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// Chapter 126: Five Steps While Contemplating Billions 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
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So, it turns out I did indeed have a heart attack, a minor one, but still a heart attack. I was allowed to return to the dorm, but was given a prescription and told that I needed to basically stay in bed for three days while limiting my physical activities for about two weeks until I had a follow-up with the doctor who would tell me if I needed to limit longer or not. Staying in bed for three days wasn't happening. I had a speech to give, and it wasn't that much physical activity to go out on a stage and talk. I wouldn't be demonstrating my abilities to those leaders, that was too much work, but I could talk. Dance classes were a little more of a challenge, but my wording had been I would start dance classes. Did calling up the teacher and enrolling with the intent to show up a month away count as starting? It might seem like semantics, but semantics is how Dreamwardens keep themselves out of trouble. 

Maggie went to pick up my prescription after getting me back to the dorms, and Ashley helped me by writing out emails to my professors telling them I was going to be missing even more class, the reason why, and attaching the doctor's note and test results just in case. I got quick replies from most of them. Even my architecture teacher expressed his concern and told me to get well soon– and that my presentation for him better be ready on Friday. 

Blanche did sit down with me and made sure I didn't include anything embarrassing in my speech. She didn't do anything to make it more formal. Her recommendation was for me to just be me. Formality was never going to be the norm for me, so why give them some false expectation that I would conduct myself formally around them? Blanche made sure I didn't say anything insulting by accident and that was it. 

It was after I went back to sleep again that I discovered I had overlooked an important detail. The thing is, I don't know what I could have done differently to avoid the next problem that came along. Two of my professors who I had just informed I was sick in bed after having a mild heart attack were ponies. They weren't just any ponies, they were night ponies. It's kind of generalist to say, but ponies tend to be very social and very concerned about one another. I'd just told two night ponies who didn't know I was a Dreamwarden that I was sick in bed. I should have guessed what was coming next. My professors, being very nice people who wanted to check in on their sick student out of concern, went searching for my dreams. You can't go searching for the dreams of a Dreamwarden; Dreamwardens are composed of all dreams. What my professors got instead of my dreams was a huge headache. Being smart ponies, they knew the one thing that could cause an instant crippling headache when searching for dreams. So, whoopsie, I had some explaining to do, and I had to issue my first Dreamwarden contracts to seal my two professors to secrecy. Arbiter helped me with the wording. 

Then my old friend and astral projecting mentor, Josie, decided tonight was a nice night to catch up with me and socialize, and the next thing I knew, I was issuing another Dreamwarden contract for my secrecy being kept and apologizing for another headache. I hoped I didn't have any other old friends from way back when who decided to pull the same thing anytime soon. Keeping myself secret was a lot of work, and painful for others. 

No more mishaps! Sunday was going to be a smooth day with no more problems. Eat breakfast, read over the speech that I had prepared, get picked up by Wild Growth's chauffeur, eat a nice lunch, take a nap to spend time with the others when Psychic Calm left, wake up, give the speech, go back to the dorms and sleep. Nothing could go wrong.  

Step one, eat breakfast! Scratch that, eating breakfast was now step two. Step one was making it to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. That involved getting out of bed, leaving the room, and arriving at the cafeteria. Quick summary of how that went– ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, a billion ows. Walking hurt. I'd have flown, but that hurt more for some reason. 

Step two! The new step two! Breakfast! My friends had walked me down to the cafeteria. Once I was there, they gave me…health food…with no snacks. Worst of all, they gave me whole bran cereal with…with…with SKIM MILK! The level of betrayal was right up there with Brutus and Caesar. The bran cereal was okay, but skim milk was like a knife to my heart. I did not finish my breakfast, and gave my friends dirty looks through the entire time I sat at the cafeteria table, in between doing old step two since new step two slash old step one was canceled. 

Okay, step three was still step three; get picked up by the chauffeur! That involved more walking to get to the parking lot. That was a lot more walking and a lot more ows. The car ride was nice, it was a big fancy limo. However, once we got to the mansion, I found out the parking was well away from the house. Wild Growth liked having lots of green around the immediate house and didn't mind the walk. More ows came.

Once I was in the house, I was escorted to a big room. It was fancy, with big couches, lots of chairs, a fully stocked bar, and a big hookah like they have in the hookah bars. A human and a unicorn were standing behind the bar who I guessed were the staff. The furniture looked like it had been reinforced with steel for some reason, even if the cushions all looked comfy. 

Wild Growth herself walked in right behind me. "Ah! You arrived on time. Congratulations on being the new Dreamwarden. I was told you were going to want some food and refreshment before your speech, so I had my staff bring you in here first. We have the stage set up in the movie theater."

"It isn't in the mansion?" I asked. 

She chuckled. "It is here. I have a personal theater. Just because I donate most of my profits doesn't mean I don't enjoy a few luxuries for myself. When you make half a billion in income annually, you can still afford a lot with just five percent left to yourself, and I only use five percent of that five percent for personal luxuries."

It wasn't until I heard her say that that I truly understood what super-rich entailed. She was living like a queen off a fraction of a fraction of the money she made. 

"You donate ninety-five percent of your money?" I asked. 

She nodded. "Yes, there are always those in need and other good causes. I then reinvest seventy-five percent of what I keep for myself. Twenty percent goes towards the upkeep of this place, food, and transportation, and use the remainder for luxuries like movie theaters or nice vacations. Well, that's not entirely true, I use some of my congressional salary, which is separate from my business income, for some things, but that's a negligible amount."

"Do you need to hire an architect by chance?" I asked sheepishly. 

She chuckled and rubbed my head with a hoof. "Talk to me again after you graduate, and show me some designs, but I won't make any promises. I am hearing rumors that PonyCo might be losing your mom soon, and she might require some architects. It seems she has an idea for a business venture. I tried to buy the idea from her new partner, but they want to go it alone. Oh well, I'll just buy the stock once they go public if they go public."

