Marshmallow Dreams

by Halira

Chapter 22: Two Interviews

When I was fourteen years old-

"You may cease with your recollections, for now."

I stopped thinking of my next memory in line, returning my surroundings to just the grey stillness that was waiting to be filled with whatever was on my mind. All that existed was the blank slate, me, and the pony who'd been my audience through all my memories. "Are we out of time?" I asked her.

Princess Luna nodded. "Indeed we are. Or at least we soon will be. My visits to your world cannot be overly long. I must soon be returning to Equestria. I do need to get some permissions from you before I go, and there is another matter that I need to discuss with you that Tikhiy Krik has brought to my attention in the time since his retirement."

"Okay," I replied, a little disappointed that my session was at an end. "What do you need permission for?"

"I need to be able to share all that you have shared with me in turn to Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, and Mi Amore Cadenza. Before you give that permission let me tell you that they will be using this information to assess whether they have any objections to your nomination to the post of Dreamwarden. So this would be information learned in a dream that would be used in the waking world. I need your permission to have it used in such a way. Equestria may be in a different universe, but many of the same rules that govern your Dreamwardens govern me as well. Do I have your permission to use this information thusly?"

"Um, sure. That's why you've been following along after all. I don't mind."

She nodded to me. "Thank you. I have other questions that need to be addressed before I leave you. The first of which is a matter that may not be of any immediate importance, but may someday long after you are gone be of pivotal importance. As the system with your Dreamwardens stands now the Dreamwardens retire to Equestria. They are not Dreamwardens of Equestria and are not the embodied will of my dream realm as they are here. However, they are capable of still creating Dreamwardens for my dream realm. This raises several far-reaching concerns that I think you'll understand."

My ears sagged. "You're worried we might make some new Dreamwarden there without your permission."

"That is one of my concerns, as well as a concern of my fellow princesses," Luna agreed. "Mind you, I do not think any of the current Dreamwardens or you would have such nefarious intentions. However, it is well known that becoming a Dreamwarden can alter some aspects of your personality. You are gaining colossal power and have access to large amounts of memories of all the Dreamwardens that preceded you. It is difficult to judge how this can impact any individual, or change how drastically their thought processes work."

That hadn't been something I'd been deeply concerned about before. I couldn't imagine going from my happy self to some horrible dream despot. Still, Princess Luna was like the most powerful Dreamwarden in terms of having less restrictions on her and actually having huge amounts of power when she was awake. If I was chosen as Dreamwarden I'd technically be the most magically powerful Dreamwarden when awake out of the Earth Dreamwardens (making an assumption that the mysterious Warden of Order didn't have super magic powers), but I wouldn't even be a drop in the magic jar compared to Princess Luna. She was also the one who made Miss Seapony a Dreamwarden, but also the one who made the big meanie Sha'am Maut a Dreamwarden. If she was saying getting all those Dreamwarden powers could change me it was worth taking seriously.

"So… what do you want to do to stop me from doing something bad like that?" I asked hesitantly.

She gave me a kind smile. "Tikhiy Krik has been working tirelessly to craft some additional oaths that will alleviate my concerns about how you could impact Equestria. Completely blocking you from making a Dreamwarden on my world is not something that would be advisable either."

I blinked. "Uh, I don't understand."

"Let me illuminate the matter then," she said gently. I found I liked listening to her voice. It was very calming. "If for some unforeseen reason our worlds were cut off from one another permanently, and I ended up trapped in this world, my world would need a new Dreamwarden. Having all of you retire to Equestria is what you Earthlings would call an insurance policy- in the case of the most dire events occurring. That is also why our opinion of Dreamwarden nominees is given weight. The retired Dreamwardens potentially hold electing power over my successor. I don't foresee a circumstance where this will happen, but it defies my ability to predict it by its very nature. It is not only your world impacted by your election, it's Equestria as well."

Fate of two worlds on your haunches, Rebecca. No pressure!

Actually, it wasn't really that big a deal. The chances of that happening in my lifetime seemed slim, and they had lots of smart and powerful magic users who could fix it if the portal temporarily went down. Plus there was that Discord guy. Miss Seapony said he kind of moved between universes and realms as he pleased. At least, she said he'd opened up portals straight into our dream realm before. That didn't make much sense to me, but Miss Seapony had said to not try to make sense or apply logic to Discord. It would make my brain hurt. The only consistent thing she said he did was be inconsistent.

