A Shadow of Myself

The outing with Amicus and the rest of the family could have been going better. Everybody was keeping quiet. On the plus side, her parents did come, and they weren't pointedly not looking at the old earth pony. They all say down at a nearby restaurant which was moderately busy and placed their orders, and silence commenced.

It was time to break it.

"So, Amicus, you were going to tell me about why you stick with Sunset despite everything," Andrea prompted, getting right to the point shevwas curious about.

Amicus blinked. "I did promise that. Alright. I don't suppose most of the people who can overhear know anything about her, so it's safe enough to talk."

The old earth pony took a deep breath. "I don't have to tell you that my sister isn't a nice person. It would be incorrect to even call her a good person. She wants to be a good mare, but Sunset is more or less trapped in an endless cycle of pain and misery of her own making, and she is very good at making traps that no one can get out of or through. She might not have intended to make this trap for herself, but she is stuck in it."

"That's vague and unhelpful," Andrea muttered.

"It's an introduction. Let this old lawyer monologue," Amicus gently chided. "Let me make this clear. My sister belongs in jail, or at the very least, she should have served a sentence of twenty years or more for her crimes in relation to Riverview, among other things. She got off with a pardon for no other reason than the government didn't want her to stand trial and implicate them in how complacent they were, or, at times, supportive they were of her agendas. Well, that and Triss petitioned Luna to get her out and Luna petitioned the government. Triss believed Sunset to be useful."

Amicus looked around, possibly trying to decide if it really was safe to talk about all this. "In addition to her misdeeds, my sister has the bad fortune of knowing things, and that gets her in ongoing trouble. You know those radicals that were always attacking? You think you know the whole story about that, but you don't. China did everything they could to stir radicals into attacking her, and as time has gone by they've only increased their efforts. They think her knowledge is a threat to their long-term plans. Despite a hostile foreign power acting against an American citizen, the US government does nothing to help her and dissuades local and state governments from doing it either, because they secretly want her dead too. Dead people don't talk."

"Do you have proof of that?" their dad asked.

"Andrea tried to whistleblow it, and it got buried. I tried to file court cases, and those went nowhere," Amicus answered. "I even tried telling Sunset that she needed to just publicly confess everything, take what repercussions come, and be done with it, because the government let her go ignored after that, but she was raising foals, and she didn't want them to lose another mother if they locked her away. Then you five came along when the foals were all about ready to leave. That, and she gained a lot more power to defend herself at that same time– a frightening amount of power. Sunset became the tyrannical dictator of Wabash Manor, dishing out brutal retribution on invaders that were being instigated by one government and had another doing nothing about. She didn't feel she had a choice, and she didn't have the power to stop the cycle. Smart as she is, Sunset can't solve everything, and it just made her meaner and nastier as she got more and more bitter about her situation. A situation that was directly caused by her past sins and quest for forbidden knowledge."

"That doesn't explain why you and Andri stuck by her," Andrea said darkly. "She's a monster, no matter what the cause. Why do you stay with her?"

"At first, to try to save her from herself," Amicus said, sniffing. "She really does want to be a good mare, but she hates herself. Do you know that's why she's Luna's student? So Luna can try to fix her. Luna loves redemption projects. However, after a while, we stayed to help protect the world from her. She had become so strong, and so angry, and so self-loathing, which made her a true danger to everyone. The foals helped for a while, but as the graves started to grow in number, Sunset started slipping again. She's extremely dangerous, and I think the only thing that kept her from going on some crusade to massacre every Shimmerist in existence was having to face us. We were her conscious telling her that she can't go out there taking her rage out on the world."

Amicus sighed. "Now she's here, and there should be no more radicals coming after her. She's been put in a position interacting with foals, which is one of the few things that actually brings genuine kindness out of her. I'm hoping that combination is enough to finally get her on the right track and keep her there. For the first time in a long time, I have hope for her. I'm not religious like she is, but I'm spiritual, and believe in the soul. I want my sister's soul to be saved. As for why I'm here, I really did want to get away from it all. I'm old and tired. I deserve some peace in my twilight years." She looked at them seriously after that. "Charlotte hasn't got Sunset's baggage. She isn't destined for that kind of life. Keep her from making any life-altering mistakes."

"That's very interesting to hear. Mind if we join you?"

The family turned to see three mares standing close by; a white unicorn, a yellow earth pony, and an orange pegasus. They all had tri-colored shields for cutie marks, although the inner designs differed.

