• Published 30th Mar 2020
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Marshmallow Dreams - Halira



Rebecca Riddle seems to be your typical human-turned-pegasus in a world of both humans and ponies, but she has a secret double life, and there is nothing typical about her other life.

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Chapter 53: Prelude to the Where We Began

A dark blue mare with a sapphire blue mane that seemed alive stepped forward and gave my parents and me a beaming smile. She had both a horn and wings, and everything about her seemed just a bit bigger and majestic than other ponies. She was wearing a tiny black crown behind her horn and some garment I could not determine if it was a breastplate or necklace which bore her cutie mark, and lavender shoes. Her flank looked like someone had splattered black paint against it, with one big glob and a few small black spots that went along her leg and her side. Her eyes were colored cyan and seemed kind and full of life. The best word to describe her I could come up with was regal.

My parents made to bow while I stood there dumbly, but the alicorn motioned with a hoof for them to rise. "Please, no formality is required, although your gesture of respect is appreciated. I am Luna, co-ruler, Princess, and Dreamwarden of Equestria, and tonight is a joyous night. I have been most eager to meet each of the top Dreamwarden candidates. Each of the Dreamwardens has said many good things about every candidate, and I finally get my opportunity to see all of you myself."

"We'll try not to waste too much of your time if you have multiple ponies to see tonight, Princess," Mom said breathlessly.

Luna chuckled. "Fear not, I may not be a Dreamwarden of this world, but I am no mere dreamwalker who is bound to but one dream. I can meet with you all at once. There are five others I am to visit tonight, and three of them I have already begun engaging with before now. We shall conduct our business with no fear of distraction or pressing of time, and when the fifth is ready, I will meet with that individual as well without you even taking notice that my attention has been divided pentagonally."

Five of us? There were four other ponies that the Dreamwardens felt were worth calling Luna in to interview. There might be more, she said all at once, but she also said five tonight, which might mean more another night.

Luna looked at me. "I see the question in your eyes. The vetting process has been narrowed down to just five, barring some unforeseen circumstance that would eliminate all the top five from consideration in one swell swoop. I find that to be unlikely. The Dreamwardens have told me nothing else of your rankings beyond that. You are Rebecca Riddle, the portly one, correct?"

"They identified my daughter as the fat one?!" Mom yelled. She looked caught between outraged and flabbergasted.

Luna winced. "Ghadab used a different set of terms. He can be quite colorful in his descriptions. No insult was intended. He assured me that Rebecca would have no problem with being referenced by his crudest of terms and insisted I greet as such. I found the request odd and decided to scale back the terminology."

"Mom, if you ever meet Ghadab, you'll understand. He has his own way of looking at things. It's okay. I am fat," I said placatingly. I then looked at Luna with a big smile. "Or you can go with fluffy, chubby, squishy, huggable, cookie jar, marshmallow, fuzzy lumpkins, master of the lard, the happy earthquake, and one person once called me Celestia with a normal metabolism."

"Sister's appetite is well-known on both worlds. It is exaggerated, but her manners when eating cake are often abandoned, and it is a little known fact that she is also fond of cooking when she can," Luna giggled while trying to cover a smirk. "However, Twilight Sparkle is a monster when put around fast food, with table-manners so appalling that she has been banned by no less than a dozen establishments, last I checked."

I blinked. "Really? That bad? I have some nasty table-manners, but no one has ever talked about banning me from a place."

Luna laughed. "Twilight has been known to order everything on the menu and wipe her face and table with her food—she says to pick up the stray sauce. Ponies have passed out while observing her eat. Twilight with hayburgers is far worse than even the tabloids say Celestia is with cake! How Twilight Sparkle manages to stay thin is one of the great mysteries of our time. You don't want to get me started on Cadence and her need to hog all the chocolate pudding on special occasions—I have had to set guards to keep her at bay so other ponies can have some. Some ponies have stated I have unusual eating habits as well, but know this, they are lies and slander!"

"Hey, good food deserves to be devoured!" I said with a happy bounce.

"Indeed," Luna replied. "Now, on to the matters of my visit that concern both you and your family. You, along with all the other candidates, and their families, will be invited to come later next month for a week-long visit to Equestria."

"But I have classes!" I said in shock. "My architecture teacher, in particular, is strict about attendance."

"I used my vacation for this week, and my wife just did too," Stepdad protested right after me.

