//------------------------------//
// Chapter 50: Sunflower isn't Smiling 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
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The sun was down by the time I wandered back into my dorm room. I'd managed to stop crying but was still miserable. 

Nightscape paused putting together her legos and blinked as she examined me. "Great, another one of my friends walks in looking like crap. So, what happened to you?"

I looked around the room; it was just Nightscape and me. "Another? Where's Julie? Did something happen to her?"

She shook her head. "Julie's fine. She's over in the other room, probably hugging the remaining blood out of Sunflower. Sunflower came in with her hoof all bandaged up. Meadow changed out the bandages. It was a really nasty wound. It looks like someone took a bite out of her hoof. Sunflower and Ashley say she just tripped and stubbed it, but no one is buying that."

I blinked and flattened my ears. Sunflower and Ashley had been over at Phobia Remedy's house, or at least, that was where Ashley said they were going. How could Sunflower get hurt over there? 

I went through the bathroom into the other room. I found that Julie really was hugging Sunflower, and Meadow was fussing over the bandages on Sunflower's right forehoof. The bandages went up about halfway to her carpal joint—the equivalent of a human knee. Sunflower looked as miserable as I felt and was doing her best not to look at Julie or Meadow. Ashley sat a short distance away and perked her ears up as I entered. 

"Rebecca! Just the mare I wanted to see," Ashley said loudly. "Want to join Nightscape and me for a walk? We need to walk down to the store and buy some extra bandages and antiseptic. It is better to go as a group of three or more when walking out in the dark, and it is pretty much impossible to separate Meadow and Julie from showering Sunflower with attention."

"Does she need to see a doctor?" I asked as I looked at Sunflower. 

"Yes," Meadow said immediately. 

"I don't need to see a doctor. Somepony already treated me, and you're keeping care of me now," Sunflower muttered. She still wouldn't look at anyone directly. 

Ashley walked by me towards the other room. "Come on, Marshmallow. The quicker we head out to the store, the quicker we'll be back. I'll tell you all about what happened along the way. We all have class in the morning, even Nightscape, so we don't want to be out late."

I looked back and forth before turning to follow Ashley. "Okay, coming."

Nightscape hopped down from her seat and gave Ashley a dirty look as we entered the room. "You could have just given me a list and sent me to go get this stuff. I'm sure it wouldn't be too much for me to fly with. I would have been fine out on my own instead of having to foalsit you two at night. Not that it is that dangerous a walk to begin with."

"I feel better if I pick out the stuff myself, and as a pony who was once foalnapped, I feel better going out as a group at night," Ashley explained. 

Nightscape rolled her eyes. "Fine. Let's just get this over with so you and Rebecca can get back and get to bed, and so I can get back to designing."

We left the room in silence and went to the elevator.

As soon as the elevator closed, Ashley started hurriedly speaking. "I'll say this part fast, and we can talk some more once I'm sure we are clear of prying ears. Sunflower didn't stub her hoof. She took a bite out of it. She doesn't even remember doing it. She then started drawing in blood on Phobia Remedy's walls before the Dreamwarden's bodyguard took the initiative to shove a marker in Sunflower's mouth, then Sunflower started drawing with that. She doesn't remember any of it. Freaked us all out, even the Dreamwarden and her bodyguard."

Nightscape and I stared with wide eyes. I started to open my mouth, but Ashley put a hoof up to it as the elevator reached the ground floor and opened. 

"Talk more once we are away from the dorms," Ashley said quickly. 

"Sounds like a good idea," Nightscape said slowly while giving Ashley an appraising look. 

We had to cut across campus to go towards the store. There weren't many people out at this hour. I saw a few humans going about, but they were all far from us. 

"We should be good to talk if we stay close together and keep our voices down," Ashley said as she looked around. "If you see someone in range to hear us, change the subject immediately. The other two of us will catch your drift."

"What happened? Why were you at Phobia Remedy's house?" Nightscape asked.

"Because Sunflower is a Dreamwarden candidate too," I answered before Ashley could. "Ashley is her bodyguard, just like you are mine. She accidentally gave it away to me earlier today, and I told her about me after that."

"That was really stupid, on both your parts," Nightscape growled. 

"I've been doing a lot of stupid things today," I whispered.

Nightscape arched a brow at me. "We'll address whatever other stupidity you've done in a few minutes. First, let's hear why Sunflower felt the need to cannibalize her own leg."

"I took Sunflower over to meet the Warden of Fear," Ashley began. "Phobia Remedy likes to meet people in person when she can, at least that was what I was told. Things started smooth enough. Sunflower was looking around the room and asked why there was a big empty glass case. That's when the trouble started."

"Empty?" Nightscape asked in confusion. "There's only one glass case I know about in that living room, and it has that creepy doll in it."

Ashley looked ill as she shook her head. "It was definitely empty when she first said something about it, and when Phobia Remedy checked it. The lock was still on it, too, with no signs it had been tampered with, but the doll was gone. The Dreamwarden was calling her bodyguard to look into it when Sunflower just quietly walked over to a wall, lifted her leg, chomped into it, and then yanked back to rip right into it. Then she started drawing on the wall in her blood. Made both me and the Dreamwarden scream, but Sunflower didn't even so much as grunt in pain."

"Jesus H Christ," Nightscape breathed. "That doll always made everyone who looked at it feel nervous, but this sounds like some grade-A haunting stuff."

Ashley shook her head. "I'm not sure what was going on with the doll, but the rest was all Sunflower. She's got powers; she draws things in a trance. Only this time, she didn't have anything to draw with, so she found a way."

