Marshmallow Dreams

by Halira

Chapter 90: Cornfields and Corny Songs

By the time evening arrived, I had come to several conclusions and realized many things.

First, paddleboat races were indeed fun. They were also very wet. Also, putting humans on paddleboats built for someone pony-sized was utterly unfair to the human. I realized this last one after watching Blanche, and the other humans struggle to even sit in the seats and attempt to work the paddles—or watched them splash in the water as they threw off the balance of the small boats and made them capsize. That didn't stop them from trying.

The second thing I learned was bingo was serious business, and you should never play with your friends because screams would be shouted, tails would be flicked, wings would be flapped, and blood would be shed (well, maybe I exaggerate about that last one, but not by much.) Bingo was not as boring as I thought, but I vowed never to play again. I would play something safer and less violent, like paintball or skydiving with my wings strapped down. Bingo was going on my list of the world's evils, right next to skim milk.

The third thing I learned was that Equestria had a lot, and I mean a lot of trees. As the ships traveled through the air, I spent much of the time looking over the rail at trees. There were occasional villages here and there, joined together by long dirt roads and rivers. Many of these towns consisted of only a few houses, but a few had upwards of thirty or more. One village had a massive wooden arch at the entrance painted to look like a rainbow. I had initially thought that this might be Rainbow Falls, and we had gotten there early. However, Strong Will announced over the intercom that it was a town named Hope Hollow, and they were a mixed tribal town that held a yearly rainbow festival. I wished we could land and look around, but it wasn't one of our scheduled stops. It would have been interesting to see a regular town that went through all the effort to build a giant rainbow arch despite being out in the middle of nowhere.

Time flew by, and the sun eventually set. I assumed that most of the foals had gone to bed, but that would be on the other two ships in our tiny fleet. Our ship didn't have many foals at all. There were Phobia Remedy's foals, which were very much awake, and then there was that young griffin, and the human baby—both of them were asleep in bed. The rest of us were awake, and it was happy hour.

Lots of firefly lanterns and two staffed bars had been set out on the deck, along with plenty of circular tables and pillows. Everything was placed near the edges of the ship, near the railing, and a large area was cleared in the middle of everything. Recorded music was playing on a gramophone. I couldn't complain about the music; it was a bouncy techno beat—something I could easily dance to. I wasn't dancing yet...beyond shaking my flank. First, I was standing with my friends to decide on what to drink.

"Peach brandy, apple cider, plum wine, I see a pattern here," Sunflower observed. "Everything is fruity."

"Not a drop of beer in sight," Jonathan agreed as he looked over the selections.

The staff, a unicorn stallion, gave us an impatient look. "Are any of you going to choose anything?"

I poked a hoof towards a random bottle. I didn't know what it was, other than it was a deep red. There was no reason for that particular selection other than to show some decisiveness about something and get us moving. "I'll have some of that."

The unicorn nodded and filled a tankard for me. I accepted it graciously and gripped it as best I could with a wing, not wanting to embarrass myself by dropping it. I could easily laugh it off if I did, but it was best not to have to if I could avoid it. I took a seat at a nearby table, and my fellow candidates joined me soon after making their selections.

Blanche frowned at Sunflower as country pegasus took her seat. "So… how did the barrel riding thing go?"

"She ended up freaking out afterward," Roger said, taking a cautious sip of his tannish drink. His face immediately scrunched up. "Yuck! I think I made a poor selection."

Sunflower hung her head in shame. I couldn't leave my friend hanging like that.

"She did better than me!" I said jovially. "I couldn't bring myself to go through with it. I suppose that makes her the braver of the two of us. They wanted to put me in a metal barrel! Can you believe that? I'd have come out of that as marshmallow paste!"

"I'm not spreading you over a bagel," Jonathan said absently as he tried his drink—the same type as Roger's. Unlike Roger, his face remained passively neutral through the tasting. Jonathan didn't seem that animated a guy. Still, he did play on my comment, so there was hope we could get along. I wondered what his magic was. Humans always got the really cool magic.

