A Shadow of Myself

"Your shoes are really ugly!'

Okay, this was just sad.

"You take that back about Miss Charlotte's shoes!"

Really sad.

Luster Dawn watched her, looking for a reaction. Did this pink pony expect to get a rise out of anyone with an insult like that? She'd been insulted worse by video game mascots on a game over screen.

Sunset groaned. "This is getting us nowhere. She is prepared for someone trying to make her angry, and your insults are so weak they tickle babies. You don't even sound like you mean it when you say them."

The pink unicorn pointed at Empathy. "They make the elephant mad!"

"The elephant is an idiot," Sunset replied.

Empathy nodded shamefully as he clasped his hands in front of himself. "It's true. I am."

"Hey! Don't insult my elephant!" Charlotte yelled.

Sunset leveled a long-suffering look on her. "We already discussed this. He is not a pet; he is a sentient being. That is good because he can tend to things like feeding himself. Lord knows that you can't keep up with such a basic task."

Charlotte smirked. "Nice try, old mare, but I know what you're doing."

"It was worth a shot," Sunset said with a shrug. "You know, I may have to transform you if you can't get full control of your powers. You will look like a mini-me then, except you'll be working from my natural state, not the one Triss elevated me to. Weak, pathetic, and incapable of doing most advanced spells. Ponies will look at you and feel sorry for you because they'll know you are just a substandard imitation. My purple and yellow mane always reminded me of a pom-pom. Perhaps we could put it up in a high ponytail and get you a cute little outfit to be my cheerleader."

Charlotte crossed her arms. "You know, this kind of stuff won't work on me twice in one day, but it was a much better try than Luster Dawn's. I guess we can't expect the Princess of Friendship's student to be good at making people mad."

Sunset nodded. "Score one for Team Luna."

"This isn't a competition!" Luster fumed.

"You're right. Still one for Team Luna, though," Sunset said with a smirk.

Charlotte pumped a fist. "Luna! Luna! Luna!"

Empathy joined in, bouncing in place. "Yeah, Luna! Hooray, Luna!"

"You two don't get to cheer. You aren't on our team!" Sunset snapped. "And the elephant doesn't even know what he is cheering about."

"But it sounds very fun!" Empathy said, still bouncing in place.

"Party pooper. Can't let anyone lighten the mood," Charlotte grumbled.

Luster threw her head back as she plopped down on the floor. "Uggh! How am I supposed to evaluate how dangerous her magic is if she can't do it?"

"You can look at the residual effect of the portal. It's still right there. It hasn't faded completely," Sunset said, pointing to the side of the room. "I don't see any lasting destabilization."

Luster looked over at the spot and blinked. "How can you see that?"

Sunset's ears flattened. "Do you seriously not know how to do that? I learned that spell from your teacher. Why don't you know it?"

Luster cringed. "She hasn't taught me everything she knows, and I tend to do a lot of self-study."

"Your self-study has some serious gaps," Sunset said flatly. She then shook her head and lit her horn. "Just observe this spell. I'll try to be as obvious with the weaves as possible—and don't try to show off by altering or doing something you aren't supposed to do with the spell. We've had enough of you screwing things up trying that."

"It was one time," Luster muttered.

"One time too many, and it impacted one of my family for the rest of her life. Don't try to be clever; just pay attention," Sunset snapped.

Honestly, it was kind of a hypocritical order. Sunset altered, combined, and repurposed spells all the time, but then again, that was part of the nature of her talent. She was being harsh because of what Luster had done to Andrea, and the unicorn would probably never live it down, despite probably being a very accomplished mage.

Luster watched Sunset perform the spell and nodded in understanding. "That seems simple enough. I can repeat it." The younger unicorn then lit her horn and examined the area.

"Well…it is simple enough to do, but I don't understand what I'm looking at well enough to judge it," Luster said as she blinked at the spot.

"Of all the…!" Sunset said with a frustrated shake of her head. "Equestria's finest at work! No wonder Twilight has been begging me to come to teach at that school. To think I was once in awe of what your mages could do. Now I know better."

"You know, friendship is an integral part of the curriculum there. You might want to work on your pony skills," Luster timidly pointed out.

"I'm very friendly!" Sunset yelled.

Charlotte about choked on her laugh. No one ever claimed honesty was Sunset's element, and it showed.

Empathy looked at Sunset in confusion. "Sorry, Miss Sunset Unicorn Pony, ma'am, but I don't think you know what that word means."

