Umbra sat up sharply in her bed, heaving for breath. "Wha... what?"
Two sets of hooves rapidly approached. Her door began to glow, magic gripping it, but the knob didn't turn, nor did the door open. "Are you alright?" came Cadance's voice, the two clearly resisting barging in.
Umbra slipped from the bed, staggering to her hooves. "I just had the wildest dream. Come in." The moment permission was given, the door swung open and the two hurried inside. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean that."
Shining approached first. "I don't know many ponies outside of Princess Luna that have perfect control of their own dreams. Nightmares happen."
"It felt worse than a normal one." Umbra scowled in remembrance. "It was dark, really dark. Forms brushed past me, angry. I couldn't see them, but I knew they were angry. They were scratching at a wall that felt... thin... I..." She tapped her hooves. "I think something's coming."
Cadance set a hoof on Umbra's side. "Deep breaths. I can feel you still very stressed out. For good reason, I understand, but deep breath. Slow breath." She began to display her breathing technique she would share with Twilight later. "In... out..."
"In..." Umbra followed as best she could. "Seriously, I'm so sorry." You two don't deserve this. To be woken up because some pony--"
"None of us asked for this." Cadance shook her head firmly. "And that dream sounds bad. Do you usually have nightmares?"
"Me? Never." She waved her hooves in a strong negative. "Even after a really bad day. I sleep like the dead, usually. That's another thing that has me really on edge right now."
Cadance nodded lightly. "Then I am on edge too. Dreams are important, especially these kinds of dreams." A little smile spread. "Princes Celestia, Auntie, she knows no peace from them, but they are true more often than not by quite a margin."
"Does she really?" Shining had not heard of that before.
Cadance rolled her eyes. "And that is a secret, so don't go sharing it. I only did it because Umbra is experiencing what I can only imagine is the same thing. It leaves aunty fatigued and rattled when it happens."
"That's me!" squeaked out Umbra. "Oh... am I going to do that again? I don't want to."
Cadance draw the other mare in, hugging her warmly and closely. "I'm not sure you get a choice in that matter, but we will not abandon you. I'm so very sorry." She pushed Umbra back a precious inch. "But one thing we will not do is pretend this is nothing. I'd rather be prepared for nothing then not prepared for something."
"That was my line." Shining pouted at his line theft. "Still true though. You came back so late, we didn't talk, but things were happening."
Umbra examine Shining a moment. "Well I'm not going back to sleep this instant, so lay it on me."
Shining looked to Cadance. "This involves you too. As you know, Active arrived."
"She is not a subtle mare." Cadance smiled in easy acceptance. "I was surprised she didn't attack me with questions."
" I fell on that bomb for you, sweetie." Their noses met, the two giggling at their inside joke. "But she's basically caught up on the... situation."
Umbra darkened. "She knows it all?! Shrinks... Um.. Sorry." She waved it away. "Not your fault, just met a lot of not-so-good therapist and counselers and things."
"She's a pretty good pony, so far as I can tell."
"She truly is." Cadance inclined her head at Umbra. "She gets right to the heart of issues, and doesnt hold back on either of us."
"Interesting... But can she help with creepy dreams?"
Both ponies glanced at one another. Shining shrugged lightly. "I doubt that. She could try to figure out the symbols, but that's not her specialty."
"So." Umbra tapped her hooves. "I love that you two are seeing a therapist, good on you. That doesn't solve the 'impending doom' thing though. The way you reacted--" She looked to Cadance. "Dreams that mean things is a possibility. I don't like that possibility."
Cadance set a wing across Umbra. "I would not be happy either, with a dream like that. But we also can't do much with it, other than try to be ready."
Shining walked to the nearest window, peeking outside at something in the darkness. "I'll get the guards on high alert."
There wasn't too much more to be said about it. Umbra shifted topics. "While you're here. Cadance, why did you zap me when Shining asked you to zap him?"