"I think it is safe to discuss our mutual business," Jonathan continued, completing the task of moving the conversation away from the one Sunflower would rather not discuss.

Sunflower looked around. "Are you sure? There's a lot of people around who can overhear us."

Jonathan nodded. "Yes, but everyone on this boat is one of our family, Phobia Remedy's family, or an Equestrian who wouldn't know what we are discussing anyway. Aside from the Equestrians, everyone onboard has probably put two and two together with the way we are all hanging out."

Roger pointed a wing out to where some people were dancing. "You forgot the old man, but he seems to be in the know, although I'm unsure who he is working for."

"He looks like he is at least having fun," I said with a grin, joining Roger in pointing at the old man. The gentleman was currently out in the middle of the deck, doing the robot dance without a care in the world. "Love your moves!"

The old man waved at me happily and kept dancing away.

"You give my parents too much credit," Blanche muttered over the lip of her cup.

Sunflower pouted at her. "That's not a very nice thing to say about your family."

Blanche set her cup down. "I love my family, but there is a reason I applied to colleges in your country, even before I knew I was a candidate. I wanted to put as much space between them and me as possible. They annoy me to no end, and they've never been comfortable with my magic—even if they don't come out and say it. An ocean seemed like a decent amount of space to have between us. I wish they had done as Rebecca's parents did and skipped this trip."

"Aww, I'm sorry to hear that your parents aren't more supportive of you," I said consolingly.

She shook her head. "It isn't that they aren't supportive. It's the way they fearfully back away from me when I use my powers. It's the way they talk about ponies when there aren't any ponies around. I was the only member of my family that got ETS, and I was immediately put into isolation when it happened. I only partially transformed before ETS stopped, and I was young and scared, but I remember it well. They didn't attempt to visit me when I was sick. They were more fearful of getting ETS than they were fearful for me. Then when ETS was all over, they still didn't come to visit their partial daughter in the hospital until rehumanization became an option."

Roger scrunched up his snout. "That got depressing quickly. I heard no lies."

"That's his thing," I explained, hoping to prompt Jonathan into revealing his powers. "Roger is a lie detector."

"That's an oversimplification," Roger corrected. He eyed me, then glanced around at everyone else. "So… I know Rebecca here astral projects. I can detect if someone believes what is being said. What do the rest of you do?"

Blanche summoned a chisel into her hand. "Solid magic constructs."

Sunflower rubbed a hoof across the table. "I go into trances and draw...things. I'm a storyteller if you know what that means."

"She's like an oracle," Blanche clarified. "What about you, Jonathan? Keeps the playing field level for each of us to know what all the others are capable of."

Jonathan adjusted his glasses. "Then we are all still in the dark. I doubt any of us knows the full extent of what the others' powers can do. Those brief descriptions offer little in quantifiable terms or give any scope. My powers are difficult to explain. Let's say...I'm very adept with electronic devices—the ultimate hack."

I frowned. "Um...gonna need some more explanation than that. I hear the term hack, and I think if someone who claims to do something they can't."

Jonathan took a deep breath. "If I touch an electronic device, I can make it run any function within its capabilities if I am familiar with how it works. This includes software in computers. If I am unfamiliar with how things work, things can go very badly. You don't know how many computers I crashed and computer viruses I accidentally created as a kid."

Sunflower's ears jerked up. "So that's why you are big into electronics! If you understand them, then you can control them properly and don't have to worry about messing things up."

Roger nodded. "Probably why your family might be on edge around you too if you have a history of frying computer software."

Jonathan grunted in reply, but still kept his impassive stony face. I wanted to ask him why so serious?.

Well, I finally got the low-down on the last of the candidates' powers. No one seemed particularly into their drinks—mine was a dry strawberry flavored thing, which was okay, but alcohol really wasn't my thing. No, it was time to liven things up and have some fun.