Charlotte decided she would say something. "In her defense, she is much better with foals. It's the adults that walk out of a room wanting to murder her."

Sunset snorted. "That's because foals should be forgiven for their ignorance and foolishness; they're kids who're still learning. Adults have no such excuse and will arrogantly wallow in their ignorance. Take it from an old mare who did it for decades, and it took a disaster of biblical proportions to get through to me. Give me a foolish child over a foolish adult any day."

Luster sighed. "Can you please explain how to understand what I am seeing? I will pay attention, I promise. You're one of the great mages I have studied extensively and admired. I know we got off on the wrong hoof when we first met. I made a big mistake, and I understand it hurt someone important to you. To tell the truth, I had been trying to impress you back then— show one of my heroes how great I was. It was stupid, and all I can do is keep saying I'm sorry and try to do better."

"You know you shouldn't hold grudges. I don't think God likes it when you refuse to forgive someone who is truly repentant," Charlotte said.

Her other self's ears flattened again. "You don't even believe in God. You are trying to manipulate me with my beliefs!"

"Is it working?" Charlotte asked, smiling slightly.

Sunset scowled at her, then looked at Luster Dawn again. "I needed to explain it to you anyway so you can complete this review. I believe you when you express your regret, so I'll try to be a little nicer. Not everything you do is brainless; the earrings you designed for Andrea were a marked improvement over the design of my necklace, and I can admit to being impressed."

Luster Dawn beamed at the praise, and she pulled out a parchment and quill from her saddlebags before sitting at attention. "I'm ready to hear the explanation and write down my observations."

Charlotte relaxed as she watched Sunset Blessing begin her lesson on whatever this was. It was a little manipulative, trying to butter up the Equestrian, but her life depended on getting to Equestria. If Luster Dawn was willing to put in a good word in the hope of further earning Sunset Blessing's approval, that was all the better.

She hadn't made up her mind about transformation yet, but she knew she didn't want Sunset Blessing getting arrested. If she went to Equestria, maybe she could talk Sunset into transforming her into something other than a pony so that she didn't have to walk around looking like her older self. The more she considered it, the more the idea appealed to her. It would be a fresh start with a chance to chart her own life. Her life since she was six revolved around her other self. Her family hadn't ever been able to move out of Wabash Manor as promised because Charlotte's magic had been this huge unknown, and it registered as too strong to be allowed 'out in the wild' before it was understood. That meant being under Sunset Blessing's roof with Sunset Blessing dictating everything. This entire ordeal was scary, but it gave her a chance at freedom.

Sunset stopped talking and pursed her lips as she looked at Charlotte. "As a safety precaution, I need you to take your clothes off."

Charlotte's eyes went wide in outrage, and she was about to demand to know how taking her clothes off added to anyone's safety, then it dawned on her exactly what the unicorn intended.

"You aren't putting that necklace on me!" she shouted, shaking her head and backing up.

"I can't force you to put it on, per the Dreamwarden's rules, but I highly advise it," Sunset stated. "We don't want any accidents."

"If any radicals attack the manor, they'll confuse me with you," Charlotte protested, desperate to come up with a reasonable objection that didn't sound too selfish.

"The chances of that are low, and the guards are already on heightened alert. Do you want to open up the household to danger for the sake of not looking like me? This is just a temporary thing, so I don't have to babysit you twenty-four-seven until we get you across the portal."

"I could accidentally blow up someone with my horn instead," Charlotte replied.

Sunset gave her a flat look. "If that were true, there'd have been a lot more dead ponies through magical accidents after ETS. You have to have certain working knowledge to do something like that. You are literally too clueless about unicorn magic to hurt anyone with it."

"I can keep my temper under control till then," Charlotte said pleadingly.

"Think about who you are saying that to," Sunset replied. "You and I both know it is one of our major failings. I know you don't like the idea, but, please, do the responsible thing, Charlotte."

This was so not fair.

"And that's why our parents banned Charlotte from reading Doctor Suess books," Andrea said, finishing her story.

Martinez broke out laughing, and Madison let off a giggle. Lántiān didn't look impressed at the story, but she was a bit of a stick in the mud. At least the filly was laughing.

"There's nothing funny about sending one's parent to the hospital," Lántiān said dryly.

"Not at the time, but in hindsight, the reason for it was hilarious," Andrea said defensively.

"My mom would have murdered me," Madison said, still looking amused but sobering up a bit.

