//------------------------------//
// Chapter 72: Basement Meeting 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
//------------------------------//

We were getting ready to leave the library when Sunflower let out a long sigh. "I know Ashley, Nightscape, and maybe Yolanda might disagree, but I really think we should tell Meadow and Julie about us."

Blanche blinked. "Who are Meadow and Julie?"

"The other ponies we share rooms with," I answered. I then looked at Sunflower. "Are you sure that's a good idea? We keep adding more and more to who know about us."

She nodded. "It's going to cause problems if we don't. Think about it. We will constantly have to do things without them, and at some point, they're going to ask why we keep excluding them. If it doesn't have them get nosey, it's going to cause friction. I don't want to have any falling out with them, I don't want to keep trying to come up with new excuses, and I don't like lying to my friends. It also makes our rooms safe places for us to talk without worrying about ponies that shouldn't hear anything. We need places we can be sure are always going to be safe instead of going somewhere like the library and hoping that it will be private enough."

I bit my lip and looked at Blanche. "What do you think? This is something all three of us have to agree to if we do it. It isn't our bodyguards' call; it's ours."

Blanche considered. "She does make sense. Trying to avoid your roommates instead of being honest may end up making them more suspicious in the long run. I already had to deal with your friend Maggie gossiping about me. Telling them is a potential security risk, but not telling them is a definite security risk. I'll choose potential over definite."

"We'll have to get with the Dreamwardens tonight and tell them we made a choice, and we don't want them interfering again," I suggested. 

Blanche raised an eyebrow. "Again?"

"Yeah… Phobia Remedy had some guys grab Maggie off the street against her will and brought to her."

She blinked. "We don't want that."

"I'd feel terrible if that happened to Meadow and Julie," Sunflower said with a shiver. 

"And we'll make sure it doesn't," I said firmly. I then lifted my leg to dial my phone. "Let me call Julie and see where they are right now."

The phone rang a few times before being picked up. "Hey, Rebec! What's up?" Julie asked cheerfully over the line.

"Sunflower and I have been hanging out with a new friend. We were wondering if you happen to know where everyone is right now?" I asked.

"Oh, sure I do!" Julie laughed. "Nightscape took off to hang with her future hubby and do the things couples do before falling asleep. Ashley and Meadow are with me. We're on our way back to the rooms now. Some earth ponies were giving Ashley a hard time, and we all kinda lost our appetites."

I blinked. "Giving her a hard time? Why?"

"Ah… stupid stuff," Julie replied. "They're still mad she got her roommates from last semester expelled on drug and alcohol possession in their room. Those old roommates still have friends on campus, and those friends blame her rather than, you know, the ponies that broke the rules and got themselves expelled. I don't judge them for using that crud. Every great artist inevitably gets drunk or high at least once. I had gotten drunk once after a big victory last season—no drugs, that could get me kicked off the flight team faster than I can sprint, but they knew they couldn't keep that stuff in their room or use it on campus. Ash could have gotten in trouble and expelled too if she hadn't done the right thing and ratted them out before an RA inevitably found it. She gave them the chance to get rid of it, but they didn't listen."

"Yeah, she couldn't put herself in jeopardy if they weren't going to listen," I agreed. "Sunflower and I are heading back to the rooms too, and we are bringing some friends, two… maybe three humans. We had something we wanted to talk to you about. It's kinda important."

"Two or three humans?" Julie exclaimed. "That's going to be cramped. Sure you don't want us to meet you somewhere instead?"

"Do you have any suggestions for somewhere private that there is no chance someone can overhear us?" I asked. 

"Um...basement of the library," Julie suggested. "They have some extra classrooms down there that no one ever locks. Nobody goes down there on weekends this early in the year. They sometimes do club meetings and stuff down there, but those wouldn't be starting yet."

I grinned. "That's great! Me, Sunflower, and Blanche are already here. I just need to call Maggie and Yolanda. We'll meet you by the stairs in the library."