"I'm going to go dance," I announced as I left my seat. "Anyone want to join me? It's okay if you don't. I know people can be overwhelmed by my epic dance moves! Let's see if that old geezer out there can keep up with all of this!"

Blanche chuckled. "Going dancing with the old man? Your boyfriend will be jealous."

I raised a wing dismissively as I walked out to the dance floor. "What happens in Equestria stays in Equestria!" I paused and looked back. "You guys should come. We'll need to loosen up a bit. There's dancing! Come have fun."

Whether they took my advice or not, I didn't immediately see. I hurried out to the dance area and started shaking my head and flanks, tail whipping to the left and right as I moved with the techno beat. I was standing just across from the old man, who was still doing the robot with the energy of a person fifty years younger and with as much care for what people think of him as a man much older than his wrinkles suggested. It reminded me of a quote from C.S. Lewis that I learned in my English lit class, a layered version of some Bible quote. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be grown up. You can learn some pretty inspirational things in an English lit class, and I found that to be a good one. You're never too old to enjoy something, and the old man across from me was living that truth.

I was well engrossed in my dancing, but I did notice the others come out and join me. Blanche, being the overachiever that she was, proceeded to put everyone on the floor to shame with her moves—well, everyone but me, but who could possibly compete against my moves? They were positively epic! Jonathan and Roger seemed unsure what to do and just sat there, kind of bouncing.

Sunflower seemed just as dumbfounded about how to dance as the guys, and she came and stood near me, looking around us as if she was considering going back to the table.

"Come on, Sunflower, dance!" I encouraged her as I shook my flank more briskly. "Just move with the beat. Shake that big butt!"

She gaped at me. "I don't know what to do! And we're ponies; we don't have big butts like humans. Well… I suppose you do, but that's because you are...um…."

"Fluffy?" I suggested, still grooving.

"That word works," Sunflower agreed.

I shook it a bit more. "Russell likes my big butt. You're right; ponies normally don't have those. I wonder why humans have such big rear ends."

"I learned in my biology class that it's an evolutionary thing. It helps them stand upright without a lot of effort. Like we have to sit there trying to adjust our tails just right if we try to even stand on two legs for a moment or two," Sunflower explained. "I couldn't even imagine trying to walk five steps on two legs."

I gave her a sly grin. "So...having a big butt lets you walk on two legs? Do you think it will let me dance on two legs?"

She gave me a horrified look. "You aren't going to try—" Her question was cut off as I pushed myself up on my hind legs. "This can only go badly."

Balancing on two legs is not an easy task, and I did not feel that steady standing still with my tail lifted high and my wings outspread, but I wasn't letting that stop me. I took a shaky step to the right…or at least, I tried to. Taking a step when you are standing on two legs means temporarily going to one leg. Ponies aren't meant to stand on two legs. I heard that some ballerina ponies could do it. However, shocking as it might be to anyone watching me dance, I was not a ballerina. The natural laws of two universes wouldn't tolerate any further violation by moving to a sole appendage, and I dropped like a rock and hit the deck hard.

Well, that didn't go well.

People were looking at me, so I rolled over on my back and started pumping my legs above me in conjunction with the rhythm of the music. I clearly meant to fall over so I could we the crowd with even more epic dance moves than they had ever seen before! Seeing this, the crowd quickly lost interest in my fall.

"How do you do that?" Sunflower asked.

I paused and looked at her. "It's not complicated. I lay here, and I flex my—"

"Not that!" Sunflower interrupted. "I mean, how do you just blow off a mistake like that so easily? Like it didn't even happen?"