Martinez was still wiping her eyes. "Got to pay attention to what you let your kids read. Honestly, I could imagine my siblings and me pulling the same thing at that age. We were a little rambunctious. They called us the three demons."

"Mom too?" Madison asked in disbelief.

"She was the ringleader at least half the time," Martinez replied. "It was always her or me stirring things up, and it was usually your Great-Aunt Jackie, Great-Aunt Jordan, your Uncle Moon, or Jess getting stuck in trouble after the fact. Your mom and I always left someone else hanging for the trouble we instigated. Sometimes literally hanging— your grandmothers liked to chain cookie jars to the ceiling, and we normally had someone else go up there to knock the jars down."

"You grew up in a bizarre household," Andrea commented.

"Tell me about it," Martinez said with a sigh. "Still, I miss those days. Life was simpler. My sister was my partner in crime. Nobody worried about the consequences of our actions, and the world seemed less scary. We were happy."

Martinez got a distant look as she stared out a window. "Then the Cataclysm happened; we all almost died and thought we would lose Jess for a bit. We watched the town we grew up in get obliterated. Grandma Sunset ran away to Denver in shame. Then Tempest started with the training, and we weren't allowed to be normal kids anymore."

"Life can change in an instant," Andrea agreed. "For me, one day it was 1986, and magic was something that was make-believe, then suddenly it was 2046 the next day, magic was a fact of life, and all the kids I went to school were old people with grandkids and great-grandkids while I was still ten years old. It was a bit of a culture shock."

Lántiān grimaced. "I, too, understand what it is to have your world upended. I watched my mother die in front of me as I ran from the only home I ever knew, and I was told everything I was brought up to believe was a lie."

"You three are real cheerful; you know that?"

They all turned to see Sunset Blessing walking into the kitchen with Empathy close behind her. She seemed slightly different somehow.

"Ma'am, you healed your scar," Lántiān said as she looked at the unicorn.

"Grandma, you look younger. Did you do something different with your mane?" Martinez asked.

The unicorn stopped in her tracks and used a hoof to point at the necklace hanging around her neck. "I'm not Sunset Blessing."

"Miss Charlotte is having a bad day," Empathy said, patting the unicorn on the back.

Andrea got up. "Sunset made you put the necklace on? Why?"

Charlotte walked over to the fridge and stared mournfully up at the freezer door at the top. "She says it stops me from accidentally opening portals. Can you help me? I figured out walking easily enough but haven't figured out how to use this horn yet."

Andrea walked over to the freezer and opened it. "What do you want?"

"My ice cream," Charlotte answered. "Don't know how to use a spoon like this, but I figured I could just stick my face in."

"Um…Madison ate your ice cream; blame Lántiān," Andrea explained.

"The filly was having a bad day as well and needed cheering up," Lántiān explained. "Why do you look like Ma'am?"

Charlotte shrugged. "I'm a close enough core resonance match for the necklace to match me with her. The stupid thing remembers people. I was hoping it wouldn't think we were the same, but no such luck."

"Miss Charlotte is having a very bad day," Empathy restated.

"This would be the perfect opportunity to go and try to boss the guards around," Martinez suggested.

"Sunset said that if I tried impersonating her to anyone, she would shave my mane and fur off," Charlotte grumbled.

Martinez winced. "Ouch, harsh."

Charlotte turned and considered the pony. "Are you one of Phobia's daughters? You look like one of them."

"Yeah, Charlotte Martinez, but just call me Martinez."

"Well, fuck your mom," Charlotte replied.

Martinez's features hardened. "You had better explain yourself, filly. I don't care if you are family or if you are some younger version of Grandma; you don't go badmouthing my mother out of the blue like that."

Andrea stepped between them. "Whoa! Hold up. Charlotte has good reasons she is mad at your mom, but she can't talk about it. Charlotte, Martinez is a perfect nice pony who hasn't done anything to you and isn't in the loop about what went down between you and Phobia. I know you're pissed off, but don't go picking fights."

"If you can't use your horn, it is unlikely you can defend yourself," Lántiān stated. "Picking a fight when you are handicapped is extremely foolish. If you are a younger Ma'am, it is to be expected. She used to pull the same thing and nearly got herself killed more than once."

"Hey, on the plus side, I can beat her bloody, and all she has to do to fix it is take the necklace off," Martinez said evilly.

"Martinez!" Lántiān snapped.

"What? I was pointing out a positive."

