//------------------------------//
// Chapter 112: An Even More Epic Battle! 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
//------------------------------//

DING DING DING DING

"Wakey-wakey, eggs and gravy!" 

I blinked away sleep and flattened my ears against the noise. It was still dark. What time was it?

"Ah! You're awake! Come on, out of bed! Get that blood moving! Stretch those wings!"

I rolled over to see the source of the noise. It was Julie. She'd had a speaker with an alarm sound pushed right up next to me. 

"Uh, hi," I mumbled as I continued to blink and try to decipher what was happening. "Nice to see you again. Why are you waking me up?"

"Why is she waking all of us up is a better question!" Meadow yelled from the bathroom. "Tone it down. Greta is going to be knocking on our door if you keep that up!"

Julie grinned, and the next thing I knew, I was being pulled out of bed by her muscular wings and into one of her patented Julie bear hugs. 

"It's time to do workouts!" Julie practically sang as she swung me around like a rag doll, a heavy rag doll. 

"Worphouts?" I mumbled into her wings. 

She released me. "Yep! Workouts! We are going to turn you into a bowling ball so if you ever have to ram a wall again you'll make a dent in something other than your head."

"Julie! She hasn't even gotten to settle back in yet!" Meadow fussed. "After their ordeal, they deserve a day to rest!"

"Or at least let the rest of us rest!" Ashley called out. "It's barely five in the morning!"

I gave my roommate a warm smile. "Maybe not today, Julie."

Her smile fell off her face into a pout in a mere millisecond. Her lips had dropped faster than I did when trying to fly in a storm. 

"But I'll work out with you…what's today?" I asked, not even sure what day of the week it was. 

"It's Friday," Julie informed me. 

I nodded. "I'll work out with you tomorrow, I promise. First thing in the morning. I need to spend today catching up with my professors."

Julie hugged me again. "Oh! I'm so glad you're back. This room is so lonely without you. Nighty is off snuggling with her fiance half the time, leaving me all by myself in this room. Ashley's been snappy and hiding out. I've been stuck with just Meadow for company."

"You say it like it's a bad thing to hang out with me!" Meadow yelled as she entered the room. 

"I haven't been snappy. I just can't take your hugging. You know I don't like being touched!" Ashley shouted from the other room.

"Hey…has anybody seen Sunflower?" Meadow said suddenly as she glanced back into her room. 

Julie looked around. "Nighty isn't here either, but that's hardly new."

"Relax," Ashley from the bathroom doorway. "Sunflower was up before any of you, and she asked Nightscape to help her with some training. Nightscape is probably giving her a workout right now."

Julie pouted again. "Workouts without me? I'm the workout pony."

Ashley smiled. "I don't think you are going to be much help with combat training."

I blinked. "Combat training? Sunflower? Why is Sunflower doing combat training? Did I miss something? Am I supposed to be combat training now? This body is not made for combat!"

Julie patted me on the back with her wing. "Well, I'm going to do my best to help with that." She looked over at Ashley. "But, shouldn't you be the one helping her with that? You're her BG, after all. Nighty is with Becky, not Sunny."

Ashley shrugged. "She wants to know about aerial combat, and I don't have wings."

"But why is she even doing it?" I asked. 

Ashley leaned against the doorframe. "She doesn't want to feel helpless. You weren't here when she was talking to us last night. I know what it's like to feel helpless. During your little adventure that is what she felt. Think about the Dreamwardens. Yinyu died trying to save her foals. I'm not sure if being a better fighter would have helped her, but it couldn't have hurt. Ghadab died fighting Bedouins who wanted him and his whole tribe dead. Phobia spends her entire life under guard. Can you blame her for wanting to learn some self-defense? Plus, the candidates are down to you two. You two may be friends, but it's time that you start focusing on showing what you've got that the other doesn't if you want this job– what sets you apart. She understands this. Sunflower's magic might be far less reliable or consistently useful as yours, which could be marked against her, but I'll give her this, she's far more able to evolve to meet what challenges she sees. Our little country filly has grown a lot, and I'm sure the Dreamwardens have noticed."

Meadow fluffed her feathers. "Oh…I hope this doesn't become a full rivalry. I don't like that kind of drama, and they're both my friends."

"It's like the championship finals," Julie said. "I'm sure it will be fine when it's all over, but things might get a little intense till then."

Meadow shook her head. "I'm not so sure it gets better after. This isn't some silly collegiate competition. This is their whole future on the line. They both have huge life goals tied up in this. Losing this means surrendering those goals, or at least being denied them. That's a pretty big deal, and I could imagine the best of people being a little resentful if they lost. You can't lose this and think, oh well, better luck next time. There is no next time."

