A Shadow of Myself

"Today's lesson is about time travel."

Charlotte looked at Traveler in disbelief. "I can't control interdimensional teleports, and you're trying to start me off by making me go all Doctor Who?!"

"The number of bracelets you have says you have had plenty of lessons already," Traveler replied. "Don't worry. Today will be more of an observation thing, and we'll remain halfway on the Outside, so this is something akin to the Marshmallow's projections. Not quite, since it is through time and space instead of just space, but you get the idea."

Charlotte spread her hands. "I don't know how the Marshmallow's ability works, so that doesn't help either. I kinda understand time travel already. You can't move along your own timeline; you always end up in or creating a divergent timeline and returning only to when and where you left."

Traveler nodded. "Very good. You paid attention to Sunset Blessing's lessons. Your Doctor Who comparison is actually right; there are fixed points you can't directly mess with. Believe me, I've tried, and our version of time travel is often more of a roll of the dice with a range of outcomes. You also can't land on the same timeline twice. Once you cause a divergence, that timeline is out of reach for future trips."

"How is that supposed to be helpful?" Charlotte asked.

Traveler shook her head. "It rarely is, but you should know how to navigate it. Traveling is unpredictable sometimes, and you should be prepared if you end up some time you didn't expect. This outing will give you a feel for being somewhere half in the Outside and half in some other time period than where you currently reside. Oh! Don't go walking through walls. It upsets people, and I don't know how to make us invisible or if that's even possible."

Charlotte crossed her arms. "So, where are we going?"

The Traveler waved a hand, and their surroundings suddenly shifted from the alien ruins to a room dimly lit by soft blue lights. It looked like a study, a very familiar study. There were some different decorations, electronic gizmos, lighting, dark curtains covering the windows, and new books, not to mention a bunch of owls nesting in a corner along with a wall filled with various caged animals, but she still knew this place. This was Sunset's study back at Wabash Manor. They also weren't alone.

Sitting behind what had been Sunset's desk was an elderly leathery winged mare; sitting before her on the other side of the desk was a jet-black furred unicorn mare with a midnight blue mane. The unicorn had some sort of holographic projection emanating from the phone on her leg that displayed various figures and accounts. Charlotte and Traveler were standing right behind her as she recited off figures.

The elderly mare's eyes widened briefly as they flicked to them; she then turned her attention back to the unicorn and smirked.

The unicorn stopped reciting figures. "Mom, what are you smiling at? These numbers are troubling. This isn't anything to smile about."

The older pony chuckled. "Oh, you worry too much about profit, Ebony. We've got enough to keep operating the school and the animal shelter. I'm not concerned with filling our coffers or getting fancy things. However, what I'm smiling about is that this meeting is about to get much more interesting. I love you, dear, but it's nearly noon, and you can put me to sleep when you get focused on the ledger."

The hologram vanished. "And what is going to make your day more interesting?"

"We have a visitor, dear. She is right behind you," the elderly pony said with amusement.

The unicorn turned her head and fell off her stool in shock at seeing them. She immediately sprung back to her hooves and lit her horn. "Who are you? How did you get past the guards? Who sent you?"

"Oh, stop that," the elderly pony said with a roll of her eyes. "I wasn't expecting this, but I know who we're dealing with. We've met before, and she means no harm." She turned her attention to Charlotte and the Traveler. "Sorry about my daughter. You know how easy it is to get high-strung about intruders at Wabash. To what do I owe this visit?"

Traveler gave a slight bow but grunted before raising herself up. "Ouch, sorry I don't give a lower bow, but I've got a bad back. It's always nice to meet with whoever is Mistress or Master of Wabash Manor. Aside from the Sunset Blessing, you're all normally so polite and tend to take the outlandish with ease. I'm just giving this girl beside me some traveling lessons. Can you do me a favor? Can you tell us the date?"

The mare nodded. "Nice to know that most of us are nice. It is the ninth of January, 2113. I can see this is a time-travel thing. Should I volunteer any information?"

"It's 2113, and people still worry about Wabash Manor?" Charlotte asked in disbelief.

"The largest depository of forbidden or dangerous magic in the world does make it a concern," the elderly mare said with a giggle. "We release information from it on and off when it's viewed that society can now deal with it. We also are always adding things to our vaults– it's a regular revolving door. We hide things away, but we also do research here. My predecessor obtained the neighboring properties and opened a school which sometimes ends up adding more magical discoveries to our vault. I added an animal sanctuary and additional research lab once it became clear magic was now impacting the wildlife. We've still got some of Sunset Blessing's work down in the vaults that continues to be too dangerous at the moment, and some of it will never be released. My ancestor created some truly bonkers spells, and so have some others."

"Mom, who are these people?" Ebony asked.

"No one you need to worry about. They are one of those secrets it is best you don't understand the details of, but we can't lock them in the vault. Be a good filly and warn security not to freak out if they see our guests," the elder mare instructed.

Ebony walked away, muttering, "I'm forty-one years old; I'm not a filly."