Amicus frowned. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders, I presume?"

"See, I told you we're famous on Earth!" the orange pegasus said to the other two smugly.

"Charlotte's not here. You can try again some other time," Amicus said. She didn't sound angry, but she didn't sound friendly either. What issue did Amicus have with these ponies? Why would they be looking for Charlotte? This had to have something to do with what Sunset had said and Amicus didn't want to talk about.

"What do you want with my little sister?" Andrea asked the trio. "What is Amicus not telling us?"

"You're Andrea, right?" the unicorn asked. "We were wanting to speak with you as well."

"Get to know the team!" the orange pegasus said excitedly.

"You aren't supposed to be on the team, Scootaloo," the yellow earth pony of the group said.

"We are a set of three. If you two are going somewhere, I'm going too," Scootaloo said proudly.

"Going where? Are you taking our daughters somewhere? What's going on?" Andrea's mom demanded to know, clearly worried.

"Um, girls, I don't think they know about the mission yet," the yellow earth pony mare said hesitantly.

"What? Luna said she talked about it with that Charlotte person last night," the unicorn said.

"Charlotte's passed out in bed. She got drunk last night. She hasn't spoken to us about anything," Andrea said.

The unicorn grit her teeth as she smiled tightly. "Well, this is awkward."

Andrea refocused on Amicus. "I get your loyalty to your sister and all, but what are you and Sunset not telling us? We have ponies showing up now. There's no point in not spilling the beans."

"Sunset says Charlotte is needed to go to that other universe. She says she can't replicate Charlotte's magic. Charlotte's the most critical person to the mission. It doesn't happen without her," Amicus answered, ears flattened and looking miserable. "Sunset said you'd insist on going too if Charlotte went. They've got a whole scouting team planned out. Two of these ponies are on it."

"Hey! I'm going where Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom go! So it's all three of us!" Scootaloo objected.

Andrea stomped her hooves in frustration and looked at the unicorn. "Do you know the spell for fixing a hangover?"

The unicorn nodded. "Yeah, it's an easy one. I've had to use it on these two a few times after cider season. They always have to get in a competition with each other to see who can down more cider. They're as bad as their big sisters."

"Hey! Applejack and Rainbow Dash are way worse than us!" the earth pony objected.

"I don't even know how it is ponily possible to hold as much cider as Applejack does," Scootaloo agreed.

Andrea got up. "Not to be rude, but I don't care about you guys getting plastered on some holiday. Can you come with me? We need to settle this with my sister."

"She isn't going on any mission!" her mom forcefully asserted, slamming a hand down on the table and getting all the other patrons to gape at her.

"Really? Sounds like it to me, and I was apparently drafted too. Let me get to the bottom of this," Andrea said as she headed towards the door. She looked over her shoulder. "Are you three coming or not?"

The earth pony mare smirked at her friends. "Told you; just like a map quest!"

The unicorn sighed. "Let's follow her."

"Come back here, young lady!" her mom called out in vain as they exited the establishment.

Andrea didn't rush as she made her way through the streets filled with crystal ponies, human tourists gaping at sites, and the stray pony who lacked a crystal sheen to their fur, but she did walk at a steady pace and didn't stop to look at anything. The hotel wasn't far away.

"What do you mean like a map quest?" she asked, wondering what implications it had.

The three of them caught up and walked beside her.

"Well, we get these missions from the map in Twilight's castle sometimes, friendship quests. They tell us to go somewhere, normally in Equestria, but it doesn't give us more information than that," the earth pony mare explained.

"So we just go wherever and wander around until we stumble on why we are there. It doesn't matter if there are ten thousand ponies in the city; we'll find the ones we are looking for in the first ten minutes every time," Scootaloo further elaborated.

"We knew you and Charlotte were somewhere in the Crystal Empire, so Apple Bloom suggested coming up here to look for you," the unicorn said. "I thought it was crazy, since we didn't even know what you girls looked like-"

"Andrea was supposed to be a crystal centaur, which sounds awesome!" Scootaloo exclaimed, flapping her tiny little wings, then she gave Andrea an appraising look. "I think we were misinformed. I'm disappointed…no offense."

"Anyway," the unicorn continued after the interruption. "So we arrived here by train a little while ago and started wondering around. Against all odds, the first place we go into we find a group of people talking about Charlotte and Sunset Blessing."

"Just like a map quest! I told you!" the earth pony Andrea now assumed was Apple Bloom exclaimed.

