A Shadow of Myself

"Oh, good, you're awake again. Good morning," she heard Rainbow say, almost cheerfully.

Charlotte winced. "Oww, my head hurts. How do you even know it's morning if it's always dark outside?"

Rainbow came and sat close beside her, almost touching. "You don't have a concussion, so your head probably hurts because you haven't eaten in a while. Luckily, I found some edible mushrooms in a cave and am cooking a soup of them now. It won't be great, but it will get something in you. I don't know if it's morning. It's just how I greet people who are waking up or when I'm waking up."

Charlotte sat up. It hurt, but she managed it without much trouble, and she'd need to be sitting up if she was going to eat. Rainbow seemed much more cheerful than the last time they'd talked.

Rainbow blinked at her as Charlotte steadied herself. "You seem to be recovering faster than I thought you would. Do you mind if I inspect your injuries? I'll do my best to be gentle."

"You're the one taking care of me. My mom always told me not to argue with my doctor," Charlotte replied as she looked around. Not much had changed. There was a pot hanging suspended by some metal poles over the fire, and Starlight was awake, laying down at the edge of the room, watching them.

"Hey, you have two more of these pink bracelets on the ground," Rainbow said, holding a pair of them up."

Charlotte groaned. "Most useless magic power ever! Someday I am going to have enough to build a house with."

Rainbow looked at the bracelets in confusion. "Do people build houses out of these things where you're from?"

"No, we don't," Charlotte said flatly.

"Oh," Rainbow replied, setting the bracelets back down. "Well…they're pretty. Can I have one?"

"If you want. I was told they're harmless. I'm never going to run out of them at this rate," Charlotte answered.

"Thank you," Rainbow said as she put the bracelet on. She then went back to inspecting the wounds.

"You're welcome," Charlotte replied. She looked over at the horse, who was still staring silently at her. "Um, hi, Starlight. Do you talk?"

He laid his head down like he was going to go to sleep. "When I have something to say."

"Don't mind him. He's been grumpy since we found you. I think he's jealous I have someone else to talk to," Rainbow said as she carefully unwrapped the bandages on Charlotte's arm.

His head shot up, and his ears laid back. "I most certainly am not jealous. How dare you even suggest I could be jealous of this person– who, I must reiterate, we have no reason to trust. She could be a cannibal or a demon."

"She's not a cannibal or a demon," Rainbow stated, cheerfulness slipping.

"You have no way of knowing that. She could be trying to lull you into a false sense of security so she can eat you," the horse pressed.

Rainbow turned and shook a finger at him. "I thought we were over this! We have no reason to suspect her of those things."

"We do; it's the fact that she is even here," Starlight countered. "She probably survived by eating the bodies of others, then she ran out, and she came here looking for more meat. I don't want to end up in her belly. That seems a lot more plausible than the wild story she gave."

"She's not even dressed for the cold. Why can't you be happy we found someone else who we can talk to!" Rainbow shouted at the horse.

"Because you are being willfully naive about how suspicious her being here is and the danger you could be putting yourself in!" Starlight shouted back.

"I'd rather be in danger than alone!" Rainbow screamed at the top of her lungs.

Starlight sat quiet, as did Rainbow and Charlotte. Rainbow sat with her arms crossed, checking the wounds apparently forgotten. The only sounds were the fire crackling. As the silence started to stretch into minutes, Charlotte tried to think of something to say.

"I'm sorry I'm causing friction," she said at last. "I didn't intend on being here. I know my story sounds far-fetched, but it is true. As soon as I'm healed, I will get out of your hair and mane." She blinked as something that should have been obvious occurred to her. "Actually, I might be able to leave before that. Sunset gave me an emergency return method. I haven't been thinking and forgot about it."

Rainbow looked away from her. Charlotte heard a quick sob, but it was so brief she could have been mistaken. "Oh…so you'll be leaving soon then."

