Marshmallow Dreams

by Halira

Chapter 16: Not Quite An Eagle

No one likes going to the doctor's office. They poke and prod you, stick you with needles, and ask you all kinds of embarrassing questions. I needed to go to the doctor though, because my magic just wasn't behaving right. My parents promised that there'd be no needles sucking out my blood, but they shouldn't have made promises that they couldn't keep.

I sat moping about my sore leg, and trying not to rub at the bandage over where the nurse had just stolen some blood from it. I still had a bandage over part of my lower end where they had cut me open a few days before to remove the little growths. Doctor's visits were definitely not pleasant for me during that week. My mom was sitting in a chair across from the hospital bed I was sitting on. The bed was a pony bed, which meant it was lower to the ground, so my mom was still sitting up higher than me. We waited in silence for them to do more tests. I hoped it wouldn't be a lot of tests, and hoped they didn't need to stick me with any more needles.

"I'm sorry about the blood draw," Mom apologized. "I really didn't think they needed to do that for checking your magic."

My leg didn't hurt as much as it could have. So I gave my mom a halfhearted grin to show I wasn't mad. "It's alright. Who goes to the doctor and doesn't expect to have blood drawn?"

"Well, you were very brave and mature about it," she complimented. "When you were younger you would twist and fight the doctor so much they had to hold you down."

That was true. I wondered what had changed about that. After a moment's consideration, I had an answer. "That was before I started flying. When you get into as many crashes I do you get used to a little pain here and there."

She gave me a hard look. "You told me they don't hurt."

I shrugged. "They don't hurt that much. It's like stepping on a lego block kind of pain. It hurts, and feels intense for a few seconds, but it doesn't last long. Normally by the time I have gathered my senses the pain is almost all gone."

She gave me a deeply concerned frown. "I know flying is a big deal, but if you're hurting yourself each time…"

I waved it off with a wing. "Miss Seapony told me that her meanie older sister was wrong about a lot of things, but she was right about the fact we shouldn't let a little bit of pain stop us from doing what's important. Flying is important to me. It's part of who and what I am. If I crash I'm just going to get right back up, because the alternative is losing out on flying."

My mom could move fast, and the next thing I knew I was being pulled against her chest as she squeezed her arms around me. "I'm not happy you're getting hurt, even if it is just soreness and pain, but I'm proud of you."

"For crashing?" I asked in confusion.

She gripped me tighter. "For falling off your bike and getting back on."

I flicked my left ear. "Um, I don't have a bike. I never tried to ride a bike. Do they even make bikes for ponies?"

"I'll explain it to you sometime."

"How to ride a bike?"

"I'll try to help you with that too, if you decide you want to try."

There was a knock at the door, then it opened, revealing a night pony stallion and a crystal pony mare. The night pony clicked something on his phone then looked up at me. "Hello, I'm doctor Patel, and this is my assistant nurse Arbor. I'll be your treating physician." He had an accent, like he was from India.

My ears perked up. "Hi doctor Patel!" It never occurred to me until much later he was the guy my high school was named after. "I'm Rebecca."

He nodded. "I've looked over your test results so far, and your testimony about what has been happening. I'm confident I know what is going on, but want to conduct two final tests before making any assessment. Miss Arbor will be assisting us with those tests."

Crystal ponies assisting in tests usually involved a person having to use their magic so the crystal pony could read it. "What do you want me to do?" I asked, as I looked at the mare.

Miss Arbor walked over to me. "First, I'd like you to do a regular hover. Just for a few seconds. You don't have to go high, just enough to get yourself off the ground. Will you have any problems doing that safely?"

I shook my head. "I can do it. I'm not real steady, but a few inches isn't going to result in any mishaps."

She nodded. "Begin when you're ready. I'll be reading you."

I didn't waste time. I just started beating my wings, and got to where only my tail was still touching the bed. I even tucked my legs up so I didn't have to go any higher. I still wobbled a little, but it was a smaller wobble.

"That's enough. You can land," she announced, and I came back down to a sitting position. She then turned to the doctor. "One-point-nine on her usage, but reading a four or better on her reserves."

The doctor entered some data onto his phone and nodded. He then turned back to me. "I took a few minutes to consult with the Dreamwardens about your OMMR license, trying to get information about it. They wouldn't tell me what you could do, but did tell me that you'd be able to use the ability to let Miss Arbor get a magic reading on it, and that the ability is almost exclusively a night pony ability normally, and a rare one at that. I shall not ask you to reveal your ability to us, but if you are capable of using it in a discrete way, so my assistant can get a read on your magic, it would be much appreciated."