They wanted to send her and Charlotte to another universe with three mares who had the brilliant plan of just wander around and see what happens? Who came up with this insane idea? It certainly wasn't Sunset. Sunset would have verbally castrated whoever had that kind of plan. Andrea was going to keep her mouth shut because she didn't want to get off to a bad start with these mares, but so far she had serious concerns– other than be packed off to another universe…again.

"What is this mission, exactly" Andrea asked as they reached the hotel.

*Make contact with the intuits of the Forest of Feelings, find out if there is a Dreanwarden or possibility of a Dreamwarden to combat mind control, gather intelligence on No Heart's capabilities, try to survey Care-a-lot and that universe's Earth– it is unknown if that is the actual name or a mistranslation from our original sources," the unicorn that Andrea assumed was named Sweetie Belle listed off.

"And don't get caught," Apple Bloom added in. "We aren't going there to fight. We are just gathering information and seeing if we can make friends with the non-bears."

"And what are our chances of getting caught?" Andrea asked as she walked past the front desk.

"Um…depends on where we come in?" Sweetie Belle answered, sounding uncertain. "If your sister brings us over and we're in the wilderness, we should be fine. If she opens up a portal directly into Care-a-lot, things might not go so well for us."

Well, it was one city on the planet, so the chances of landing there were next to non-existent. Of course, Murphy's Law said that was precisely where they would arrive.

She paused well before reaching Charlotte's room. There was someone else she should speak to. She turned and banged on their door.

"Sunset! I know about this whole mission thing! Get out here!" she demanded.

"Miss Sunset isn't there."

She turned and saw Empathy standing outside Charlotte's room. He held up a small money purse. "She gave me money to go get Charlotte ice cream, but I'm not sure where to get ice cream. Do you know?"

"Ice cream?" Andrea asked in confusion.

Empathy nodded. "She said mint chocolate chip! Miss Sunset said Miss Charlotte is having a bad day, and it will make her feel better."

"Sunset said that and gave you money?" Andrea questioned, not sure if she was missing something. Sunset was being nice?

He nodded. "Miss Sunset came and visited Miss Charlotte immediately after you left. They talked for a little while, and then she left."

What the hell? Sunset literally waited for them to leave and then pounced, shifty unicorn.

"That was nice of her to give money for ice cream. Maybe she isn't so bad," Sweetie Belle suggested.

Andrea scowled. "It just means she feels guilty about something."

"Yeah, Sweetie, we teach about her from very different perspectives," Scootaloo said. "You teach about her in terms of magical theory when she comes up in your classes. I'm sure she's great and all when it comes to that, but I teach history, and when it comes to that…she isn't somepony you want to make friends with. She's famous for all the wrong reasons."

"Starlight and Trixie are friends with her," Sweetie Belle said in Sunset's defense.

"And they've both been villains at some point," Apple Bloom pointed out. "I know you have a thing for being impressed with famous mages, like a lot of academic unicorns do, but I think we can trust her family to say she isn't very nice."

Andrea groaned and headed towards Empathy and Charlotte's room. "Let's see if the old nag has left my sister in tears."

"Miss Sunset made Miss Charlotte's headache go away," Empathy said as he stepped out of Andrea's way.

"Good for her. She could have avoided it by fixing her last night instead of waiting," Andrea muttered as she stepped by him. "Sis! You awake? We need to talk."

"Give me a minute to get the necklace on!" Charlotte shouted from the bathroom in dismay. A second or two passed and Charlotte marched out of the bathroom on four hooves. "What do you want? I'm trying to take time to process some things in my head."

Andrea raised an eyebrow. "Like this scouting mission?"

Charlotte's ears folded back and she cringed. "You know?"

"Three of our compatriots for it just dropped in and dropped the ball," Andrea said, gesturing behind her at the CMC, who had just walked in as well.

"Sorry. We didn't mean to cause any trouble. We were just eager to meet you since we're all going on this mission," Sweetie Belle apologized. "We've never met you before– or Phobia Remedy or Josie Woods, but we didn't know where to look for those two. We thought we should try to get to know you early if we're going to be working together. You know, teambuilding."

"Um…aren't you supposed to be human?" Scootaloo asked. "So far, the creature who is supposed to be a crystal centaur is just a crystal pony. Now the human is a unicorn. Do we even have the right ponies?"