It took me a second to roll over and stand up. "When blunders occur, you have to roll with them. They happened, and you have no way of undoing what happened. What you do have control over is what you do next. You can sit there, worrying over it, or you can laugh it off and move on. The quicker you do, the better, because the quicker you make it a thing of the past, the quicker it becomes a thing of the past for everyone else. And it's not like most of these things are massive deals. I fell over—what does that matter in the big scheme of things? It happens all the time, and it doesn't impact much at all… except the ground, but I don't think I'm hurting the ground. I'm not heavy enough for that."

"You said something similar right after they gave us that surprise test in our dreams," Sunflower recalled.

I nodded. "Yep. Same thing. You can't sit there fretting about what already happened. Live in the moment." I looked around us and gestured with a wing. "Speaking of living in the moment, let's get to the side, so we aren't standing in everyone's way."

She stepped back. "No, that's okay. You wanted to dance. I should let you do that."

"And you seem to need to talk," I countered. "I think you need a friend to talk to is more important than me wanting to dance. Come on, let's go talk."

With signs of reluctance, she followed me as we stepped off to a more secluded part of the deck.

We sat down, and when she didn't start talking, I decided to prompt her. "So… you still worried about that barrel thing earlier today? Were they barrels? It is already fading from my mind."

Her gaze was like daggers. "You know it was barrels. You're just trying to make me feel better." She then looked down at the wood-grain boards of the deck. "It isn't just that. I think about how I drew on Phobia Remedy's walls and that quiz that I felt like an idiot for not knowing about anything on it. I feel like I'm always making a fool out of myself. I don't know what I have to offer as a Dreamwarden anyway."

"Your powers—"

She wouldn't even let me start to answer before cutting me off. "My powers are the only ones out of our entire group that don't operate on command."

I held up a hoof. "Not true. Roger's are always passively on."

"And mine only works on its own timetable," Sunflower said bitterly. "What good is it if I can't do it when I need to? It isn't even the future. That drawing of Moses was from the past. What help did it do?"

I considered it for a second. "Well, combined with other things, it helped reveal that Moses might be Sha'am Maut. I'm not sure how that will impact things, but that makes Moses pretty notable. Maybe it is enough that your powers can sometimes shine a light on things that wouldn't get much notice otherwise, and as a Dreamwarden, you would be able to determine information about those things you draw much faster so you can get to figuring out why you drew it."

She hung her head. "It still doesn't seem that useful."

"More useful than Blanche's ability," I reminded her. "I admit, Blanche blows us both out of the water when it comes to leadership abilities and knowing all this political crud, but you have to wonder if she feels doubt about what she can contribute. Her magic is incredible, but in terms of being a Dreamwarden, what use is it? The objects she makes don't last long at all, and there are plenty of people and resources at their disposal to get or create the real thing. All of the other candidates, you and me included, bring magic to the table that could be directly helpful to being a Dreamwarden; Blanche doesn't have that. That's probably why the only thing that has broken her down crying was not being perfect on that silly test. That's where she can separate herself from the herd, and that makes her hold herself to a higher standard on those things."

Sunflower sighed. "I just wish I could figure out how to make myself stand out. There isn't much time left. I wouldn't be surprised if they make their final decision not long after returning from this trip. I mean, they have to have time to get everything ready once they choose, right?"

I rubbed a wing against my head. "I guess so. I don't think about that stuff much. I try to live in the moment as much as possible. It isn't that I never think about the future or worry about things. I just try not to. The present can provide enough stress without worrying about what is coming, and I stress a lot more than I let on."

"I noticed you eat more when you're stressed," Sunflower confirmed. "You haven't eaten a lot on this trip."

I chuckled. "Well, it is a vacation. It wouldn't be very vacation-y if I were stressed the whole time. But back to you trying to stand out. Try stopping thinking about powers and how obscenely Blanche outclasses us in politics and leadership. Think about what makes you—you. Did I ever tell you Meadow thought I was you at first because I have a sunflower in my mark? What's your cutie mark story?"

She looked at the flower within a sun on her flank, brushing her pink and green mane away from her eyes as she did. "It isn't anything special. I got it younger than most ponies get theirs. I couldn't even fly yet at the time."