"Rebecca, why is Ashley giving me a dirty look?" Julie asked in a more serious tone. "She looks like she wants to skewer me with her horn and pull out my intestines. What's going on?"

I sighed. "She already knows what we want to talk about, I think. Tell Ashley that Sunflower and I said to chill out. We made an executive decision, and she'll have to live with it. Hopefully, Yolanda, Maggie, and Nightscape won't be as bad. Everybody knows about this stuff but you and Meadow, and we're changing that."

"Ooooo! Deep dark secrets!" Julie giggled. She abruptly stopped. "You two aren't dating or anything, are you? That never works out with people sharing a room or bathroom, and then there is so much drama until the semester is over… and it isn't some drug-pushing thing, is it? I'll report you myself it is."

"It's neither of those things and nothing illegal or breaking school rules or even dealing with school," I assured her. "You probably won't believe us right away, maybe even think it is a prank, but Ashley will back us, and Nightscape will too when she gets back. This is really important, Julie. Sunflower and I are trusting you and Meadow big-time with this. Blanche is trusting you too and only has our word that you two can be trusted."

"Okay then… I'll take it seriously," Julie replied. "Just as long as it isn't something that will get Meadow or me in trouble. We're friendly, but we don't have any desire to get kicked out of school or tossed in jail."

"You won't get in trouble," I promised. "I'll see you soon. I have to make another call."

"Be there in a minute or two," Julie replied, and the call dropped. 

I looked at Blanche. "Guess we are doing this here in the basement. You call Yolanda, and I'll call Maggie. Maybe they'll both be in their rooms and can head over here together."

She nodded and let out a long breath. "Gives me a chance to tell Yolanda I blew it this morning, and Maggie is onto us. She's going to scold me for that."

"What's done is done. Let's just start calling," I said with a shrug. 





Thankfully, both Maggie and Yolanda didn't take long conversations to get moving. I didn't even get to finish my call with Maggie before it was interrupted by Yolanda barging in on her and telling her that they needed to hurry and we could chit chat later. Maggie was more than a little taken aback—primarily with Yolanda charging into her room, but went along with it. 

Ashley, Julie, and Meadow were the first to arrive. Ashley immediately started giving me and Sunflower dirty looks, but she didn't say anything. Meadow seemed apprehensive about what was going on and started fretting over Sunflower's hoof. Julie hugged Blanche after being introduced, which Blanche didn't seem to know how to respond to, but accepted. 

Yolanda and Maggie arrived about four minutes after the other three. Yolanda was a big athletic black girl with shoulder-length hair who seemed just as angry and annoyed as Ashley. She didn't respond to introductions and didn't say anything at all. She just glared at everybody—not super friendly. She reminded me a little of Phobia Remedy's bodyguard, Tempest. I wondered if they were related. 

With everyone present, we all filed down the stairs and found a classroom on the far end of the downstairs hall away from the staircase. Yolanda and Ashley each positioned themselves by the door when we went in. They immediately started giving each other appraising looks like they were sizing each other up for a fight, but kept silent. 

I wasn't sure how to kick things off, and we were all quiet for a minute before Blanche decided to take charge of the meeting. "Everyone is here. We can begin," she said. "Sunflower Smiles, Rebecca Riddle, and I share a secret. We are part of a very exclusive group of people in the running for a very important job. It is so exclusive that we get bodyguards assigned to us. Yolanda, over there, is mine."

"Ashley is mine," Sunflower said as she pointed over to Ashley. 

"And Nightscape, not present currently, is mine," I finished. 

"And your bodyguards think this is a horrible idea," Ashley half-snarled. 

"That we agree on, unicorn," Yolanda said with a nod. "I am sure that the other would be in agreement with us too if she were here."

"We've already decided to do this, and we overrule you," Blanche said firmly. 

Ashley snorted. "Making our jobs harder."

"Definitely harder," Yolanda muttered. "But not our call. They are right about that."

"Not really harder," Sunflower objected. "Do you want to spend the next several months worrying about keeping what is going on from them? It seems like it is easier just to tell them and trust them to keep our secret."

