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// Chapter 63: An Unexpected Interrogation 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
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The rest of the day was spent with my roommates and bathroommates. We went to a hookah bar, taking a bus since Ashley obviously couldn't fly and we weren't going to have her travel alone.

By the time we were done with the hookah bar, my head hurt, and my nose was stuffed up. It had been fun, for a while, to sit and sing songs. Most of my group weren't very good singers, and we laughed at each other for how badly we were destroying the notes, but that seemed to be the norm for the patrons of the hookah bar and all part of the fun. 

Now I was just ready for bed. We had all taken time showering to get the stink of the place out of our fur, and everyone but Nightscape was tired. I didn't even remember laying down in bed. 

"Rebecca Riddle, prepare yourself to be questioned."

I looked around myself in confusion. I was in what looked like the center of a giant amphitheater. The entire place seemed to be done in white marble, and the sky was star-filled. There were shadowy figures out in the seats that I couldn't make out. The Dreamwardens surrounded me in a circle, evenly spaced apart so that I couldn't look at them all at once. They were all in their dream forms—Phobia Remedy was a shadow with glowing eyes, Arbiter was her standard angelic form, Ghadab was a figure on fire, Miss Seapony was in her seapony form, Psychic Calm was a stag, Avtandil was a shadowy figure with a white cape and no face. 

It took me a moment to figure out that Phobia Remedy had spoken, and I faced her. "What's going on? Am I in trouble for something?"

I had heard of the old Dreamwarden trials. Was this a trial?

Her eyes focused on me from within the shadow. "You and the other top five candidates shall be questioned. You shall not see other candidates nor hear their answers, but they shall receive the same questions. The audience around you are the representatives of the nations that the Dreamwardens have treaties with. Your appearance, name, even the normal sound of your voice, shall be kept from them, but they shall hear our questions and your answers. They shall hear us identify you as Candidate Purple. Do you give permission for them to hear your answers?"

This was some type of test, a test they hadn't warned me about at all. They wanted us to be unprepared for it. 

"I agree to all of that," I said, practically squeaking. 

The eyes slowly blinked. "All candidates have agreed, so we begin."

"Rebecca Riddle," Ghadab spoke first, and I turned to face him. "There is currently an ongoing war in the nations of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. This war centers around tens of thousands of pony migrants from the Middle East that have settled in the region and formed a Celestia worshiping cult. This cult has spread to many of the humans in the region as well. Militant groups and troops from the three nations have all gotten involved to suppress this cult's growth and force out the migrants. Should the Dreamwardens get involved or stay out of the situation, and if we were to get involved, what action should we take?"

Okay, count me as entirely unprepared. I felt like I was in a nightmare where I showed up to class to take the final exam and had missed every day of class up to that point. 

"We await your answer, Rebecca Riddle," Ghadab said in a neutral tone. 

Answer… right. I needed to answer the question. "Um… I would get involved and work towards a solution that involves the least amount of people getting hurt. I don't know what that is yet, because I am not familiar enough with what is going on to say, but I would be open to listening to all sides for suggestions."

All was quiet for a moment. I wondered if they were judging my answer or laughing at me for being completely clueless. 

"Rebecca Riddle," Avtandil said, making me have to turn completely around to face him. "Human magic is still a relatively new thing and has to date been unpredictable. There is a belief that, inevitably, all humans will eventually develop magic over several thousand years with some regions—such as the United States, possibly reaching this point in just a few centuries. The Blessingist group seeks to speed up this process. Should the spread of magic in humanity be encouraged, discouraged, or left to advance at its normal rate?"

Wait? They weren't going to tell me what they thought of my answer to the last question? Were they just moving onto the next one right away?

"Your answer, Miss Riddle?" Avtandil prompted. 

"I think that this question is none of the Dreamwardens' concern and should be handled by the different governments since they may have very different opinions on what to do," I answered, a little more confident in this answer than my previous one. 

"Rebecca," this time, it was Miss Seapony that spoke, and I again had to almost completely turn around to face her. "Night ponies and crystal ponies seem to be recessive tribes. This means that, unlike the main three tribes, there is zero possibility of a night pony or crystal pony birth unless one of the parents is of that tribe, and then it is only a fifty-fifty chance per birth in mixed unions—at this point, that number will decline in future generations. With their numbers already low, and many of them turning to mates outside their tribe, there is a genuine chance these tribes could go extinct within a thousand years' time. Should we be interfering and trying to encourage them to stick to mating within their tribe—something that can cause friction in their communities and with other tribes, or should we let nature take its course and let the tribes slowly descend to extinction?"

Extinction? Seriously? No one ever told me that two of the tribes were facing extinction! Sure, they said it would take like a thousand years, but it was still extinction they were talking about. 