Cadance flipped an ear back. She wouldn't get away with escaping that topic. "In part, because of how my talent works. Your talent lies in shadows and crystals. You can make either grow and direct them, but you can't make crystals in the middle of the air, can you?"
Umbra blinked at that. She hadn't even thought of it! "Only because I haven't tried." She raised her hooves off the ground and tried to imagine crystals appearing from nothing, her horn glowing and eyes wafting with her shadowy magic.
But no crystals came. It was a limit of her power. "Huh... Good eye, Cades. But that doesn't finish the explanation."
"If I focus, I can see the ties between ponies." She reached out as if to pluck on some unseen strand. "The ones between us have become like a brilliant crystal, but normally it is like a colored string. The color and quality of the string can tell me a lot about the relationship that ties two ponies together."
Umbra inclined her head slowly, considering that. "So if two ponies have, say, a ratty and tattered string, they're not really talking much at all and it could break any moment?"
"Exactly." Cadance smiled. "Now, my magic targets those strings, not a pony."
"Oh!" Umbra clapped once firmly. "So you zapped the connection between Shining and me and... that actually makes a lot of sense. That's what it sorta felt like, as if that connection was all I could think about for a bit." She set a hoof on Cadance's chest. "Now please don't do that again without asking, thanks."
Cadance touched her snout to Umbra's. "Deal. Now, since we're all awake, I motion we get some breakfast in us and we greet the day."
Shining turned away from the window. "Seconded."
"Thirded," laughed out Umbra. "Motion carried."
Cadance clopped the floor as if her hoof were a gavel. "Meeting is adjourned then." She led the way towards breakfast. Horrors could wait their turn.
"Um." Shifting paced back and forth. "What made you ask me?"
"You're my teacher?" Umbra turned her head back and forth to match her pacing teacher. "You've been great with the crystal work."
"Thanks. Oh, you're welcome." She turned to Umbra, her pacing stopping. "But, you realize, for ponies, no horn means no magic." She pointed up at her forehead, where no horn resided. "Behold my mighty horn!"
"Oh." Umbra frowned at that clear evidence. "But! You're not a pony."
"No," she allowed with a suffering sigh. "I know a few spells... I'm not super good at it. And the rule is still there. I just get to choose when I have a horn or not." She waved a hoof in a wide arc. "But we are in a big city! I bet you could find a wizard if you looked hard enough."
"Crystal ponies are usually earth ponies," noted Umbra. "Which... actually makes this simpler. Most of them are ruled out before I even walk up to them. Find the unicorns, ask them nice-like and hope one of them is up to showing me more about magic. Twilight gave..." Umbra trailed off with a frown. "Actually."
"Actually? Did my student get an idea?" Shifting began to bounce in place, clearly excited at the idea, of an idea. "Do share."
"Twilight showed me how to read magic. I can cast a spell, with practice, if I have the spell to cast. So, maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way." Umbra threw open the nearest window with a flare of her horn. "The library may have what I'm looking for!"
"Now you're on to something." Shifting nodded with approval at the idea. "So, no crystal lesson today?"
They had met up for that, in theory. "Um... I guess not. Please don't be mad."
"Mad? Why would I be?" Shifting hopped up, pecking Umbra on the cheek. "You go get your reading on. Let me know when you want to pick up on crystal work again and we'll get right back into it." She waved a hoof scoldingly. "And you'd better keep practicing. I'll be sore if you let that go rusty."
"Rusty crystals? The worst." Umbra snorted softly as she reached for Shifting, hugging the crystal bat close. "Thanks for being great."
"I try," sang Shifting, bouncing away to break into a trot out of the room. "Good luck! I want to see what cool spells you learn." And she was gone.
Umbra set off, after she closed the window she had opened. "Why did I do that?" It seemed like a cool idea at the time. "Whatever." She descended the steps of the palace and started down the main road of the city, only to veer off shortly. The library wasn't on the main road.
There it was, the library Twilight had mentioned. Umbra hastened towards it, accelerating from a walk to a trot as she avoided the more leisurely crystal ponies in the area. The doors were open, so her motion was unimpeded, just slowing back to a walk as she got to the threshold.
