//------------------------------//
// Chapter 52: Average Day 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
//------------------------------//

I found myself once more in Arbiter's marble temple with the Dreamwarden sitting upon her throne. Leaning on her fist with her staff held loosely at her side, she looked more or less bored. The sun was shining, the braziers were unlit, and a pleasant breeze came in through the outside. Arbiter might look bored, but the atmosphere said she was in a good mood. 

Miss Seapony appeared and swam among the pillars. "You are taking your time, little sister."

Arbiter raised her eyes to watch Miss Seapony's movements. "The gentleman needed a little more time to get his bearings. I am giving it to him." Her eyes turned towards me, and she smiled. "Hello, again. I have news for you that Wild Growth wished me to communicate to you, news I am thrilled to hear."

I blinked. "What kind of news? More meetings that I'll need to attend?"

She chuckled. "That too, but that was not what brought a smile to my face. Wild has decided to advocate for my brother and my sister-in-law. It seems a chubby little pegasus thought they should be allowed temporary transformation to grant them magic. Given that they are closely tied to both Phobia and me, the case could be made that they should have access to the dream realm for their safety and security. Most close living relatives of Dreamwardens have this access, but those two, along with Phobia's brothers-in-law, lack it. Wild is going to see if she can convince the government to remedy this. I thank you for your efforts. It means a lot to me."

I brightened up and did a little hop. "That's great news! I know she'll convince them it is the right thing to do." I stopped and gave her a more serious look. "But why didn't any of you ask for that already?"

Arbiter's smile faded slightly, and she sat up straighter. "We Dreamwardens try to avoid asking for anything that could be seen as a personal favor from governments. If we request something, it typically needs to be of the utmost importance or directly related to our jobs. We are servants and should never be seen as trying to take advantage of our positions. Someone asking something on our behalf is another story, but we can't have in any way suggested to that person or encouraged that we wish a boon. It’s a policy that Phobia proposed and a majority of us voted to make it our official stance."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense," I replied. Then my ears sagged. "You said something about more meetings?"

Arbiter nodded. "Yinyu has already told you about most of them, there is one other that you need to know about, but I shall wait to tell you and your parents together, or perhaps wait for Luna to tell you. It is a bit more exciting than spending time with her or our human brother."

"Hey! Spending time with Luna is not boring!" Miss Seapony objected as she stopped her swim to glare down at Arbiter.

"I'm sorry, but Avtandil and I have a more neutral view of the princess than the rest of you," Arbiter said, Iooking for non-existent dirt under her nails in a bored fashion. "It's probably because we are a generation further removed from her, and her inherited memories are more patchy for us. I don't dislike Luna, but I don't find the need to squeal on the floor like a puppy because she entered our realm. She's a guest, not our fairy godmother."

Miss Seapony pouted. "It's a shame you don't share the same closeness."

"I disagree," Arbiter replied. "She has undue influence over you, older Wardens, that an alien should not have. Right now, there are four of you with this influence, but soon we shall have an even split vote between your generation and mine. In a few years, God willing, Phobia will happily retire to Equestria, and our generation can finally have the votes to treat Luna as the outside influence she is."

"You disagree with Luna?" I asked. 

Arbiter shook her head. "I don't agree with her all the time or disagree with her all the time, just like I don't agree or disagree with my siblings in every circumstance. Unfortunately, Yinyu, Ghadab, Psy, and Phobia tend to always put more weight on Luna's judgment than their own, and Krik was just as bad before he left. That is undue influence, and it needs to stop."

"Sha'am was like you; she wouldn't listen to Luna either," Miss Seapony said accusingly. 

The breeze stopped, and the sun seemed a little less bright as Arbiter locked her gaze on Miss Seapony. "Sha'am's faults are legion, and she was unfit for her mantle, but she wasn't wrong about everything."

"Just like Sha'am in another way too," Miss Seapony continued. "You started trying to assert yourself almost right away after becoming one of us."

The light got even dimmer as Arbiter replied. "I'm sorry. I didn't get the luxury of compartmentalizing who I was when I was awake from who I was here. I had mere minutes of life left, and I spent those minutes using our knowledge to try to save the world. Then I got stuck here, needing to form an identity and find purpose since it is all I now am."