The elder mare sighed. "My daughter is such a serious mare. Her twin brother and younger brothers are so much more easygoing. I think it's because she's the odd one out of them– the only female and the only unicorn. She has always felt she had more to prove– just like her grandmother, but she's so good with all the paperwork this place has to deal with. I hope she does well in the future."

"I'm sorry, as a rule, I don't give spoilers. Spoilers are unreliable anyway," Traveler said sympathetically.

The mare let off a half-chuckle. "I noticed."

"So this means the Devourers don't destroy Earth?" Charlotte asked.

"In this timeline. That means nothing for you," Traveler replied. "Even if the Devourers are defeated, many paths can happen in the years to follow from when you originated, so nothing you see here is promised to happen. This is but one possibility. This is not the only Mistress of Wabash Manor I have met from this year, and I have met a few Masters of Wabash Manor for this year as well, and in some timelines, Wabash was destroyed before this year. You don't want to know how many timelines I've seen where there isn't even an Earth at this point."

"I'm hoping that Wabash wasn't destroyed on my watch," the elderly mare said.

"A younger second cousin of yours who succeeded a short-lived different heir of Jordan Streak. They had to deal with some rather passionate fanatics determined to destroy the place, " Traveler answered.

"Good. Having Wabash go to ruin on my watch would make me depressed," the mare replied. "Although, I have heard you've been known to lie. Not with diabolic intent, but lies all the same. You've got more Sunset Blessing in you than just about anyone."

Charlotte glared at her companion. "So you could be lying to me about everything?"

"Um…I'll take a wild guess and say she isn't," the elderly mare answered for the Traveler. "It would be pretty masochistic for her to set you up to fail."

"What does masochistic mean?" Charlotte asked.

The old mare looked at Traveler, and Traveler spread her hands.

"Sorry, I wasn't as good a student as Sunset. I got through high school with a much smaller vocabulary. Maybe use smaller words with her," Traveler said apologetically.

"You're me!?"Charlotte asked as she realized what was being implied.

"You won't remember that," Traveler answered with a sigh. "I may or may not have revealed that already in a previous lesson. I have the same memory issues you do. Madison here will remember, but it is unlikely we will return to this timeline."

Charlotte turned and looked at the old pony. "Madison? I remember you. You're the filly who ate all my ice cream!"

Madison blinked. "I don't recall that, but then again, I would have been a filly at the time. Um, sorry about the ice cream, I guess."

"Why would you even focus on that?" Traveler asked in disbelief.

Charlotte threw her hands up. "I don't know. It was the first thing I thought of! It's the only thing I remember about her."

"The only thing you remember about me is that I ate your ice cream?" Madison asked. "Well, that's certainly humbling. I mean, I was never very high profile, but I hoped I would be remembered for more than pilfering some ice cream that I can't even remember taking. Are you sure I took your ice cream? When would I even take it?"

"You took it at Andri's funeral," Charlotte answered.

Madison shook her head. "I think you must be misremembering. I don't imagine myself stealing ice cream during a funeral."

"It was less than two months ago for me. It's been fifty-five years for you. I think my memories are more reliable. You've probably got Alzheimer's or something," Charlotte countered.

Madison hung her head. "I do have Alzheimer's."

Charlotte gaped. "I'm so sorry! I don't know why I said that. It was so insensitive."

Madison gave her the most giant grandma puffy eyes. The old pony held that expression for about ten seconds, then burst out laughing, pointing a hoof at Charlotte.

"I had you going! I don't have Alzheimer's!" Madison brayed. "You should have seen the look on your face!"

Charlotte grit her teeth. "That was unbelievable. I can't believe you would joke about something like that."

Madison shrugged. "I can't believe you would make such an insensitive insult, but here we are. You need to lighten up. Here at Wabash, there's always something going wrong– someone trying to break in, some magical mishap, strange magical creature on the loose, a plot by some faculty to take over the world, a demon being summoned, GoBot attack. Most of these things I take care of in thirty minutes or so, but you have to learn to laugh at the insanity, or you'll go crazy."

Charlotte repeated some of the things silently back to herself before settling on one. "GoBots are a thing too?"

Madison shivered. "Oh, yeah. GoBots are a thing. They spread across the Omniverse like a virus, killing wherever they go. I've heard many stories of people who lost cousins and best friends to random GoBot attacks. They aren't a universe-ending threat– more like random acts of terrorism. They're GoBots; they are pretty easy to destroy and pretty dumb. They're like evil discount Transformers. One of them will pop up here and there, cause some mayhem, and then promptly get blown up– if it doesn't accidentally destroy itself before someone else does."

Charlotte looked at Traveler. "Please tell me she's joking."

Traveler smirked. "You'd forget anyway. I'll just leave you to wonder about that for the rest of the lesson. Don't worry about being here long; we're about done. Watch out for us old people, we've seen things, and we're more clever than you think."

"As my great-grandmother would say, amen," Madison chuckled. "Enjoy your stay. Be sure to be seen by some of my students. I want to see what kinds of rumors you start. Maybe we can start that whole haunted mansion one again."

"Crazy old mare," Charlotte muttered.