Books. There were a lot of books. This was not surprising, in itself. It's what made a library. That didn't make it less intimidating to consider finding anything in the mess. Did ponies have the Dewey system?
Umbra saw something even better than any decimal system! A librarian behind a counter was sorting through books.
Target in sight, Umbra approached with a close-mouthed smile. "Morning."
"Morning." The librarian only looked up after that. "Oh! Umbra the Great, what brings you here?"
Umbra skewed an ear off to the side. Umbra the Great? "I was hoping to get some magic books, spells. Shadow spells ideally."
She recoiled at the question, the librarian's ears pinning to her head. "Oh, um. It was very forbidden by... him... to have any books on shadow magic."
That jerk! "Even defeated, he's still in the way." Umbra huffed angrily, taking a moment to stomp in place before she regathered herself. "Not your fault. Thank you."
"It is said..." The librarian rubbed at her chin with a hoof. "He kept all such things in a secure place, far away from the rest of us."
"Huh..." Umbra was already turning for the door. "Maybe I can find it. Thank you!" She emerged from the library, a bit too quickly from when she had entered it. "That was, mostly, a bust," she grumbled to herself. She could probably find other spells, but her specialties were shadows and crystals. She wanted to improve on that, not go off in some new direction. So she went off in a new direction.
Annoyed at the roadblock set before her, she didn't go straight back to the castle, turning the other way and wandering the streets instead as if the answer would be--"Woah!" She ducked to the side, almost being run into by a floating book.
"Hm? Sorry." The book raised up, allowing her to see the face of a unicorn, a stallion with a goatee and a scraggly mane that was was begging for attention. He also had a set of glasses perched on his snout. "I need to watch where I'm going." He folded the book shut in his magic and tucked it away.
Umbra was without words a moment. A unicorn! Could it really work out? "Do you do magic?" she asked bluntly. "Please say yes."
He glanced left and right quickly. "Not that well..."
Umbra sighed, but was smiling despite that. That would have been too convenient. "Shoot, well, had to ask. I'm trying to find a magic tutor."
That got his ears to perk. "A tutor? That's different. What topic?"
Umbra leaned forward, eyes flaring with her dark magic. "Shadow magic. Do you know any?"
He shied back a step. "Oh! Oh. Um, I may... I have some books." He circled around her, just to walk right past her. "This way." And so he led Umbra back towards his house. "I'm Sunburst. What's your name?"
"Umbra." She leaned to the side a bit as they walked. "Thanks. I appreciate this. I know how to read magic, but that doesn't help if I don't have magic to read, you know?"
"I can imagine." He looked over his shoulder at her. "Is that your specialty then? Or are you... just curious?"
"Both." Umbra nodded with confidence at that. "Shadow magic is my magic. But I want to use it for good things. Shadow gets such a bad rap."
"Hm." He pointed at the house they were coming up on. "Here it is. Now, um, excuse me, but... we'll have to do some digging. I'm... You'll see." He opened the door with a glowing horn, revealing an interior that had books, everywhere. Unlike the library, not all of them were neatly on a shelf. It was as if an earthquake had recently knocked a good portion of them to the ground.
"Wow." She stepped in after him, looking around curiously.
"Sorry," he got out weakly, making his way to the back. "I'll get some tea going."
"Don't be sorry. This is like a flash from the past." She circled in place. "I've had a room like this before, worse if you can believe it. I've been better lately though."
"Really?" The sound of pouring water came briefly, then a small fire. "All the books here are about magic, or magic related things. Artifacts, magical history, that sort of thing."
Umbra clapped her hooves with merry clops. "Then I'd say my odds are looking better! Did you know that Sombra jerk didn't let them have any shadow magic books? So the library was a big bust."
"That is unfortunate." He poked his head back out. "But I'm not a crystal pony, so he couldn't stop me."