“Apologies,” Miss Seapony's fins sagged. "You, me, and Ghadab got what you Americans call a bum deal, but you got the bummist deal of the three of us. You had the most to try to take on all at once, and I shouldn't compare you to Sha'am for having to do that. Do you forgive me?"

The light in the room brightened again somewhat as Arbiter nodded. "You're forgiven. We are the dead, and the living will never be able to appreciate what our existence is like, and I hope no other Dreamwarden ever has to. I should not let myself get angry at you."

"How different are you from when you were alive?" I asked. I knew Miss Seapony had changed after she died, but she implied Arbiter's change was more dramatic. Finding out more about the Dreamwardens had become a more pressing concern as of late, for obvious reasons. 

Arbiter's wings and shoulders sagged. "Very. My living self wouldn't recognize me, even if I took that form. There are some core things there, but the rest…it's hard to say. I had hopes and dreams that can never be realized now. I loved to sing. I wanted a family. I wanted to live a quiet life with my wife raising foals. I wanted to be the cool aunt for my nephews and niece. I don't think I wanted that much out of life, but I didn't need that much to be happy. It is our bonds to others that make our life full, and here… like this… I still love my family, but there's a chasm that can't ever be bridged between us. I love Sunset, but I wish she would move on sometimes and find someone new to help make her life full again. She's so stubborn and refuses to see the gap between us."

"She has my foals to fill her life," Miss Seapony said in an annoyed tone. 

"You know what I mean, Yinyu, and you should know better than anyone else what I mean," Arbiter said in a weary voice. "And your foals won't be foals forever in need of her care. They are growing up, and it will seem like the blink of an eye before they are all out of the nest. She needs a special pony or human in her life, someone who can make her feel special and loved in ways I can no longer do, a partner."

"You could be more assertive telling her that," Miss Seapony said as she crossed her fins in front of her. 

Arbiter shook her head. "She has to decide it on her own. Me telling her that… it would break her. She's improved a lot, but there are parts of her that are still so fragile."

"This all sounds like very private information," I mumbled. 

"And we trust you follow the rules and keep it private," Miss Seapony said in a firm voice. "However, my little sister makes a strong point. It is our bonds to others that make our lives full. I really think you should give dating a chance. Your career as an architect and being a Dreamwarden can't be the whole of your life."

"Miss Seapony! You know how I feel about that!" I shouted. 

"She keeps bringing it up because she cares," Arbiter said gently. "Family and friends are our greatest weakness, that some will try to use against us, but they are also what keeps us grounded and caring. It is so easy to stop caring, and to lose our empathy. I am glad my oaths give me a lifespan here, because if I were to face endless ages, I would eventually lose all such bonds and lose myself."

"Will I love my grandfoals, great-grandfoals, and so on as much as I love my foals?" Yinyu asked sorrowfully. "How many generations can it go before they are just other faces in the sea? It troubles me. How far can it go before I long for the eternal dream because the world no longer matters to me? The memories of our forebearers are heavy, and so many lost their passion and will with the crushing passage of time. It is an inevitability, the only question being how long it will take? Our siblings help some, but I hold no fantasy that I am strong enough to last a millennia or more—a century, maybe, but two would be a stretch."

I flattened my ears. "You two really aren't good at selling this job; you know that? If my mom had either of you in the HR or marketing departments under her, she'd fire you on the spot."

"Fire them for what, Sweetheart?" 

I turned and saw my mom and stepdad standing there. Mom had an inquisitive eyebrow raised, and Stepdad was looking around at his surroundings in amazement. 

"Being honest with her about the troubles of being undead and the value of family," Arbiter answered. "She should never end up undead like us if everything goes well, but the value of family still is there. It is even more important if something unforeseen happens. She could die in a car wreck, choke on her food, have an airplane crash into her house, crash land into a wood chipper, get trampled by a buffalo, you never know. If something like that happens, she'll regret not having a spouse and kids to care about while she's stuck here."

Mom's eyes narrowed. "Thank you for putting all those disturbing images in my head; even if some of them are outlandish, I now am going to be stuck thinking about them."

