We all returned to campus, but for me and Sunflower, our time back was a short stay. We had time to put our purchases back in our rooms and eat breakfast in a hurry; then, we waited out in the parking lot. Crystal's big van drove up in front of us, and Tempest shepherded us into the vehicle.
"Hi, Rebecca! Guess we are taking Drizzle on a field trip today," Jordan exclaimed as we got into the van.
"Field trip! Field trip!" Drizzle shouted excitedly.
"Incorrect," Phobia Remedy said. "You two will be going with Tempest and Crystal to the park. The rest of us are going to be going somewhere else."
The van was full of people. It was me, Sunflower, Drizzle, Jordan, Phobia Remedy, Tempest, Crystal, and a human girl I didn't know. Phobia Remedy wasn't wearing clothes this time—not much anyway. She had her phone on her leg, a very dark pair of sunglasses, and a big white sun hat with a dark green bow around it.
The human girl looked at Phobia Remedy. "Where are we going, Miss Remedy, and who are these two ponies?"
Phobia Remedy gestured to me and Sunflower in turn. "This is Rebecca Riddle and Sunflower Smiles. Rebecca, Sunflower, this is Blanche Laurent. Blanche, these two recently found out about your status, and they share the same status. I decided to have you three meet and undergo this test together. Please, don't go looking for the other two. They are in Skytree, but I would rather not have all the candidates meet. I am only letting you three because circumstances steered it that way." She seemed annoyed.
Jordan looked at the three of us. "Candidates for what?"
Phobia sighed. "Jordan, they are Dreamwarden candidates. If you fail to keep this secret, I will never trust you with another secret again. Do you understand me?"
Jordan's eyes went wide. "Like… Dreamwarden-Dreamwarden, or like something else, like bodyguards."
"Like Dreamwardens, Jordan. Do you understand me about keeping this secret?" Phobia Remedy said as her eyes bore into Jordan's. "You manage to keep my mother's secrets; can you keep this too?"
Jordan gasped in excitement which transformed into a high-pitched squeal.
"Jordan!" Phobia Remedy hissed.
"Yes! I can do it!" Jordan finally blurted out.
"Good," the Dreamwarden replied, seeming more relaxed. "Know that your foalsitting slash bodyguarding job is as much you guarding Rebecca as it is Drizzle. Drizzle is still your priority, but you are protecting Rebecca too, got it?"
"Yes, Phobia," Jordan said with a rapid nod and then did another excited squeal under her breath.
"They are like GranGran?" Drizzle asked.
Phobia looked at the young pegasus and gave a gentle smile. "One of them might end up being like your GranGran, and just like your GranGran, you should never talk about that with anyone, okay? It is to keep you safe, just like them."
"Okay, Auntie Phobia," Drizzle replied. "Does Mama know?"
The Dreamwarden shook her head. "She knows about Rebecca, and that's all she'll know about. You don't discuss this with her, got it?"
"I got it, Auntie Phobia," Drizzle said with a beaming smile. "I promise. I won't say nothin'."
"You did not answer where we are going, Dreamwarden," Blanche said. She did have a sort of European accent, as Maggie said. I couldn't place it either, but it didn't make her hard to understand; her English pronunciation was perfect and what she said seemed always to be understandable.
"The Skytree Medical Center for Magical Abnormalities' long-term stay facility," Phobia replied. "It is on the edge of town. Crystal shall be dropping the four of us off and returning later. Tempest doesn't do well with who we are going to see, and Crystal needs to drive the others around."
"Tempest, your elite bodyguard, does not do well?" Blanche asked, voice shaking slightly. "What are we going to encounter?"
"His name is Moses," Phobia replied. "I want to give you as little prior prejudice against him as possible. However, it would be irresponsible if I didn't advise you of some things. Primarily, it would be best if you didn't take your eyes off him at all after we meet him, no matter what you may think you see out of the corner of your vision. Tempest is terrible at following this direction. That is why she is not coming. She can tell you that you want to obey this instruction."
"I feel ashamed to admit I have failed in the past at this and support what the Dreamwarden says," Tempest said from where she was riding shotgun. "You do not want to fail at this, not unless you have a good psychiatrist."
Sunflower squeaked. "If this pony has dangerous magic, wouldn't it be better if Crystal came to protect us?"
Phobia Remedy shook her head, but it was Crystal that answered. "No can do. I can protect myself from him, but I can't protect anyone else without accidentally hurting the guy. You have to remember; this is a clinic; these aren't bad people. They are just poor saps that got dealt an unfair hand when they got their magic. If it had been around at the time, a good friend of mine, Jessica Middleton, would have probably ended up there for a while until she got control of her magic. They are there because they have dangerous or very disruptive magic that they can't control. It isn't their fault. The clinic is there to help them learn how to control their magic, not to hurt them."
