Marshmallow Dreams

by Halira

Chapter 127: The Marshmallow Dreams

I awoke to Wild Growth giving me a shake.

"Hey, we have thirty minutes till your speech. Phobia is on her way to introduce you. You ready to do this thing?"

I'd known the time was upon me before waking up. Phobia had left the rest of us to prepare. I hadn't wanted to wake up yet. It was cozy cuddling with all the others. Still, this was my hour. The moment when I got introduced to world leaders. They'd be making announcements to the press immediately afterward stating that there was a new Dreamwarden called The Marshmallow Warden of Creativity and what kinds of dreams I was interested in. They'd done something similar announcing the Warden of Order– with no further name attached, and saying the Warden of Order would be tending exclusively to human dreams because the Warden of Order was human. It had been a bit of a commotion at the time since people had automatically assumed the Dreamwardens were an exclusively pony thing.

I rolled over and promptly fell off the couch.

"Ow," I grunted. That was my word of the day. I was ready to get back into my cozy bed back in the dorms. It couldn't come soon enough. I normally didn't have issues with mild soreness, but yesterday took a massive toll on me and it would be days before things stopped aching. I wasn't used to this prolonged sensation of pain and discomfort; pain was normally a temporary thing that lasted a moment or two. The last time I had to deal with anything similar was when I still had those cysts growing inside me. Why were all my limbs sore anyway if my heart was what had the attack? My heart felt fine, other than me being tired in general.

"Are you alright?" Wild Growth asked as she helped me stand. "I heard you had a heart attack during your binding. Are you going to be able to do this?"

She was asking that now?? A little bit late to be asking that. It wasn't like I could get out of this anyway. The only reason I wasn't in bed as the doctor ordered was this needed to be done. Psychic Calm was gone. The world leaders needed to know conclusively who his replacement was and what I would be doing. It'd been stressed to me that not making an appearance would be considered very insulting to them. No one wants to start off a new job by insulting all the people that have to deal with you– aside from that Chinese guy; I could stand insulting him. Then again, it might not be a good idea to insult the guy who threatened families to get leverage. He deserved to be insulted, but it was a bad idea to do it. Don't poke a rabid animal.

"I'll be okay. I fall out of bed all the time," I said with a smile.

She gave me a doubtful look. "Alright. Let's get going."

She started walking, and I started following slowly behind. She stopped and let me catch up, then started again. We did this twice before she stopped and sighed.

"Do you mind if I just carry you?" she asked.

"I'm a little heavy. I wouldn't want you to-"

She gave me a smug grin. Oh, yeah. I forgot who I was talking to. She was one of the strongest, if not the strongest pony. I was a feather to her.

"You may carry me," I agreed.

She effortlessly hoisted me up on her back like a sack. Our pace through the mansion. It wasn't that far to her theater, just across a hall. The theater wasn't huge. There were only a dozen seats. There were red curtains, a massive movie screen, a projector, and a stage. The stage had a separate small curtain set up at its back and a collection of flags for different countries and flags that represented groups of countries– I picked out Russia, China, U.K, the East African Union, the Caribbean Confederation, U.N, Brazil, and some flag which I assumed represented some middle eastern country I didn't recognize. In front of the seats were a set of television screens. Phobia stood on stage, waiting for us, and there was a small staff of three who I guessed were in charge of the broadcast.

"Getting carried in? Are you that bad off?" Phobia asked as we approached.

Wild Growth set me down and I looked back at Phobia. "You monitored me through the binding. Shouldn't you know?"

"Our dead brother and sisters were the ones primarily doing that. My focus was more limited, as was Psychic Calm's, and our human brother has an even more limited ability to read what's going on in a pony body than us. You know those of us who are dead are more aware, but even that extra awareness tells us little about your true condition. We do always recommend doctors make those calls, not us," Phobia answered.

"I'm sore all over and tired," I explained. "Every step hurts. I think the doctors were so focused on checking my heart that they didn't check the rest of me. I must have muscle strain or something."

"Possible," Phobia said with a nod. "We'll get you to bed soon enough. Expect your next time sleeping to be much more active. There will be an announcement about you soon, and with it, you are going to get bombarded by dreamers seeking you out. Don't feel obligated to answer all their calls. We are not Arbiter, Ghadab, or Yinyu; we can only split ourselves in so many ways, and many who call upon us call for frivolous reasons. I do answer some, but I end up ignoring most such calls upon my name. Even if I gave all I could to answer those calls, it would only be a small portion answered, and it would leave me with nothing left to attend to the dreams I feel are most worthy of my attention. The ones who need our aid the most are often the ones who never ask for it. Let Arbiter or Yinyu filter through those requests to speak to you and let you know who you should answer. Focus on the dreams you want to focus on."

"Are there seriously so many requests for the Nightmare Queen's attention?" Wild Growth asked curiously.

"Thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, every day," Phobia answered. "Yet, most of our siblings get far more than me. I can only imagine, given what she says she stands for, that Rebecca's requests will be among the highest number. Who doesn't want a friend or to inspire a little creativity? Some get very dramatic in their requests, even bordering on religious in nature. It is best not to indulge that."

"Some of your associates should drop the religious imagery then," Wild Growth muttered.

"There are…disagreements among us. Those arguments are private," Phobia said. "Let's get this started. Rebecca, stand behind the curtain of the stage and come out when I call upon you."

I looked at the stage and my ears sagged. More walking, and up steps this time. It was only three steps that I had to climb, but it still felt like a lot. Which hurt more, my wings or my legs? My legs did, but my wings hurt just enough that I didn't trust myself to fly that short distance without a crash landing, and though crash landings typically didn't bother me, I was already in pain and didn't want to do anything to aggravate that further. I'd endure the short walk.

A dozen more ows, and I was in place, standing behind the stage curtain, waiting for Phobia to call me forward.

"We are ready when you are, madam Dreamwardens. Are you ready," one of the staff asked.

There were a few seconds of silence.

"Rebecca, they were asking both of us. Are you ready or not?" Phobia asked. "I gave them a nod."

I blinked. "Oh! Um, yeah. Sorry about that. Not used to being addressed that way."

"We begin in three, two, one, you're live," the staff answered.

"Esteemed leaders and representatives," Phobia greeted. "I thank you for taking the time to meet. I do apologize that we are not meeting in person as was originally intended, but the alternative was delaying the introduction of our newest member for several weeks. We felt that transparency in who the world was dealing with was best and that it would allow our new sibling to get to work on her primary duties unhindered as soon as possible. Her secondary uses will be delayed for some time since she is still pursuing her education and has expressed her desire to complete her degree. She may occasionally fulfill her secondary uses while enrolled and perhaps more often once she completes her degree in four years. This should give you additional time to adjust your procedures to properly deal with her."

"And what procedures should we need to adjust, Warden of Fear?" someone on one of the screens asked. I couldn't see since I was behind the curtain. It was a male voice with an accent which told me nothing.

"Our newest member possesses the ability to astral project. She can make what seems an illusion of herself appear and travel with it. Through this form, she is in direct communion with those of us in the dream realm, and she can be used to address Ghadab, Yinyu, and Arbiter directly in the waking world. Her primary role will always be, like us, attending to dreams in the dream realm and protecting them against those who would subvert them, but you can consider one of her other roles to be our ambassador," Phobia answered.

"That would be a valuable boon, if true. Will she be demonstrating this today?" a different delegate asked.

"Unlikely," Phobia replied. "Her binding was difficult, and she needs time to recover. In truth, she should be resting in bed, but she has agreed to this meeting to be introduced. If she agrees, we can do a demonstration during the originally planned time. I do not dictate her actions, as I do not dictate any of my siblings' actions, so you will have to take that up with her."

"Then let us meet her," yet another delegate said.

"As you wish." Phobia said. "Esteemed delegates, allow me to introduce the newest Dreamwarden, Rebecca Riddle, The Marshmallow, Warden of Creativity."

That was my queue! I put on my best smile and pushed through the opening of the curtain and stepped through.

"Hi! I'm The Marshmallow, Warden of Creativity!" I said as I emerged, spreading my wings wide.

One of my wings got caught in the curtain and the other clipped the flag for China and it started to fall over. I rushed to try to stop it. "Whoops! I got-"

I then tripped on the curtain and hit the still-falling flag, which went from teetering to toppling over quickly right into the Eastern African Union flag.

"I can fix this!" I said as I got up. I didn't realize my wing was still caught up in the curtain, I ended up yanking the curtain and the curtain fell, knocking over the other flags.

I looked around at the disaster I wrecked on the stage Then at Phobia who had slapped one of her wings over her face. Then out to Wild Growth and the broadcasting crew, who were staring slack-jawed at the devastation my clumsiness had brought about. I finally looked at the screens filled with the shocked and angry faces of the delegates.

I gave them all a grin. "Yeah…I might not be the most agile Dreamwarden. Don't take this as some sort of sign. But, hey, I bet this means you'll be that much more happy my projected form can't touch things. That's a plus, right?"

"Do we stop the broadcast?" one of the broadcasting crew asked.

Phobia waved a hoof while keeping her face covered. "Just continue. The damage has been done. Say what you need to say, Rebecca.

I kept my grin in place. I didn't think I could recall my speech now, but I could adlib. "So, I'm The Marshmallow with a capital T. I'm an architecture student, which will come in handy since buildings and I tend to have a love-hate relationship as you see. I've always been a bit of an oddball and outcast. There are plenty of ponies who feel like they can't do anything right and no one likes them, so my focus will largely involve giving ponies who feel that way a friend. I also favor the arts, and want to help get that creative spark to bloom in others."

No reaction from anybody. Well, all I could do was keep going.