"We can purge your memory of having heard that, if you wish," Miss Seapony said sheepishly. 

My stepdad looked at Miss Seapony with a frown on his face. "Do you do that often? Purge memories?"

"Upon request, if it is something the requester heard or saw here that they no longer wish to recall. If it is a memory from the waking world, we can't help you," Miss Seapony replied. "Sometimes important people who set up meetings here, government officials or corporate people, will request ahead of time that we block memories of certain small details said during that meeting, but we make sure everyone attending agrees to this before the meeting takes place."

"Those ones are paying the OMMR for a service, so we work out the details in the contract," Arbiter explains. "Dreamwardens are very strict about holding to contracts."

"I'd rather remember it than have you messing with my memories," Mom said with a sigh. 

"In that case, we shall make ourselves out of sight so you can have some privacy," Arbiter replied. "Do you mind if we let Luna join you after you have had a few minutes to catch up? We will try to be discrete about when to let her in if you do."

"Luna, who?" Stepdad asked. 

"Princess Luna from Equestria, Dad," I explained. "She needs to talk to me and tell us all something. It is important, something about another meeting, but not bad stuff." I turned to Arbiter and smiled. "That would be great. I only want to finish talking to my parents about my day today and my day yesterday first."

"Aww, look at my baby girl taking charge," Mom cooed. 

"Mom, don't embarrass me in front of the Dreamwardens," I playfully whined. 

"It's in the job description that parents need to embarrass their kids at least once and a while," Miss Seapony chuckled. "Arbiter and I will leave you be for now."

The two Dreamwardens vanished, leaving my parents and me standing in Arbiter's temple.

"So, what's going on?" Mom asked. "You seemed down when you called today."

I sat down and let my posture and ears sag. "I guess the biggest thing is I told Maggie about me possibly becoming a Dreamwarden. She didn't take it well."

Mom frowned. "You weren't supposed to tell anyone about that."

"It's my decision who gets to find out," I replied. "And this was Maggie. We have been best friends for years. I didn't want to keep things from her." I started to cry. "She yelled at me! She called me a liar. She said I was trying to get back at her for something and kicked me out of her room. Now Nightscape and Ashley are trying to decide what to do. I think Nightscape is going to talk to Phobia Remedy about it. I'm just confused, and I feel like I lost my best friend."

"Nightscape is your roommate who is secretly your bodyguard, right?" Stepdad asked. "Who's Ashley? Is that another bodyguard?"

"Ashley's someone else who knows about me," I explained. "She's supposed to be watching over another candidate, but accidentally blabbed that candidate's identity to me, so I told her about myself. It's a mess. I'm not going to say who that other candidate is. That isn't fair to them. I only told Ashley about me to be fair to them."

"That gave away an advantage you had; you realize that, right?" Mom said in a concerned tone. 

"I'm not concerned about getting an advantage over others," I insisted. "I want to be fair. It isn't me to try to take unfair advantage like that. That other candidate has their own issues, and I am worried about them. Not because they are my competition, but because they're hurt and scared."

"I'm not sure how competitive the architecture field is, but I think you could stand to be a little more willing to take advantage of opportunities," Mom replied with a shake of her head. "Still, it's admirable that you feel that way. Maybe it will help your position in the rankings."

I laid my ears back. "Not worried about that part. There's still more things."

"How much else could you have gotten into in twenty-four hours?" Stepdad asked in amazement. 

"I met Miss Seapony's daughter. Didn't know about her until recently. Her daughter hates me and blames me for her bad relationship with her mom. She knows it isn't true, but she still feels that way. She broke down crying earlier because of me. Sunset Blessing had to tell everyone to leave so she could take care of her."

My parents blinked and looked at one another before my mom turned back towards me. "I guess I shouldn't be shocked anytime you mention dealing with someone famous. We're about to be speaking with an alien princess, and you're taking that casually. I don't know where you find time to do all of this. Did you skip your first day of classes?"

"I made it to all my classes on time and stayed for their entire duration. I just was busy in-between things," I answered. 