"Can I turn some music on?" I asked, gesturing at the phone on my leg. He gave me a silent nod, and I quickly started selecting something from my playlist. I picked something from an old Disney soundtrack, labeled I'm On My Way, and set it to play.

It took me almost no time at all to start projecting. I once again was invisible, and this time silent. I kept Just above my own head, just because I didn't want to have the crystal mare looking all around the room at me. She was looking at my body at the moment, but I was surprised to see the doctor looking straight at my projection.

The mare shook her head. "I don't know what she's doing. I've never felt magic quite like this. It's definitely stronger; a four-point-two or a four-point-three easily. It does feel vaguely night pony-ish, but I'm not familiar with night pony magic behaving this way."

Doctor Patel continued to stare at me. "Some night ponies can see dreams while awake, and I'm one of them. I can see what you're doing, Rebecca. Don't worry, I'll keep it private. You can stop now. I think this confirms what is going on with your flight."

I immediately stopped, and blinked my eyes as soon as I was back in my body. "So, what's wrong with me?"

Patel sat down and looked at me. "You're a dreamwalker, correct?" I nodded to him, and he nodded back knowingly. "And I assume that you didn't come by that ability naturally, correct?" I nodded again. "At what age did the Dreamwardens grant you the ability to dreamwalk?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Um, eight, I think, maybe nine, but pretty sure I was eight."

He noted something down on his legphone. "And I take it that you weren't flying yet at that age?" I nodded yet again. "Then that is our culprit."

My ears wilted. "I can't fly well because I can dreamwalk? But other ponies have gotten to dreamwalk and it doesn't mess with them."

"Other ponies that were granted the ability were typically granted the ability as adults, after their magic had already matured," he explained. "Gaining such a powerful trait at such a young age essentially derailed your magical development. Your magic still developed, but its natural course was diverted. As a result, what would be typical for a pegasus in magic was essentially stunted in favor of the new magical path."

"If you're saying her pegasus magic got replaced with night pony magic that doesn't make sense," my mom interrupted. "Night ponies might not fly as well as pegasi, but they have less trouble than she does. She doesn't see any better in the dark than me, and doesn't have any magic climbing ability."

Doctor Patel turned towards my mom. "The way magic manifests does follow certain patterns between tribes, this is true, but they aren't strict rules. There is room for variation. The abilities you just described would have developed before the age of eight on a night pony, if following normal patterns, and dreamwalking would not have yet-- with some rare individual exceptions. Her magic got mostly diverted to a night pony path, but when it got there it was just as much off course of normal development, not to mention she already had some pegasi magic developed before that."

"So my big ability is because my magic developed off plan?" I asked, trying to understand.

He did a brisk nod. "I have seen similar reports from foals that were granted dreamwalking at a young age. There are not a lot of such foals, but there is a high number of irregularities in their magical development. For many of them their normal tribal magics are often stunted, or behave strangely. Some have also ended up displaying rare or unusual abilities, in at least a few cases abilities that seem to be wholly unique to them. There's a small international consortium of night pony doctors who have taken an interest in this condition. We are still trying to fully define the symptoms and impact of it, but it seems to be that you have broken your primary magical template."

"How do we fix her template?" Mom asked.

He shook his head. "You don't. The magic wants a template and it made one. It is essentially the same thing that happens with humans who gain magical abilities. There's no preset plan for development, so the magic makes one."

My eyes started to water. "I'm just going to be bad at flying forever? There's no treatment?"

The doctor turned back to me, and gave me a sympathetic look. "I'm sure you can train and practice to get better, but it's always going to be a struggle. There is no treatment for this condition at this time. I'm sorry about that."

The doctor gave some references for flying instructors. We went back to the lobby, my mom paid for the visit, and we got back in the car.

Before we went anywhere my mom put a hand up to her head, then caused me to jump when she brought a fist down on the steering wheel. I flattened my ears to the sides as she laid her head against the wheel and started to cry. "Mom? What's wrong?"

She lifted her head and pushed aside some hair that had fallen in front of her face. "I can't believe someone we trusted did this to you. How could she do something that would cripple you for life?"

I lowered my head, and stared at the seat between my hooves, and the bandages over my abdomen. "I'm sure she didn't know it was going to happen."

"She's supposed to be the expert on all things related to dream magic. It's her job to know that this could happen to you!"

"Maybe it hadn't happened to anyone yet when she gave me dreamwalking powers," I said in my friend's defense. "It's not like there were lots of us that got those powers, and we're all just now getting old enough to realize there are problems."

"Baby, she messed your magic up for life. How can you be defending her?" Mom asked in confusion and concern. "Aren't you angry?"