Yolanda scowled at us. "I do not know these ponies or this other girl. I do not know how trustworthy they are."

"And while I like Meadow and Julie, I have only known them for about a week or so. I can't tell if I can trust them with this after just a week," Ashley added in. 

"I thought ponies were trusting by nature," Maggie remarked as she crossed her arms. 

Ashley pointed to her face. "You see these scars? These scars taught me to be less trusting. It's part of why I was given this job. I'm more suspicious of others than the average pony."

"So… what kind of job is this?" Meadow asked nervously. 

Blanche, Sunflower, and I all looked at one another, waiting for one of the others to say it.

"For heaven's sake!" Ashley blurted out. "They're all Dreamwarden candidates. Not like so many hundred or thousand down the line, like in the top few in the running, in the top five. There's well over a sixty percent chance one of them will end up as Psychic Calm's heir. They want to have us tell them all, and they can't even get it out of their mouths!"

"Higher chance than sixty percent," I said absently. 

"I don't know where I rank, only that it is not number one, and it is within the top five," Blanche said. 

"Same," Sunflower said. 

I gave a big toothy grin, and the other two stared at me. 

"You aren't serious?" Blanche said in disbelief. 

I held up my wings. "I didn't say anything! Rankings change all the time! We still have lots of time for things to change. I'm not even sure I want the job!"

Julie burst out laughing. "You all had me going for a minute until you said Rebecca is number one in the rankings!"

Maggie raised an eyebrow at her. "You can believe she is in the top five but not number one? If you got that far, why not go all the way?"

"And I'm having a hard time believing it too, especially about Sunflower. She's too sweet and innocent to be a Dreamwarden. Rebecca at least has weird powers," Meadow said hesitantly. "Is this some weird prank?" 

Ashley shivered. "Sunflower has powers too, and hers are freakier than Rebecca's. We lied about how she hurt her hoof. She was in a trance, drawing on the Warden of Fear's wall in her own blood."

Yolanda looked ill. "Ew. That's a way to make an impression. Our visit to the Dreamwarden was a fairly calm one."

Meadow looked at Sunflower in horror. "Is that true?!"

Sunflower gave a sad nod. "I don't remember it, but I do that sometimes; just start drawing in a trance. This time around, I had nothing to draw with, so I guess I came up with the closest thing available by taking a bite out of my hoof. I tried to tell you I was a Dreamwarden candidate this morning, but you thought I had a bad dream."

"We all had a test in our dreams last night," I explained. "It was a bunch of questions with a bunch of people watching, and I don't think any of us were ready for it. The Dreamwardens just sprung it on us with no warning and without ever discussing any of those subjects with us before. I think we all woke up feeling like we didn't give any satisfactory answers. Sunflower took it kinda rough. I heard Blanche did as well."

"And you didn't?" Blanche asked. 

I shrugged. "I took it as they were trying to rattle me. I know the delegates were watching, so I did try to give my best answers I could and worried over my answers as I gave them, but when it was over, it was over. No point worrying about it anymore."

Blanche gave me a thoughtful look. "Maybe being less shakeable is why you rank higher. I will keep that in mind."

"Should you be giving your competition tips on how to beat you, Bec?" Maggie asked with concern. 

I shrugged again. "Shouldn’t we want the best candidate to be Dreamwarden? We should all help each other be better. I don't even know if my not worrying about the test afterward looked good for me or worse, to be honest. I think it looks good, but I'm not the one choosing between who will be the next Dreamwarden, and they can all have different feelings about whether it is good or bad. They are separate people, after all. I try to make as many people as I can happy, but I know that I won't always succeed. I'll worry about whether someone I care about does not want to be my friend because that's more important than whether I'm making people think I'm the best of the best."

"You aren't afraid Sunflower and Blanche will try to undermine you and watch what you are doing to get ahead of you?" Maggie asked again. 

