Marshmallow Dreams

by Halira

Chapter 120: The In's and Outs of Zombies and Stories

I stayed on the couch as Sunset Blessing dressed Drizzle in that Wonderbolts uniform that Drizzle loved. Jordan was reading something on her tablet, hopefully not clop. It might not be clop since she wasn't showing any signs of arousal, and it would be very inappropriate to be reading that while foalsitting. Plus, I'm pretty sure Sunset Blessing would throttle her if she was.

"There you go," Sunset Blessing said with a smile as she finished getting the flight suit on Drizzle. "You're getting so big. This suit isn't going to fit you for much longer. All of you are growing up so fast."

The human-pony didn't turn her head as she spoke. "And speaking of fillies who are growing up fast; Jordan, if you're reading something that isn't age-appropriate, you and I will have words."

Jordan looked up from her floating tablet and it dropped down onto the couch as her grip was suddenly released. "It's for school! I have a report on Of Mice and Men due next week!"

"Of Mice and Men? What grade are you in, again?" I asked.

"Eighth, but I'm mostly in the advanced classes," Jordan replied.

"Does it have cute mice, like Mickey and Minnie?" Drizzle asked, sounding hopeful.

Jordan levitated her tablet into her saddlebag and zipped the bag. "Um, no…I think you'd find the book boring. There are no mice or ponies characters."

Sunset Blessing pursed her lips. "Not what I meant by not age-appropriate, but still not something Drizzle should be exposed to. I was more concerned with your side reading that your father told me about."

Jordan lowered her head. "You talked to Dad? I thought you were ghosting him."

Sunset Blessing shrugged. "I had been, but some fillies decided to open their mouths and tell him I wasn't sick in bed. Next thing I know, I have my wife telling me that my ex-husband is demanding to speak to me in the dream realm about what I'm teaching his baby filly."

Jordan squared her shoulders. "I'm not a baby."

"We're all well aware. Believe it or not, I was once a teenager too, and one with a lot of libido. So I somewhat understand what you're going through," Sunset Blessing replied. "Just keep that stuff away from Drizzle, okay?"

"Okay," Jordan agreed.

"What do you mean, somewhat?" I asked, curious.

Sunset Blessing narrowed her eyes as she looked at me. "Being a lesbian teen in the nineties living in the south was not culturally acceptable. It got better in the decades after, but it was even moderately bad up until ETS, at least in this region. That level of stigma made it an extremely confusing time in my life. It's hard to sometimes reconcile what you know deep down about yourself with what society's expectations are, and it seems like it's easier to just deny the truth, even to yourself, in order to meet those expectations. I went through this whole, life is pain, goth phase, because my refusal to accept myself really made me sad and miserable, even if I couldn't admit to myself why."

My ears folded. "That's sad. Nobody should have to deny who they are." I then tilted my head in thought. "Unless who you are is a psychopathic killer or something like that. Even then, maybe it would be best to be open about it, that way people could get you some mental help before someone ends up getting murdered. I mean, that psychopath energy has to be able to be channeled into something, like politics, or car sales."

They all stared at me. "Rebecca, you have weird ideas," Jordan said.

Sunset Blessing sighed. "Discrimination is a form of keeping corrupt political control. Someone has to be the other and the bad guys so you can be the good guys. You, the politician, find some group, preferably a minority that already has stereotypes or distrust, and you make a culture war about fighting that group so you can rile the people up and have them pay no attention to what else you might be doing. It is an old tactic, going back millennia, but an effective one. I employed it against Equestrians. It got the US government on my side and had them turning a blind eye towards a lot of crap I did as the demagogue of the south."

"Would a guy from China theoretically do that with a group called…um… yougars?" I asked.

"Uigars," Sunset Blessing corrected in a grim tone. "Yes, they would. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to break Lántiān of that, and I'm sure there is still some lingering prejudice she harbors for them. She didn't say something critical about Uigars, did she?"

"Mama wouldn't do that!" Drizzle asserted.

