"Hey! Wake up, butterball!"
It was still dark; no lights were on. It felt too early. I wanted to cuddle up in my covers for a while longer. I rolled over and pulled my blanket tight around me.
Nightscape wasn't having it and yanked me out of bed by my tail and onto the floor.
"Ow! What did you do that for?" I asked as I rubbed my head.
"We have a private discussion that needs to happen before class," Nightscape explained in a whisper. "Sunflower and Ashley are already up and waiting for us outside, even if they are tired. Julie just left to begin her morning workout, so this was the earliest I could rouse you without her taking notice. I want to get you all back in here before Meadow wakes up and notices you and her roommates aren't in bed."
I yawned. "We could have had this talk in the dream realm."
"Sorry, but I'm wide awake, and I'm the one with instructions to pass on. While you all were sleeping, the Wardens of Fear and Order were awake and making decisions," Nightscape replied. "Come on, and be quiet. I'd have you fly down with me, but you crash enough when you can see where you are going, and I don't want you drawing attention by trying to fly in the dark and going splat."
I stood up and followed her out of the room, blinking sleep from my eyes and yawning the whole way.
"Ashley is going to play point for us," Nightscape explained as we got on the elevator. "If she starts talking about your boyfriend—"
"He's not my boyfriend," I corrected as I yawned again.
Nightscape rolled her eyes. "—if she starts talking about him. That means that someone is in range to overhear us, and we need to change the subject immediately. If she mentions Sunflower being a country bumpkin, that's the all-clear to resume."
I frowned. "If Ashley is saying that second part because no one can hear us, why is she saying it in code? It seems like she could say all-clear instead of calling Sunflower a name."
The night pony seemed taken aback. "Um, we didn't think about that. We just kinda did a code for one because we did a code for the other."
"Maybe you should have thought about it," I replied. "I don't mind being called things, but Sunflower might find it mean. She's had a hard enough time yesterday without having to worry about her friends picking on her."
Nightscape gave me a sideways look. "Nice to see you starting to speak up a little. A person in the position you are in line for needs to speak up more, and you've been letting everyone get away with saying whatever rude thing they feel like saying. What prompted the change?"
I blinked. "I don't think there has been a change. If there has been, then I don't know what caused it. I just know I don't want Sunflower to feel bad."
Nightscape shrugged as the elevator came to a stop on the ground floor and opened. "Fair enough. Don't be afraid to speak up for yourself either, Rebecca. People won't believe you're worthy of respect if you always let people get away with being disrespectful to you."
We got off the elevator, and Nightscape led us to the exit to the building. I turned my head to look at her as we walked. "Does that mean you'll lay off the boyfriend talk?"
She stopped and looked at me. "Does it bother you that much? I figured maybe comments about your weight, flight skills, clumsiness, or stuff like that might be bothering you more, not that."
I shook my head. "I am all those other things, and I own it, but the boyfriend thing isn't true, and it ruffles my feathers."
"Huh…" Nightscape said thoughtfully. "Alright, I'll lay off the boyfriend talk and encourage the others to do the same. Although, you realize this means I'll probably double down on the jokes about the other stuff."
"Meh," I said with a shrug. "I've heard it all before. I'll laugh along with it. If you can't laugh at yourself, you'll end up miserable."
We walked out to the reflection pond where Ashley and Sunflower were waiting on a bench. A few humans and ponies were making their way from the dorms to the cafeteria, but they were all a reasonable distance from us. The geese were all in a group on the other side of the pond, and most of them seemed to be still asleep since the sun wasn't up yet.
"How's your hoof doing?" I asked Sunflower as we came up and sat down on the ground in front of the bench.
She held it up and looked at the bandages. "It's still sore to walk on, but no worse than last night. The stitches are starting to itch, and I'm trying not to nibble on them or rub them."
"Silly country bumpkin, don't do that," Ashley said as she looked around.
"Rebecca and I were talking on the way here. Just saying all-clear is good enough. We don't need that part coded," Nightscape said. "And other code we can switch to, I bet Rebecca wants a doughnut.
Ashley shrugged. "Whatever the client wants. Anyway, it's all-clear. You three talk. I'll listen while keeping watch."
"Client?" I asked in confusion.
"Nightscape and I are executive protection agents, and you and Sunflower are the clients," Ashley replied. I must have still looked confused, because she sighed. "We're bodyguards, and you two are being bodyguarded. The ones being bodyguarded are called clients. We're more buddy-buddy with you than people in our position should normally be allowed to be, but Dreamwardens tend to be less professional in their dealings with the security than would typically be allowed in the professional security business. However, that doesn't change our positions."
"Oh." I didn't know how to respond to that. It seemed Ashley took her job seriously.
Nightscape smirked. "Look at the pretty unicorn, trying to be professional about protection."
Ashley turned and sneered, which highlighted her scars. "Ham it up, bat pony."
"If we're going to be throwing slurs around, I'd like to point out you're the one who wants to be a piggy," Nightscape replied, still smirking. "Oink oink."
I laid my ears back. "Hey! You two should be nicer to one another. You're supposed to be friends."
"We are friends," Ashley replied. "Just a little friendly banter between bodyguards."
"You should hear the things Crystal and Tempest say to one another. It would curl your tail, but they trust one another completely and have one another's backs," Nightscape added on. "And for the record, night ponies typically have the highest respect for law enforcement, but that doesn't mean we don't like to poke at them. Ashley and I just talk to each other a little rougher than your virgin ears are used to."
I wasn't sure if she was also poking fun at me being a virgin, but I decided not to ask.
