A Shadow of Myself

"AH!! WHAT IS THAT!!"

Andrea pulled her gun out and focused on the creature that had emerged from the tunnel. It was covered in brown spines and had a narrow beak. It was also armed with a spear. The creature jumped back and aimed its spear at her.

Shriek walked over to her and pushed her hand down, lowering the gun. "They're harmless as long as you don't threaten them."

"It looks like an echidna," Sapphire said.

"It's so cute!" Sweetie Belle gushed.

"Sweetie Belle, that cute thing is covered in spikes and has a weapon," Scootaloo cautioned. "It doesn't look like an intuit."

Shrieky gave Andrea one last dirty look and then turned toward the new creature. "They aren't intuits. They're wiradjuri; they live here and do the maintenance on the tunnels."

The neanderthal woman walked close to the wiradjuri with her hands up. She said something in the same gibberish language she'd been chanting in. The wiradjuri looked at her and back at Andrea before snorting and making some clicking sounds. It then lowered its spear and resumed its walk from one cavern to the next.

"Any other strange creatures that live in these tunnels that we should know about?" Sapphire asked. "I mean, it would be nice to know before we run into things whether we should be concerned or not."

"Many things, but none of them are dangerous unless threatened," Shrieky answered as she watched the wiradjuri walk away down a tunnel decorated by blue handprints.

Every tunnel seemed to have handprints of one color adorning the walls, and so far, Shrieky had kept them exclusively to blue and red handprints, even though Andrea had seen yellow, purple, green, black, and white. Andrea had been paying attention to anything distinguishing features of the different types of tunnels. Blue, purple, and green handprint tunnels seemed much more expansive, with higher ceilings, making them proper caverns. Red and yellow were consistently smaller, big enough for maybe one of the regular-sized transformers to walk through, but not two side by side. The tunnels with black or white handprints seemed to vary significantly in size, and there were fewer of them. It was hard to tell with just the unicorns' floating balls of light, but some of those black and white tunnels seemed as large as the most enormous caverns they'd been in, while others were so narrow they intuits or ponies would find it difficult to get through. The only genuinely distinguishing feature those later tunnels had was they had a heavy buildup of dust on the ground, while all the other tunnels were surprisingly dust free. It was like they had slipped through time and were walking through some prehistoric cave dwellings. No one had questioned Shrieky about the meanings of the different color handprints, but Andrea knew it was only a matter of time.

"So…why don't the Decepticons come here?" Scootaloo asked as they resumed their walk into yet another red tunnel from their previous red tunnel.

Shrieky didn't look back to answer. "This place is sacred, even to them. Nothing is allowed to be damaged here, so it has always been."

"The Decepticons care about sacred human sites?" Sapphire asked, sounding skeptical. "I might be an alien on this world, but that doesn't seem like it would be part of their m.o."

"It is sacred to all species, not just humans," Shrieky explained. "The blue caverns are public tunnels where all may pass. The purple is for the likes of the intuits and the transformers. The green is for the wiradjuri, allywarp, and the merhd. The yellow is what you might call maintenance tunnels. The red is for humans."

"What about the black and the white?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Shrieky stopped and looked back. "The black have bad things in them. The white have very bad things. All creatures, even transformers, fear the black tunnels. No creature that has sanity will try to go into the white."

"And why are the tunnels segregated?" Andrea asked.

"Because that's how it is, and no one violates it. This is a sacred place; you follow the rules," Shrieky growled.

"And if you don't follow the rules?" Sapphire asked.

Shrieky glared daggers at the pony and pointed off to the side to a tunnel entrance covered with white handprints. "Then there will be another white tunnel."

"Very bad things," Scootaloo said slowly.

Shrieky nodded. "Very bad things." She then resumed leading the group through the tunnels– not the one with white handprints.

"Worse than Decepticons?" Luster asked.

"Very bad things,* Shrieky repeated.

Andrea looked at the white handprinted tunnel. It was about the same size as the one they were in currently; at least, it seemed that way, based on what she could see in the limited light. There was almost a perfect dividing line on the ground where the dust suddenly built up. It was like whatever did the cleaning went as close as possible, then not a millimeter closer. Who even put up the handprints to begin with? Who would put up handprints if there was a need for another white tunnel? Those looked like human handprints. If there were no more humans, then, theoretically, there could be tunnels that needed to be labeled white that hadn't been. That wasn't an encouraging thought. Did Shrieky even know where she was going?

They continued on.

Charlotte looked around buildings and giant screens, advertising products and giving news. She only saw ponies, no humans. They seemed to be in the mountains and standing on an exceptionally high building that looked down on the rest. "Where the heck are we? Some weird resort in Colorado?"

"A possible distant future of Equestria. I believe this exact city is called Zephyr Heights," Traveler said as she sat down, bracing herself against her staff, seemingly struggling.

Charlotte looked at the strange woman who she had met when she fell asleep. "Are you okay? You seem a little winded."

The older woman took a few deep breaths before answering. "Don't worry, I can't die in the Outside, but I'm not walking around with life support hooked up because I enjoy wearing this accessory. I could get some organs replaced again, but I've done that enough. At some point, you have to meet death."

"I can't argue that you don't look way past your prime," Charlotte replied. "Are you sure you're okay for the moment.?"

Traveler hoisted herself to her feet while using her staff as a brace. "I'll be okay. I appreciate your concern, but let's continue with the lesson."