"Yeah! Fight the power!" She pumped a hoof with a loud laugh. "Should I start looking around?" She hadn't touched a book yet. They weren't hers, and that wasn't a library! Just touching other people's things was usually considered impolite where she came from.
"If you know what you're looking for." Clearly it wasn't as big a deal to Sunburst. "Do you already know shadow magic then?"
With a glowing horn, Umbra showed off with the most basic application. Shadow. She snuffed the light around her, expanding out into the room Sunburst was in quickly. He squeaked in surprise. "That's a yes!" Umbra laughed as she ended the spell.
"Shadow magic is not a very popular sort of magic," he continued. "Oh, and the tea's ready."
Umbra advanced past the books to see a little table with two cups of tea, one before Sunburst. "Thank you." She parked herself on the other end of the round table. "What is a popular kind? Fire?"
His eyes widened. "No! I mean, more popular than shadow, sure, but still... no." He lifted his cup in his magic, sipping lightly. "Transformative magic is popular. Refining materials, repairing things, species alteration. Defensive magic has a storied history, but is less 'main stream' these days. Sensory magic is quite popular, usually for entertainment purposes."
"Shadow magic is sensory magic," reasoned Umbra. "Check and mate."
"It's a lack of sensory magic, which is what makes it difficult for most to approach. You clearly have some ability with it, but that difference is key." He nodded firmly. "You are taking away, instead of adding. That's not to say you can't do good things with it, but it is a difference that's hard to ignore."
"Huh." She took a sip from her own cup. Bitter. A glance around revealed no sugary options. She'd have to deal with it. "If you remove what you don't want, you end up with something better."
"That would be the idea, hopefully." He set his glass down and reached out a hoof, his magic grabbing the book he was reaching towards and it flew the rest of the way to hover before him. "Mmm, no, thought that..." He let it fall flat and went for another. "Was it you?" It seemed he was starting his search.
Taking the hint, Umbra got to looking at books. She quickly set aside the ones that seemed like historical works. Those wouldn't be tomes of spells, she reasoned. "You said you weren't that good at magic, but you're buried in magic books. How does that work?"
Sunburst coughed, fidgeting awkwardly. "I love magic... But loving something and being good at it are not the same thing..."
Umbra flipped her ears back. "I just shoved a hoof right in there, didn't I? Sorry. If it helps, I'm really glad... um... That you have this collection, I mean."
Sunburst chuckled as he reached for the next book. "I really should keep them in... ah ha! Here we are." He turned the book so she could see the cover. 'Dark Arts: Shadow Magic Collected,' it read in a dark font that almost vanished into the dark covering it was on.
Umbra launched into excited clops. "That looks like exactly what I want!"
Sunburst floated the book closer to her. "Then borrow it."
Umbra hooked a foreleg around the book, taking it from the air. "Can I? This must be valuable."
"How valuable is a book nopony is reading?" Sunburst adjusted his glasses. "I say not very."
"Wise words." She hugged the book. "Ooo, this is gonna be good!"
Sunburst smiled at the joyous display. "It's not often I see a pony quite that excited to find a magic book."
"I need to..." She aborted the sentence. She didn't need to spook out the pony she just met with dire dreams of some uncertain future. "I'm just excited! Shadow magic is my magic, as I said, so this lets me be... me, and that's great." She moved the book to her pocket. "I'll return it when I'm done, promise."
"I'm sure you will." He nudged a book. "And I promise to have a proper place for it when you do. That is my project now, get this place cleaned up."
"Right on!" Umbra nodded firmly. "Good for you. I'd offer a hand, but--"
Sunburst flicked his ears. "Hand? Why would you offer one of those?"
Umbra applied a hoof to her face. "Sorry! Figure of speech, it means to help. I meant I'd help, but I'm not any good at sorting books."
"That's quite alright." He rose to his hooves. "I know where things should be. It's just a matter of actually getting them there."
"I can still wish you luck, at least." She started for the door. "But, for now, I have dark magic to read about." She laughed evilly, which was apparently something she was good at doing in that new body of hers.
"Should I be worried?"
