Marshmallow Dreams

by Halira

Chapter 81:Roger Wilco

It seemed like Roger and I were going to be the first of the guests to go back out after checking-in. We passed by the reception area and saw that the hotel staff had this down to a science and were moving through the line of guests quickly, with a bellhop returning just in time to get the next guest in line's stuff as they were assigned a room. I saw Crystal Burst and at least six other bellhops as we were making our way through.

We looked around the street as we stepped outside. "Where should we go?" Roger asked.

"Food," I said as I put a hoof to my tummy. "One little berry will not feed this pegasus, and I want to get some snacks for later too. After that, we can walk around and maybe find a souvenir from here that is not contraband."

"Works for me," he replied and started walking in the general direction of the giant crystal spire. "Come on. We passed several different vendors with food carts on our way here. We can try finding them again. I'd like to see the library too if we can find it."

I did a quick trot to catch up to him and get beside him. "No problem, we have plenty of time. So, I know you are at the applied sciences college in Skytree, that is on the opposite side of the Monument from the art school, right?"

"If you treat the circle around the Monument as a big clock, the applied science college is at about four-o-clock while your school is around nine. The hospital is at the two, for further reference," he explained. "It is right next to the PonyCo corporate headquarters."

"Oh, I know right where that is. My mom is an exec at PonyCo. She works in their building and real estate department. She helps manage all the factory leases, decide who needs remodeling, buys and sells company property, and helps decide where to open new factories and stuff like that. She's an assistant VP in that department, and she is trying to work her way up to be the head honcho of that department," I explained.

He nodded. "My mom works for PonyCo too, just not as glamorous a job or in Skytree. She works overnight security at the Tulsa office."

"Is that where you are from, Tulsa?" I asked as we stopped to look at a stand selling crystal lamps—nothing we could buy, but they were pretty.

He nodded again. "Yeah, me and my mom. My parents are divorced, and my dad farms up in Kansas—he's an earth pony too. I get to catch up with him when dreamwalking. Otherwise, I would never get to talk to him. It was a nasty split, and my mom and dad can't stand to be in a room together. He complains she is too violent and forceful, and she is too tied to human things. She complains he doesn't accept her, and she doesn't want her or me stuck on a farm."

"Too violent?" I asked, turning to look at him.

He shrugged. "When I was a foal, a feral dog tried to attack me. My mom attacked it and beat the thing into a bloody mess. She saved me, but my dad was horrified by what he saw. He said it was excessive and that ponies shouldn't be so violent, and she argued she was defending me, and there was no such thing as excessive in those circumstances. I'll admit, she scared me too when she was doing that, but I was more afraid of getting mauled by the dog. That wasn't the only thing they argued over; it was just one of many things."

My ears sagged. "I'm sorry to hear that. I'm guessing your dad didn't come on this trip then?"

He shook his head. "No, he didn't."

We walked away from the stand and headed towards a cart selling… crystal carrots with mustard on a bun. Okay? Little odd, but it was food.

"I'll have one of those, please," I told the vendor and then fished around in my pouch—which seemed to be bigger on the inside somehow— for currency, a coin labeled one bit, and I passed it to the vendor. The vendor passed me the mustard-covered carrot, which I carefully cupped in a wing.

I turned to him and held out the carrot. "Are you going to get one?"

"No, not good at walking on three legs, and I don't have wings to hold it," he replied.

I sat down. "Well, we can sit and eat. Get some food. There's no rush."

Roger looked around nervously. "I really want to get somewhere more secluded. I'm not a big fan of crowds."

"Really?" I asked, confused, then perked up. "Oh! You want to be able to talk freely about our interview stuff. I get it."

"That's… part of it," he replied. "But truthfully, I don't like crowds."

"Huh?" I said, tilting my head. "We can go find the library if you like. I never really met an introverted pony. We're extroverts by nature. I heard it was part of Sunset Shimmer's evil plan or whatever to bake being social into our DNA. Sure, Sunflower was a little iffy around crowds to start with, but she just wasn't used to them. Now that she has gotten more used to them, she is perfectly happy in a crowd."

"It's learned introversion," he replied. "It has to do with my powers. We can talk more when we get somewhere private."

"Ooo! Talking about powers," I said as I stood back up. "Lead the way. I can tell you all about mine too when we get there. I won't say anything about Blanche's or Sunflower's. It feels like a betrayal of trust to say anything about them without them here, even if I'm sure they're fine with you knowing."