"Well, I hope that never happens," I replied. "Did you have any other questions for me?"

"I have one more, although I will wait until my next visit to get your answer. It is not a simple question to answer, but it impacts many aspects of the position. What do you find threatening in general, and why?"

I looked at her, wondering if she was trying to play some joke on me. "That's kind of a big question."

"It is indeed. That's why I'm giving you time to think about your answer. Perhaps you should consult Phobia for assistance. Although, mind you, her assistance in such things, while helpful, is not always pleasant."

I meeped. I couldn't help myself. The thought of letting Miss Nightmares have her way with my nightmares was a terrifying thought. "I'll think about doing that."

The alicorn laughed at me. "It's okay to be afraid, little pegasus. It's important to understand how that fear impacts your decision making process. I made a mistake by letting my fear guide my own decision making process when choosing your forebears. They in turn made the mistake of letting their fear rule them. We have all learned to do better since then, but it is best not to repeat history."

What did I fear? Someone coming up to me and being mean and nasty was scary, but I'm not sure mean and nasty people counted as a fear. I'd outgrown my fear of not ever being a great flyer. I didn't want my friends or family hurt, but didn't want anyone to get hurt for that matter. I wasn't aware of any 'phobias' that Miss Nightmare could make me more aware of. Maybe fear of the unknown, because I was still scared of whatever she might bring, and I didn't even know what it could be.

She started to simply fade away. "Good night to you, Rebecca Riddle. We shall meet again.

At least I was getting to take a break from recounting memories. Finding things I thought she thought might possibly be important was exhausting. I was about ready to start describing my toys I had as a foal. The adventures of how my stuffed caterpillar Mister Wiggles and all his friends might have been interesting to me, but I think it might have bored her. I didn't think she'd find my many foalhood crushes that I never asked out would be very interesting either. I wasn't down to the bottom of my barrel yet, but I had been getting there.

I let myself fall back into a normal dream.

---

My parents usually left for work before I even got up in the morning, but they'd both decided to take vacation as my move in date for college approached. We were just finishing up a rare family breakfast when there was a knock at the front door.

My parents gave each other a look of confusion at the knock before my stepdad got up and answered it. I couldn't see who was at the door from where I was sitting, but I could hear them.

"Hi there! I'm Crystal, and I'm here to pick up a pony named Rebecca. This is the Riddle residence, right?"

I could see my stepdad look even more confused. "It's technically the Stanborn residence, but my stepdaughter has her mom's maiden name still, which is Riddle."

"I see," the voice cheerfully replied. "Is she here? I don't want to keep my boss waiting."

My step dad turned to me. "Becky, it's for you. Were you expecting someone?"

I hopped down from my seat and started to hurry over. "Yes. I just didn't expect them so early."

When I reached the door I saw an olympic blue crystal pony mare with a bleach white mane, and her cutie mark was just a plain red heart design. She smiled at me as I came into view. "You must be Rebecca. I'm Crystal, Crystal Dreams. I'm a bodyguard for Phobia Remedy and her driver. She's extended an invitation to come visit her. Are you ready to go?"

I was a little confused because she didn't say the code phrase. "Do you know why Miss Nightmares wants to see me?"

Crystal snort-laughed at me. "Miss Nightmares? I love that. I have no idea why she wants to see you. I'm just following orders. I was given the impression you expected to be picked up to go see her. Was I misinformed? I'm not going to haul you to her against your will if you don't want to go. It's a little odd to be sent to go fetch someone anyway. Are interviewing for some OMMR job or something?"

"Or something, I guess." Miss Nightmares' personal bodyguard didn't know anything about me. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing, bad thing, or a 'whatever' thing. "I can go right now. I was expecting this."

"Any idea when you'll be getting back?" My mom asked. "We wanted to help get your things in order to move, but I don't feel comfortable going into your room without you present."

"I'm not sure," I replied. I then gave her a mischievous grin. "But you're welcome to start without me. Just beware the huge drawer full of drug paraphernalia at the bottom of my dresser, the dildo hidden in my pillow, and the dead body in the closet."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, I get it. You don't have anything to worry about in your room."