Phobia Remedy nodded. "It is mostly humans at the clinic, but there are some ponies too. Stays can last anywhere from a few weeks to a few years. However long it takes to get their magic under control. We expect Moses will be there for many years yet."
Blanche wrapped her arms tightly around herself. "A place I might have ended up at if it had been around when learning to control my magic."
Sunflower hung her head. "A place I wonder if I should be at."
Phobia Remedy gave them grim looks. "Perhaps with your magic, Blanche. Sunflower, I don't see yours on the same level of danger or disruption. You might visit the regular clinic for help if you wish, but I don't think you require extended stays anywhere."
I looked at Blanche. "What do you do? I can show you what I can do sometime, and Sunflower can tell you about what she does, but she can't predict when she'll do it."
Blanche looked at Phobia Remedy and got a nod. She then took a deep breath. "I make short-term constructions, illusions that are solid, but they only last a few seconds."
I smiled. "That seems handy! I astral project."
"I go into a trance and draw visions," Sunflower said quietly. "I have no control over when it will happen or what I will draw. It just happens." She held up her hoof. "Last time I did it, I had nothing to draw with, so I took a bite out of my hoof so I could draw in blood. It seems like my magic is dangerous to me."
I touched a wing to Sunflower's flank. "I know you are still shaken up about that, but you'll figure out how to control it better, and that was the only time it did something that bad, right?"
"Yeah," Sunflower said in a depressed voice.
I needed to cheer her up. "And remember what you want to do as a Dreamwarden. Go ahead, say it."
She cracked a shy smile. "To encourage everypony to experience the world and see all the amazing things out there."
"And you are about to go meet an amazing pony," I reminded her. "He might sound scary, but—"
"Sometimes it is scary, going out into the world and seeing new things," Sunflower finished and gave a more relaxed smile. "It's dangerous business, walking out your front door. Is what Ghadab would say."
"My brother loves Tolkien," Phobia said wistfully. "I advise keeping any other secrets to yourselves for the remainder of this ride. My little sister and Drizzle can only be reasonably asked to keep so many."
It was silent for a minute or two after that. It was Sunflower who broke the silence.
"I'm looking forward to the trip to Equestria," Sunflower said with a tiny smile. "It will be great, getting to see a whole different world. It felt like a big deal, coming to Skytree, but now I get to see places even further away."
"Trip is dependent on that no world-ending disasters are going on in Equestria at that moment," Phobia Remedy interjected.
Sunflower gaped. "Does that happen often?"
Phobia Remedy shrugged. "Often enough. Twilight and her friends will take care of it if it does."
"Skytree is very different from home," Blanche agreed, choosing to ignore talks of Equestria facing ongoing apocalypses. "I am not used to so many ponies in one place. We have ponies back home, but not this many. It will be strange, going to a land where there are barely any humans."
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"Brugge, in West Vloandern," Blanche replied, then blushed. "That is West Flanders in English. It is part of Belgium. I am half Flemish and half French. My family travels across much of Europe for holidays. I have seen many places and know many languages and dialects."
"Were you a pony that rehumanized?" I asked.
She shook her head. "I never became a full pony. I had contracted ETS, and my transformation had advanced to a later stage, but it was never completed. I sat for months in a partial state before being able to receive treatment. I do not remember it, but I have seen pictures. I had a horn, a tail, light blue pony ears, my feet were hooved, and my hair was the color of a ripe melon."
"I just recently found out what I would look like as a human," I chirped, then bit my lip. "Although I can't say how, and I feel bad for that because I think everybody else in the car knows how and it feels like you are the only one getting left out."
"I don't know," Sunflower said.
"I don't either," Crystal added in.
I looked at Sunflower. "Um… the person that we talked to at Walgreens. Trying not to say much when I don't have their permission to tell anyone other than who was at Walgreens with me."
"It was my mother, Sunset Blessing," Phobia Remedy said. "It may be petty, but she messed with my plans for candidates and figured out the identities of three of them—possibly more. That is your privacy she is invading and your secret that keeps you safe that she violated, so I will rat her out as having shown Rebecca how she would look as a human. She needs to learn to keep her nose out of Dreamwarden affairs. Being my mother and Arbiter's widow does not give her the right to root around in our affairs. Do keep the knowledge that she is out and about to yourselves. She called and informed me in the waking world, so I'm violating no rules by revealing this information."
Sunflower gave Phobia Remedy a wide-eyed stare in shock. "You would do that to your mother?"
The Dreamwarden nodded. "She may be my mother, and I love her, and I see to her protection, but she is too nosey for her own good. I'm going to be saying some things to her in private about this. No one, not even her, will be allowed to mess with our vetting process without receiving repercussions. Dreamwarden selection is a critical duty, and one I am not letting get hijacked by outside forces."
"Speaking of which," I said in a low voice barely above a whisper. "I'm mad at you for what you did to Maggie. That wasn't right."