Charlotte looked down at her emergency return device. "I still need to heal some more. I need two hands to work it properly. It's set up so I couldn't accidentally set it off, but as soon as I have use of both, I'll be going. I'm sure doctors in Equestria can treat the rest of my wounds, and then Sunset can reuse my magic so I can find my sister, Empathy, and the others. Andrea and Empathy must be worried sick, and my parents must have heard about my brief visit back home by now. We were right out in the open, and cameras picked up what was going on in the yard all the time. Word had to reach my parents, even in Equestria. They must be freaking out."

Rainbow was silent for a few more seconds before turning around and started rewrapping Charlotte's bandages around her arm. "It's healing fast. I thought it would take weeks to heal, but it might just be a day or two. Humans on your world must be really healthy."

"Heh, hardly," Charlotte chuckled. She glanced at Rainbow. "So…what are you? You look human, but you couldn't survive with no food or warm clothing if you were. Starlight couldn't either if he was just a horse…and how are you both speaking English? I feel like I'm making a habit of asking that question."

"I speak everyone's language. I just meet people, and I know their language. I don't know how," Rainbow said with a shrug. "Are there many languages where you come from?"

Starlight leaned his head forward. "You didn't answer her other question."

Rainbow looked pleadingly at him. "Please, don't do this."

"She's already asked the question, and it is obvious you're avoiding it," Starlight said sternly. "If you don't tell her, I will."

Great, this was where the ball dropped, and Charlotte found out the character she watched saving the world over and over in her favorite cartoon movie turns out to be the story's villain.

Rainbow looked at her fearfully. "Promise you won't get upset. It isn't as bad as you think. I'm not going to hurt you, and neither is Starlight. I don't need…."

"Finish the sentence," Starlight said darkly.

"She needs to promise not to be afraid of me first!" Rainbow shouted, shaking her head in denial. She looked ready to cry.

Charlotte took a breath. "It's okay. You've had every opportunity to hurt me, and you haven't. I can see that this is something that upsets you. I've gotten used to things being…different than I expected. Go ahead and tell me. I won't freak out."

Rainbow looked away again and went silent.

"Whisp…." Starlight prompted.

"Give me a moment. This is hard," Rainbow said, again choking back a sob.

Starlight's ears sagged, and he lowered his head again as they waited for Rainbow to gather her nerve.

"That movie you watched got a lot wrong," Rainbow said at last. She turned around. She then opened her mouth wide.

Her fangs grew from human proportions to much longer, much more alarming proportions.

"Vampire," Charlotte stated; she couldn't help inching her butt further away from Rainbow. She looked at Starlight. "You too?"

"Me too," Starlight muttered and turned his head away as he laid it down.

"We weren't this way before our trip to Spectra," Rainbow said sadly. "And we don't need to drink blood to live or have an overwhelming urge for it. I'm not going to drink your blood. Starlight won't either."

"You already had her blood, and so did I," Starlight replied, not turning or lifting his head.

Rainbow shook her head. "That was different! I got it on my hands when picking her up and bandaging her, and we licked it off my hands. We didn't sink our fangs into her! We just took what was already there."

"Probably why our magic to know her language works. Nice to know Princess wasn't lying about that," Starlight muttered.

Rainbow looked at her as if begging. "Don't be mad. There was so much blood on you when we found you. You'd tumbled down the mountain. It was there, and I didn't have to hurt you to get it, and…." She turned away. "...I just wanted to know if my magic would work again if I drank it."

"Guessing we need more to get the bigger stuff, but hooray for language, I guess," Starlight continued to mutter.

Charlotte looked back and forth between them and then suddenly broke out laughing. Starlight raised his head and stared, as did Rainbow, who looked horrified.

She forced herself to stop. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't laugh. I know this is painful for you to talk about, but I'm sitting here, helpless as can be, and I'm sitting in a house with a cute vampire in a rainbow dress and a vampire horse with a rainbow mane, and something about it just strikes me as absurd. I'm sorry. I'll stop laughing."

Rainbow blinked. "You think I'm cute?"

Charlotte blushed. "Forget I said that. Anyway, how did this happen? I told you my story. You haven't had a chance to tell me yours."

"She's had plenty of chances. She was just scared," Starlight said as he went back to laying down and not looking at her. "And I am much more handsome, noble, and majestic than Whisp is pretty. I'm insulted you didn't compliment me too."