I had no idea that my mom had been considering leaving PonyCo. There was only one possibility for what this business venture was. Mom had talked Russell's mom into starting up a company with her to produce that edible shrimp product for ponies. I knew my mom had been salivating over the idea of meat ponies could eat that weren't spiders or insects the second she heard it and saw it confirmed. It was just one of those things that any fool knew would be huge. Between my mom's organizational skills and connections, and Russell's mom's cooking determination, they had a winning recipe. 

"Anyway," Wild Growth continued. "We have a little while before the speech. You are welcome to order anything off the staff's menu. You have full access to the bar, even though I know you are underage, just don't get drunk. The staff will make sure to monitor your intake if you do have any alcohol. The hookah works, if you wish to partake. You are also welcome to nap if you have any Dreamwarden business you need to attend to. I will wake you up when it's time if you do. Don't worry about these two members of my staff knowing your secret. They are paid very well to keep their mouths closed and have a Dreamwarden contract to keep secret what goes on here in place as well."

"Thanks, this is nice," I said happily. "I missed most of my breakfast  It was defiled by the greatest evil on Earth."

She raised an eyebrow. "Slash and burn farming in the Amazon?" 

"Skim milk," I growled. 

"Right…" Wild Growth said, stepping back. "Seems the trend of getting somewhat unhinged people to be Dreamwardens continues. We have whole milk available. I tend to have a big appetite, and I don't cut calories anywhere. My metabolism must be top of the line because I never gain any weight."

Lucky her. However, she wasn't wrong. She did have a top-of-the-line metabolism, just like the alicorns did. Maybe all the power required a lot of fuel. Wild Growth wasn't actively using her power, but it was still there. I wondered if other powerful ponies had huge appetites as well. The only other powerful non-alicorn pony I personally knew was Josie, and I'd never seen her eat. I should ask her what her normal meals were like. However, in my case, I just liked food. It had nothing to do with needing a lot of fuel. I can be self-aware and honest with myself. 

Wild Growth left me so I could relax and eat. I was definitely getting food. The hookah was of no interest to me. Those things were okay to use when I went to a hookah bar for a party or get-together or whatever– that was part of the whole Skytree experience for honoring its people's history and being part of the unique culture of the city, but I didn't want it to be a thing I did outside those establishments. The bar I mostly dismissed, but I remembered red wine was supposed to be good for the heart. One glass of that wouldn't be the worst thing. It was time to complete step four! Lunch!

I did manage to lay off the sweets for my lunch. It was a massive exercise in self-control, but I only had one piece of cake, and it was carrot cake. My lunch was a very large salad with lots of ranch dressing, a piece of cake, and one glass of red wine– which was much better than that nasty champagne I was used to having when I had alcohol, but still wasn't as good as a tall glass of whole milk or apple juice. I was proud of myself for my lunch. I didn't overeat. 

Now on to step five! Oh, right, step five was going to be miserable. That was me and all the other Dreamwardens crying when Psychic Calm left. Still, it needed to be done. At least the couches were all big enough that I could comfortably sleep on without having to try to curl up. 

I got to sleep without too much trouble. I think the red wine helped with that, a little alcohol to make me sleepy. I would have to note that I should keep a bottle of red wine around once I left the dorms. It was good for the heart and helped me fall asleep, and tasted just icky enough that I could stand it while not wanting more than one glass at a time. Someone would have to buy it for me, probably Nightscape. Ashley was going to be leaving after summer, but Nightscape, though graduating, would still be in the area. All my other friends would still be just a tad too young. I suppose I could ask my parents or Lántiān, but Lántiān didn't seem like a rule-breaker, and asking my parents to supply me with contraband felt weird. I still had months to figure it out. It wasn't happening until summer when I got an apartment, and there was no way I was sneaking that stuff into the dorms. Ashley might be my bodyguard for the rest of the school year, but she'd probably still report me. Meadow would throw a fit too, and I didn't want to upset her.

It occurred to me I wasn't a rule-breaker normally, so I must have inherited something to even consider breaking the rules, even if I decided not to out of fear of consequences. Where did I get this new trait? None of the others particularly stood out, but it didn't necessarily have to be one of them. There were a lot of Dreamwardens who were long gone. It could have come from any number of them. You'd think there couldn't have been that many Dreamwardens. Dreamwardens can exist for a long time, millions of years before getting tired and committing to the Eternal Dream. The Devourers had reset magical life to scratch any number of times, as had primordial Dreamwardens, and it took time to build life from scratch. The thing is, people don't comprehend what billions of years entails. They should talk to Wild Growth about how she's rich with only a fraction of a fraction of her wealth. A billion is a lot; thirteen or fourteen billion was more than the average mind could fathom. Yeah, a million years is a long time, but it is less than one percent of a billion. You can fit a lot of time into billions of years of history. You could fit a lot of Dreamwardens and life starting over and over again into close to fourteen billion years of history. With that in mind, it wasn't worth worrying over who the trait came from, but it was a curiosity. 

We all gathered together in the dream realm, making our avatars plain representations of us as we sat among the sea of stars. The setting was chosen by Phobia, Ghadab, and Miss Seapony. They were the ones who had served beside Psychic Calm longest, and the ones who would be feeling the most pain. It was also chosen because me, Arbiter, and Avtandil all had completely different representations. There was only one choice that was close to a majority, and it wasn't worth voting over. Let the night ponies have their stars. We were here to wait, and cry once the waiting was over. When the news came that he had departed, there were many tears for our brother, the latest Dreamwarden to leave the dream realm out of many over the endless expanse of billions of years. 

Now it was time for step six and my big priorities for the day would be done.