"Anyway, I'll try to keep this brief so we can get back to the dorm before Meadow wakes up and freaks out," Nightscape said quickly. "If either of you gets approached by any people that claim they are OMMR agents and you need to come with them, believe them, and do It. Rebecca, they should be showing up for you right after class. I don't know where they are taking you, and Ashley and I won't be able to come along. Sunflower, they should be showing up for you sometime tomorrow. I was told you'd both be gone most of the day."
"What do they need us for? Did we do something bad? Is it because of what I did yesterday?" Sunflower whimpered.
Nightscape shook her head. "You didn't do anything wrong. The Warden of Order is here in town. He arrived sometime last night, and he wants to interview each of you. He'll be in town just today and tomorrow, and then he needs to move on to interview some other people elsewhere. He'll probably be on his way the second he finishes the second interview. The only reason he didn't start this last night was that he needs a lot of time to interview you, and he spent most of last night catching up with Phobia."
"I figured they see each other in the dream realm all the time already," I commented.
"They probably do, but both of them prefer talking to people in person when they can. I figure that applies to each other too," Nightscape replied. "They see each other in dreams all the time, but they never really get to see each other awake that often, and Dreamwardens have this whole chummy brother-sister thing going on that I've never really understood."
"I think it is nice that they do. I always wanted brothers and sisters," Sunflower replied wistfully. She then looked downward as her voice turned more somber. "If I can become a Dreamwarden, I get to have those siblings, and maybe control when I have these weird episodes like yesterday. Yesterday was the worst ever. There's this great big world I want to encourage ponies to see and experience, but I don't want to be at the mercy of my powers like I am now either."
My ears perked up. "Are those the reasons you want—"
Ashley cut me off. "I bet Rebecca would really like a doughnut right now."
"—to take up...scuba diving?" I asked, clumsily changing subjects. I spotted the ponies Ashley had noticed, who were a short distance away, walking out towards the classrooms.
"I don't know. Scuba diving might be fun since I get to see something new I never saw before, but I get claustrophobic, and having all that water pushing on me from all sides might be a little too much for me," Sunflower replied, not missing a beat.
"All-clear," Ashley said as the ponies got a bit further away.
"I did give an honest answer to the scuba diving part," Sunflower continued. "But for the real question you were going to ask me, yeah, that's what I want to do as a Dreamwarden. I grew up just seeing this little stretch of nothing, but I saw all these amazing things and places on old books' covers. I imagine seeing them as I draw them, and I know there are so many ponies that don't ever try to see what's beyond their farm. It's frightening, venturing out past that, but amazing."
"It's dangerous business walking out your front door," Ashley said. We all looked at her, and she continued to keep watch as she explained. "I understand why Ghadab thinks you're so great now. You're a regular Bilbo Baggins."
"From Lord of the Rings?" Sunflower asked. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Ghadab fell in love with the world beyond his little patch of nowhere by reading books," Ashley explained. "The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were personal favorites of his, and if you talk to him all the time, you'll hear him start quoting from them—along with things from other books. He's got a mouth on him, but he's also a pretty nerdy bookworm. While ideas of heroism and justice inspired him, you're more inspired by a sense of adventure and wanderlust. You compliment him."
"Oh, I didn't know that about him," Sunflower replied. She then looked at me. "Why do you want to be a Dreamwarden?"
I should have expected her to ask. After all, this was our chance to learn about what we were competing against. "Me? I want to help inspire creativity. I also want to be a friend to anyone who feels left out or in need of one. When I was a little filly, my mom and I were homeless, and it was a scary and lonely time. Miss Seapony—Yinyu was there to be my friend when I needed someone, and I want to be that to everyone that needs it. I could help so many people that no one even knew were hurting if I was a Dreamwarden."
"So how do you decide who deserves you being friends with them?" Nightsape asked. "Unless you go undead, you'd have limits on how far you can stretch yourself. I heard Phobia can cover a few hundred ponies at once, but that isn't much when you count the whole world, or even a country. What do you tell the ones you chose not to help? Do you tell them they weren't important enough?"
"I can figure out a way to make it work," I half-insisted and half-pouted. "I just have to get creative with it. I can enlist Miss Seapony, Arbiter, and Ghadab to help me."
"Arbiter is kinda aloof, Ghadab doesn't play well with kids at all, and I think most parents would have something to say about Yinyu hanging out with their underaged kid," Ashley said. "Not trying to be mean, just pointing out the challenges. It isn't like Sunflower's plans don't share similar issues."
"And to be fair, a lot of the Dreamwardens are limited in similar ways in the things that matter to them. How many ponies with regular nightmares do you think Phobia never gets to visit because there are just so many ponies to worry about?" Nightscape asked in a sympathetic voice. "Even demi-gods can't accomplish everything."
"It might be worth asking the Dreamwardens how they make those tough decisions—if you haven't done that already," Ashley added on.
Nightscape suddenly took several nervous steps away. "Uh, girls, I think we should get going. We have trouble coming."
I turned to look at what was making her jumpy and gasped. "That's a pretty bird!"
"And big!" Sunflower said in excitement.
Ashley spotted it and immediately got down from the bench and started quickly backing away. "That's a friggin' peacock!"
"What's a peacock doing around here?" I asked in confusion.
"Some crazy people keep them as pets. It might have gotten loose from a nearby house, but we need to move," Nightscape said as she backed away some more.
"We're not joking. Move now," Ashley insisted. "You think the geese are bad-natured and aggressive? They've got nothing on a peacock. Those birds are the devil made flesh."
"He's looking at us," Sunflower said in a nervous tone.
"Why do you think it is a he?" I asked as I watched the peacock start to spread it's plume. That couldn't be a good sign. I started backing away too.
Sunflower started flapping her wings and went into a hover. "Don't know. Just seems like a he to me."
The peacock started charging. I took to the air, Nightscape took to the air, and Sunflower and Ashley high-tailed it out of there. Nightscape and I followed just a second later.