"You look a lot like the pictures I've seen of Sunset Blessing," Sweetie Belle said, holding a hoof up to her chin thoughtfully.

Andrea chewed on her lip for a second. If they were going to be working together they might as well know.

"Empathy, do you remember how to adjust my earrings to switch me back to the real me?" Andrea asked.

He nodded, dropping the money pouch as he came over to her. "Yes, Miss Andrea. Do you need help?"

"Yes, please," she answered, ducking her head so he could more easily reach her ears.

He turned them and nearly feel over when she shifted back to her normal proportions.

"Whoa!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Wait, are you two changelings?"

"Earth doesn't have changelings," Apple Bloom said.

"Bursa's from Earth," Scootaloo countered.

"Bursa was deliberately turned into a changeling while here," Apple Bloom fired back.

"We aren't changelings," Charlotte said in a hurry, then sighed. "Let me explain things…."

It took a few minutes to bring the CMC up to speed on who they were and what they could do. The three of them took it in stride.

"Hey, remember that time we time-traveled back with that weird hourglass to when our sisters were little?" Apple Bloom asked. "This reminds me of that. I guess we now know what would have happened if we brought them back with us."

Andrea blinked. "You've time-traveled?"

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Yeah, we've gotten up to all kinds of strange adventures in our day, but we haven't been on one for a while. We're getting older and more settled, focused on careers and family and all that."

"One last good adventure before we retire from the game!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

Sweetie Belle gave her friend a cross look. "It isn't a game, Scoots."

The pegasus waves one of her little wings dismissively. "I know, I know. Just an expression."

Apple Bloom held up a hoof and whispered at them. "I think she's going through one of those mid-life-crisis. Wants to prove she isn't getting old."

"I'm not getting old!"Scootaloo protested.

Sweetie Belle raised a mischievous eyebrow at her friend. "You know who I was just reviewing the application for becoming a substitute professor at the school? Dinky Doo's son, Didgeridoo. Remember him? He's all grown up and quite the mage."

Scootaloo visibly deflated. "I'm not getting old."

Andrea rolled her eyes. Everyone on this mission was way older than them. She was most concerned with the youngest member.

"What did Sunset want to talk to you about?" Andrea asked.

Charlotte sat down. "First, she asked me if I learned my lesson about drinking. Asked that while I was busy vomiting in the toilet. When I said I would never get drunk again, she cured my hangover. After I regained my composure, she asked me if Luna had talked to me about the mission and if I was going to do it or not. She told me I didn't have to if I didn't want to. It could be dangerous."

"Are you?" Andrea asked. That was the most important question.

Charlotte pointed at Empathy. "I haven't been given a lot of time to consider, but I wouldn't be a good friend to him if I didn't. He's been nothing but nice, and he needs our help. It's the right thing to do…and it gets me away from Sunset for a while."

Andrea wasn't going to argue with her sister to convince her otherwise. Part of her was even proud of her sister doing the right thing. "Anything else?"

Charlotte gave a sad nod. "She apologized for needing to puppet my magic to get us there. She said it would be painful, and she'd try to figure out a way to make it less so."

Andrea looked at Sweetie Belle, who seemed like a magic expert. The unicorn looked disturbed by hearing this. "Puppeting is supposed to be very painful, or so I read. I've never heard of any modern cases of it happening. Nopony should even know how to do it. Only evil mages in ancient times used that kind of magic."

"Fucking, Sunset," Andrea growled.

Charlotte shook her head. "It's okay. I'll still do it. No pain, no gain, right? Anyway, she spent some time talking about a lot of other things; like, if Phobia is disagreeing loudly with everyone else, especially if I disagreed, to engage the emergency recall on my bracelet and how to do that."

"Why?" Apple Bloom asked.

Charlotte shrugged. "She didn't explain, just stressed that it was very important, and our lives could depend on it. I was told knowing the specifics on what was happening could interfere with me taking action, if the need came up. She made me verbally repeat the instructions over and over again then she left."

"Well, crap," Andrea said in exasperation. "She give any timetable on when we are supposed to go? I'm going if you are."

Charlotte shook her head. "She said she was going to a special jeweler when she left to get supplies to work on the bracelets. Said they'd take a few days at least, and everybody had to get here."

"Mom and Dad are going to have a meltdown," Andrea said, looking out the window and imagining how badly the time with Amicus was going. So much for making things better with her. Amicus had known about this. They were going to tear her a new one.

"So…teambuilding?" Scootaloo suggested.