"Getting it earlier sounds special to me. Tell me the story," I prompted as I sat down next to her.

She pursed her lips briefly then sat. "I was eight at the time and still going by my old human name, Dorothy."

I blinked. "Your human name was Dorothy, and you lived in Kansas?"

She frowned. "I read the book, so no making fun of my old name. Dorothy hasn't been my name in ten years."

"I think you missed an opportunity to name yourself Dorothy Gale. I mean, it's the perfect blend of pop culture, pegasus terms, and human terms. It is even the name of someone who goes on a magical adventure to a far-away land. It's too perfect!"

"Anyway," Sunflower said loudly, moving on from the topic of her human name. "As a filly, I had a lot of free rein to run around the farm. There were always at least one pegasi in the air which could keep track of me, and everypony trusted one another. There wasn't much trouble I could get into. However, I was largely boxed in near the farm because we had cornfields, and I was scared to go into the cornfields."

"Why were you afraid of corn?" I asked in confusion.

She shook her head. "I could lose track of where I was really easy. When you're out in the corn, all you see are the corn stalks everywhere. It doesn't take long if you make any turns to lose track of which way is which and have no clue how far you are from the edge of the field."

I considered that, trying to imagine myself as a tiny filly who couldn't fly in that situation. I supposed it could be scary.

Sunflower continued. "One day, our community was visited by a group of Equestrians who were going to show us different things to help with our farming. I didn't think much of it at the time because I was just a kid. All I knew was there were strangers in town, and that wasn't completely uncommon. Strangers came by to trade all the time. I was concerned most with playing with my ball."

I nodded. "As foals are."

"It was an orange kickball, almost as big as I was, but it didn't weigh hardly anything," Sunflower explained. "I had been kicking it around by myself for a while, and I suddenly kicked it in the wrong way, and it went flying through the air, right out into the cornfields. I started crying because I wasn't willing to go after it. I had effectively lost my ball."

"But that wasn't what happened, was it?" I asked.

She shook her head. "One of the Equestrians came down the path and found me. She was a pink earth pony with a pink mane. She asked me why I was crying, and I told her about my ball. She was about to get it for me, but she stopped right on the edge of the cornfield and looked back at me. She then sat down and said, I could go get it for you, but Twilight says we're supposed to be teaching ponies, and we can't teach ponies if we do everything for them. Come here, and let me teach you a song that will help you get your ball. It's a fun song; I promise—Pinkie Promise. She then did some ridiculous rhyme that sealed the promise, but that part I don't remember exactly how it goes. Something about sticking cupcakes in eyes."

"Cupcakes go in the tummy, and going through your eyes is not a good path to that," I said sagely.

That managed a little chuckle out of her before she continued. "So, she said this was a song that her granny taught her as a filly for going into scary places. The song I still remember. it went like this,

When I was a little filly and the sun was going down…

The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown…

I'd hide under my pillow
From what I thought I saw
But Granny Pie said that wasn't the way
To deal with fears at all

She said, 'Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall
Learn to face your fears
You'll see that they can't hurt you
Just laugh to make them disappear.'
Ha! Ha! Ha!

So, giggle at the ghostly
Guffaw at the grossly
Crack up at the creepy
Whoop it up with the weepy
Chortle at the kooky
Snortle at the spooky

And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna... hahahaha... heh...
Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuugh!"

I blinked. "That is a very unusual final verse. Are you sure that's how it went?"

Sunflower snorted and laughed. "Yeah, that's exactly how it went. She said I should go into the corn and get the ball myself. I could sing that song if I got too scared, and she would be right outside the corn to make sure nothing terrible happened."

"Was that Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter?" I asked in astonishment. "You met one of the Element Bearers as a foal?"

"You met Wild Growth when you were a foal," Sunflower pointed out. "Is it that surprising I met Pinkie Pie? I didn't know who she was at the time. And we've all had sit-down conversations with Dreamwardens and met the princesses of Equestria. We're also candidates for one of those practically legendary positions."