"It was somebody else, somebody really powerful from China that tried to convince me and Sunflower to immigrate there. He was mean, nasty, and kinda scary," I explained. "He had your colors."

Sunset Blessing scowled. "Oh…him. I will keep my mouth shut about what I think about him. The words I would use are ones I don't want Drizzle learning."

"Is he a shǎ bī, Auntie?" Drizzle asked.

"Drizzle, don't say that, it's unladylike and rude," Sunset Blessing scolded. "Where did you learn that?"

"Mama says it when she's mad at you," Drizzle said innocently.

"Of course she does," Sunset Blessing muttered. "Jordan, can you help Drizzle feed Wrinkles? I want him fed before he goes out. Check his water too."

Drizzle bounced over to Jordan. "Come on! We need to feed wrinkly Mister Wrinkles! I can show you the cool rock I found!"

"Cool rock, got it," Jordan mumbled as she climbed down from the couch. The two of them exited to the back of the apartment. Hey, who knew? It could be a cool rock.

Sunset Blessing stepped over to me so she was now towering over me as she looked down. Why did humans have to be so tall? It made them that much more intimidating.

"So…you met that defecation on ponykind that leads China?" she asked me.

I backed up a few steps.."Um, yeah. He convinced the Dreamwardens to let him meet us with a videocall. They got something out of it, but I was told the details in a dream so I can't say what. He tried to convince us to come to China, but he didn't seem to be trying too hard, since he was rude and nasty. I don't know what he was trying to do."

"Trying to get a rise out of you to see how you react. That's what I'd do. You can find out a lot after making someone mad. Never underestimate the value of pissing someone off," Sunset Blessing explained before sitting down on the floor beside me. "He probably learned that tactic by studying me. I never met him, but he studied my methods extensively, and he was an excellent student. That's one of many things I need to seek repentance for. If I were to guess what he was seeking to learn, I would say he was trying to determine which of you was less competent when angry– which of you thinks with your heart more than your head when pushed. That person would be easier to outmaneuver and manipulate."

"Do you think like this all the time?" I asked. "It seems like a depressing way to view the world."

She shrugged. "I'm a cynic, I admit it. Idealist in power need cynics to give them a dose of reality. You'll never make your fantasies for what the world can be come true if you think the noose someone puts around your neck is a welcome necklace."

"Eh…you are such a Debbie Downer," I said, shaking my head at the thought of a noose around my neck. I think that was one of Moses's visions that I saw. Thinking about it gave me the shivers. "Are you in town just to visit? Where are your sons?"

"They are spending time with Phobia's brood. I am down here on business, which I have taken care of. Phobia wanted me to look at a foal and give her my opinions about their magic. She also wanted me to give her advice on how to procure some dead bodies discreetly."

"Why would you know how to get dead bodies?" I asked in confusion.

"Research requires test subjects. I used to do a lot more research of questionable nature than I do these days," she said with another shrug.

I shivered. "Should you be telling me this?"

"It's not Dreamwarden sealed, and a little birdie told me that you already had to deal with this foal and what he can do. I assume you can guess the rest."

I fluffed my feathers. "Do you guys have like the CIA and FBI working for you or something? How does everybody know what is going on so fast?"

She chuckled. "I have my own information network, it's part of my occupation, but I assume those agencies are watching too, along with others. Whoever is the next Dreamwarden might be a public secret, but that doesn't mean there won't be plenty who know."

That was not comforting to hear at all. Sunset Blessing was no Dreamwarden, so she could be lying, but she had no reason to lie, and what she said was the only reasonable explanation for what had been happening.

"So…what did you learn about Moses? Did you visit him in that facility?" I asked.

She sighed. "Actually, he has already been moved to a farm. It seems the OMMR had been anticipating gaining possession of him for some time and were ready for it. It's several acres of land about fifteen miles past the military base. I arrived in town before dawn and was out to that farm by first light. They are currently conducting tests to see which animals can be safely kept on the farm. We don't want him panicking animals with his powers. Thankfully, being capable of complex abstract thought seems to be a requirement for his powers to work. Most animals can barely manage any abstract thought."