"All such matters shall be taken care of, so Senator Wild Growth assures us," Luna said dismissively. "The Dreamwardens and I all felt it was best if the candidates were first allowed to visit the place they hope to retire to eventually. While it may seem silly to concern ourselves about it to some, not liking Equestria could be a deal-breaker for others."

"Won't that practically advertise to the public who the candidates are?" Mom asked. "Rebecca's identity is supposed to be a secret."

"You are simply going because you won the contest you entered, not because of anything else," Luna said smugly.

"Contest?" I asked. "What contest?"

"We didn't enter any contest," Mom echoed.

"Senator Wild Growth will be making a trip to Equestria to visit family. Being the generous soul she is, she has decided to host a dozen families to join hers on this vacation. It was quite a popular contest, with hundreds of thousands of entries. Five of those dozen will be candidates' families. The seven true winning families were informed of their winning two months ago."

"That sounds like a lot of people," I said.

Luna nodded. "I have not been given the final number yet, but it could be upwards of sixty-seven at max, although we don't expect it to max out, only five of whom are candidates, and will be treated with the exact same level of hospitality as the rest. Senator Wild Growth will be bringing her brothers, sister, nephew, and nieces with her, and each other family can bring up to five family members. You will not be made aware who out of the others are the candidates."

I rubbed the back of my neck with a hoof. "I kinda found out who one of them was by accident. I let them know about me, to be fair."

"I see," Luna replied with a slight frown, then got a faraway look on her face. "Ah, I have confirmed. They have not had a chance to discuss it with you yet."

"I'm guessing you are talking to them now?" I asked.

Luna nodded. "The individual and their parents. They just communicated with me that they'll find time to discuss it with you. I'll leave the matter between the two of you to deal with responsibly. The Dreamwardens are aware of the situation already, of course, and continue to monitor each of you."

Mom cleared her throat. "Getting back to the talk about the trip; I understand that a trip to Equestria is a rare once and a lifetime opportunity that is very hard to arrange, and I may not have another chance, but I do have a critical contract project coming up for work that I already put on hold for my daughter's move-in to college. I want to be there to support her, but I simply cannot take time off again so soon, especially if I'm going to be clearing personal days later this year to be with her if she does end up becoming a Dreamwarden. Wild Growth used to be my boss, but she is no longer involved with company business to clear my schedule since she was elected to office."

Luna gave my parents a sympathetic look. "If you are unable to go, that is perfectly alright. If possible, perhaps we could arrange something of a… rain check so you can visit in the future. But the only one of you three who needs to go is Rebecca, as this trip is for her and the other candidates' benefit. Well… and Senator Wild Growth and her family. The senator is going to meet her parents for the first time since they settled in Equestria, along with meeting her youngest brother for the first time. It's a joyous occasion."

"Am I going to have to have more meetings with people in Equestria," I asked. I was about full on the number of people who wanted meetings with me.

Luna shook her head. "This is just a relaxing vacation. You are just another tourist coming to see the sites. It is so you can judge Equestria, and whether you will want to retire there. Krik is there, but he will probably not interact with any of the candidates. He spends most of his evenings painting and enjoying proper sleep during the day. He sometimes does tasks for me, and I will sometimes seek his opinion on some matters, but I mostly leave him be in his retirement. My fellow princesses will be aware you and the other candidates are visiting, but don't plan on doing any interviews. If you greet any of them, it will be as just another tourist."

"What kind of tasks do you have retired Dreamwardens do?" I asked. "I thought retirement was supposed to mean we don't have jobs anymore."

"An excellent question," Luna replied. "The retired Dreamwardens keep an eye on the dream realm in Equestria for me when I am off-world. They don't possess the full power of a Dreamwarden in Equestria, but they are still capable of far more than your typical dreamwalker, and can delay or stop threats until I can return to vanquish them. If a catastrophe were to strike, and I were to be killed or permanently trapped in your world, they are to install whoever I have chosen as a successor to my sted as the Dreamwarden of Equestria. I don't foresee this happening, but failure to have preparations for such an unhappy circumstance could result in consequences most dire."

"My daughter is expected to fight monsters!?" Mom exclaimed in shock.

Luna gave my parents a flat look. "That is in the job description. What do you think a Dreamwarden is responsible for?"

"I already knew it was a possibility," I said before my parents could answer. "Miss Seapony told me earlier that she regularly has to chase Discord out of the dream realm, and she's told me before they sometimes have to do things to bad guys using mind magic that aren't safe for cops to try to catch."