"Apparently," Stepdad half-chuckled. 

"Oh, and Sunset Blessing turned me into a human for about a minute or two, which was interesting, then Wild Growth yelled at her for checking my curves out," I continued. 

"She says that with a straight face," Mom said with a shake of her head. 

"I'm not lying about it!" I protested.

"We believe you, Sweetheart," Mom replied. "It is just you've been very busy, and that is what you decide to add on as an afterthought. At least I think we got everything covered now."

I shuffled my hooves. "Actually—"

Mom went wide-eyed. "How can there be more? There's no time in the day. When are you sleeping?"

"Um, right now," I answered. 

Mom worked her mouth then took a deep breath. "What's left? Lightning-fast run down."

I took a deep breath and tapped my hoof with each listing. "Sha'am Maut might be back from the grave; we don't know, still trying to figure that out. I helped Arbiter talk to her non-magical brother. Oh, and there is this guy that might have a crush on me that everyone keeps calling my boyfriend that I want to be nice to because he's nice to me, but I don't want a relationship. He also proved that I have spots and stripes with a black light. Oh! And I took a foalsitting job for Miss Seapony's granddaughter. Oh again! I fell into the duck pond… I think that's everything I'm allowed to talk about. I don't know; it has been a very very busy time."

Mom sat down on the floor, and Stepdad rubbed her shoulder. "At least you should be losing weight, considering how much running around you've done."

"I had four servings of dinner," I said sheepishly.

"Of course you did," Mom said with a shake of her head. "You took your birth control, right?"

"Oops."

"Rebecca! I asked you to do one thing!"

"Dear," Stepdad said gently. "I don't think she has time to get pregnant in all that."

"We don't know that. She fits everything else in!" Mom said in exasperation. "Just remember to take your pills."

"I'll remember," I replied. 

Mom took a deep breath. "Okay, since you seem most concerned about Maggie, despite all that stuff I can only remember bits and pieces of, but is the one thing in all of that I am sure we can try to help with, we'll give her a call, and invite her over to talk this weekend. Your father and I will tell her you're telling the truth and try to see if there is anything else going on there."

I hugged my mom. "Thank you. I just don't know what went wrong. She seemed so angry. She said some things earlier to me. Things I rather not repeat, but it might have to do with it, I don't know. You can tell her I mentioned she might be upset about something that happened right before that, but I didn't want to tell you what. That's her private information, and if she chooses to share with you, that's her choice."

"Stuff you can't talk about, but you can talk about being a candidate for Dreamwarden—got it. Making this soooo easy for me," Mom said with a roll of her eyes. "Anything else you want to share with us before we talk to royalty? You mentioned a surprise, was talking to royalty the surprise or was it the big list of things you gave us?"

I perked my ears up and drew back from her hug. "I wanted to show you my human form since I know, sort of, what it looks like now. I doubt I'll ever be human again since that thing with Sunset Blessing was kinda a one-time thing, but I can always project using it."

Mom hesitated. "If you liked it, I suppose it is alright. I don't have any need to see that. I don't want you to think I wished you were human. Any human form for you would be a stranger."

"You said before you wished we were the same," I replied. 

She blinked. "I'm surprised you remembered that. You were very young when I told you that, and I left those feelings behind a long time ago. It's sometimes hard to remember you were ever human now. I think of you and think of a pegasus, not a pegasus that used to be human—if that makes sense to you."

"How about I tell you about it first, then show you?" I asked. "I thought it was cool and wanted to share with you."

Her lips tightened, and I could tell she was unhappy. 

My smile dropped, and I nuzzled my head against her. "It's okay to tell me you don't want to see. I don't want to accidentally hurt you because seeing me in a human form could be hard for you. I should have thought of that. Miss Seapony tells me not to worry about what if's, but that what if's can still hurt. She says the Dreamwardens are big on avoiding what if's. I might use it sometimes when I'm projecting, as a disguise, but I'll avoid using it around you."

Mom didn't say anything, just wordlessly nodded.

"I guess we're ready for Luna then," I said. 

"Huzzah! The time of my arrival has come!" a booming voice rang out. “Greetings and salutations, Riddle family.”