I shook my head. "If they get ahead of me on ranking, then good for them, they'll deserve it. I know that the Dreamwardens are always judging us about everything, and if either of them does something to cheat or whatever, the Dreamwardens will be watching that too. It's in our best interest to build each other up because that's what Dreamwardens need to do—help build people up."

"We're all artistic-creative types," Sunflower pointed out. "We're here to help inspire others. That has to be what the Dreamwardens want. We might inspire in different ways, but that is our goal, our type. I might not be the best artist at this school, or even in this room, but I have big dreams about inspiring ponies… people… to go out and see and experience the world."

"For me, it is telling the person who feels weird and friendless that they have always got a friend," I said. 

"I wish to inspire others never to give up on a task just because it seems too far out of reach," Blanche said with a smile. "Never quit trying to achieve your dreams."

"Regular Care Bears in here," Yolanda muttered, but she smiled as she did it. 

Julie looked around the room. "You all seem so serious about this."

"We are serious," Sunflower said. "All three of us are going to Equestria at the end of next month to see what it's like. Dreamwardens are supposed to retire there when it's time to move on. We're going there to see if we want to have a forced retirement there. Phobia Remedy said it could be a dealbreaker for some. We can refuse to become Dreamwarden even if we're chosen, and we can refuse for lots of reasons. We might not want the job if we don't like the idea of living out our old age in Equestria."

"Well, technically, there is another route than retiring to Equestria," Blanche pointed out. 

I shivered. "I know I don't want that one, especially after today. If I don't like Equestria, then I'm out of the running. I'm not doing the undead to eternal dream route."

Yolanda narrowed her eyes. "And what were you three up to today? I was worried since I was not allowed to come. It is hard to bodyguard when I can't even be with the person I'm guarding."

Blanche stamped her foot in frustration. "We are sworn to secrecy by the Warden of Fear about our outing today. You need to stop being so overprotective of me. I can't spend my entire time caged away from life! Even Rebecca is dating!"

"WHAT?!" Maggie shouted out as she looked at me wide-eyed, getting everyone to stare at her like she lost her mind. "You are going on dates?! Since when?!"

Ashley gave an evil smile. "His name is Russell. She's supposed to be having her second date with him later."

"They went to Dave and Buster's the night before last," Julie added in. "Meadow, what did Rebecca say about the date?"

Meadow giggled. "She said she wore herself out dancing on the dance games. She could barely stand when she hobbled into the room."

"Russell is a human," Sunflower contributed. "We'd all been teasing her about him since it seemed obvious he was interested. She kept saying she wasn't going to go out with him. Meadow even tried to see if she could get him interested in her instead, but Russell only had eyes for Rebecca. Then she turned around and asked him out of nowhere."

I gave Maggie a nervous smile. "I would have told you all about it, but you and I weren't talking right then."

She walked over to me, gripped my head in her hands, and stared me in the eyes. "You need to tell me everything about this!"

"Hey! I know that the fact Rebecca is the only one here dating is Earth-shattering news that makes us all question our lives, but let's get back on subject," Ashley shouted. 

I rubbed my belly and grinned. "You're just jealous that you don't have curves like these."

"You need to lose those curves. You're supposed to be on a diet," Maggie scolded me. 

Ashley snorted. "Did you see what she had packed in her cart at Walgreens? She's not keeping to that."

Maggie shook her head. "No, I was too distracted by us running into Sunset Blessing."

"You—ran—into—Sunset—Blessing?" Meadow said in disbelief. "The Sunset Blessing?!" She proceeded to do the highest-pitched fangirl squeal I had ever heard. 

Ashley lit her horn and used her magic to clamp Meadow's mouth shut. Meadow was still squealing and bouncing around in excitement. 

"Well, she said she was, but she was human," Maggie continued. 

Julie gave her a questioning look. "And what was Sunset Blessing doing at Walgreens?"

Maggie shrugged. "Said she was getting her kid some cord or something because he lost his. She seemed to know all about Rebecca, Sunflower, and Blanche. She's the one that outed Blanche as a candidate."