"You can't question the Dreamwarden's actions!" Blanche gasped.
Phobia Remedy looked at her. "She actually can. If you get selected, you'll find that your actions are very often questioned. Crystal and Tempest question me and do so often. Sometimes they even sway me. You learn to appreciate people that question you, some of them, at least. Others are just going to argue over anything you do, and nothing you do will satisfy them."
"For the record," Crystal called back to us from the driving. "I told her I disagreed with the whole grab the girl thing. I told her that she should let me drive her out there, let her roll down the window to show who she was, kindly ask the girl to get into the car to have a conversation, and if she refused, then she could have Tempest grab her."
"I'm not sure if that is much better," I said. "It still sounds like you were bullying and intimidating my friend."
"I think that was at least part of the point. We can continue this conversation tonight. I will make time for it," Phobia Remedy said. "That gives you time to think of how to better frame your argument over what I should have done instead, and perhaps even speak with your friend first for further suggestions. For now, we are about to arrive at our destination."
We each looked out our closest window. We were beyond the city border out in what was commonly referred to as the wilderness. The wilderness was just a long stretch of highway with nothing but trees to see for about thirty minutes or so of driving. There was nothing visible along the road aside from an occasional speed limit sign. If there was anything around us, the dense trees kept it from view.
I was about to say that there wasn't anything here when Crystal slowed the car down and turned onto a narrow dirt road, one so narrow I didn't think it would be possible for two vehicles to pass each other on it. I quickly buttoned my lip.
The trees seemed like they were pushing in on all sides and their branches blocked out the sun. It was like we were driving through a patch of night as we went along the path. Phobia Remedy was probably very comfortable in these surroundings, but they felt oppressive to me. I glanced over and saw Sunflower had cringed down, and I recalled that she was slightly claustrophobic.
It took us about two minutes to get clear of the trees, and it opened up again to reveal a tall red brick building. We drove by a sign that indicated we were in the right place and then went by a parking lot that was about half-filled, mainly with pony-sized cars. We drove right up in front of the entrance, which had a big set of double-automatic doors, and Crystal parked the car.
"Just give me a call when you're ready to leave, boss," Crystal called back.
Phobia Remedy nodded. "Blanche, if you would, could you get the doors?"
Blanche opened up the door and stepped out, and Sunflower and I followed her out quickly, eager to get free of the van and stretch our wings. Phobia Remedy took her time exiting the van, and when she stepped out, she took an extra few seconds adjusting her hat and sunglasses. I guessed it was kinda bright out, now that we were out from under the trees. Blanche closed the van behind her, and Crystal quietly drove off.
We let Phobia Remedy take the lead as she casually walked through the doors. Inside was a lobby that looked like it could have been any clinic lobby I had ever seen. Complete with a human receptionist sitting behind a desk. The receptionist looked up as we entered, and I saw her mouth form a flat line briefly before being forced into a smile.
"Madam Dreamwarden, you are early," the receptionist greeted. "The patients are still enjoying their morning outdoor time. You might need to wait."
Phobia Remedy gestured to us. "Don't worry. I don't intend to start early. These three need to fill out the forms they need to see Moses. They will be joining me in visiting him. I assume them taking time to read over and sign everything will account for the early arrival."
The receptionist hiccuped and looked at us before turning back towards the Dreamwarden. "You understand—we can't be held responsible for anything."
Phobia Remedy waved a wing. "I believe that is what your paperwork says. I understand, and they've been given a brief guideline on how to conduct themselves in front of Moses."
"We have blindfolds available if you want them," the receptionist said nervously. "I know you don't need them, but your guests—"
"They will be seeing him with their eyes open and uncovered," Phobia Remedy said with a note of finality.
"On your head," I heard the receptionist mutter. She then sat down and started printing off the paperwork. She then picked up a phone and hit a button. "Hello? The Dreamwarden is here, but she says she'll be in at the normal time. She has guests with her. Yes, I know. Are you going to come argue with her? I know. I already told her that we won't be responsible. Yes, I do have emergency services ready to dial if need be. No, she didn't ask for any extra staff to be present. I understand. I'm getting them their paperwork now."
None of that did anything to make me less nervous. What was the big deal with this Moses guy? It was like I was going to meet Sha'am Maut herself instead of just someone who had been reported being seen with just her doll.
I took a seat, as did everyone but the Dreamwarden. After a few minutes of printing, the receptionist gathered up all the paperwork and divided it into three stacks. She then walked over to each of us and plopped a large pile of papers down next to each of us. There had to be at least thirty pages in each stack. She then set out a pen on each stack.
"I need you to review each form thoroughly before signing," she announced. "I will review each form after you turn it in and make sure you have not missed any signatures." She then did that thing Catholics do where they make a sign of the cross in front of themselves. "God save your souls."
Yep, not comforting at all.