"I do astral project," I continued. "I'm not sure of my full range when doing that. I haven't tried it to see if anything is different since becoming a Dreamwarden, but I know I can reach a few miles–excuse me– kilometers from where my body is. Sorry, I can't show you that right now, but I need to be comfortable and in my happy place to do that, and I've been really sore the last day or so– like walking is painful. I'll hopefully be in better shape in a few weeks. Still very round, but more comfortable."

"Is this supposed to be a joke, Dreamwarden Phobia Remedy?" another delegate practically snarled.

My smile dropped as I stared at the screens. He hadn't been the one to speak, but I saw that monster who had threatened Miss Seapony's foals watching me from his screen.

"I can answer for myself, sister," I said grimly.

Phobia uncovered her face and she gave me a small smile. "The stage is yours, sister."

I stepped forward and caught my balance before I could fall off the stage. I spread my wings and looked at the screens.

"I am a joke, and that's not a negative thing," I said firmly. "Let me ask you a question. A homeless family of ponies, miserable, scared, and tired, are walking through the woods and come upon two sticks. The family is a mother, a father, and two foals. The mother looks at these sticks and thinks of all the things she can craft with them. Perhaps she can use them in building a shelter or for a fire or a brace. The father looks at these two sticks, picks them up, and pretends to be a deer, making the family laugh. Which parent provided more for their family?"

"The mother was clearly thinking of what she could do to help her family. The father just acted like a fool, but I suppose you will give some nonsense explanation saying how the father was more useful," one of the delegates said.

I shook my head. "It is a trick question; both provided equally for their family. The mother was thinking ahead and using her creativity to think of ways of helping the family. The father was lifting their spirits. They have two sticks and haven't put them to use, and may not find a use, but he raised the morale and strengthened their bond with each other. The sticks can still be put to use later, but they have to keep their spirits up in dark times."

I glanced at Phobia and she nodded at me to continue, so I did. "I want people to be happy, inspire a little creativity, and help the friendless feel a little less alone. That's all I want. Inspiring happiness and dreaming of what can be, rather than what is. Do you think jokes, laughter, and silliness are unimportant? What use is stability and peace if that stability and peace are gloomy and gray? Society is advanced not by soldiers with guns or politicians with pens, but by artists painting, writers telling stories, scientists looking at problems in a new way, and comedians brightening up others' day. These are the things that hold us together and push us forward. I don't care about politics or formalities. I care about the person crying. I care about the person who has an idea to make things better but just needs a little creative push to figure out how to make it work. I've been given a platform to help those people and I intend to use it. Yeah, I'm a clutz and, yeah, I'm fat and don't know what I'm doing with a room full of politicians, but for some little foal or some inventor-artist-writer others call a crackpot, I'm the person who will cheer them on when they think no one else will. That's who The Marshmallow is. That's who you can announce the new Dreamwarden to be."

I lowered my wings. "And I know I shouldn't say anything that comes off as rude, but I need to stand up for these things. Frankly, it doesn't matter if you think the stuff I stand for is unimportant or if you think I'm not the best person for the job. I'm here, I'm not going anywhere, and I'm not abandoning what I stand for."

I took a deep breath. "The world could be ending in our lifetimes. When people find out, they'll be scared and feel hopeless. They need to remember how to laugh. They need to dream big to come up with solutions. I am not going to be the most helpful with implementing those solutions, but the world has my siblings and all of you to do that. Help me inspire the people who can give you the solutions you can implement. I serve the world, but I serve it in my way doing what I believe in. Leave me out of your politics. I have no interest in getting involved with them. I wouldn't even know what to do. Just let me do my thing in peace while every once and a while giving you a chance to directly talk to my siblings who might care more about all that political stuff and implementations and so on."

Phobia stepped forward and draped a wing over my back. "My sister has said her peace and what she stands for, and with a passion that will make Yinyu proud when she hears it. I stand to help others understand and confront fear, but Rebecca offers one of the greatest weapons against fear, and I am proud to have her as my sister. The Wardens stand united with our new member and wish her great success. I hope all of you will too. With that, I think this introduction is at an end. You will be receiving our official press release through the normal channels, and the press shall as well. May you all sleep well knowing the Dreamwardens stand ready to do our duties."

"And camera is off," the broadcast crew announced as the screens went blank.

I smiled at Phobia. "Thanks for standing up for me, even though I'm pretty sure I embarrassed you."

"I never lie," Phobia reminded me. "And maybe we'll do some practice rehearsals for the next time you enter a stage, shall we?"

I giggled, which still hurt, but that was okay. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Can I go back to the dorms now? I need to sleep– after I find a big cake to eat."

"I baked you one and already have it out to be delivered to your dorm room," Phobia answered. Someone knew me well.

Well, that ordeal was over. It was official. I was The Marshmallow, the Dreamwarden of Creativity, and my era of being a Dreamwarden would be something special.

Author's Note:

Stay tuned for the epilogue. It might be a few days. If anyone knows anything about my epilogues, they tend to be lengthy.

Comments

[badninja]

If she needs to ever scare anyone I hope she takes the form of the State Pufft Marshmallow Man(Mare).