Sunflower cleared her throat then looked embarrassed when everyone looked at her. "We aren't supposed to talk about her. Phobia Remedy said so."

"Okay, I'll hush up. I don't want anyone here getting hauled off by Phobia Remedy's goons like I was," Maggie said, sounding bitter. 

Ashley released Meadow's mouth, and the green pegasus hopped up and down. "Do I get to meet her if I get hauled off?!"

"Phobia Remedy? Sure," Maggie answered. 

Meadow shook her head. "No, no, no! Sunset Blessing!"

"I doubt it," Ashley replied. Meadow visibly pouted. 

"And we aren't going to say anything else about her," I asserted. "Phobia Remedy seemed annoyed that her mom was getting involved. She told us not to talk about her anymore and that she would deal with her."

"The old fart can't help but meddle, and her meddling never leads to anything good," Julie said with a frown. She looked at Meadow and held up a wing to cut off a protest. "I'm not getting into it with you about your misplaced idol worship of her. They said we shouldn't talk about her, so I'm not saying anything else."

Meadow sat down and pouted. "I should have gone to Walgreens this morning too."

Blanche held up her hands to get everyone's attention. "So, everyone here knows about us being Dreamwarden candidates. Don't reveal this information to anyone, and don't talk about it where you can be overheard. We are telling you so we don't have to sneak around you. It is hard, always trying to find private places to talk."

"I like you," Ashley said as she fixed her eyes on Julie and Meadow. "I like you even more after you two stood up for me today, but you know by what they were harassing me about that I won't hesitate to go running to Phobia Remedy if either of you does something stupid to endanger Sunflower or the other two. I have a job to do, and I'm going to do it. Keep your mouths shut. I don't want you getting in trouble, but this is for Sunflower's and the other's protection. People can't find out about them, or they could be endangered." She then gave Meadow, in particular, a frown. "And that goes for the old preacher too. I don't think the old coot wants people to know she isn't stuck in bed. Otherwise, she'd have announced it. You love your hero? Don't make her life harder by blabbing about her or even hinting you know she is well."

"Not sure she was ever well," Julie muttered. 

"Julie, be nice," I scolded. "I understand how you feel, but it isn't helping to be mean."

Julie sighed. "You're right. Sorry, Meadow."

"It's okay," Meadow said. She still seemed disappointed the subject was closed. 

"I'm in the mood for lunch now. I missed breakfast," I announced. 

"Didn't you say you needed to get ready for a date?" Blanche asked. 

I waved a wing dismissively. "I don't know what I was thinking. I'm not supposed to meet Russell till six. I think I had it in my head that it would be after foalsitting, and I would be foalsitting till later, but the Dreamwarden's bodyguard took my shift for today. I have plenty of time."

"Then you have time to sit down with me and tell me all about him," Maggie said with a smile. 

Blanche coughed into her fist to get everyone's attention again. "Before we start parting, we need to be sure everyone is agreed not to discuss any of this with anyone not in this room right now."

"Well, besides Nightscape. She's going to be annoyed as me and Yolanda are about this," Ashley said. 

"Alright, everyone in this room plus Rebecca's bodyguard," Blanche confirmed. 

"I won't violate anyone's trust," Yolanda said quickly and looked at Julie and Meadow. 

Julie looked around. "This still seems like it could be a prank, but you all seem so deadly serious about it. Rebecca and Sunflower are still my friends, and I'm not going to do anything that could get them hurt. On the small chance this is true, I owe it to them to keep my mouth shut."

Meadow was even now still pouting about Sunset Blessing but nodded. "I'll keep quiet. I don't want anyone to get hurt. I believe you. I don't think you would take a joke this far."

I hopped for joy. "Lunchtime for me then!"

No more lies were hanging over my head with my friends. Russell was still an issue, but I couldn't say anything to him yet. For now, I would see how that relationship developed, and if we started getting to the meet the parents stage then that might be the time to say something. Right now, I just wanted to enjoy spending time with him without complications.