I smiled. "That's good. He can have pets then!"

"If the pets don't get freaked out by the zombies. I'm not sure how that will go. I guess it depends on how fresh the bodies are when they are reanimated. They seem to stop decaying while reanimated, at least based on Ulga's story of her benevolent protector, Ayedonno. He lasted months with no signs of decay, and ponies didn't realize they were dealing with a corpse during all that time. You'd think they'd have smelled something wrong if there was any decay. He only stopped moving after the body became too damaged to function," Sunset Blessing replied. "As for my analysis, I've never seen anything quite like Moses's powers. If I had to hazard a guess, his powers are some highly warped version of Storyteller powers, but I'm no expert on Storytellers, and I don't know anyone who is. Even Storytellers themselves seem to know little about how their powers work. Maybe the Dreamwardens can have a sit down with the Narrative, but that requires dealing with someone who doesn't care much for Dreamwardens, so that might not work out."

"So…you weren't much help," I concluded.

She stood up. "No, I wasn't. I don't have all the answers. I doubt I told them anything they didn't already know. I should have stayed home and spared them the cost to get me down here so quickly. At least my sons get to spend a little more time with the family. They don't get out enough."

I wondered what Sunflower would think of the fact Moses was some weird Storyteller. Would it make her feel better or worse about her own powers? They might be confusing for her, but they didn't hurt people or reanimate the dead. Was that what those visions were, possible storylines? Did that make Moses's zombies characters he picked out of the Story? I didn't understand this stuff, but it seemed like drawing pictures was a whole lot less stressful than what Moses did. What useful information could you get from Moses's powers? You could get useful information from Sunflower's.

"Is it a nice farm?" I asked.

"It's in good shape, plenty of room for him to move around in, over five hundred acres. It will seem very normal once they bring all the livestock in, but it is still a prison," she said with a shake of her head. "The entire perimeter is fenced, and there is another fence within that one, with the area between the two fences filled with snares, tripwires, bear traps, and more. It keeps people out and him in. Pegasi could fly in, but why would they want to visit some random farm where they aren't sure of the owner's temperament? They assured me they'd be taking classes of schoolkids out there for field trips once they were confident he has control of his powers and will let him take day trips off the farm when that time comes as well. I guess that is manageable if he has a zombie following him around."

"He needs to go to school, like a normal kid. Go to playgrounds. Make friends," I said mournfully.

She shook her head. "I'm not sure how school would work when he needs to keep a zombie close by. Perhaps Phobia has a plan. My daughter does have a heart, and she wants the best for him. Trust her."

"Maybe Drizzle could play with him?" I tentatively suggested.

The human pony looked leary about that. "She's twice his age, and I'm pretty sure her mother would object to Drizzle associating with a necromancer. Not to stereotype, but Chinese culture has very strong feelings about the dead, and she is very Chinese. She would consider him unlucky to be around. He also is another abnormality while she is trying to create a normal-ish life for Drizzle."

"Unlucky?" I asked in confusion.

"Dead bodies, even depictions of dead bodies, are considered unlucky," Sunset Blessing explained. "Don't ask me, it isn't my superstition. I just know her and try to respect her feelings. She won't even let Drizzle watch The Lion King because it shows Mufasa's dead body and all those bones in the elephant graveyard are what goes too far for her."

I blinked. "I learned something new today. I knew she didn't want me showing Drizzle anything with those elements, but I thought it was because she thought it would scare Drizzle and give her nightmares. I didn't know it was this whole cultural superstition thing. That must make dealing with Miss Seapony extra weird for her."

"Not really. Yinyu has no body. It's all about dead bodies," Sunset Blessing clarified.

Drizzle came bounding out of the back. "Auntie! Auntie! Wrinkles peepee'd on Jordan!

"I'm going to have a shower!" Jordan yelled from the other room.

"Hey, Jordan! Can you say he drizzled on you?" I called out to her, trying not to laugh.

"Not funny!" Jordan yelled back.

Wrinkles walked out of the back. Looked at us, then promptly raised his leg next to the couch.

I am never getting a dog.