"I'm going to show shadow magic is more than just 'dark' magic, promise." Umbra turned around, outside the house. "Thank you again, seriously, huge thanks. I have a lot to do."
"Good luck to you too then." Having turned the good luck around, Sunburst closed the door gently with a glowing horn.
"And now!" Umbra set off at a brisk trot. "It's readin' time!" Not that reading had been, like, the top of her things to do before. Getting cozy with a novel, sure, that was fun. Magic was not a novel. But, it was magic. Literally magic. Magic she could do! She smiled more and more as the thought about it.
"Sir." A guard standing at the stairs nodded at her as she was coming closer.
"Hey, ma'am." She walked past him, just to pause. "Say, have people been talking about me?"
"Hm? Only good things, sir."
"Well that's good, but stop calling me that." She nodded at that. "Seriously, what are they saying?"
"Apologies, I call everyone that, ma'am." He rubbed behind his head, looking sheepish as the other guard snickered. "The tales of your heroism have spread far and wide." The guard did his best to return to careful neutrality.
"Have they been... nicknaming me?" Umbra tried to prompt, rolling a hoof in the air.
"The agreed upon title is: Great and Honorable, Umbra the Brave and Glorious."
Umbra blanched at the obscenely long title. "That's a bit much, isn't it?!"
"You did save the empire, ma'am."
"I helped, sure..." She awkwardly fidgeted from hoof to hoof. "Better than being scared of, for sure, but still... Sheesh, well alright, thanks." He had told her exactly what she asked. She couldn't hold that against him. "Oh, if you see Shining or Cades around, tell them I'm in my room, reading and performing dark magic. As you do."
"As you do." It was not an agreement. He wasn't a unicorn. He would be performing no dark magic.
It was, Umbra realized, the closest to a joke the guard had said. They did have a sense of humor in there! Happy in that knowledge, she ascended the stairs.
A mare was smiling, but also right in her way. She was a crystal pony, her eyes that interesting faceted way that gem ponies had. She bowed at Umbra. "I am to be your servant from this moment forward, Brave and Glorious one."
Umbra cringed. It had been spreading! "Um! Don't you... have a job?"
"I work here." She waved at the palace as a whole. "And you live here, so seeing to your needs is well within that scope."
"Do you have a name?" Clearly she knew Umbra's. Likely the whole title to go with it.
"Purple Polish." That checked out. She was purple. Her mane and tail was a thick white with dark towards the end. "I clean and tend things, which I will continue to do when you have no need of me. But that is now a secondary concern to seeing to your every request."
Umbra let out a quiet 'eh' of uncertainty. "Thanks... But I'm pretty used to taking care of myself. There's not a lot I do that needs a second set of ha--hooves."
"It is not always about 'need'." She circled Umbra, coming up on her side. "Allow me to tend to things so you can focus on being amazing. Why waste time worrying about silly little things I can take of? Now, what is it you were going to do? I am certain I can assist."
Umbra raised an uncertain brow. "I was going to study magic in my room."
"How exciting!" She clapped twice and started in the right direction. "I will ensure your room is ready for you."
Umbra was pretty sure her room was already ready for that... Still, she went. Her plans had not changed.
She discovered her room had not been ready. Incense burnt in a small holder, spreading a peppermint like aroma in the air. The window was open, allowing the bright light into the room. The bed was made expertly and things tidied as well as they could be in that moment of manic effort before Umbra had gotten there. "Huh. Why that?" She pointed at the incense.
"The proper smell can help a pony at a task." Polish nodded. "That one is good for studying. Take a deep breath and enjoy your reading. I am but a call away. I will bring tea in fifteen minutes. Have you had lunch?" When Umbra shook her head, Polish hmmed. "Forget the tea. I will drop by the kitchen and bring back the lunch they make for you. Studying on an empty belly? I won't stand for it." She marched off, determined to do her part.
Umbra drew her book free and set it on the neatly made bed. "This has been an odd day." And it wasn't even over!
She got to reading.