"I'll talk to them later. Follow me. I think I remember where the library is from that rude filly's tour," Roger said as he started leading the way. "So… you knew Sunflower and Blanche already?"

I kept pace with him and nodded. "Yep! Sunflower and I share a bathroom, and we found out about each other when her bodyguard thought I might be another bodyguard and let it slip. We found out about Blanche for sure when someone nosey and snoopy told us about her."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "The Dreamwarden's mother?"

I blinked. "Yeah. How'd you guess?"

He turned back to paying attention to where we were going. "PR told me that SB had been nosey and interfering with some other candidates and if she approached me that I was to tell her I was told not to talk to her. I had thought that she was in self-isolation at her house in Denver. People would be talking if they saw her."

"She goes out in disguise," I explained, then I giggled. "And believe me, you would never think it was her in a million years. I ran into her twice. The first time she read me as a candidate right away, and the second time me and my friends ran into her at Walgreens."

"I see," Roger said with a nod. "I actually admire her a little. Not for all the philosophical stuff, but as one tinker to another. I tinker with science, and she thinkers with magic, but we both try to find new applications for using things. I can admire that."

"I know a scientist! Her name is Doctor Jessica Middleton. I hear she is pretty famous," I said. "So you're like her?"

He shook his head. "No. I met her too because she sat in on my meeting with PR as a science expert, and she and I aren't much alike at all. Doctor Middleton deals with math, physics, and the theoretical. What I do is take what scientists like her do and find practical applications for it. Doctor Middleton doesn't do much in terms of coming up with direct applications to things… or at least, that isn't primarily her thing. Me, I'm all about application. I'm an engineer."

I giggled again. "It's funny you keep calling her PR. I think public relations every time you say that."

"Well, she is, if you think about it," he replied. "With PC retiring, she will be the only living one that everyone knows the identity of. She was already kind of the face of the group, and she will, even more, be after this is all done. That makes her sort of the PR department."

"I guess s—what the heck is that!" I shouted as I gazed upon a horror.

He turned and looked, then laughed. "Weren't you paying attention during the tour? That's the statue of Spike the Brave and Glorious. Did you zone out or something?"

I blushed. "I might have been trying to ignore her after a while since she kept insulting everyone and everything, heh. I might also have noticed that pretty crystal shop right over there and been paying more attention to that." I looked at the statue. "Um… so is he supposed to be a monster it something that attacked the empire? The statue isn't very flattering."

He gave me a flat look. "He's Princess Twilight's adopted brother or son or assistant… it's never apparent what that relation is. He's a dragon. He helped save the Crystal Empire twice."

I tilted my head as I looked at the statue. "That's supposed to be a dragon? It's like an ugly little goblin." I folded my ears and lifted my head. "Sorry, maybe I spent too much time listening to Jimsonweed today, and now I'm being rude too! I feel sorry for that filly, but dealing with her is tough."

"She certainly has a mouth on her," Roger agreed. "I wonder why the princesses want to use her as a diplomat. She isn't anyone I would recommend for a position like that, at least from what I have seen. She's smart, so she could be useful in a variety of jobs, but not that one." He examined the statue for a moment. "I think it's the eyes. They seem so lifeless and off."

"I think it is all the jagged, not-right, angles," I contended. "The complete lack of right angles in any of their construction is driving me nuts! Sorry, I'm an architecture student. I can get weird about building stuff."

"Equestria is less concerned about practical than it is about expression," Roger observed. "Construction here is all about aesthetics, and the Crystal Empire is concerned about maintaining one that reflects the natural state of jagged crystals they use for construction of everything. Have you ever seen a picture of Canterlot? There is nothing practical about that design. The place looks like it is ready to fall off the mountain at any moment and probably would if anyone took any sort of siege weapon to it. Princess Twilight's castle is a big crystal tree. Tell me, how that is supposed to be practical? The Crystal Spire is the most practical of the big constructions, and that is only because it is basically a huge antenna to broadcast the Crystal Heart's power—like the Eiffel Tower is just a big antenna. They even have similar designs."

I looked at the spire. "Huh… you're right. I should have noticed that."

He tapped his hoof on the ground. "And this street isn't just the street; it is a conduit. This entire city is one big mechanism for channeling energy to the Crystal Heart, with the spire there to radiate it out. The Crystal Heart is a powerful artifact on its own, but it is only at its full potential when it's here. The houses and everything else are unimportant. What's important is beneath our hooves. The entire layout of streets here is one big set of spell runes."