Was I angry? I was definitely upset. I was definitely feeling hurt. Anger was something else though, and it wasn't there. I shook my head. "No, it had to be an accident. She's my friend. She's always been good to me. She's always done everything she can to help me. She believes in me."

My mom wasn't having it. "But she's responsible."

Was Miss Seapony responsible? In a way yes, but again, I couldn't believe she would have known. "I'm the one that asked her to let me dreamwalk. She didn't just volunteer for me to do it. I'm the one who wanted to see my old friends whenever we moved. You could blame me just as much, or more."

She looked at me, then started to cry again. "So is it my fault? I'm the one who had to keep with a job that moved us over and over again. If we hadn't then you wouldn't have had to ask that."

I don't know why, but I had a realization at that moment. I reached a wing out to my mom. "It doesn't need to be anyone's fault. It is what it is, and blaming anyone doesn't make it go away or make it any better. No one wanted it to happen, no one intended for it to happen, and everyone wishes it didn't happen, but it happened. I don't want to be mad at anyone."

It took a long time for my mom to stop wanting to find someone to blame. It was months before she stopped talking about it, and I think years before she stopped thinking about it. For all I know, she still thinks about it, but doesn't say anything. However, I made a decision that day. I was never going to get mad at someone for anything unless they did something on purpose to hurt someone, or knowing it could hurt someone. Faults were rarely ever just from one person, and if you sat around worrying about whose fault every single thing was you'd just be unhappy. Worry about fixing the problem, and making sure it doesn't happen again, don't worry about blaming. Blaming was pointless.

---

The elevator opened, and I found myself staring at a beak, attached to that beak was a being with a lionlike body, and a falconlike head.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Something wrong, pony?"

I blinked and produced my most intelligent response possible. "Beak."

She narrowed her eyes. The door for the elevator tried to close, but she stuck a talon out and stopped it. "I take it you've never met a griffin?"

I shook my head. "I've seen pictures, and videos, but never one face-to-face. You're a lot more feathery than me."

"And you're a lot more…" she gave me a dubious look. "...round than I am. Are you the pony that just decided to moon all the students on the balconies while laying against the side of the building?"

Had the balconies been right above where I landed? I couldn't remember. "Um, maybe? It wasn't really a decision on my part. It's just where my rump ended up. It sometimes ends up in strange places."

"Your rump just ended up facing up?"

"Yep."

Her beak parted slightly (I still thought that it was really interesting, and tried to see what her tongue looked like) and I got the impression she was gaping at me. She closed her beak (before I could spot her tongue) and shook her head. "Are you a freshman or a visitor?"

"Well, I'm a freshman, but today I'm a visitor, because I haven't moved in yet. I'm getting my key so I can move in a few days from now."

She flexed her talons, which I was unsure what it meant, but was sure it meant something. I didn't really know griffin body language. "Who are you rooming with?"

I pointed down the hall. "With Nightscape and Julie… I just realized I don't know Julie's last name; it's definitely Julie for the first name."

"Wojciechowski."

"Bless you!" What a strange sneeze.

She shook her head again. "I didn't sneeze, chub-butt!"

"Oh, is that some griffin word then? What's it mean?"

"It's not a griffin word. It's Julie's last name!"

"Oh, no wonder she didn't tell me what it was. I'd never have remembered it was Wojciechowski."

She flexed her talons again. "You just remembered it perfectly right now, having heard it once and thinking it was a sneeze."

I smiled. "Hey! I suppose I did."

She shook her head again. "Forget it. I'm Greta, and I'll be your RA this year. Just try to keep out of trouble, okay?"

I put out my hoof to touch hooves with her. "Okay. Nice to meet you, Greta. I'm Rebecca."

She gave my hoof a look, and flicked her tail, but she then closed up her talons and gave it a bump. "Now, can you please step out of the elevator so I can go down to the pool?"

I hastily got out of the elevator and turned to face her. "Sorry. Guess I'll see you around."

She shook her head again as she entered the elevator. She seemed to shake her head a lot, and she started mumbling to herself. "Ponies. Every year they get more and more pony." I had absolutely no clue what she meant by that.

I watched as the elevator closed and then went down the hall to go get my key. I needed to hurry, or Maggie would finish eating without me.

Comments

[badninja]

So we have an exchange student from the other side of the portal. I wonder how long they have been on Earth because they sound like they have been there for a while.

[Sarda]

She shook her head again. "Forget it. I'm Greta, and I'll be your RA this year. Just try to keep out of trouble, okay?"

Chapter 3 said the RA was named Greta, is this somebody else? I'm having a little trouble following what's happening when.