Marshmallow Dreams

by Halira

Chapter 71: Storytime

The three of us were largely silent on the ride back to the school. I interacted with Drizzle and Jordan a bit, asking how their time out together went, but I couldn't share how my visit with Moses went. This, of course, got Jordan to vent in frustration about everything always being a secret. Phobia didn't budge on the order to keep our mouths shut. She had briefly reasserted it before we had been picked up, stating that she had no way of knowing if Moses had Sha'am Maut's soul, but no one could be allowed to suspect such a thing. It could only come back negatively on Moses and do him no favors. Whether Moses was Sha'am or had no connection at all, he was still a foal in need—a foal with mind magic, which made him a concern for Dreamwardens and the OMMR.

We were dropped off at the school and stood around for a moment, quietly processing the day.

"So, I guess I should get ready for my date," I said, breaking the silence.

Blanche gave me a surprised look. "You are dating? Does the stallion know about you?"

I shook my head. "No, and he's a man, not a stallion. This will be only our second date. I'm not ready to tell him about everything yet. I'm not even sure what the best way to break that news is if it gets that far. I have decided to take a wait-and-see approach. If I don't get selected, it won't matter anyway."

"Phobia Remedy said we couldn't talk about what happened with Moses with anypony else, but do you think we can talk about it with each other?" Sunflower asked. "I really want to talk about it. I don't know as much about stuff as you two. I need help figuring things out. I don't like feeling stupid."

"You aren't stupid, Sunflower," I assured her.

She gave a frustrated flap of her wings. "I know that! I know in my head that I am not a stupid pony, but I'm an uneducated one, though. Back home, everypony treated me like I was so smart and knew everything everypony else didn't. I spent lots of time in the library. A lot of that was copying book covers, but I read the books too. I learned a lot. I didn't go to regular school. I had to prove I was good enough to get a high school diploma with tests, and I was mostly self-taught. Stupid ponies can't do that. I know I'm not stupid."

Sunflower took a deep breath. "But now I'm not back at home, and I'm learning that I might have been one of the most knowledgeable ponies in my little village, but that doesn't take much to do. I didn't have the same education you two had, and I'm wondering if I'll ever catch up to everypony here. I may not be stupid, but when I hear you easily recite off facts that I don't know, I feel like it. That test last night made me feel that even more, and today hasn't helped at all."

I looked at Blanche, and she shrugged. I then lifted my leg and started dialing Russell.

"Hello? Rebecca? What's up?" Russell asked as he answered the call.

"Hey, I might be running a little late for our date," I explained with a smile. "I have a friend who needs me to sit down and talk with her for a little while. It shouldn't take too long. I can give you a call when I'm done."

"No problem. It is easy enough to adjust. Everything okay?" Russell asked.

I nodded absently. "Yeah. Everything's fine. She just had a rough night and morning. I was there for most of it. A lot of personal stuff happened that I can't talk about. I don't want to go blabbing her business, you know?"

"Perfectly understand," Russell confirmed. "You wouldn't be a good friend if you did. I won't go asking you about it. You do what you gotta do for her, and give me a call when you're ready."

"Thanks, Russell. I'll try not to take too long. I'm looking forward to spending time with you again."

"Same. Um… spending time with you, that is, not spending time with me. I kinda spend time with myself all the time already."

"Dork," I giggled. I might have tittered. What is the difference between a titter and a giggle? I wasn't sure. "See ya soon!"

"You too! Hope your friend feels better."

The call ended, and I smiled at Sunflower. "Okay, you want to talk about it, we can talk about it. We need to find somewhere private, though. I don't think we are even supposed to talk about this with our protective roommates."

"The library," Blanche suggested. "Not many people go in there this early in the semester. Yolanda and I have been going there to have talks when the girl who shares a bathroom with us is around, and we want to talk about everything."

"That girl is Maggie, and since she knows about you, that means you don't have to hide from her," I said, a little bristled for my friend who had been given the cold shoulder by Blanche and her roommate thus far.

"I'll apologize to her and talk to Yolanda," Blanche assured me. "So, the library now?"

