared Phobia half-to-death," Jess replied. "We're still trying to calm Phobia down, but she's at least slowed her breathing and letting Charlotte and Arachne touch her."
"I was in-invisible," I said with difficulty. "I didn't know she was there."
"Do you think a Dreamwarden wouldn't be sensitive to that kind of thing?" Jess demanded. "She didn't see you-see you, but she sensed something come up right under her, and she has high anxiety while awake. Crystal and I had to figure out that it was you because she only knew something terrified her. You should have called first!"
"I'm sorry," I replied quietly. "I'll apologize to her personally. I'll be back over there in a little while, as soon as I take some aspirin. I'll come through the front door this time if someone can stand by to look for me."
"You're still coming over?" Jess asked in a shocked tone.
"I promised I would," I answered and winced again. "I might have to tone it down to being a go-between or try something else. I don't think I can keep focused enough right now for proper mimicking. I came up with another idea on how to do it anyway. It should work and require less concentration on my part."
"Alright, but take a few more minutes so we can finish settling Phobia, and call before you leave this time."
Nightscape leaned forward again. "Hey, I'll be heading your way now. I'll keep the marshmallow in line when she gets there."
"I'll see you soon then," Jess replied. "Let me go so that I can go help with Phobia. Talk to you later."
The line went dead, and I groaned again. "Does anyone have any aspirin?"