My grin turned sheepish. "Actually… one of those things might really be there. Quick hint, don't go checking inside my pillows."

My mom crossed her arms and gave me a stoney look. "Young lady, what have we said before about needing to put on some filters in front of strangers?"

Crystal chuckled. "It's okay. I deal with three teenaged night ponies every day. Nothing shocks me. I'll keep her safe. No one's died while I was watching them. A few came close once or twice, but they're all still kicking." I wasn't sure if that reassured my mom at all, but since I was fine with Crystal my mom didn't object. She then bowed and pointed a leg out to the driveway. "Miss Riddle, your chariot awaits."

I walked past her and my stepdad closed the door behind me. Out in the driveway was a big white van. Crystal hurried by me towards the driver's door and the doors popped straight up with small ramps extending out so we could easily climb up into the vehicle. I followed her and got into the back seat. Inside was very spacious, with plenty of seating. I picked a spot and started harnessing myself into my seat.

Crystal's driver seat was one that put her sitting almost like a human, with a hole in the back of the seat for her to fit her tail through. She harnessed herself up, closed the automatic doors, and I heard the electric hum of the engine start.

"So, your name's Crystal… and you're a crystal pony," I observed as she pulled out of the driveway.

"Yep, makes it easy for everyone to remember. My human name was Crystal Heart as well, but the Heart part was spelled H-A-R-T back then."

"Oh, I guess that was really easy to convert into a pony name. My parents always told me I was allowed to have a pony name if I wanted one. I think they kind of expected me to take one, because they never asked if I wanted to take my step dad's last name. Would be a hassle, changing my name twice. I just never really had anything that appealed enough to me."

"No reason to take a pony name just to take a pony name, I say," Crystal replied as she drove along. "Of course, that is just my opinion, and opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one. If a pony wants a pony name that's their personal preference."

"What's your cutie mark mean?" I asked. It was just a plain heart, and that was pretty broad in scope. It also didn't scream bodyguard.

"Mine? It's nothing much. It just represents how I tend to get very passionate about whatever I do. Put my whole heart into everything. I don't have any special talent or anything, but I give things my all," she explained.

"That sounds nice. I guess it means you're very flexible on finding jobs you like."

I saw her glance at me in her mirror. "I suppose that's true. So is this an interview I'm taking you to? Phobia doesn't do many of those. I know she is in the market for third and forth full-time bodyguards now that the foals are getting more independent, and therefore not always in the same place as each other, but you don't really look the part for a bodyguard- no offence."

"You never know, no one would ever suspect a killer marshmallow," I said, gesturing a wing at myself.

She chuckled. "Don't let the night pony mares around the house hear you call yourself that. I'm still dealing with being called the rollie pollie crystal pony. I'm not even fat, I just have a larger frame than a lot of other crystal ponies. Those mares are merciless with the verbal jabs though."

"I had another pegasus call me rollie pollie the other day. Maybe she overheard one of them?"

"Could have," Crystal replied. "What does she look like? I know most of the pegasi that come near the house."

I didn't want to say her name, but was curious if Lántiān did visit Miss Nightmares sometimes. "She has blue fur and a black mane and tail, a little older than me."

"Lántiān," Crystal confirmed. "Don't let her get to you. She's an odd one. She isn't a bad natured mare, but she can get opinionated- at least from what little I've seen. She's been by the house a few times, but isn't a frequent visitor."

"Why does she visit Miss Nightmares?" I asked.

"They're god sisters. They aren't close, but Phobia's mother is Lántiān's godmother. Lántiān gets a courtesy invitation whenever there's a family event going on. Sometimes she accepts it, sometimes she doesn't."

"Oh," I wondered what Miss Nightmare's mother was like. I thought I recalled hearing about her once somewhere, but I must not have been paying much attention at the time.

"Pulling into Old Town now," Crystal announced. "Be on your best behavior. Every pony, and even some of the humans, are all deeply loyal to Phobia here. No one likes troublemakers."