Charlotte was unsure the old hag was being honest with her. The woman said that they had met in the dream…the Outside many times already, but Charlotte didn't recall any of that. The only things that made the claims credible was Charlotte couldn't remember anything to contradict her, she was gaining a new bracelet every time she slept, and her powers had gotten more responsive– as evidenced by her entire ordeal with Bursa.

She looked around. "It may be because we're high up, but I don't see any humans. I don't even see things like griffins."

"There aren't any here in this timeline. Earth and the rest of the nations outside of Equestria are cut off. None of these ponies have seen anything intelligent outside an earth pony, pegasus, unicorn, alicorn, or dragon," Traveler explained. "Most of them don't even know of anything else."

Charlotte frowned. They must be very far in the future, although the tech didn't seem that out there. It appeared a few decades behind, though more prominent than Equestria currently displayed. "Won't that be a problem if one of these ponies notices us? Won't they freak out?"

Traveler cackled. "Hahahaha, that's not going to be an issue. They are about to be too concerned with something else."

The sky suddenly darkened as heavy storm clouds rolled in out of nowhere. Thunder boomed, and lightning struck multiple spots. Ponies cried out in fear, and the pegasi that had been flying around landed as quickly as they could. The storm started to swirl like a tornado, but out of the eye descended a dark pink alicorn, one that Charlotte was unfamiliar with. Her wings looked like they were pure fire.

"Bow ponies of Zephyr Heights to your true queen, QUEEN OPALINE!"

Charlotte stepped back as the alicorn rained fire and lightning down on the city. More screaming ensued as the alicorn laughed with merciless glee.

"We can't be hurt, don't worry," Traveler said as she came up beside Charlotte.

Charlotte watched, dumbstruck, as she watched the alicorn wreck havoc on the city. "I don't understand. Aren't alicorns always supposed to be the good guys? Is this some evil empire she's attacking?"

Traveler shook her head. "No, you are looking at an evil alicorn. The alicorn of Fire. So comes a part of the lesson. Just because a being is ascended doesn't make them good. The universe rarely cares about such concepts as good or evil."

"But this is Equestria; Harmony is what guides it," Charlotte replied.

Traveler hummed. "Harmony feels a certain way in your time. Harmony might not feel the same tomorrow. The Story was fine with the Devourers for ages, but then it got bored with their repetitive nature. The Story aids your world now because it wants to have a different ending to this chapter. It can change its mind about helping once the way things go have changed."

"Opaline, stop! It doesn't have to be this way!"

Charlotte looked down and noticed a blue unicorn mare staring fearfully at the sky. She wasn't the only one to notice, so did Opaline.

The alicorn descended and laughed as she looked down menacingly at the unicorn. "Misty! I always knew you were a disappointment. Are you here to plead for your life?"

Misty shook her head. "It doesn't have to be this way. You're an alicorn! These ponies adore alicorns. You could be friends with them, and I'm sure they will listen to everything you say and be your friend. You don't have to be mean to them or try to take away their magic. You have enough magic!"

Opaline laughed. "Friends? With creatures that are beneath me? Don't be so droll. I should be destroying you right now for your last-minute betrayal. However, you did bring me the dragonfire that restored my power before that betrayal. Bow down and grovel, and I will spare your life. Tell me where Sunny and her friends are hiding, and I might still give you a cutie mark."

Misty stepped back a few steps, looking terrified, then looked down before squaring her shoulders, looking up, and stepping forward defiantly.

"I don't need you to give me a cutie mark. Marks are supposed to be a sign of who you are. I don't want to be told who I am by a bully like you because it will be a lie! I might not know who I am, but I know what I'm not, and I'm not somepony who is okay with this! Sunny, Hitch, and the rest might never forgive me, but for a little while, I had real friends. You were never my friend!"

Opaline glared at her. "Well then, there is only one way I can respond to that."

The alicorn charged up a massive blast, and Misty cowered down on the ground, covering her head with her forelegs like that would do any good. Charlotte wanted to look away so she wouldn't have to see this poor pony get brutally murdered, but she kept watching in horror.

The blast left the horn, and there was a bright flash of light. Opaline cackled in triumph, but as the smoke cleared, it became clear there had been a shield up around Misty, and now, standing protectively in front of Misty, horn blazing and wings spread wide, was another alicorn, this one orange with a rainbow mane.

Opaline stopped laughing but still grinned. "Sunny? So there you are. I've been looking all over for you. I want to say that I'm surprised that you are protecting the little turncoat. She did betray you before she betrayed me and after how nice you were to her. That shows how little you can trust in friendship. She's shown you who she is; a pony who will betray anyone to get what she wants. However, I can see that Twilight's foolish ideas have also infected you, and you keep giving chances to ponies who don't deserve it. How…disappointing."

The scene suddenly shifted, and they were back among the large alabaster ruins that Charlotte had seen when she first entered the dream.

"What? Why did you take us out of there? I wanted to see what happened!" Charlotte yelled as she turned to look at Traveler.

Traveler smiled. "Because that's the other part of the lesson for today. You need to decide if Sunny was right to defend Misty after Misty betrayed her. Was Opaline right? Was Sunny weak for giving more chances at redemption?"

"I didn't see what happened, so I don't know!" Charlotte yelled.

"You need to decide without knowing if you are right or wrong. You must decide on principle. This is something important to know," Traveler said. Her image became foggy. "And so our lesson for today ends."