Luna grumbled. "Discord is a nuisance of no malicious intent, but can become a problem if left unsupervised. It is in his nature to cause chaos and confusion. He is not alone in possible threats. I have faced invaders from beyond the borders of the unknown before and have shown them that the dream realm is no easy conquest. The Dreamwardens here have related to me that, while they have yet to have such a breach, they do have memories of it happening in the distant past."

"And now they are wondering if Sha'am Maut is somehow touching the world from the eternal dream. She's like the biggest meanie baddie ever!" I exclaimed.

Luna frowned. "I have heard this concern from them, and I do not know how that could be possible. Even if she were, I cannot make myself believe she would intend to do harm. Sha'am was unnecessarily brutal and cruel, but she did not have evil intent. The phenomenon that Phobia described could be a result of something else entirely, and we know nothing yet of its nature or purpose. It's best not to jump to conclusions."

Mom looked uncomfortable as she looked between Luna and me."They play up the services Dreamwardens provide so much—arranging dream meetings, talking people through problems, encouraging foals, alerting medics of people in need of immediate medical care, acting as notaries and witnesses for contracts, so many other things…it gets easy to forget there's this whole other side to them. It's easy to see Rebecca in that service role of Dreamwardens because she's so happy and caring, but it's hard to imagine her in that enforcement role."

"Mom, I doubt I will ever be needed to fight bad guys," I consoled her. "What can I do that Miss Seapony, Ghadab, and Arbiter can't do better? And Phobia Remedy is Phobia Remedy, the Queen of Nightmares. If anything like that was needed in the waking world, I'm sure she could do it. I would be around just to cheerleader and focus on being as non-threatening as possible."

"I heard you have an optimistic and cheerful personality," Luna said, regaining her smile. "That's good. They need that. Yinyu used to fill that role, but since her death, much of that has faded. It isn't all gone, but she once had much more life to her…" Luna's smile dropped. "Perhaps I worded that poorly. However, you'll find that being a Dreamwarden comes with an instinctual drive to defend the dream realm and a deep burning rage at those that would try to subvert or harm the dreamers. If it were to be invaded, you would not hesitate to put yourself on the front lines of its defense, and woe to the miscreant that had the folly to incite your rage. I can speak of this from personal experience."

Mom half-frowned. "I suppose she would have the tools to do that in that case, but it still is hard to picture my baby charging in to fight anything, and I worry about her doing that, even if I know she would be practically undefeatable—at least in the dream realm. She isn't going to try that when awake, right? She'd get slaughtered."

Luna chewed on her lip. "It is best she just is kept far away from such threats when awake. She would be immune to mind magic, but far from immune to physical attack. Understand, none of the Dreamwardens of this world have ever presented much in the way of a physical threat. Sha'am was the most feared, and she was as lacking in physical prowess as they come. Only Yinyu, Ghadab, and Psychic Calm would qualify as having been physically fit, and two of them met their living ends. This is one of the many roles the OMMR and other governmental authorities fill here, to be the spear of the Dreamwardens in the waking world so the Dreamwardens can stay far away and safe. Although, she may be called upon to use her unique abilities at times."

"Hopefully, no crystal ponies get me again; that hurt," I said as I absently rubbed my head.

Mom narrowed her eyes at me. "What do you mean by again?"

"Did I not mention Phobia Remedy's crystal pony bodyguard sapped my magic because she thought I was attacking Phobia Remedy?"

"You somehow left that part off your list," Mom said flatly.

I blushed. "Yeah, Phobia Remedy screamed and had a panic attack. She thought I was her daughter's big hairy spider."

Luna blinked. "I think dear Phobia's vision may be failing at a young age. You do not bear any resemblance to Goliath."

"I kinda stuck my head up her butt—it's a long story. Sorry, it got lost in the shuffle of everything else," I said, blushing deeper.

"The Dreamwardens told me that it was a colorful and unique group of candidates they had gathered. They weren't wrong," Luna chuckled. "Your shoving your head up Phobia's posterior is not even in the top three misadventures I have heard from candidates."

I knew about Sunflower's issue, which I would think was a bigger deal than mine, but I wondered what the other candidates had managed to do. My parents gave Luna a dumb stare of disbelief. She wouldn't be able to elaborate on what occurred, but I still felt sorry for the other candidates if they had something worse than what had happened to me. At least I could say I didn't seem to have hurt my chances.

"I think it is time for your parents to be allowed to sleep properly, Rebecca Riddle, but you and I shall continue to speak until it is nearly time for you to wake," Luna said gently.

And so began my first multi-hour marathon of recollecting began, and this is where we came in.

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