"Rebecca, what is your answer?" Miss Seapony asked, keeping her voice calm. 

I fidgeted in place. Why were they asking me all these big questions out of the blue? I knew why, because these were important issues that Dreamwardens could possibly get involved in. They could directly reach any magic-user in our universe, which gave them options even governments didn't have. There was the overhanging question of whether they should or whether they should keep strictly to dream realm and mind magic affairs. 

"I think we should want to help save the tribes and work in partnership with governments to explore options that best fit the capabilities and cultures of the different nations. It should not be a one size fits all approach," I answered. I hoped that they liked that answer. All these representatives were listening and judging. This was even more about them than the Dreamwardens. 

"Miss Riddle." I had to turn around again to see Psychic Calm speaking. Were they doing that on purpose? I bet they were. They were trying to keep me from settling. 

He regarded me with a blank expression, although it was hard to tell on a deer. "Some nations have expressed concern about the freedom of Equestrian dreamwalkers to visit dreams while on Earth, particularly Princess Luna. Should the Dreamwardens step and restrict her movement in the dream realm while she is visiting to only pre-approved individuals, or should we simply continue to apply the rules in the same way we would any Earth-born individual?"

Now they were hitting me with a question that I knew they would have a very different opinion on than the governments did. The treaty governments wanted assurances that the Dreamwardens were loyal to their interests before the interests of Equestria. Hold it… wasn't Equestria one of the treaty partners? No matter how I answered this question, a lot of people were going to be unhappy with the answer. 

Psychic Calm didn't prompt me; he just stared at me, waiting. 

I gulped. Just going to answer it as best I could. "I think… I think that unless she commits a crime, or unless she commits to an agreement with governments that restricts her, we should treat Luna and the other Equestrians like anyone on Earth. If they have some sort of agreement in place, we should enforce it, but otherwise no extra privileges and no less."

"Rebecca," Arbiter said, yet another person I had to turn around to see. "Piggybacking off of what you just said; some nations are asking for us to put restrictions on their residents using the dream realm—restricting access or denying access altogether in some cases. This would be by their national law and not something their citizens individually agreed to. Should we or should we not honor these laws?"

I wanted to cry. All the governments in the treaty were here, listening to my answer. If I said no restriction, then I was effectively blowing them off. If I said restriction was okay then I was effectively surrendering them full authority over the dream realm and possibly overriding the will of the people. What was I supposed to answer in this case?

"Everyone is waiting on your answer, Rebecca," Arbiter prompted. 

"I need a minute to think," I replied. "Just give me a minute." A minute? I needed about a year.

It felt like all eyes were on me, which I suppose they were. What were they seeing and hearing? I knew the Dreamwardens were masking me somehow, but could the audience still tell I was flustered? How were the other candidates doing? I could imagine this kind of pressure might have Sunflower in tears. She barely knew anything about the world as it was, and they were hitting her with these kinds of questions. It hardly seemed fair. I guessed I should be happy I might be doing better, but I still felt sorry for her. 

"You must give me an answer, Rebecca. Whatever answer comes from your gut," Arbiter said with the calmest insistence I had ever heard. They were giving no emotional reaction to any of this. 

I shook my head. "My gut says no to any outright ban. If they want to talk about restrictions, I would need more specific information about what kind of restriction and what the justification is."

"Rebecca Riddle," Phobia Remedy spoke up, getting my attention. I didn't have to turn all the way around for her; she was just to Arbiter's right. "We have access to some knowledge of alien technology from past Dreamwardens. This knowledge is at times patchy, as our older memories are often incomplete, and these holes in our memory get worse the more generations back we must go. It is a group effort between the six of us to put together any detailed information about such things based on who can remember what. All of that is not directly related to the question I am about to ask you, only indirectly."

Are you kidding me? She said all that and didn't even make it to the point?! Most evil current Dreamwarden!

Phobia Remedy's shadow gave me a slant eye. "Don't make that face at me."

Was I making a face? Did all those representatives just hear her tell me that? How long till this nightmare ended? 

"To get to the question," Phobia Remedy continued. "Should the Dreamwardens be obligated to share alien technology that doesn't advance our goals with the nations of the world?"

That doesn't advance their goals? What goals was she talking about that depended on giving people alien tech? Didn't Miss Seapony die because China wanted to ransom her kids to get alien tech knowledge from her? I didn't want to give them anything. They were bad people!

"No!" I shouted. "And what goals are you talking about?"

"We ask the questions, Rebecca Riddle," Ghadab chided. "Your next question is about OMMR fees across international borders—"

My ears sagged. This was the worst!