A Shadow of Myself

Charlotte stirred and opened her eyes. She immediately winced and turned away from the bright flame of a fire. That was a mistake because multiple parts of her body protested in pain.

"Good morning. Don't move around too much. Your injuries are healing, but you're still in rough shape."

She didn't recognize the voice. But as her vision cleared, she saw she was in an actual building, not a cave. There was chipped and peeling paint in every color of the rainbow on the walls, all faded. The building was at least two stories tall, but the center was open and went straight up to a round opening in the ceiling that the smoke of the fire slowly drifted out through. The sky beyond was unnaturally dark, with no moonlight or starlight. Railings surrounded the landings of each of the floors above her.

It took a moment for her eyes to pick out who had spoken. It was a woman who appeared close in age to Charlotte at first glance, but there was something ageless about her. She was blonde, wearing a short blue dress with rainbow trim and a belt with a rainbow insignia front and center. Her hair was a knotted mess partially pulled back by a band. She had white leggings and what looked like black ballet shoes. Laying behind her was a snowy white horse, a proper horse, not a pony, with a rainbow mane that would have made even Rainbow Dash jealous. On the horse's head was a large golden star emblem.

"You've been asleep a full day. I was worried you wouldn't wake," her fireside companion stated, throwing some scraps of broken wood in the fire. "Forgive me; I don't have any food. Starlight and I don't need to eat, and we gave up scrounging for food long ago, but we may have to restart that. I'm assuming you eat. You look human."

"I'm human," Charlotte confirmed, trying to sit up. It was an effort, especially since she found she had both an arm and leg bound in casts. "Where-" Her mind finally put together where she had seen that horse before, along with some elements of the woman's clothes. "You're Rainbow Brite."

The woman nodded. "I haven't heard that name in a long time, but I haven't had anyone to talk to but Starlight for a long time, and he's taken to calling me by my older name, Whisp. I'm surprised you've heard of me."

Charlotte glanced around some more. Yet another childhood toy made real. How many would end up being real? "So…I'm guessing Rainbow Land is a dystopian wasteland too."

Rainbow Brite gave a sad nod and tossed some more wood into the fire. "Everywhere is a wasteland since we lost Spectra. If you came here trying to find somewhere safe and warm, I'm sorry. Snow blankets the ground, and the only lights are the ones we make. The other residents sleep, but Starlight and I have stood watch, hoping for any change."

The distorted version of her childhood doll reached down and lifted something small. "Forgive me for going through your pockets, but this is what led me to you. It was in your pocket, glowing so brightly that the light shined through. Light is so rare outside that it stood out from a distance. I found you at the base of the cliffs. You're lucky. If I hadn't seen that light to find you, you'd have frozen or bled to death."

It was another one of the bracelets, only this time it was blue. She didn't recall getting a blue one and wondered why she suddenly had one of a different color, breaking the pattern. It wasn't making any light right now, but she believed Rainbow Brite was telling the truth about it glowing. It wasn't like there was any need to lie about it.

Rainbow sat the bracelet back down. "What's your name, and where do you come from? Are there more people alive there?" There was an undertone of desperation to the last part.

"I'm Charlotte. I'm sorry, I don't know if you'll believe me, but I'm not from this world. I'm not even from this universe."

If she expected any display of disbelief, it didn't come. Rainbow just hung her head. "Oh…I'd hoped that… never mind. I'll do everything I can to help you get better so you can go home, but how'd you know my name?"

"That might be harder to believe than where I come from," Charlotte warned.

Rainbow chuckled; it sounded out of practice. "It's beyond belief that I found any mortal alive. My skepticism is on hold. Even if you're lying to me, you're still someone new to talk to, other than Starlight."

So, Charlotte started talking. She told about watching Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer as a kid. She spoke about how her life had been turned upside down one day by the arrival of her future self. She talked about life on Earth and on Equestria, along with her family. She continued on about the mission that had brought them to the world of care bears and transformers and concluded by explaining Bursa's betrayal and how she had ended up in Rainbowland. Rainbow Brite sat quietly listening, never interrupting, and occasionally nodding. By the time she was done talking, she had no idea how much time had passed, but she knew she was tired.