"Um, will you be more trusting of me if I say that?" Charlotte asked.

He snorted. "You had your chance; too late now."

"You aren't bothered by it?" Rainbow asked with cautious hope in her voice.

Charlotte shook her head. "You've been without chances to suck anyone for who knows how long, and when presented with the chance, you still didn't. I mean, I am powerless to stop you from sucking me dry. You could be waiting to fatten me up, but I doubt you'll do that with bad mushroom soup. I found out at six my future self would have been a god-preaching unicorn involved in a city blowing up. I was conditioned for this kind of weirdness at a young age."

"There's nothing wrong with growing up to be a horse. We are noble creatures. All humans should want as much," Starlight proudly proclaimed, still not moving.

Rainbow giggled. "She said she turns into one sometimes when wearing a necklace. Maybe you might want to see that. You could get a pretty marefriend."

"He's not really my type," Charlotte said quickly. Rainbow blushed again, and Charlotte felt like kicking herself for saying cute earlier. Why had she said that? That was so stupid! Rainbow was too old for her anyway. Rainbow might look like she was in her twenties, but she had to be closer to ninety, at least if that movie did happen more than seventy years ago, if not much older.

Rainbow's cheer faded again as she retreated a little. "The part about Princess stealing Spectra was true enough. Actually, it was a stone in the center of Spectra that gave off all the light. The planet just reflected it everywhere. Starlight and I went to stop her, but we were caught. Princess wasn't just a spoiled greedy brat like you said she was in the movie. She was a vampire, and she wanted to end Spectra's light. It didn't hurt her, not really. It just hurt her eyes a bit, but she still hated it. I never really understood why. It was just an obsession."

"And she turned you two into vampires?" Charlotte asked.

Rainbow gave a sad nod. "My magic for making rainbows and helping with the seasons came from me, not some belt, but my magic came from Spectra. After she transformed me, I lost that link, and now my powers are tied to blood. I wasn't going to drink anybody's blood just so I could have my powers, so I couldn't stop her. I don't even know where she is now. She marooned me back here so I could watch as everything died."

"And you don't want to drink from me to get your powers back?" Charlotte asked.

The vampire shook her head. "I miss my powers, but I miss people more. I miss people laughing, grass, spring flowers, warm summer days, and the colors of the leaves during the fall. I miss arguing every year with Stormy about changing the seasons from winter to spring. I even miss Murky and Lurky. I miss life, the good and the bad. Anything is better than this. I'm at the point I'm overjoyed whenever I find a little bit of moss deep in a cave where it is just warm enough and damp enough for it to grow. It doesn't even snow here. It is too cold to snow!"

This was probably a bad idea. "Do you want to go back with me, both of you? I'm sure Sunset or one of the princesses could figure out how to help you not be a vampire. They can figure out anything, and Sunset's a master of transformations."

Starlight whipped his head up. "Whisp, this could be a trick. Don't trust her!"

"Does it matter if it's a trick?" Rainbow whispered.

"Yes, it does!" Starlight said, getting to his hooves.

Rainbow looked him in the eyes. "What do we have to lose at this point?"

"Our lives!" he growled, stepping forward.

She kept her eyes focused on his. "And what are those worth in a world like this? Do you want to spend eternity in a world that has lost everything? Maybe you want to drink Charlotte's blood so you can leave and go find Princess, wherever she ran off to."

He lost his ability to meet her gaze. "No…I am a noble horse, and I won't let Princess take that away from me by giving in to that temptation. If you want to try, I'll try too, but I don't trust it. If she hurts you, I won't drink her blood; I crush her skull beneath my hooves like a warhorse of old."

Hopefully, no one would try to destroy them as evil vampires. With Rainbow handling the emergency escape with Charlotte's guidance, they could leave sooner than later. That Was good because, by what Rainbow described, that mushroom soup might have to last a long time, and Charlotte never much cared for soup.

I'm coming, Andrea and Empathy. Bursa might have taken me away from you, but I'm going to get us all home….with a few new friends.