"Yeah," Sunflower agreed.

---

We entered the library and looked around. There was a desk with the librarian to our left. To our right was a set of glass doors that went into a room full of computers and what looked like files or something. In front of us was a stairway leading down to a basement and one going up. There were also several display cases with various pieces of art within.

"Upstairs is mainly fiction and books for liberal arts subjects," Blanche said. "I have seen exactly one staff member and three students other than Yolanda or me up there since arriving at the school, and we have spent several hours total up there."

"I wonder why they don't come up there," Sunflower said as she looked at the ceiling. "Maybe they don't know it's there?"

"Probably because most people just read those things online nowadays," I said with a shrug.

Sunflower's eyes went wide with horror. "People don't get books? But… I want to be a book illustrator!"

I touched a wing to the back of her neck to calm her. "You can still be! People still buy books. They just buy books that they plan on keeping. I'm sure the library will get busier, too, as the semester goes on. Ponies like books, it's just that many old books don't have any ponies in them, so some ponies get bored reading them. I've got a little unicorn friend who will read anything, even books about rabbit genocide."

Blanche snorted while trying to hold back a laugh. "Your unicorn friend sounds very… special."

I nodded. "She also reads my friend's smutty Star Trek fan fiction too, but you know how unicorns are. They're all horny."

Both Blanche and Sunflower groaned in unison at my bad joke.

"Don't tell that joke to Ashley. She'll probably smack you," Sunflower said with a sad shake of her head.

Blanche shook her head too. "Probably not. That joke is probably older than ponies being on Earth. Your friend has probably heard it a billion times."

"Probably," Sunflower agreed.

I spread my wings slightly in defeat but grinned. "Guess that fell flat. Normally the only times things fall flat for me is when I fall on them."

They groaned again, and we walked upstairs.

We found a secluded spot deep in the back of the liberal arts area, right behind a stack of books dealing economics that we were pretty confident no student at the school would come read unless they had a class that required it. The area had a few low-sitting couches and small tables, and it made a nice place to relax. I had a feeling that most students who came up here were coming up here to find a quiet place to study and might take an interest in books they see while here. It wasn't the worst strategy by the librarian staff to get people interested in the old musty-smelling liberal arts books.

"We have privacy but should keep our voices down," Blanche said as she looked around.

Sunflower tucked her legs under herself as she settled on a couch. "Okay, am I the only one that was thinking that Moses is tied to Sha'am Maut?"

I shook my head. "No, and I heard Phobia Remedy mutter that she was wondering if he was Sha'am Maut reincarnated. She asked if the Story had let her go and be reborn."

Sunflower blinked. "Really? But… he seemed too nice to be her. Is it all an act?"

"If he is a reincarnation, he may have no memory of being her. It is a new life," Blanche said. "There are better questions. One, how is the doll moving from place to place? His powers are strong, but they have nothing to do with that. And are we to believe that as a baby, he was able to animate a corpse to life to defend himself? That seems unlikely. There has to be more at work that we are not seeing."

"Baby foals do surge. So animating the dead could come from something like that," I pointed out.

Blanche nodded. "Yes, but surges are largely uncontrolled, necromancy does not seem to be his power, and surges are brief. From what I understood of the story, that man had been up and moving around for months. Foals surging happen so sporadically over a few weeks, not ongoing for months. Another question, why would he ask for the doll to be given to him if he had the power just to make it come to him?"

"It's only gone from Phobia Remedy's house for a few minutes at a time. Maybe it has to return to where it was originally after a few minutes. It is like it is still where it came from and didn't really leave or something," Sunflower suggested.

"I wonder what would happen if we blocked it from returning to where it belonged if that was the case," I said as I thought. "What happens if we just shoved something else in the case while it was missing? It wouldn't be able to come back. Would it stay away?"

Blanche frowned. "I don't think the Dreamwarden would approve us doing experiments, and I'm not sure they are advisable. I was surprised that I didn't get accused of involvement."

Sunflower and I looked at her in confusion. I managed to ask the question first. "Why would anyone accuse you?"