Andrea sighed and shook her head before looking over at Madison. "Do me a favor, and don't try imitating the grownups here. This is a horrible set of examples on how to behave."

Madison nodded. "They are behaving very uncultured."

Charlotte sat down on her haunches and hung her head. "Great, now I'm being criticized by a kid."

"Get over yourself," Andrea said. "What's the word out of Luster Dawn?"

"Miss Luster Dawn Unicorn Pony is listening very attentively to Miss Sunset Blessing Unicorn Pony," Empathy replied before Charlotte could. "I think they are getting along much better now and might become friends. Miss Charlotte helped, isn't that great?!"

"That isn't what I meant, but thanks for sharing. Sounds great," Andrea replied. "I meant, will Charlotte be able to go to Equestria or not?"

"She's still reviewing my situation before making a recommendation," Charlotte answered. "I'm hoping she is eager enough to please Sunset that she'll give me a good word."

"Any progress on making new portals?" Andrea asked.

"No, they couldn't make me mad. Luster Dawn is particularly bad at it," Charlotte replied.

"Miss Luster Dawn Unicorn Pony said insults about Miss Charlotte, yet Miss Charlotte took them calmly!"

Charlotte cracked a smile. "Empathy was ready to defend my honor the whole time."

"Too bad he's the wrong species and gender," Andrea smirked.

"I never said I was into mares!" Charlotte protested.

Andrea chuckled. "Someone doth protest too much. What was the name of that girl you were making goo-goo eyes at two years back? Susie or something?"

"Why won't she admit she's into girls?" Martinez asked in confusion.

Andrea's smile slipped. "We think she is trying to distance herself more from Sunset. She's never been on a date. There've been girls I know she was interested in that I was pretty sure the interest was mutual, but she never will admit to it and ask them out. She's punishing herself to avoid being like Sunset."

Martinez gave Charlotte a sympathetic look. "Have you ever considered therapy? Being serious about that. The whole having another version of yourself around thing seems like it is giving you some serious issues that you need to work through."

Charlotte laid down where she was and groaned. "Maybe this is some plot of Sunset's to get me mad since she and Luster failed to do so."

"Doubtful since you can't use your magic like this," Andrea commented. "Maybe we can find someone in the house to give you horn lessons. That gives you something to distract yourself from this and make you feel a little less helpless."

"Jordan's still here, and she's a teacher, so I'm sure she'd be willing to help," Martinez suggested. "She's also a lot easier going than Shǔguāng."

"My brother is not so bad, and she should already be familiar with him," Lántiān said in his defense.

"He is kinda stiff, and I've never heard him crack a joke," Andrea muttered. "He might also talk over Charlotte's head. He's a pretty advanced mage. She just needs the basics."

Charlotte looked up at her horn, and a nudge of a smile appeared on the edges of her face. "Learning how to use this thing could be fun. We can try talking to Jordan. I know it's the necklace talking, but the only thing I mind about this form is that I look just like Sunset. Permanent transformation doesn't seem like such a bad thing as long as I can dye my mane to look different than her."

Martinez left her seat and gestured with a wing. "Follow me; Jordan and her hubby are occupying their foals over in the rec room. Madison, you can come along too."

Madison got down from her seat. "I suppose I haven't seen Christine in a while. It will be good to talk to her."

"That's Jordan's eldest; she's about Madison's age," Martinez explained for Andrea and Charlotte's sake. "Jordan keeps popping them out. I don't know how she manages them all. That many foals would drive me crazy. Hope she stops after this next one."

"She manages because her husband is stay-at-home and is just as good with foals as her," Lántiān explained. "They are both excellent parents. Ma'am raised five, so Jordan can too."

"Mom was already grown when you four showed up, and you helped Grandma with your brothers," Martinez pointed out as they all exited the kitchen.

"Ma'am dedicated time to me too and helped me for several years with Drizzle. Five foals are manageable," Lántiān countered. "I have nothing but respect for Ma'am as a parent, and I respect Jordan's parenting skills as well."

"So why do you never come to visit if you love and respect her so much?" Andrea asked.

Lántiān frowned. "She can be very…authoritarian, and I enjoy my freedom. Plus, I have my own family to think about, and being around her means constantly being on guard. My daughter was foalnapped from here at a young age. Ma'am managed to save her, but I don't want my foals or grandcolt having to live in constant fear. It is best to keep our distance. You stay too close to the sun, and you risk getting burned."