"Point taken. Continue."

"I went into the cornfields and did precisely as Pinkie Pie said, and you know what? It worked," Sunflower said fondly. "I sat there and sang my little heart out and started to bounce along with the song, practically prancing through the cornfields. Then, I suddenly found myself on the other side."

She looked up at the night sky as she continued. "The sun was shining brightly, and I found myself in a field of white flowers with my ball laying in the middle. I had no previous idea that all of those flowers even existed so close to the dreaded cornfields. It was this fantastic and beautiful place that had been just outside the boundaries that I had set myself, and I had no clue. It made me hungry to see more of what lay beyond, and that is when I got my cutie mark."

I placed a wing over her back and gave her a soft smile. "I think you already have everything you need to deal with stresses and set yourself apart. If you ever doubt yourself, all you need to do is remember that story and be yourself. All your stresses and worries are only another cornfield. Laugh them off and go see what is on the other side."

Author's Note:

The chapter ended up being longer than intended,. I have been sick lately and stressed as well. I'm hoping things are better on the other side of all this.

Comments

[Chrome Masquerade]

The second thing I learned was bingo was serious business, and you should never play with your friends because screams would be shouted, tails would be flicked, wings would be flapped, and blood would be shed (well, maybe I exaggerate about that last one, but not by much. Bingo was not as boring as I thought, but I vowed never to play again. I would play something safer and less violent, like paintball or skydiving with my wings strapped down. Bingo was going on my list of the world's evils, right next to skim milk.

1: One of ""those"", is it?
Sort of like,

2: Missing a parenthesis, there.
3: It's low fat!

"I'm going to go dance," I announced as I left my seat. "Anyone want to join me? It's okay if you don't. I know people can be overwhelmed by my epic dance moves! Let's see if that old geezer out there can keep up with all of this!"

Is this a reference?

"Come on, Sunflower, dance!" I encouraged her as I shook my flank more briskly. "Just move with the beat. Shake that big butt!"

Get down with yo fat -sorry- phat self!

I rubbed a wing against my head. "I guess so. I don't think about that stuff much. I try to live in the moment as much as possible. It isn't that I never think about the future or worry about things. I just try not to. The present can provide enough stress without worrying about what is coming, and I stress a lot more than I let on."

Put simply:

Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift;
That's why it's called the present.

She shook her head. "One of the Equestrians came down the path and found me. She was a pink earth pony with a pink mane. She asked me why I was crying, and I told her about my ball. She was about to get it for me, but she stopped right on the edge of the cornfield and looked back at me. She then sat down and said, I could go get it for you, but Twilight says we're supposed to be teaching ponies, and we can't teach ponies if we do everything for them. Come here, and let me teach you a song that will help you get your ball. It's a fun song; I promisePinkie Promise. She then did some ridiculous rhyme that sealed the promise, but that part I don't remember exactly how it goes. Something about sticking cupcakes in eyes."

#franchisehumourftw!

That managed a little chuckle out of her before she continued. "So, she said this was a song that her granny taught her as a filly for going into scary places. The song I still remember. it went like this,

"Tell me she's not..."
"She is."

I placed a wing over her back and gave her a soft smile. "I think you already have everything you need to deal with stresses and set yourself apart. If you ever doubt yourself, all you need to do is remember that story and be yourself. All your stresses and worries are only another cornfield. Laugh them off and go see what is on the other side."

Well said!

[Numinos]

That last bit was good : ) Another great chapter in a good story, keep it up!

[badninja]

Well I think Pinkie knew far more then she let on. That song was far to appropriate.

[Kek lel]

:)

[Da Fennec]

I can see a little foal being scared of a corn field like that. They've been described perfectly row upon row plants reaching over your head even for a young child or adult let along a foal

[harts fire]

awesome chapter.