I looked out the window. All the houses were older here. None of them were really fancy, although some had really nice yards. There were lots of trees and no sidewalk along the road. I could see people sitting out on their porches, just watching us as we drove by. I'd never been to Old Town before. I'd heard stories about it though. As the name implied it was the oldest part of the city. Most of the humans that lived here had lived here since before ponies ever came to Skytree. The main thing about Old Town that everyone talked about was the fact that the Warden of Fear lived there, and her presence attracted people that treated her almost like she was a god or something. There was supposedly a cult dedicated to her that had members here, even if she didn't endorse it. Old Town was Miss Nightmare's personal stronghold, and protesters would not willingly go into it. It also had a zero crime rate, even though the police almost never came here.

There were lots of side roads that curved off deeper into the neighborhood, but Crystal stayed on the main road. I saw a sign that labeled this as Main Street, and guessed that it went into the historic main street area that had all the old shops and restaurants that had been there for over a hundred years. I kept waiting for her to turn, but she never did. I was starting to wonder if we were going to just bypass Old Town altogether, since I could see newer buildings off in the distance- I think the part of town that had grown up around the military base.

She suddenly stopped the car in front of a Main Street house that was on the very edge of Old Town and put the car in park. "We've arrived. I'll need to escort you up to the house. Otherwise you'll get a flock of night pony mares coming down on your head."

A flock of night ponies attacking me didn't sound like a good time. The fact it was even a possibility didn't really make me feel welcome.

I followed Crystal up the path to the house, and my ears flattened at the sound of fighting. I looked around and saw the source. There were two night pony fillies, who could only be twelve or thirteen years old, directly above us trying to crash one another.

"You're going down this time, Arachne!" One of them yelled.

"You wish, Char!" The other yelled in turn.

"Less yelling and more technique! Be aware, we have a guest down below you. If you hit any non-combatant I'll have you both doing wing-ups for an hour!" A third voice yelled from somewhere nearby.

The fight… at least it looked like a fight- had a large audience. The house at the end of the path had every visible inch of the roof covered in night pony mares, and there were even a few hanging off the sides of the house and in a nearby tree. A night pony colt and teenaged unicorn filly (who both looked about the same age as the fillies in the air) sat together off to the side staring up at the conflict. A dark skinned human lady with a bright magenta mohawk stood watching them with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. She had a weird looking scar right on the center of her forehead that drew my eyes for some reason. Standing on the house porch was a familiar face, Jess the partial lady… or was it Doctor something…

Crystal paused and pulled me to the side, apparently wanting to wait until the two fillies were done before going forward. I understood why. There was a good chance that if we didn't keep out of the way I really would have a night pony come down on my head. The rest of the audience shouted encouragement to the two fillies, and different people seemed to favor one or another. I even heard one of them yelling to whichever one Arachne was that she better win because they had a hundred bucks on her.

They weren't being gentle with one another. They were landing kicks on one another regularly, and I saw quite a few winced of pain, and muffled oww's. They seemed to be evenly matched, and there was no sign this was going to be over soon.

Out of nowhere the one I think people were calling Char hurled her whole body towards the other one and instead of kicking wrapped her wings around her opponent tightly. The other one cried out in shock as she tried to break the grip, but it didn't work. With neither of them flapping their wings they came down together into the grass with a crash that even I would feel.

"Point goes to Charlotte!" The dark skinned human yelled out.

The filly who had been tackled in midair jumped to her hooves like she hadn't just taken a hard crash. "What! She crashed both of us! How does she get a point?! She should be disqualified for cheating, or at the very least it should be a draw."

The human glared at her. "There's no such thing as cheating in this. The only parameters are the ones I set. Her job was to bring you down using only her body as a weapon. Your job was to prevent her from doing that without any assistance from a weapon or your little spider friends. She brought you down. It doesn't matter if she went down with you. Point goes to your sister."

Charlotte feebly raised up a wing from where she was laying. "Woohoo! I'm happy. I'd hate to have bloodied my nuzzle for nothing."

"Try not to do that in the future, Charlotte," the woman instructed. "I don't want to be running any of you to the hospital again." Again? They've sent each other to the hospital before?

The woman turned to the other two foals. "Your turn. I want you two to start off at ten paces. Jordan, your goal is to keep Nightmare Moon from landing a blow on you for three minutes straight. Nightmare Moon, your goal is to land any blow you can on Jordan. Neither of you may use any objects or get any outside assistance. Attacks from the air are permitted, as is the use of magic."