Blanche smirked. "I told you my powers. I make solid illusions that last just a few minutes at most." She held out her hand, hand facing upward, and the doll appeared. "I can make an illusion of the doll, and it will be solid…as long as it stays close to me."

She tossed the doll over to me, and I caught it with my forehooves. I turned it over in my hooves and looked at the back, it didn't have anything written there, and other things about the doll didn't look right. However, it did feel solid. It suddenly just glowed briefly and blinked out of existence.

"I only saw the doll once, and I was trying to recreate it from that brief memory," Blanche explained. "Also, the less practice making a specific illusion I have, the less time I can keep it going."

"What do you have the most practice at?" Sunflower asked.

"My tools," Blanche answered. "I am a sculptor. I work with stone, metal, and wood. I need specific tools for each of those tasks, and I have learned how to make illusionary tools to do the work. They are very solid and work well. It saves me a lot of money on supplies. I can maintain each of my tools between fifteen and twenty minutes without much effort. Some other simple things I can maintain for a few minutes as well—eating utensils, cups, the simple tools are always better. Anything complex or with moving parts typically won't work."

I gave an overly dejected sigh. "Humans get all the super-cool magic."

"She's like a Green Lantern," Sunflower said in amazement.

Blanche gave her a confused look. "I do not understand the meaning of that."

Sunflower blushed. "It's an old superhero. The library back home used to have tons of graphic novels full of superheroes, and I did a lot of copying from those since they were full of art. That superhero has similar powers to yours."

I giggled. "Well, anyway, we have no reason to suspect you, Blanche. You never visited Moses before now, and you didn't know about Sunflower and me, so there is no reason for you to make illusion dolls. Your illusion is a little off anyway."

Blanche nodded. "There is something that bothers me about Moses if he is Sha'am. Why would the Story reincarnate him in a way that sets him up to fail? It seems cruel."

"What do you mean?" Sunflower asked.

Blanche started listing things off on her fingers. "Powers that make him an outcast. Being born in the worst warzone on the planet. These are not situations that will make him thrive. These are situations that would make it so he would be forced to struggle. It is almost like it is forcing him to go down a dark path."

"Maybe the Story is trying to see if she… um, he…." Sunflower blinked. "—I'm confused now. Do we talk about him as Moses, or do we talk about him as her—Sha'am Maut?"

"We should talk about him as Moses," I asserted. "This is why the Dreamwarden didn't want us discussing this with anyone. People will start treating him like he's her, and that isn't fair. Even if he is her he doesn't remember being her and shouldn't get mistreated because he might possibly have been her instead of him."

"The fact remains, it is practically set up for him to resent and hate the world," Blanche explained. "I don't claim to understand how the Story works, but that doesn't feel at all like it is giving him a real chance."

"Yeah… that does seem kinda unfair," I said with a mopey frown.

"That's probably what Phobia Remedy needed to check," Sunflower said slowly. "She told me that I'm a storyteller, and I've got a link to the Story. The Story wasn't nice to me when I drew Moses and Ayedonno. It had me bite myself till I bled. Maybe the Story isn't always going to do good things."

"Like it is deliberately making it hard," I said as I considered.

"What is a Story without conflict?" Blanche asked.

We all sat in silence for a few minutes after that. It was an uncomfortable thought that some force was out there nudging things to be more challenging than they needed to be. I wasn't sure I liked the Story.

Comments

[Chrome Masquerade]

Sunflower took a deep breath. "But now I'm not back at home, and I'm learning that I might have been one of the most knowledgeable ponies in my little village, but that doesn't take much to do. I didn't have the same education you two had, and I'm wondering if I'll ever catch up to everypony here. I may not be stupid, but when I hear you easily recite off facts that I don't know, I feel like it. That test last night made me feel that even more, and today hasn't helped at all."

As a bit of a non-sequitur, I remember getting extra marks for reciting a poem on the first try, doing word search puzzles and remembering how to spell "sphygmomanometer" on my science exam.

[Chrome Masquerade]

"She's like a Green Lantern," Sunflower said in amazement.

Or one of the more obscure ones, for that matter.