A Shadow of Myself

Excavator stopped, and the hatch opened for them all to exit. "Welcome to Alpha Base. Please be mindful not to step on the intuits."

"None of them are as big as a bot, so that shouldn't be an issue," Shrieky said tiredly as she exited.

"And if they step on one, it won't be the worst thing. It isn't like it will kill them," Beastly chuckled. Andrea frowned. Those two could be renamed Mean and Nasty. They were clearly here because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. She wondered how tense this alliance between them and the others had been to this point. Still, the pair had saved the scout team, so she couldn't complain too much about their behavior.

"This is great, and all, but has everyone forgotten we have a teammate who is stranded and stupid?" Sapphire said as they started heading for the hatch. "I thought we were going to try to save her before she does something dumb trying to save herself."

Apple Bloom lifted Cadence onto her back. "We need to get her in a bed first. She heals fast, but ah'm not sure how long she'll be snoozin'."

"You ponies are very durable if you can take a direct laser blast like that," Excavator observed.

Phobia looked timidly at the hatch. "Most of us can't. Alicorns are more resistant to injury than any but the most robust earth ponies."

Scootaloo paused and looked at Phobia. "Why are you hesitating about going outside?"

Josie chuckled. "She's probably afraid of getting stepped on. Plus, there are a lot of unfamiliar males out there."

"Why should there being unfamiliar guys be an issue?" Scootaloo asked in confusion.

Josie gestured at the team with a wing. "Didn't you notice the only guy on this team doesn't even completely count as a guy, or that all Phobia's bodyguards had been female? Phobia has a phobia about unfamiliar men, and the princesses kept that in mind when making the team."

Scootaloo gaped at Phobia. "You're kidding. That's crazy!"

"I had assumed you were a matriarchy. I hope I have caused you no distress," Excavator said. "Technically, there are no biological males on base. I hope this eases your mind."

"Thank you, but I was mainly worried about being stepped on," Phobia replied. She then gave Josie a dirty look. "And my anxiety is not so bad that I can't interact with unfamiliar males. I have meetings with them all the time and cultivate friendships and working relationships with them. You make me out as a male hater."

"How many phobias do you have, Phobia?" Charlotte asked.

"More than I care to speak of, each with varying severity," Phobia answered. She then gave her wings a small flap and marched out the hatch.

"She was the only real option we had for checking out the status of Dreamwardens here and checking us for mind magic," Sweetie Belle informed them as they watched Phobia march. "She might be a little neurotic, but she isn't that bad for company."

"Wish Luna had come along instead, but she wasn't expendable," Josie muttered. "Still, you're right; Phobia isn't too bad to be around. She normally keeps a level head, even when she's scared. Just roll your eyes at the fifty-dozen things the Queen of Nightmares fears. Kind of funny how everyone walked in fear of her, but she's the one that is scared of everything."

"Think there's some lesson in there," Scootaloo said as she headed towards the hatch.

"Let's just hurry up so we can get to saving the bug-brain before she does something bug-brained. We have found allies, information, and a safe place to stay. Bursa needs to be the priority now," Sapphire said with a huff. "She might be a pain in the flank, but she can't help what was done to her. That's my flying buddy. I'd miss her if something happened to her."

"We'll get her back, don't worry," Sweetie Belle assured her, then left as well. Sapphire followed behind.

As everyone else left, Andrea noticed Charlotte and Empath lagging behind. She walked over to her sister. "You okay? I know you were shaken up by what Sunset did. She didn't know."

Charlotte wouldn't look at her. "How do you know she didn't know? She lies. She lies all the time. She could have been lying to justify what she did."

Andrea put a hoof on her. "You have more insight into her than just about anyone. Do you think she lied?"

"I don't know," Charlotte whispered. Empathy hugged her. Charlotte looked at him. "You know, you have Shrieky here that you can try to take care of."

Empathy released his hug and made a bunch of sounds that were clearly an objection by the tone. He then hugged Charlotte again.

Andrea chuckled. "He might have some programming making him serve humans, but he chose you. He could have followed Mom or Dad or a guard back home, but he has made his choice. Heck, he followed you around even when you were a pony, and he showed he cared about Amicus, and she isn't even human. He isn't just some robot slave to his purpose, no matter what Shrieky makes the intuits out to be. Don't let that high-pitched bitch get into your head."