"Way to apply the pressure and soothe her nerves, Meadow," Ashley snarked. 

"Sorry! I was just thinking out loud," Meadow said, aghast. 

I waved it off. "It's fine. I've told the others since the beginning, I want the best candidate to win, and if that isn't me, then it isn't me. I spent all that time I was asleep answering another lightning-surprise round of questions, and I'm sure Sunflower did too. For us, we'll just be relieved when this is over. By the way…does anybody know what the capital of Turkmenistan is, and does anybody have an aspirin? Not to get into details, but I might have insulted the Turkmenistani diplomat."

Ashley laughed and walked off. "Possible future dream demi-god, everybody! I'm team Sunflower, all the way."

Meadow gave her roommate a dirty look and then looked back at me. "I'll get you an aspirin then get you to breakfast."

"I'll come too!" Julie said hurriedly. "We got to make sure you are eating some good proteins to turn that flab into hard muscle."

"As long as I get to eat, I won't complain," I assured her. 





I shouldn't have told Julie I was okay with whatever she served me. There were way too many beans and nuts in my food, and I got no dessert! I was also at the cafeteria too early for Maggie to be up, so I didn't get to see her either, but I left her a message as soon as my phone was charged. 

From the cafeteria, it was on to running from one professor's office to another to explain I had been held over in Equestria. I figured that it would take a lot of work to explain without mentioning there'd been a shadow monster or a bug monster, but not really. All that paperwork that the Equestrians had given me told them I had been delayed performing unspecified and classified services to the Equestrian crown that had helped avert the latest possible disaster in Equestria. It was all nice and official while not saying anything specific. Plus, Wild Growth had sent a similar letter to the school explaining why three of its students were taking longer to get home and to excuse our absence. Wild Growth was one of the school's biggest donors, so the administration was inclined to ensure that happened. 

Doctor Morris was the one who was least pleased with my extra time out of class and was even less pleased that I would be missing that day's lecture as well. However, he did compliment me on my report. He even sat down and read it right in front of me– silently, not out loud. I included as many details about Crystal Empire, Mountainshade, and Well of Shade architecture as I could, did my best to try to define what I felt were the key features of each, and had even done in-depth comparisons of the two different eras of night pony architecture. I was pretty proud of my report. He ended up giving me an A- for it. I lost points because I didn't include a proper scale for my hoof-drawn depictions of buildings so people knew their dimensions and they weren't labeled as concept designs instead of drafts. That last one I felt was a nitpick, but I didn't argue. I knew he was demanding, and I still ended up with an A despite his nitpick. I was told that I'd be giving a presentation of my report first thing in class Monday, and he expected me to have larger visual aids with proper scaling. Yea for over-the-weekend homework!

It was still before lunch after I caught up with all my professors– all minus Doctor Toussaint, who I doubt noticed I'd been missing. Why did I stay enrolled in his class again? Oh, yeah, I wanted at least one class I didn't have to study for or do any homework for. That might have been bad of me, but I deserved at least one super easy class. Anyway, I checked my phone and saw Maggie had messaged me back, saying she wanted to catch up with me after her last class on the day. I also had a message from Lántiān. She wanted me to foalsit Drizzle for four hours tomorrow. No hi, how are you doing? Glad you're back. Nope, it was, you're back, get back to work. At least she remembered I was supposed to be back, and I'd get to see Jordan and Drizzle's smiling faces. I could hope for Lántiān's smiling face, but I'd likely get a scowl from her. I could live with that. 

I wasn't paying attention when walking back toward the dorms when I suddenly heard loud squawking. I turned to see that I had walked a little too close to the nearby geese. Several 0f them were advancing on me with very hostile intent. Uh oh…I violated their territory. One of the first things you learn on campus is never to violate a goose's territory. Their territory was typically within five feet of wherever they might be standing at the time.

I backed away, debating flying away. The thing about flying away was the geese had wings too, and they probably flew much better than me. They'd be able to do more damage to me in the air than on the ground. 

"Nice geesies, are you having a good day?" I said with my most winning smile. 

HOANKK!! The lead goose bellowed as he advanced toward me, it then started hissing and flapping its wings at me. 

Okay, Mister Goose was having a bad day, or was it Miss Goose? I was not an expert on goose genders. I best not say one or another. Misgendering someone was always a surefire way of making them even more angry. 