"Three minutes?" The unicorn squeaked. "I can't keep a shield up for three straight minutes of him hitting it!"

The woman pointed for the two of them to go. "Then you'll have to figure out some alternative strategy. Get moving!"

"I'd much rather be reading a book. I'm a scholar, not a fighter. I wanna teach. How many teachers have to learn self defense like this?" Jordan grumbled, but she moved to take her position. The night pony colt stoically walked out to his assigned distance without a word.

"Come on, Jordan! Woo!" The partial lady cheered from the porch.

Crystal tapped my side. "Come on. Let's get moving before they start." I nodded and followed after her towards the porch.

"Why are they doing that?" I asked as we reached the porch.

"Self defense," Crystal replied. "The three night ponies are Phobia's foals. They have targets on their heads because of that. That little unicorn is her half-sister. There's another one, a pegasus filly who's Phobia's step-sister, who'd normally be here too, but she lucked out and had junior flight team practice today."

Was that what Miss Seapony wanted me to see? This looked brutal. I couldn't imagine having to do the same thing, or asking my friends and family to do that.

"Hey, Jess!" Crystal called over to the partial lady. "Phobia wants to make use of you for her meeting she's about to have."

Jess frowned. "But I wanted to cheer on Jordan."

"Better if you come inside," Crystal said slyly. "I know for a fact that when this fight is done Tempest is going to be demanding you have a bout with her. She can't do that if you aren't present."

The partial lady paled as she glanced hurriedly towards the woman out in the yard. "Um, okay, you convinced me. I don't feel like having her bruise me up today. Doctor Jessica Middleton is at Phobia's service."

Crystal gave her a flat look. "Please tell me you haven't started referring to yourself in the third person? That's not a good sign."

Jess blushed. "Just goofing around. Lighten up!"

Crystal chuckled. "Well, glad you learned to goof around. You've always been way too serious."

Jess looked back towards where the night pony was unleashing a rapid barrage of kicks on Jordan's magical shield as the unicorn filly cringed back with her horn glowing brightly. "I just seriously don't want to even try to fight Tempest Shadow. Your coworker is scary."

Crystal shrugged. "Won't argue with that. She's even scarier now that she has hands. She can handle all kinds of weapons she couldn't before. Not that she needs them. Let's get inside before Jordan loses."

"She could win!" Jess protested.

"And you could beat Tempest in hand to hand combat, but the chances of that are about the same."

Jess snorted, but didn't voice any disagreement. Crystal pushed open the front door of the house, which seemed to lead into a pitch black void. "After you, Miss Riddle. Phobia awaits."

I gulped. It was time to face Miss Nightmares, and find out exactly how scary she could be.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the delay. Summer heat has been making me sick. It's hard to focus on writing when dealing with heat exhaustion, headache, and nausea.

Comments

[badninja]

I think Phobia is going to be very different then Jessica is expecting. Hopefully she can get some answers to some of her questions.

[Chrome Masquerade]

"It is indeed. That's why I'm giving you time to think about your answer. Perhaps you should consult Phobia for assistance. Although, mind you, her assistance in such things, while helpful, is not always pleasant."

The shortest path is not always the easiest. Or was that the other way around?

[Chrome Masquerade]

Crystal chuckled. "It's okay. I deal with three teenaged night ponies every day. Nothing shocks me.

Famous last words~.
Just sayin'.

[Chrome Masquerade]

"Yep, makes it easy for everyone to remember. My human name was Crystal Heart as well, but the Heart part was spelled H-A-R-T back then."

A crystal pony previously named Crystal Hart. How apropos.

[Chrome Masquerade]

"You never know, no one would ever suspect a killer marshmallow," I said, gesturing a wing at myself.

Got ya there!

[Chrome Masquerade]

"I had another pegasus call me rollie pollie the other day. Maybe she overheard one of them?"

I think that's roly-poly. Not entirely sure.

[Chrome Masquerade]

Charlotte feabilly raised up a wing from where she was laying. "Woohoo! I'm happy. I'd hate to have bloodied my nuzzle for nothing."

I'm pretty sure that you mean feebly