"Well, hopefully, things will be better in Equestria after she and I move there," Charlotte commented as she followed behind everyone but Empathy.

Andrea had to stop so she didn't trip over Madison as all three ponies turned to look at Charlotte.

"Ma'am is moving to Equestria?" Lántiān asked in astonishment. "The offer has been made many times; why is she accepting it now?"

"I'm a major security risk, and she is going with me because certain ponies threatened to off me and the rest of the city if they had to," Charlotte replied. "Sunset says they aren't bluffing, and they're too dangerous a foe for her to hold off."

Martinez blinked. "Oh…that's what Mom did to piss you off, gotcha. Geez, Mom doesn't play around."

"We can't confirm anything, and Charlotte shouldn't be talking about it," Andrea said hurriedly.

"Why do you assume it is your mother?" Lántiān asked Martinez in confusion.

Martinez shrugged. "There are only two ponies who were here who could intimidate Grandma. The filly is mad at my mom, so I just put two and two together."

"You don't seem very concerned about the threat," Andrea observed.

Martinez shrugged again. "Mildly, I guess. Mom doesn't lie; that's why she is such a good liar."

"So Grandma is lying?" Madison asked, sounding hopeful that her grandmother was full of shit.

"She isn't lying. She never does, but she can let you assume things that aren't true," Martinez explained. "It all depends on how she worded things. She only speaks the truth, but she can leave out details or combine truths to give you a wrong impression. You have to pay extra close attention to what she says and what she doesn't say. The truth goes as far as she says and no further. Never let anything be implied, and I mean anything, no matter how small, because that's where the lie is. She didn't tell a lie; you jumped to a conclusion. Dreamwardens are extremely legalistic and masters at pulling that crap."

Andrea didn't see how Phobia could pull that with how she worded things earlier. She seemed very explicit in the meaning of what she said and made sure they understood that.

They were bombarded with the noise of kids playing as they walked into the rec room. There were foals and human children everywhere, along with many parents. Some parents seemed to be struggling with keeping their kids from becoming too rowdy, while others were having conversations. Kids ranged in age from barely able to speak to mid-teens. Wabash Manor had apparently become a daycare. Madison took this time to strut over to a unicorn filly around her age and strike up a conversation.

A heavily pregnant violet unicorn mare diverted her gaze from some of the foals to them as they approached, but she was clearly still paying attention to the foals. She smiled as she saw Martinez, but her eyes widened as she saw Charlotte.

"The younger Charlotte isn't allowed to use her human magic?" the mare asked as they came up to her.

Charlotte paused in her tracks right away. "You can tell I'm not Sunset?"

The mare nodded. "I know how Auntie's necklace works, and I know if I see a mare who looks like her wearing it that there's only one possible person it could be." She lit her horn, and a tiny colt that was yanking on a filly's tail was separated from the said tail, levitated a short distance away, and set down. The colt's attention span must have been short because he was immediately distracted by another group of foals.

With the foal dealt with, Jordan turned her full attention to Charlotte. "Plus, you're way younger than her, don't have the scar she got saving Drizzle, and most ponies your age have a cutie mark. Don't worry; I think most people here knew about her necklace, even though it's supposed to be a big secret. Some have even tried it on."

Martinez smiled. "Jordan's a smart one. Anyway, Jor, do you think you could give little Grandma a few—"

A sudden sound of an explosion somewhere else in the house cut her off. Everyone stopped what they were doing.

Jordan was the first to start to take action, lighting her horn brightly. "I don't know what that was, but I'm putting a shield up over the doors and windows."

Martinez went into full soldier mode and immediately started barking orders about gathering the kids and telling people where to stand. Lántiān began more calmly directing people to move in accordance with Martinez's orders. A unicorn stallion, possibly Jordan's husband, joined the pregnant mare to help reinforce the shield around the room. The kids were all crying, but the adults were all business. This was the family of Sunset Blessing, and this was Wabash Manor; you had to always be prepared for the worst. For his part, Empathy stood closer guard over Charlotte, although Andrea had no idea what he could accomplish other than being a speed bump.

Andrea's mind raced as she got closer to her sister to add a layer of protection. Charlotte wearing the necklace was an extra layer of protection that could negate almost any injury, but it was still possible to die wearing it. What was the source of the attack? Radicals being much bolder? The care bears returning in force? Whatever Phobia had planned? Or had Sunset Blessing just lost her temper? All were possibilities, but she leaned towards something to do with Charlotte.

The quicker they left the planet, the better.