"What did she draw?" I asked. We had just cleared the campus grounds.

Ashley licked her lips. "The Dreamwarden's human bodyguard came running due to all the screaming. The woman took one look at Sunflower and what she was doing and found a marker, and I'm serious about her shoving it in Sunflower's mouth. She then yelled for the Dreamwarden's son to get down there—she used more colorful language. A teenage night pony colt then arrived, looked over the situation, grabbed some medical supplies, and started treating Sunflower's leg. Sunflower didn't even pay him attention as he stitched it up; she just kept drawing."

"But what did she draw?" Nightscape prompted. 

"It was a human man, holding an earth pony colt in one arm—a young colt, like only a few months old," Ashley replied. "In his other hand, he carried an old doll. He looked like he'd gone through hell; scratches and scars all over him, his clothes were torn up."

"Okay, that's weird," I said. I looked at Nightscape to see if she understood anything I didn't, but she just shook her head in confusion. 

"It gets weirder," Ashley said. "After Sunflower finished, she came out of her trance and immediately cried out in agony as she clutched her bandaged leg, like an extremely delayed reaction to the pain. Then I noticed it—the doll was back in the case."

Nightscape shivered. "Okay, screw that creepy doll. That evil thing belonged to Sha'am Maut, and anything she owned I want no part of. Thing is fucking haunted or something. Warden of Death is screwing with people from beyond the eternal dream."

"It certainly freaked out Phobia Remedy," Ashley replied. "She said she was going to have a long talk with the Narrative about it, and find out how in the hell it was possible for Sha'am's doll just to leave and come back like that, who that man was, and what ties to Sha'am he had."

"Who is the Narrative?" I asked in confusion. 

Ashley took a long breath. "That gets into what Sunflower was doing. Phobia Remedy explained it to us, once Sunflower had stopped yelling and crying. Sunflower is what is called a storyteller. There are several storytellers, and their abilities manifest in different ways. Sunflower isn't even the strongest storyteller—apparently, it's a human who is. Storytellers are linked to something called the Story. They can find out things from the Story about the past, present, or possible future. They're like the old ancient Greek oracles, prophets."

"And the Narrative is another name for the Story?" I asked, looking for clarification. 

She shook her head. "Not exactly. It is more like the will or awareness of the Story. Like Dreamwardens are the will and awareness of the dream realm. She said she would have to go to the strongest storyteller to get answers from the Narrative because that's the only one it talks to directly."

"More super powerful cosmic beings," Nightscape muttered. 

"She also said the Story is another name for the eternal dream," Ashley said in an even lower voice. "Which means—"

"That if Sha'am is really reaching out and touching the world, the Narrative has to know," I concluded.

"Or directly helping," Nightscape grimly added on.

"Anyway, that happened," Ashley said with a sigh. "I let Phobia know about the fact I know about you, and we told Sunflower. I don't know how Sunflower took the news. She's kinda been in shock since she realized she gnawed open her hoof—which no one can blame her for being shocked about. It was comforting in some ways to have Phobia Remedy just as surprised and screaming as me. It makes Dreamwardens seem more like normal people—at least the ones that are alive."

"Are you sure Sunflower doesn't need to go to the doctor?" I asked. "That sounds like it is a nasty wound, and even if it is okay, she is still shaken up badly."

"I'm supposed to monitor her. The Dreamwardens have some sort of pull with the college administration. Sunflower is excused from her classes for tomorrow. If she's still acting shell-shocked, we can get her to a psychiatrist," Ashley replied. She frowned as she continued. "I think this might be a test. To see how quickly she can bounce back from a disturbing experience. I figure everything that any candidate does is being reviewed and judged."

"Speaking of which, what dumb things did you do today, pudgy?" Nightscape said with a half-growl. 

"Hey, I'm not pudgy! And I already told you about my day," Ashley objected. 

"I was talking to our friend, the Avatar of Cholesterol," Nightscape said flatly. 

I gulped and recounted everything that had happened from the afternoon on. When I finished, Nightscape covered her face with a wing, and Ashley shook her head in disapproval. 

"Seriously, Marshmallow, how the hell do you manage to survive?" Nightscape asked from behind her wing. 

"I'm squishy and resilient?" I sheepishly suggested, then bowed my head.  

"We're going to have to do something about this Maggie friend of hers," Ashley said as she looked around. 

Nightscape lowered her wing and nodded. "Yeah. Sunset Blessing and her godfoals are monitored all the time by Yinyu and Arbiter, not to mention Wild Growth, so they shouldn't be an issue. The human is a liability that we can't let hang, though."

I laid my ears back. "You aren't going to hurt her...are you?"

"I don't think roughing her up would do us any good," Nightscape replied. "Would probably make her more inclined to blab something. I'm not sure what to do, just that something needs to be done."

"I could try talking to her again," I suggested. 

"Because that went sooo well today," Ashley muttered. 

"Ashley's right; that's not an option," Nightscape said. "I'll go to Phobia Remedy later tonight and consult her about all this, and see how she wants to deal with it, or find out if she's going to make us figure it out on our own."

We walked in silence for a few minutes, contemplating what we should be doing, how Sunflower was doing, and our actions throughout the day. We did this until we arrived at the local Walgreens. It was a twenty-four hour store, with large windows and displays in the windows. It was very different than the typical Walgreens, as it carried many goods a drug store might not normally, but were of high interest to the local college students (the art school was not the only college in the immediate vicinity), such as small refrigerators for rooms, bedding, and more. 

For me, I worried about Sunflower, but mostly, I worried about whether today I had lost my best friend.