I backed up some more. Then turned and bolted. This did not deter the geese from pursuing me, and me being a chubby pony who was not currently projecting, was not faster than a gaggle of animals with legs not much longer than the space between my belly and the ground. I'd survived a shadow monster, a changeling queen, and a very well-made wall, but I was not prepared for the horrors of cantankerous ganders. This was how it all ended.

Something swooped over my head. They were coming at me from multiple directions!

"Rebecca, stop!" 

I stopped. Nightscape landed in front of me, wearing sunglasses. She wasn't looking at me, she was looking past me. 

"Just do it as I told you, Sunflower  Don't break eye contact, keep your shoulders squared up. Don't let them sense your fear," Nightscape instructed. 

I turned to see Sunflower staring down the goose that was pursuing me. The bird stopped short, and hissed at her, bobbing its head rapidly. It never occurred to me until I watched the terror bird, that geese and swans were like hybrids of snakes and ducks. After my run-in with Discord's boa, I was not sure I was very fond of snakes. Geese were aggressive flying snakes, and Sunflower was staring one down. I was maybe a trifle bit jealous of her bravery. 

HOANKK!! The lead goose bellowed once again, this time at Sunflower, but she stood her ground, not even flinching at the terrible battlecry. 

"Just hold steady and don't break eye contact," Nightscape instructed her. "It's just a dumb bird. Once you convince it that you aren't afraid of it, it will lose its nerve. Don't make any aggressive moves. If it thinks you are going to try to attack, it won't back down, and it will try to strike first. Just hold steady. Make it think you are so dominant and unintimidated that you don't have to try to defend yourself."

The standoff continued, with the bird continuing to hiss, honk, and flap its wings. It would advance a step or two and then quickly retreat, but Sunflower held her ground. The other birds were honking loudly as if trying to incite the fight, but the goose refused to attack, only making a show of itself. Eventually, the bird turned and retreated, head down. The other birds honked together in chorus, perhaps they were laughing at their companion's cowardice. 

Several nearby students let loose a cheer, and both Nightscape and I whooped as we went to congratulate our friend– who was conspicuously still standing just as still. 

"Sunflower, that was awesome!" I congratulated my friend. "Thank you for saving my spotty hide!"

"Way to go, Sun. I wasn't sure you were going to have it in you," Nightscape said as she patted Sunflower's stiff form on her back. 

"Can I move now?" Sunflower asked. 

I looked at the gaggle who were retreating to the other side of the pond, and ponies on that side of the pond were, in turn retreating away from the gaggle who might feel they have some fight to pick with ponies after this public humiliation. 

"Yeah, they're gone," I informed her. 

She practically slumped to the ground. "Oh, thank God! I felt like Sunset Blessing!"

I blinked. "Because you did something everyone thought impossible and invoked a religious concept?"

She shook her head. "No, because I felt like peeing all over myself!"

Nightscape chuckled and smirked at me. "Tempest and Crystal told her old SB does that whenever she gets scared while we were over there training. Crystal's doing okay by the way. Cranky about being in a wheelchair, but should recover. Mares around the house are actually giving her props for trying to tackle something that supposedly was made to kill an alicorn."

"That's good to hear," I replied, then looked back to Sunflower. "And I thought you were very brave. I bet you could stare down a peacock."

Nightscape started vigorously shaking her head. "Nonono, do not try that with a peacock. You pull that with a peacock, and it will send you to the hospital. Know what kind of enemy you're facing whenever you try to stare one down. Geese will back down. Peacocks will take it as an open invitation to fight, and you're not ready after one training session to take on a peacock."

"There might be some life lesson in there about facing enemies in general," I giggled. "I think I'll take the lesson without putting myself in harm's way. I'm still really impressed. I'm sure that earned you points with someone, and maybe lost me some."

Nightscape leveled a glare at me. "More for not paying attention and getting yourself into that situation to begin with than not being able to stare the bird down. I mean, Phobia Remedy would have run with her tail between her legs too, but she'd never have gotten into a situation where she needed to."

I shrugged. "The lesson I'm focused on is learning to listen to my bodyguard's chastisements. I hear you, and I'll not be daydreaming while crossing the green again and therefore walking too close to the geese."

"The geese are coming back this way, and I don't have the nerve to pull that again so soon," Sunflower warned. 

I was already moving. "Time to make a hasty retreat before the counterattack comes."

As we were walking at a brisk pace, Sunflower came up beside me. "By the way, Phobia Remedy wants you to visit her at your earliest convenience. She said the guards will let you in."

Great, another thing to pack into my stuffed first weekend back. No downtime for this marshmallow. 

She put her head closer to me. "And she said the time for him retiring has been moved way up. We've only got a week left."

I tripped and fell flat on my face. A week?! No pressure!