Charlotte wrapped an arm around Andrea and pulled her into a hug, nuzzling her ears as she did so. "Thanks, Andrea. You've been good to me lately."

"You're my sister. We can argue and fuss, but I've always got your back," Andrea assured her. Why did her ears getting nuzzled feel so good when she was in pony form? She needed to get out of this form asap.

Charlotte released her, and Empathy released Charlotte as Charlotte stood up. Andrea took a moment to feel around for magic to see how far their party had gone. Her eyes widened when she realized more magic was around them than anticipated. It was hard to make out any individual sources, partly because Excavator had magic flowing through him, and he was literally all around her at the moment. She guessed it took a lot of Energon to power the big guy. The only party member, other than Charlotte and Empathy, that she could lock on to with certainty was Cadence because she was such a vast well, but even Sapphire and Josie were hard to make out in this mess. Maybe if she was better trained at using her crystal pony powers, she could do better, but as it stood, she was in a world of static–yet another reason to get out of this form, other than she was mildly worried about being stepped on.

They stepped out of the hatch and into the artificial light of Alpha Base. Andrea couldn't tell if they were in a cave or a place hollowed out underground, but it was definitely encased in rock, if only because bits of stone peaked through cracks in the metal ceiling and walls. If she had to guess, she would say sandstone, but she was no geologist. There were electronic gadgets and stations all around, all far more advanced than what she had seen in the ruined towns. There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to how they were arranged, but, then again, she didn't know what the vast majority of them were even for. There were some tents off in a corner, small ones made of canvas. A couple of the tents had flower pots outside them with rather sick-looking flowers, but they represented the Garden of Eden compared to what was on the surface.

There were also about thirty or forty Autobots and at least a dozen intuits. The intuits seemed to have been welcoming all the scouting party, but now, they were all staring in Andrea's direction. No…they were staring at Charlotte, and there was hope and need in their eyes. All but one, who was entirely focused on Empathy.

The purple hippo cried out and ran past Andrea, grabbing Empathy, lifting him, and grabbing him into the most crushing hippo hug the intuit could muster as she cried tears of joy. Empathy seemed thrilled as well, although he might not have been breathing at that moment.

Andrea chuckled. "Guess we found Heavyheart."

Heavyheart released Empathy, and her eyes narrowed at him. He took a few steps back, and Heavyheart advanced to match them. Then came a string of frustrated and angry sounds from the hippo that steadily increased in intensity with her jabbing a chubby finger into his belly badge repeatedly. For his part, Empathy tried to reply, but each time his mouth opened, he got jabbed again, and Heavyheart got louder.

"And it looks like she is pissed at him," Andrea added. "I guess that makes sense. She's probably been worried sick. Maybe she thought he died or something."

"It has been over a month," Charlotte observed. "Hey, hippo! I don't know if you can understand me, but it wasn't Empathy's fault. It was mine."

Heavyheart stopped her tirade against Empathy and seemed to take notice of Charlotte for the first time. She blinked a few times, hesitated a moment, and then drew herself up and advanced on Charlotte, chattering so angrily she was practically spitting out each nonsense syllable. Serving humans apparently didn't stop her from going into a rage against whoever she felt was responsible for Empathy going missing.

Despite the massive height difference, Charlotte fearfully backed away from the pint-sized purple hippo. Andrea wasn't sure if the hippo could do much other than hiss and spit, but she wasn't letting anyone intimidate her little sister.

She stepped between Heavyheart and Charlotte. "You can back away from my sister, or I'll-"

Her sentence was cut off by a pudgy purple fist slamming into her nose. She stumbled and nearly fell over from the pain. It wasn't that the blow was that hard, no harder than what Charlotte could have managed, but it hit her in one of her most sensitive areas, and it didn't take much to stagger a pony when struck in that area. Sunset once commented about how significant a biological flaw it was to have such a strong nerve center be one of the most easily attacked. Andrea agreed with her at the moment. She imagined this was what men felt like when they got kicked in the balls.

"That's enough, Heavyheart!" Brightheart yelled sternly. "I'm still unsure how he ended up with them, but Empathy has been returned to us. You should be thanking these people for keeping him safe. Give her and Empathy a chance to explain what happened. This lady isn't your enemy; she's a blessing."