"That was a much longer explanation than I expected. If you were making things up, you have a better imagination than me," Rainbow finally said. She looked at Charlotte with a hint of concern. "It also took a lot out of you. I should have cut you off earlier, so you didn't wear yourself out, but I was just so eager to hear someone else talk. I'm sorry for doing that to you. It was selfish. You should try to lie down and get some more sleep. I'll go out and try to find something for you to eat."

"How bad is it out there?" Charlotte asked.

Rainbow frowned as she stood up. "Ice and snow are everywhere. The temperatures are subzero. There is no light but what you bring. Almost everything is dead, and what isn't dead is barely holding on or in a deep sleep. You said that the last universe you were in was terrible? It is paradise compared to this. This universe is a tomb. There are no monsters out to get you. The monsters are all dead."

Charlotte would have paled, but she barely had blood in her face as it was. "How did this happen?"

Rainbow turned away. "The movie you watched as a kid was wrong. I didn't save Spectra; I failed. Almost all life and light depended on that planet. Now, this is what we have. Once you can manage one of those portals again, you'll want to leave."

"Come gather around, children. I have a new story to tell you, although I will keep this one short," Jennifer instructed. as she sat down on the couch in the library.

The kids did as instructed, and she smiled.

"Once upon a time, long before any human walked the Earth when dinosaurs still ruled it, there existed on another world three great mages beyond compare."

She used her powers to create three vaguely humanoid beings. That wasn't what they looked like, but it was easier for the kids to empathize with things that looked less alien. She then created the form of Triss towering over the three.

"These three were all students of Triss, for she has long taken students and tried to instruct them so they could ascend as she could. These three were among her greatest, greater than any mage living today, but even they fell short of that lofty standard."

The three raised their hands, and each held a unique stone. One had a stone shaped like a sun. The second had one shaped like a cube, and the last one looked like a diamond. Again, these were stylized for the story's sake, but the styles felt appropriate.

"From Jeg'galla'gamp'pi, each had been gifted a stone of unique properties, tied specifically to them. With these stones, they could do great works of magic the likes had never been seen, yet this was not enough to hold back the coming doom that approached their world, and they knew it."

The scene shifted to the three loading their stones on a massive ship that looked almost like a meteor.

"Knowing their end was coming and that life would fail again, they devised a plan. They had identified a planet that showed signs of eventually developing sentient life like theirs. They knew that this planet would only be forced to face the onslaught of the Devourers one day and that for there to be a chance, the civilization there had to not develop magic until it had reached technological heights that previous worlds had failed to do. That meant that the thaumic energy concentration in that world had to be slightly lessened permanently. To do this, they would make the universe itself leak that energy away from that world. They were going to weaken and break the barrier and form three new universes for thaumic energy to flood into periodically, but such a thing took an immense amount of force and power."

The scene shifted again to a younger Earth, with dinosaurs walking the mushroom-laden ground, munching on the leaves of now long-extinct trees. The fireball suddenly appeared in the sky, drawing the attention of the simple beasts, and before any could react, it came hurtling down and hit the ground, letting off a mushroom cloud the likes of which had rarely been seen on Earth. The concussive and fiery blast spread, and the scene ended as the blinding blaze enveloped the scene.

"And so, for life to preserve here, life took a massive hit. So ended the age of the dinosaurs, and so began the age of the leaks. Each of the three stones were forcibly slammed through the barrier of our universe and formed new universes beyond, and periodically those universes were fed by our energy. So when humankind eventually rose, they did not develop magic as most civilizations did. They were forced to learn how to build without it. That lasted until the residents of one of those newborn universes found a way to go the other way across the barrier, and with them, the age of magic began here in earnest. That universe is Equestria, and someday perhaps, we shall learn what became of the other two."