"Well, the ponies are important. They're the power source," I pointed out. "I know that much. How did you learn so much about this place? That wasn't on the tour."

He shrugged. "I read up about it before we arrived. I like to know how things work. Magic isn't my thing, but this is magic with a physical element, so it holds my interest. I don't claim to understand the magic involved, but the mechanism...that I can get. I sometimes wonder if we could do something similar with Skytree. There is a lot of powerful magic built up in the trees of the Monument—even more than the Crystal Heart, and it all sits doing nothing right now. If we could harness that magic with a similar mechanism, imagine what we could do."

"Is that your dream?" I asked.

"No, I want to work with electronics," Roger answered. His ears then folded. "PR asked me so many questions about electronics and my understanding of them. She is interested in how I can help Plan B. She did say my ideas about the monument might be useful for Plan C if we need it, although she prays we don't."

"Plans for what?" I asked in confusion. "And what about Plan A?"

He gave me a raised eyebrow. "She hasn't talked to you about the plans? You know, to keep the world from ending because of the Devourers?"

I shook my head. "It hasn't come up. What's Plan B and C, and what happened to Plan A?"

"I don't know what happened to Plan A, only that it didn't work out and needed to be abandoned," he answered. "Plan B is using magic to detect the Devourers and launching missiles at them. Integrating those tracking systems with something the missiles can use would be of great importance. As for Plan C… she wouldn't tell me. She said we hope we don't have to use Plan C. I get the impression it is something foolproof, but it will come at a high price if we have to go with it, at least by the way she reacted to questions about it. I don't want to know what she considers a high price, not after her casually discussing how to execute a Dreamwarden and being okay with murdering several others to do it."

I shivered. "Yeah, she had that talk with me too. I couldn't believe she was so alright with the idea of killing off all the undead Dreamwardens for the sake of getting rid of a bad egg. It's like a genocide almost, even if there are only six Dreamwardens. It was monstrous."

"Being a Dreamwarden means having to make hard decisions sometimes, for the sake of the world. I think she was trying to stress that. Offing yourself and your fellow Dreamwardens isn't something done lightly, but sometimes you have to be open to any possibility to deal with a threat, especially if it comes from within," Roger said in a low voice. He looked left and right, then got close to me and lowered his voice further. "I think that she is worried that Arbiter might become dangerous."

I blinked. "Arbiter? But she seems nice. She isn't evil."

"I didn't say evil; I said dangerous," he stressed. "Arbiter pushes to exert more influence over things compared to others—influence from the background and sidelines, but still heavy influence. I think Phobia might be worried about how far that could go. Arbiter is well-intentioned, but so was Sha'am Maut. She might not use violence and torture to get what she wants, but that doesn't mean she doesn't manipulate and maybe manipulate things too far. We're not meant to be rulers in the waking world."

I gave him a firm look. "That isn't a reason to kill her or any of the others. That's what the voting system is for. Dreamwardens can rein each other in when one strays too far from the intent of the majority."

"It's all in how you interpret the Oaths, and even the most carefully laid rules can produce loopholes," he said as if quoting something off. I wouldn't be surprised if he were quoting Phobia.

"I don't think I want to talk about this part anymore right now," I said. "It's depressing, and we're supposed to be on vacation. Let's go find your library."

Comments

[Chrome Masquerade]

He shook his head. "No. I met her too because she sat in on my meeting with PR as a science expert, and she and I aren't much alike at all. Doctor Middleton deals with math, physics, and the theoretical. What I do is take what scientists like her do and find practical applications for it. Doctor Middleton doesn't do much in terms of coming up with direct applications to things… or at least, that isn't primarily her thing. Me, I'm all about application. I'm an engineer."

That brings to mind...

[Chrome Masquerade]

I gave him a firm look. "That isn't a reason to kill her or any of the others. That's what the voting system is for. Dreamwardens can reign in each other when one strays too far from the intent of the majority."

I think that's "rein in".
Just sayin, this might be better phrased like

Dreamwardens can rein each other in when one strays too far from the intent of the majority.

#grammarnazi
#sorry

[Halira]

10927512
fixed

[harts fire]

a grate chapter.
I am not sure they should be talking about all of this at all.