Not the best word to call Charlotte, but at least he's on our side, Andrea thought to herself as the pain slowly started to subside. Her vision was still a little blurry, and she desperately craved to bury her nose in a very soft pillow.

Empathy was the one to jump at the chance. He began excitedly speaking in his normal nonsense sounds that didn't reflect actual language. All the intuits and Autobots must have understood what he was saying because they all gathered around and listened in fascination. From another room, the unmistakable figure of Optimus Prime, looking exactly like his appearance in the original cartoon, came and stood in the doorway, but didn't interrupt, only listened.

The elephant was not telling the short version of things. He kept going on and on. His tone changed from time to time, sometimes getting more excited, sometimes fearful. The audience would, at times, gasp with either fear or wonder. At times, Phobia, the only member of their party who had a clue what he was saying, would cut in and give a minor correction about what something was. Those squiggly lines were writing. Equestria and Earth were in two different universes. No, Earth was not ruled by alicorns; that was Equestria. However, she only gave her correction and then let him continue again. Andrea only could guess where he was in his story by Phobia's modifications and the reaction of the audience. She knew, for instance, that he was telling about the deaths of her sister and Méng when his tone went sorrowful, and the audience let off gasps of dismay and gave her and Charlotte sympathetic looks. This was one of the reasons they brought him, to help with the first contact. He was doing his job. Even Shrieky and Beastly sat quietly listening to what he had to say. Empathy was the elephant of the hour.

He went on and on for at least twenty minutes. It was surprising he didn't run out of breath. Maybe he had a lot of pent-up talking to do since he had been forced into silence for most of this trip. During that time, Cadence stirred and awoke, and the CMC and Luster quietly explained what was happening to her. A white and red Autobot joined them and, from what Andrea could tell, began giving the princess a medical examination. Andrea knew he was coming to the end of his tale when he started gesturing at Shrieky, Beastly, Brightheart, and Excavator– who still hadn't changed back from his vehicle form and took up a considerable amount of the space behind them, making all the other Autobots look puny by comparison, despite them all standing anywhere from six to twenty feet tall, depending on the bot.

When Empathy finally finished, Optimus Prime spoke first, drawing everyone's attention to him. "That is quite the story, my diminutive friend. Your adventure into Care-A-Lot took a very unexpected turn. I can't say your original intentions were well thought out, but it seems you conducted yourself with the full dignity of your race while you were away. You have also brought us potential allies in the fight to free this world from No Heart and Megatron. Perhaps they will be enough to give us real hope that it can be done finally. You may have turned the tide in our favor, and you did it by being no more than yourself. Heavyheart, you should be proud of what your intended has accomplished."

Prime turned his attention to Cadence. "You must be Princess Cadence, the leader of this scouting party. I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots and the Resistance; I understand you were injured in a sneak attack by Decepticons. I do not wish to overexert you so soon after being injured, but once Ratchet has given you the all-clear, and you have all had a chance to eat and rest, we need to have a long talk."

Cadence weakly smiled at him. "Yes, I need to get my bearings and some food. We are grateful for your rescue and your hospitality. I cannot make any final decisions about any treaties we may sign, but I am on the council that will have to approve them. Note that we are only a scouting party. While a few of our members have fighting capabilities, we weren't sent here to fight. We are also eager to find our missing teammate and want that to happen before any serious negotiations begin."

"We need to find her soon. Bursa makes Empathy look like a genius and is bound to do somethin' dumb," Apple Bloom stressed. She gave Empathy a sheepish smile. "Uh…no offense."

Empathy shrugged as if accepting the fact he wasn't very bright. He most likely was. Andrea had heard him make declarations to that extent before. She couldn't think of him as 'the elephant' anymore because he wasn't the only elephant here. Standing close to Brightheart was none other than Lotsa Heart elephant. Lotsa Heart was holding hands with the raccoon in a way that made Andrea wonder if the two were a couple. She knew they were both intuits, and that was their species, but an elephant and a raccoon made for an odd couple.

Prime turned his attention to Phobia. "Our mutual friend described that your team, aside from you, were wearing jewelry to block mind magic. I understand your desire for precaution and applaud it, but I can assure you that you are under no threat. If such a threat were possible, our entire resistance would have crumbled by now and serve No Heart. I know you wish for more details on how the humans fell, and I shall provide you with that information, but I promise that mind magic had nothing to do with it. Most intuits from the Forest of Feelings are completely ignorant of the details and only learn them when they come here– if we find them in time after they reach the surface. Heavyheart is our most recent recruit from less than two weeks ago. We found her searching for Empathy. We patrol periodically near the Forest of Feelings to see if anyone has made it down to the surface. It is one of the few places we visit often. We have to normally keep patrols erratic to avoid developing a predictable pattern that can be used against us, but we can't abandon the intuits. Sometimes we are unlucky, and they are already dead by the time our patrol comes by, but we were lucky this time. We were also lucky we had a patrol close enough to your scouting team's area that it noticed your blue pegasus friend getting chased. I will immediately begin planning with Brightheart, my second-in-command, how to rescue your other friend."

"There is one other matter we need to address," Phobia replied. "Charlotte's bracelets."

"I am as at a loss as your team to what they mean or where they come from," Optimus Prime answered. He looked at Brightheart. "Are you aware of anything that could cause the appearance of these bracelets or her sleeping issues?"

Brightheart shook his head. "Not a clue. Shrieky, you know more about magic than the rest of us. Do you have any idea?"

"No," Shrieky replied flatly. "And it isn't uncle's style to give frilly pink bracelets out. Especially made of a substance he would deem unnatural. Never heard of him doing any magic involving dreams or anything like that either."

Phobia nodded. "It seems that there is something else at work then. I have suspicions about who the culprit is but cannot say. I am now inclined to believe they are not harmful, beyond the potential dangers of her not waking at the appropriate times may bring while on a hostile world. Very well, the party may remove their protections against mind magic."

"Thank goodness," Charlotte said as she removed the offensive jewelry.

"Do not lose them," Phobia cautioned. "I could partially use my powers to defend us because you were wearing those. If you hadn't been, you would have been caught up in what I did as well. If I need to do so again, you should have them at the ready."

Andrea removed hers just in time to hear Empathy reply. "It was bad."

"I felt it as well," Shrieky said grimly. "I don't know what it would have been like if we had to stay there longer."

"Made my fur itch," Beastly said in a low voice.

"It was…unpleasant," Excavator said from behind them. "It could be used as a powerful non-lethal weapon against the care bears and Decepticons."

"No," Phobia said firmly. "It is only to be used in defense in dire need. I know it isn't as powerful as what some others can do, but there are rules that I must follow." She eyed Josie. "I cannot approve of or give my consent to your use of powers you would be banned from utilizing on Earth, but I do want to state that I am in no position of authority to stop or punish you."

Josie glared at Phobia. "You tell me this now after all the times it could have been helpful?!"

"You were unable to utilize your abilities until now due to the mind magic block, and again, I am not condoning or giving any such permission," Phobia replied.

Andrea gave them both a confused look. "What are you talking about?"

Josie walked away in a huff. "I need somewhere private and quiet. I'm going to find Bursa."

"Really, what're you two talking about? Why is Josie going off on her own to find Bursa?" Andrea asked, even more confused.

"Yeah, we're supposed ta stick together," Apple Bloom confirmed.

"If she is indeed going to go violate a rule that I am unable to enforce, she isn't going anywhere, at least not physically," Phobia answered. "Who do you think taught The Marshmallow to do what she does?"

Andrea gaped. "Wait…Josie can do that too?!"

"Other than The Marshmallow, who has the advantage of being a Dreamwarden augmenting the ability, Josie is the best there is at it," Phobia confirmed.

"What are you talking about?" Brightheart asked.

"Josie is going to travel around without a physical body and find Bursa," Andrea answered. "Um…you might want to give her a map of where we are compared to where we were so she doesn't have to wander aimlessly."

"Sapphire should help look over any map to better give Bursa's last position," Cadence said. "This doesn't rescue her. It is a method of confirming she is alright, her current position, and opening a line of communication with her. We still need to figure out how to extract her, but knowing more about her current situation and being able to contact her would aid us greatly."

"What's to stop her from being spotted?" Beastly asked.

"She can turn invisible and soundless, and there is no physical form, so there is nothing to hit. She can't touch anything herself, but she can gather intelligence and speak to Bursa," Cadence answered.

Shrieky frowned. "What's her range?"

"I'm not sure. A few hundred miles," Cadence replied.

Shrieky smiled. "Then I can think of a perfect way to utilize her. For the first time, we can get eyes directly into Care-A-Lot."